Program Manager, Network Convenings

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Position description

To solve the world’s most pressing problems, we need tomorrow’s problem-solvers equipped with Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) knowledge, skills, and inspiration. And tomorrow’s problem-solvers need excellent STEM teachers today to guide them. In 2021, Beyond100K (formerly 100Kin10) successfully met its first 10-year goal by preparing more than 108,000 excellent STEM teachers for America’s classrooms, surpassing the audacious goal set by President Obama a decade prior. To do this, we built a new type of networked-impact effort that rethinks how organizations collaborate, learn from one another, and together identify and tackle challenges that none could successfully address on its own. We achieved this goal in the midst of a growing national teacher shortage and a global pandemic, uniting over 300 leading agencies and organizations and 3,000 individuals across the country to tackle something seemingly intractable — ending the STEM teacher shortage, so that all kids could have access to a great STEM education and contribute their spark to a brighter future.

• Beyond100KTo decide our next goal, we undertook a national, participatory listening process asking young people, primarily Black, Latinx, and Native American young people, to share their experience in PK-12 STEM education. More than

600 young people responded to our call. Their stories and the resulting goal position us to decrease the STEM teacher shortage and center belonging, while focusing on the students, teachers, and schools that have been least well-served in STEM education. By 2032, our goal is to increase student and teacher belonging and to reduce the shortage by one-third, mobilizing a growing network to prepare 150,000 STEM teachers and retain 150,000 STEM teachers beginning with schools in Black, Latinx, and Native American communities — where the shortage has been the hardest to solve.

How we work now – We pursue that goal through our whole network programming as well as our CoLabs: bounded communities of partners who go deep on one high-leverage challenge. Four CoLabs are underway: Classrooms of Belonging / AI, Foundational Math, Dream to Teach, and Teacher Work Environment, surrounded by whole-network programming that helps partners find one another, share what works, and carry it into the field while anchoring in our moonshot goal.

About the Role

The Network Community Team is focused on how partners find their way into Beyond100k, how they meet each other and connect in the network, and design community building experiences that strengthen connections and relationships between partners so that good work travels without us in the middle. We are seeking a Program Manager to lead the experience design of our whole-network convening spaces: the gatherings, spaces of learning, inspiration, and connection that turn more than 250 partner organizations into an actual network rather than a list.

The core of the role is designing how we bring people together both in person and virtually. You will design and manage our network gatherings including our flagship annual summit, regional meet-ups, virtual learning sessions, and strategize with the network community team to develop pathways for partners to deepen their engagement through 1:1 connection, our virtual community platform, and through deeper engagement into our micro-communities.

Expected travel is 10-15% and includes bi-annual team retreats, our annual Summit and partner convening, regional meet-ups, and select in-person partner engagements. The Program Manager sits within the Network Community Team, and reports to the Associate Director, Network Development & Impact.

Your Responsibilities will Include

Network Gatherings and Events

• Lead the user-experience design, strategy, budgeting, and delivery of whole-network gatherings including virtual convenings such as our annual network launch and new partner onboarding, and our annual in-person Summit, from concept to implementation to follow-up.
• Design the participant experience, session architecture, and the partner journey through all whole network Beyond100K events, grounding in equitable and human-centered design.
• Lead event execution: produce smaller and virtual gatherings and manage our event vendors to deliver the Summit and other large events on time and on budget.
• Own the convening calendar: what we gather people for, how often, in what format, ensuring that we have a consistent cadence of events throughout the year in support of our goals.
• Manage internal stakeholders, event vendors, venues, and consultants as needed across the gathering portfolio.
• Evaluate gathering and program outcomes and partner engagement, and use what you find to change what we do next.

Community Design and Activation

• Support the development of engagement pathways that move partners into deeper contributions and peer connection over time along with members of the network community team.
• Design recruitment and mobilization strategies for whole-network programs and events, against defined participation targets, work collaboratively with the Network Coordinator to execute on the plan.
• Set the strategy and design for Circle, our network community platform, what the space is for, how it is structured, and what strong engagement looks like.

Contribute to the Strategy and Design for Other Partner Touchpoints

• Act as a thought partner and expert on other key partner experiences checking for alignment with the CoLab calendar.
• Support whole-network program outcomes and opportunities through progress monitoring, evaluation, and coordination with internal teammates, external vendors, consultants, and network partners.

Qualifications

The ideal candidate will have a minimum of four years of related professional experience, including experience in the following areas:

• Equitable and human centered design practitioner
• Designing and delivering convenings and events, virtual and in person, at a range of sizes, including at least one flagship-scale event you were responsible for.
• Program design and management in one of the following areas: adult learning, leadership development, network or community management, and/or community organizing along with group facilitation experience (in-person and virtual).
• Managing virtual communities or networks, including responsibility for engagement and participation outcomes.
• Managing vendors, consultants, and event budgets.
• Nice to have: Experience in STEM education, K-12 or teacher-focused organizations, or a membership or network organization.

Skills

• Project & Program Manager: You have demonstrated program and project management skills. You are highly organized with strong follow-through, and you nail the details, so nothing falls through the cracks on a complex, high-visibility event.
• Experience Designer: You design experiences that build community. You craft, produce, and facilitate inclusive, engaging and memorable gatherings that bring diverse groups of organizations and individuals together, and that inspire, delight, and catalyze action.
• Analytical Problem-Solver: You use data and partner feedback to understand what is working, diagnose what is not, and make sound decisions. When plans change or problems come up, you find practical solutions quickly.
• Strategic Communicator & Facilitator: You are an excellent communicator. You excel at facilitating rich conversations on complex issues and synthesizing insights from gatherings.
• Impact Player & Team Member: You are able to work independently and as part of a remote team. You are self-directed and proactive in an environment with dynamic priorities. You are team-oriented, open-minded, creative and flexible.

Mindsets

• Solution-Oriented: You focus on what will work. You ask good questions, test ideas, gather data, and adjust course, and you are never afraid to rethink an approach.
• Continuous Improvement: You are someone who is continually striving to improve and regularly create and take advantage of learning opportunities. You collect data and determine opportunities to better meet the needs of partners and the Network.
• People First: You lead with a human-centered approach, with colleagues and network partners alike. You prioritize relationships with individuals and organizations and believe in the power of bringing groups together around a common charge.
• Self-motivation: The drive to proactively take the initiative, identifying problems and opportunities across your portfolio, developing recommendations, and taking action on those recommendations.
• Adaptability: The ability to thrive in an ambiguous environment where you have autonomy to drive your work.
• Passion for Social Change: The drive to contribute to change in education and beyond, and the ability to lead and design in a way that is centered on racial justice and diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Application instructions

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