Program Specialist, Break Through Tech (NYC)

About Break Through Tech

Break Through Tech is changing the path to power in tech by propelling undergraduate talent that is all too often underestimated and overlooked into fields that are defining the future. Founded in 2016 by Dr. Judith Spitz, former CIO of Verizon, Break Through Tech empowers, trains, and connects undergraduate students from different lived experiences to professional opportunities in tech

across sectors. Our innovative programs offer undergraduate students the technical skills training, professional readiness support, and real-world project experiences to break into influential tech roles—enabling them to write the rules that will shape the future of all of us.

Our north star is our focus on placing our program participants in internships or full-time roles post-graduation. Today, we achieve this through our in-program training and experiential learning programs, but some early experimentation has shown that we have an opportunity to enable even more career success for our participants if we invest in wrap-around career services - including career fairs, resume workshops, career coaching and hiring partnerships - to help ease the path to post-program outcomes. 

About Cornell Tech 

Cornell Tech is Cornell University’s state-of-the-art campus in New York City that develops leaders and technologies for the AI era through foundational and applied research, graduate education, and new ventures. Located on Roosevelt Island, the growing campus was founded in partnership with the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology and in close collaboration with the NYC Economic Development Corporation after Cornell won a worldwide competition initiated by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s administration to create an applied sciences campus in New York City. More than 1,000 Cornell students are now educated annually on the campus, including 700 in Cornell Tech programs. Since opening in 2012, nearly 120 new companies have spun out from startup programs at Cornell Tech, and 95 percent of them are based in New York City. Cornell Tech continues to have a transformative economic impact on the region’s tech sector. 

Position Summary

Break Through Tech is seeking an experienced Career Services professional  to join us as a Career Services Program Specialist. In this role, you will assist in leading new systems that support our Career Services function while also supporting the job placement of program fellows. This function is critical to ensuring the career success of all participants at Break Through Tech.

In this role, your work will contribute to enabling successful career outcomes for our program participants and alumni across the nation. This role will work cross collaboratively with our delivery, Sprintern(TM), and industry partnership teams.

In this role, your responsibilities will include: 

• Leveraging learnings from Break Through Tech’s pilots as well as best practices from your prior experience to define and launch a suite of Career Services offerings to all participants and alumni across all programs. 
• Successfully delivering Career Services offerings to Break Through Tech participants and alumni, in partnership with program delivery teams and external partners. 
• Defining and tracking measures of success, including leading and lagging indicators. 
• Cultivating and maintaining collaborative relationships with other departments and external partners to support the work. 
• Work with Break Through Tech Program Leadership to inform and shape the future of operations and participant experience across our organization.

While position responsibilities vary, all people leaders are expected to foster a culture of belonging and a psychologically healthy work environment by being trustworthy; respecting all individuals; being flexible; supporting work/life integration as well as healthy boundaries; inviting new ideas, alternatives, and perspectives; speaking up and taking action if others are being excluded or treated inappropriately; and recognizing the contributions of others. 

Successful candidates will need to have and display the following competencies as part of this role: 

• Manages ambiguity - Operating effectively, even when things are not certain or the way forward is not clear
• Builds networks - Effectively building formal and informal relationship networks inside and outside the organizations
• Customer focus - Building strong relationships with fellows and delivering fellow-centric solutions
• Optimizes work processes - Knowing the most effective and efficient processes to get things done, with a focus on continuous improvement

This is a full-time, benefits-eligible 3-year t