Use your online application — a custom letter of interest and a current resume — to show us you have the skills listed here or why the skills you have are the ones we actually need. Your letter of interest should be addressed to Jennifer Schiess, Senior Partner and Policy and Evaluation Leader. This role has a priority application deadline of January 8, 2025. While we prioritize applications received on or before that date, we will review applications as we receive them until the position is filled. Note: Applicants must be authorized to work for ANY employer in the United States. We are unable to sponsor or take over sponsorship of an employment visa at this time.

Bellwether is committed to building a team that reflects the varied backgrounds and experiences of the students we seek to serve. It is important to us that you use your application materials to clearly highlight ways in which your background and experience align with Bellwether’s core values, including our commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion as well as viewpoint diversity.

Bellwether is committed to providing equal opportunities. It is our policy to ensure that all individuals with whom we are in contact are not discriminated against based on age, race, ethnicity, color, disability, gender identity, gender expression, political viewpoint, marital status, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, or veteran status. Further, as described above, Bellwether is committed to building a diverse team and strongly encourages individuals from all backgrounds to apply.

In this context, the Senior Associate Partner’s primary responsibilities and duties will be to:

• Serve as project lead and/or project manager for a portfolio of Bellwether’s education policy work, sustaining and growing its best-in-class advising work and field-facing presence. In particular, this role will have a significant focus on postsecondary finance and pathways issues. Relevant topics include:
• State Postsecondary Finance — State funding policies supporting two- and four-year public institutions, including perspectives on opportunities for improvement to current state approaches in service of goals around student and institutional equity, adequacy, and value. 
• State Financial Aid — Policies and programs providing assistance to help students address the costs of postsecondary attendance, including perspectives on opportunities to address the diverse and changing needs of postsecondary students.
• Postsecondary Quality and Improvement — State approaches to ensuring quality across higher education institutions and programs, including perspectives on opportunities to facilitate improvement.
• Postsecondary Student Success — Approaches to identifying and supporting student success in meeting goals for academic progress, the completion of degrees and credentials, and entry into career.
• Transitions to Postsecondary Pathways — Policies related to early postsecondary opportunities such as dual enrollment or transfer between higher education institutions. 
• Short-Term Credentials — Policies related to non-degree training, credentials, and professional certifications offered at higher education institutions and other settings such as employment sites.
• Advise senior client executives and build strong ownership across client teams.
• Represent Bellwether externally (as appropriate to expertise), including, but not limited to, speaking at conferences, participating on panels, and writing. 
• Support business and client development efforts, initially serving as a co-seller with other members of the leadership team with the expectation of growing more self-directed business development over time. This may include projects cross-staffed with Bellwether’s Evaluation and Strategic Advising practices. 
• Supervise and manage members of the Policy team and provide coaching, professional development, and mentorship of staff members at various levels. 
• Advance Bellwether’s organizational priorities and contribute to the execution of its strategic plan, including facilitating ongoing cross-organization efforts to continue growing our depth and breadth of knowledge and expertise in postsecondary education-related topics, a priority defined in our current strategic plan. 
• Develop, sustain, and enhance relationships with senior executives, funders, and other leaders in the field. Cultivate a culture in which Bellwether’s team and work benefit from the open exchange of questions and ideas in the service of thoughtful, relevant analyses that advance excellent and equitable outcomes. 
• Integrate diversity, equity, and inclusion into work with clients and in leadership of teams. 

• An understanding of the educational challenges and disparities facing underserved students in the United States, and a specific interest in postsecondary finance and pathways issues. 
• Expertise across multiple postsecondary finance and pathways topics as described above and ideally demonstrated across multiple roles of increasing seniority.
• Demonstrated strong leadership skills; ability to attract, build, mentor, coach, and direct a high-performing, cohesive team. 
• Significant experience leading complex projects and teams to successful outcomes, including managing client engagements and relationships. 
• Experience supporting business development and revenue generation, which could include contracting, proposal writing, scoping, and budgeting. 
• A commitment to Bellwether’s core values, including diversity, equity, and inclusion, and to Bellwether’s work to address policies and practices that lead to inequitable outcomes for marginalized groups.
• Ability to model a high degree of reflection and self-awareness, build trusted relationships across lines of difference, and seek out and respond to perspectives different from one’s own.
• Comfort with representing an organization externally at convenings and in public-facing writing.
• Experience fostering client relationships, including: 
• Asking probing questions of clients to identify their underlying needs beyond their stated requirements.
• Proactively developing a deep understanding of the client’s context and opportunities to provide appropriate analysis and recommendations.
• Bringing a solutions mindset and a bias for action to the work.
• Aligning processes with those of the client to make it easier to work together.
• Uncovering and addressing the root causes that may be impacting client success.
• An excellent track record of leading people, including: 
• Leveraging strong project management skills to ensure a common understanding of goals, objectives, and processes; communicating clearly and delegating authority and accountability to the team as appropriate.
• Setting up forums or practices to reinforce independent and open communication among team members at various levels, and effectively managing up, down, and laterally.
• Giving a team broad visibility inside an organization and publicly recognizing the accomplishments of individuals and of the group.
• Coaching team members in various roles to support their growth and development.