Vice President, Program Operations

Job Title: VP, Program Operations

Team: Product

Location: Hybrid in Atlanta (GA), Chicago (IL), Newark (NJ), Washington (DC) or New York City (NYC) 

Employment Type: Full-time

FLSA Classification: Exempt

Start Date: October 2024

About Braven

Braven is a national nonprofit that prepares promising young people—many of whom are people of color, from low-income backgrounds, and the first in their families to attend college—to secure a strong first opportunity after college graduation through a career-accelerating program.

We work with higher education and employer partners to offer a life-changing experience that begins with a semester-long course for college students followed by support that lasts through graduation.  

Together, we are helping to open up access to the American Promise, empowering a generation of leaders who mirror the diversity of our country.

To learn more, take a look at Braven’s Impact Report and Jobs Report.

About the Role

In order to achieve its ambition of serving 80,000-100,000 Fellows over the next decade, Braven is seeking a Vice President, Program Operations to lead the growth and expansion of our program across emerging locations. This role will lead the development of efficient infrastructure and operations processes, ensuring our organization scales effectively, maintains strong outcomes, and enables economies of scale.

This role is on the Product team and reports directly to the Chief Product Officer.

What You’ll Do

Provide Strategic Leadership & Prioritization

• Collaborate with other Braven leaders to set vision and direction for the org-wide program implementation plan, ensuring alignment with impact and organizational strategy
• Develop and implement strategic initiatives that align with the organization's growth and expansion goals and enhance program effectiveness, scalability, and impact
• Prioritize programmatic shifts to align with the org-wide operational plan, sequencing updates, innovations, and improvements to meet annual scale goals in the 5-year plan
• Lead the organization toward consistent and progressive steps for programmatic consistency and sustainability
• Identify opportunities for process improvement, automation, and cost-effective solutions using technology and design and implement streamlined operations processes to enhance overall organizational efficiency
• Evaluate and optimize existing workflows, identifying areas for improvement and automation to improve the organization’s sustainability as we scale

Ensure Operational Excellence

• Operationalize Braven's vision of Operational Excellence and develop the strategy to socialize throughout the organization
• Build strong relationships with other Braven leaders and teams in order to deeply understand their work and the impact of changes implemented, and to help them understand decisions from an organizational perspective
• Help leaders see the impact of their individual and team decisions on cost reduction, student learning, and program outcomes and collaborate with them as their needs and interests evolve, helping them to navigate trade-offs in the overall model

• Steward key Braven-wide operational initiatives through program operations processes and tools
• Develop and implement risk management strategies to ensure resilient and compliant operations with state, local, and partner-specific standards and establish protocols for identifying and mitigating potential risks
• Evaluate and negotiate contracts with vendors to ensure cost-effectiveness and quality of services
• Cultivate and maintain strategic partnerships to contribute to operational efficiency and savings

Manage, Coach, and Develop Team

• Build and lead a high-performing and growing operations team, fostering a culture of innovation, collaboration, inclusion, and continuous improvement
• Make developing team members a priority by coaching, providing feedback, creating structures that support development, completing performance reviews, ensuring team members have actionable development plans, etc.
• Support the planning and facilitation of sessions for team stepbacks and retreats
• Manage team budget in collaboration with Chief Product Officer
• Model Braven’s core values and competencies for their team
• Hire and onboard team, as needed

Lead Quality Assurance and Evaluation

• Implement and enhance quality assurance measures to guarantee the highest standards in program delivery, focusing on adaptability to new market dynamics
• Develop and refine program evaluation strategies