Director, Ignite Ambassador Manager

ROLE TITLE: Director, Ignite Ambassador Manager 

POSITION REPORTS TO: VP, Early Talent with helix to SMD, Activate Recruitment 

LOCATION: Flexible/Remote 

WHAT YOU’LL DO 

We are seeking a strategic and entrepreneurial leader to build and lead a national network of Ignite ambassadors who will help expand our undergraduate pipeline through the power of peer-to-peer influence. This role sits at the intersection of early talent recruitment, community-building, and leadership development, helping Teach For America (TFA) reach students earlier in their college journey and create meaningful pathways into Ignite, the Corps, and long-term engagement with our mission. As Director, Ignite Ambassador Manager, you will lead the design and execution of a national peer engagement model that increases visibility, belonging, engagement, and application activity among undergraduate students.

You will recruit, develop, and manage a distributed cohort of up to 50 Ignite alumni ambassadors who serve as TFA’s most credible and connected presence on their campuses. Drawing on both centralized systems and local campus influence, you will create the structures, training, and activation strategies that enable ambassadors to build awareness, cultivate community, identify high-potential student leaders, and generate sustained engagement with TFA opportunities. You will partner closely with early talent recruiters, recruitment teams, and other stakeholders to ensure ambassador efforts strengthen the broader recruitment ecosystem while maintaining dedicated focus on undergraduate engagement and long-term pipeline development.  

The ideal candidate will be passionate about developing emerging leaders and have the ability to design systems that empower a network of 50 national ambassadors to generate leads and cultivate real community on their campuses. In your day-to-day, you will translate that passion into coaching rhythms, accountability structures, and activation strategies that keep ambassadors engaged and performing at a high level. Your success will be measured not just by the leads your network generates, but by the strength and cohesion of the community your ambassadors build around TFA's mission.

This role requires a nuanced understanding of how Gen Z students engage with opportunity and communities. The goal of this role is to lead and develop a national cohort of Ignite alumni ambassadors so they become TFA's most credible and connected presence on undergraduate campuses, turning peer relationships into a pipeline of future corps members and fellows.

WHAT YOU’LL BE RESPONSIBLE FOR

Primarily responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

Manage and develop a national cohort of up to 50 campus ambassadors (50%) 

• Cultivate, hire, coach, support, and hold accountable a distributed team of Ignite alumni ambassadors, maintaining regular 1:1 and cohort-wide touchpoints that drive performance, impact, belonging, and growth.

Build upon past learnings to develop a targeted early talent ambassador program (20%)

• Build and refine the systems, training, onboarding, and activation playbooks that enable Ignite ambassadors to generate undergraduate leads and cultivate community on their campuses.

Drive lead generation results and track pipeline health (15%)

• Set clear goals for ambassador-driven lead volume, monitor progress against benchmarks, and use data to adjust strategy and coaching in real time.

Coordinate across internal TFA teams to align ambassador activity with broader recruitment strategy (10%)

• Partner with early talent recruiters, recruitment team leaders, regional staff, and other relevant teams to ensure ambassador efforts connect to and strengthen TFA's existing campus presence and recruitment funnel.

Manage program operations and reporting (5%)

• Maintain ambassador records, performance data, and program documentation, and surface insights and updates to leadership on a regular cadence.

A WEEK IN THE LIFE 

On any given week, you might start Monday reviewing ambassador activity reports and flagging which of your 50 ambassadors need a check-in, a push, or a win celebrated. Midweek, you are running a cohort call that doubles as both a training and a community moment, keeping your national network e