The client is seeking a Director of Partnerships Strategy to lead the operational engine behind a national network of college and university partnerships. In this role, you will connect high school programming with The client’s college support team to support scholars’ seamless transition to campus, ensure partnerships deliver on their commitments, and use data to drive persistence, retention, and on-time graduation outcomes.
You will own the partnership portfolio across the full partnership lifecycle, manage planning and rollout of partnership benefits (including pilots, timelines, and site-team coordination), and develop and continuously improve guides, tools, and materials that keep internal teams aligned. You will also identify new opportunities within existing partnerships and provide data-informed recommendations to enhance effectiveness.
Responsibilities include building trusted relationships through an engagement cadence such as kickoffs, launches, mid-year check-ins, and debriefs, representing The client externally with professionalism, and collaborating with internal teams to align strategy and implementation across the high school-to-college handoff. You will track partnership outcomes tied to persistence, retention, and graduation rates, translate trends into actionable insight, support training for internal teams on how to strengthen advising and retention, and report progress to senior leadership. Qualifications include a bachelor’s degree (a master’s degree is preferred), at least 5 years of experience in higher education partnerships or a related field, experience managing complex, multi-stakeholder portfolios, strong knowledge of college persistence and advising processes (including financial aid), and the ability to work cross-functionally and drive alignment.