Chief of Staff, Adult Learner Recruitment Division – EAB – Richmond, VA

About EAB

At EAB, our mission is to make education smarter and our communities stronger. We harness the collective power of more than 1,900 schools, colleges, and universities to uncover and apply proven practices and transformative insights. And since complex problems require multifaceted solutions, we work with each school differently to apply these insights through a customized blend of research, technology, and services. From kindergarten to college and beyond, EAB partners with education leaders, practitioners, and staff to accelerate progress and drive results across three key areas: enrollment management, student success, and institutional operations and strategy.

At EAB, we serve not only our partner institutions but each other—that’s why we are always working to make sure our employees love their jobs and are invested in their community. See how we’ve been recognized for this dedication to our employees by checking out our recent awards.

For more information, visit our Careers page.

The Role in Brief:

Chief of Staff, Adult Learner Recruitment Division

The Chief of Staff (COS), Adult Learner Recruitment (ALR), will closely partner with the GM of ALR to help drive business growth and optimize performance for ALR as well as EAB more broadly. The COS will facilitate the efficient flow of communication, ensuring that ALR’s leadership team is collectively focusing on the most important issues and opportunities while managing a complex and ever-shifting agenda. This role will provide high-level strategic support to the GM of ALR, ensuring that they have the full range of data and information, as well as the situational nuances, to allow for effective decision-making. Additional key responsibilities include serving as a coordinator, and in many cases, the lead, across the array of management goals and objectives, and keeping track and holding leaders accountable to make progress against key strategic and operational imperatives. The COS will also serve as a key connection point between the GM and other senior leaders across Enrollment Services and as well as other key leaders across EAB. This role will be invested with the authority to make decisions in lieu of the GM, when appropriate and consistent with agreed upon decision-making/RAPID parameters. The individual also will provide strategic leadership and managerial input by facilitating issue identification and resolution, problem-solving and decision-making.

Because of the broad nature of the COS role, a successful candidate will need to operate effectively both within the clear lines of established organizational lines as well as the grey space of daily decision-making and influencing. In other words, nuance and seeing beyond the surface of things is important. A strong intellect and self-confidence coupled with high emotional intelligence and empathy is critical.

This role is based in Richmond, VA.

Primary Responsibilities:

Critical to the COS’ success in the short-term will be their ability to earn the relationship of trusted advisor to the GM and the rest of ALR leadership team and to understand early on how they can add value across the organization. Given competing priorities, it is also important that the COS consistently creates more opportunity for organizational leverage and impact for the GM.

People Leadership and Communication:

• Serve as the right hand to the GM of ALR, so must be able to influence and communicate effectively across all levels of the organization.
• Collaborate closely with leaders across the business to understand their needs and act as a strategic thought partner to address those needs.
• Set agendas for key leadership team meetings, including accountability for action items
• Oversee all partner communications for the GM and help to create internal communications, as well as communication cascade for large initiatives that impact ALR.

Project and Dashboard Management:

• Oversee key initiatives and provide oversight and guidance to other projects of high importance and develops/executes special projects as needed.
• Coordinate and find opportunities to streamline all dashboards and metrics for the businesses, including responsibility for creating the right dashboards and metrics for running the business

Front Office Responsibilities:

• Provide high-level support to the GM of ALR, ensuring he/she has the full range of data and information to drive effective decision making.
• Ensure the GMs time is maximized by thoroughly identifying appropriate issues for escalation and vetting discussion goals/materials in advance.
• Prep/brief GM in advance of important internal or external meetings; prepare talking points, gather data, etc.
• Provide strategic and tactical support to the GM for any external client responsibilities.
• Partner with the ES budget owner on the budget process and planning for all of ALR
• Work closely with the marketing operations and incentives team to build incentive plans that drive the right behaviors across ALR.
• Partner with Talent and ALR Leaders on staff planning, organizational design, and placement.
• Support Engagement survey and recognition efforts to manage department performance and morale.
• Oversee space management for ALR as needed.

Basic Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree plus minimum 10 years operational and/or direct marketing work experience, preferably in a high growth environment
• 5+ years’ experience proactively identifying risks, resolving issues, and removing impediments that jeopardize partner relationships and strategic priorities.
• Demonstrated strong project management and planning skills, including ability to manage multiple simultaneous projects in complex environments.
• Exceptional attention to detail and strong business judgment, influencing skills, leadership, and integrity.
• Experience in partnering with senior management to ensure company goals and initiatives are supported.
• Discretion in handling sensitive firm, department, and individual performance information

Ideal Qualifications:

• Exceptional problem-solving skills and ability to see diverse perspectives and evaluate situations from another’s point of view.
• Able to operate with high degree of autonomy and to proactively seek additional ways to add value.
• Proven ability to communicate effectively and build relationships across the entire spectrum of Enrollment Services and EAB staff.
• Institutional knowledge of ALR’s direct marketing program offerings and unique expectations of partner service.
• Proven ability to prioritize, lead, and provide direction for strategic initiatives.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills
• Experience developing personal organizational tactics to meet business goals.
• Proficient PC skills and Microsoft Office suite.

Benefits:

Consistent with our belief that our employees are our most valuable resource, EAB offers a competitive and inclusive benefits package.

• Medical, dental, and vision insurance; dependents and domestic partners eligible
• 401(k) retirement plan with company match
• 20+ days of PTO annually, in addition to paid firm holidays
• Daytime leave policy for community service or fitness activities (up to 10 hours a month each)
• Paid parental leave for birthing and non-birthing parents
• Phase Back to Work program for employees returning from parental leave
• Infertility treatment coverage and adoption or surrogacy assistance
• Wellness programs including gym discounts and incentives to promote healthy living
• Dynamic growth opportunities with merit-based promotion philosophy
• Benefits kick in day one, see the full details here.

At EAB, we believe that to fulfill our mission to “make education smarter and our communities stronger” we need team members who bring a diversity of perspectives to the table and a workplace where each team member is valued, respected and heard.

To that end, EAB is an Equal Opportunity Employer, and we make employment decisions on the basis of qualifications, merit and business need. We don’t discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, sex, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, age, non-disqualifying physical or mental disability, national origin, veteran status or any other basis covered by appropriate law.