Career Services Director, Break Through Tech (NYC)

About Break Through Tech

Break Through Tech works at the intersection of academia and industry to propel more underrepresented folks into technical careers -- with a particular emphasis on Black, Latinx, Indigenous, and first- generation college going women and non-binary students.

Launched in 2016 in New York City as a partnership between Cornell Tech and the City University of New York (CUNY), Break Through Tech has since expanded nationally, serving undergraduate students across the country through our Sprinternships and AI programs. 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.

Position Summary

Break Through Tech is seeking an experienced player/coach to join us as our first Career Services Director. In this role, you will build and lead the systems and teams that will define and launch our new Career Services function. This function will be mission critical for the organization as it will define our systems and approaches to achieving our North Star of internship and job placement for our participants.

In this role, your work will contribute to enabling successful career outcomes for our program participants and alumni across the nation. This role will manage a small direct team and also be responsible for matrix managing members of other teams as well as vendors and partners to achieve our goals. 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.
• Serving as a member of Break Through Tech's Program Leadership team, informing and shaping 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:

• Builds effective teams, with appropriate and diverse mix of styles, perspectives, and experience; Establishes common objectives and a shared mindset; Creates a feeling of belonging and strong team morale; Shares wins and rewards team efforts; Fosters open dialogue and collaboration among the team
• Develops talent by placing high priority on developing others through coaching, feedback, exposure, and stretch assignments; Aligns employee career development goals with organizational objectives; Encourages people to accept developmental moves.
• Directs work to provide clear directions and accountabilities; Delegates and distributes assignments and decisions appropriately; Monitors progress by maintaining dialogue on work and results; Provides appropriate guidance and direction based on people's capabilities; Intervenes as needed to remove obstacles
• Organizational savvy, being sensitive to how people and organizations function Anticipates land mines and plans approach accordingly; Deals comfortably with organizational politics; Knows who has power, respect, and influence; Steers through the organizational maze to get things done.
• Strategic Mindset to anticipates future trends and implications accurately; Readily poses future scenarios; Articulates credible pictures and visions of possibilities that will create sustainable value; Creates competitive and breakthrough strategies that show a clear connection between vision and action

This is a full-time, benefits-eligible 3-year term position with the possibility of renewal. This is a hybrid position with the expectation to work at least 1 day per week (Wednesday) on the Cornell Tech campus in New York City. Flexible work schedules are subject to change.

Visa Sponsorship is not available.

Essential Functions Include:

Successfully deliver Career Services offerings to Break Through Tech participants and alumni, in partnership with program delivery teams and external partners. - 45%

• Develop and oversee plans and expected milestones to help ensure all participants a) benefit from Career Services and b) are on track to achieve employment outcomes within 6 months of college graduation
• Manage programs both in person and online; resolve highly complex concerns and problems; assure resolution of participants' concerns by nurturing relationships and collaboration with other areas.
• Counsel undergraduate and graduate students exploring career options individually and in group settings.
• Develop workshops/events that meet student needs for career development and planning.

Leverage 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. - 20%

• Provide leadership and direction for planning and evaluation; develop priorities; identify trends and new opportunities.
• Develop a cohesive vision and direction for Career Services; oversee the development and implementation of a comprehensive and coordinated model that addresses our needs
• Establish leading and lagging measures of success for Career Services; develop and administer tools for measuring achievement of employment outcomes. Provide direction for strategic planning and implementation of evaluation.
• Develop, evaluate, interpret, implement and/or oversee Career Services policies, procedures and regulations and playbooks.
• Build scalable systems for delivering these offerings with quality and efficiency to all participants and alumni

Build and manage a team of direct reports, internal staff and external volunteers to achieve goals. - 15%

• Lead, plan, and review work of direct report(s); interview, hire, train and make recommendations concerning the evaluation, promotion and termination of staff; responsible for performance management and professional development of staff.
• As a player/coach, build and manage a small team of direct reports to achieve goals.
• Indirectly manage the work of other Break Through Tech staff members on other teams who will help deliver and support employment outcomes for our participants (program managers, student services, event coordinators, etc)
• Source, onboard and manage relationships with volunteers and temporary staff (such as resume reviewers, career fair attendees, career coaches, info session hosts, etc)
• In partnership with our Business Development and External Affairs teams, promote Break Through Tech to potential industry volunteers; act as a representative for Break Through Tech at industry events such as career fairs and industry forums.

Define and track measures of success, including leading and lagging indicators. - 5%

• Track participant participation and outcomes; develop assessment plans for remediation and follow up on progress toward goals.

Cultivate and maintain collaborative relationships with other departments and external partners to support the work. - 5%

• Work alongside the Business development and Industry Partner team to cultivate deep rooted knowledge and understanding of partner needs and opportunities.
• Oversee the internal and external planning needs and accountability requirements; oversee the development and implementation of solutions.
• Direct the development of a comprehensive marketing and communication strategy that will serve to inform the community about Career Services

Serve as a member of Break Through Tech's Program Delivery Center of Excellence, informing and shaping the future of operations and participant experience across our organization . - 5%

Other position-related responsibilities. Participate in projects with occasional work responsibility falling above or below current classification.- 5%

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree and a minimum of 5 to 7 years relevant experience or equivalent combination
• Experience in and/or demonstrated commitment to supporting diversity, equity, access, inclusion, and wellbeing.
• Proven experience connecting diversity, inclusion, and wellbeing practices to business goals.
• Demonstrated experience successfully designing and leading career exploration experiences - including events, workshops, career coaching and job placement activities - for individuals seeking entry-level technical roles.
• Demonstrated experience driving job attainment for undergraduates or entry-level technical employees at scale
• Prior experience successfully leading teams (including direct reports as well as volunteers and cross-functional contributors) to deliver programs
• Prior experience successfully designing and delivering programs and events online to a distributed audience.
• Experience working effectively as a player/coach with a strong interest in leading strategy while delivering
• Data-driven decision maker with experience leveraging tools including Microsoft Excel / Google Sheets, Microsoft PowerPoint / Google Slides to evaluate and report on impact and effectiveness
• Demonstrated ability to build and roll out systems and processes users not only readily adopt but love.
• Excellent written and verbal communications skills, particularly when working with high level internal and external stakeholders
• Detail-oriented and organized systems thinker with an ability to mentor and coach others
• Ability to thrive in a fast-moving, quickly changing work environment
• Culture builder with expertise in successful change management and organizational effectiveness

Preferred Qualifications

• Deep understanding of the entry-level talent market for highly technical roles (such as software developers, data scientists, etc)

Culture of Inclusion and Community Standards

As a university founded to be a place where "...any person can find instruction in any study," diversity and inclusion are at the core of our values and mission. We strive to be a welcoming, caring, healthy, and equitable community where students, faculty, and staff with different backgrounds, perspectives, abilities, and experiences can learn, innovate, and work in an environment of respect, and feel empowered to engage in any community conversation. As a member of the Cornell University community, it is important to recognize our shared responsibility to each other to cultivate a culture of inclusion for all. Cornell Core values

As a people manager and university leader you will model and support a culture of diversity, equity, inclusion, and wellbeing by fostering an environment where everyone has the ability to thrive and navigate work and life's challenges because they feel like they belong and have the tools and support they need.

While position responsibilities vary greatly, the Skills for Success and Leadership Skills for Successare foundational to what is expected ofevery employee and leader working at Cornell. These skills are essential for individual and organizational success. Staff Skills for Success; Leadership Skills for Success

Rewards and Benefits

Competitive compensation, generous time-off, and great benefits ...More on Cornell Benefits

Familiarize yourself with Cornell's COVID-19 workplace guidance as well as the university's COVID-19 services and information.

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