Applications for this position have closed.
About Akimbo
We’re here to build a world where learning is a human right. Our deepest impact happens when we dismantle systems of oppression with a curious mindset, intentional collaboration and global connection.
Akimbo, Inc. is a public benefit corporation that creates online learning experiences for leaders across the globe. Our courses celebrate our shared humanity and teach students the skills to change the systems that shape our world.
Akimbo started with the creation of the altMBA, a 4-week online, leadership workshop designed by Seth Godin. Since 2015, Akimbo has served more than 23,000 students in 74 countries, worked with 100+ coaches, transitioned to become a B corp under new leadership, and with the help of Hella Social Impact we're becoming more intentional about creating a culture of equity, inclusion, and belonging.
At Akimbo, we lead with Intention, Collaboration, Curiosity and Love. These values are a Culture Compass, guiding us toward equitable community and impactful work. Visit our about page to learn more about us.
About The Position
The Director of Student Experience leads our Student Experience department and is primarily focused on improving our student’s learning journey. Success is measured in terms of how effectively students learn while they’re with us.
The Director of Student Experience hires, manages, and trains our student experience team—a rotating team of up to 75 freelance coaches (depending on how many workshops we have in session). This team models the behavior and best practices we want our students to adopt, while also keeping an eye on the peer-to-peer interactions happening in our workshops—welcoming students, getting them oriented, offering support, noticing and naming behaviors that are harmful to our community, de-escalating conflicts, and holding space for remediation after conflict.
This role is responsible for creating systems that improve student learning. It’s not customer support. We have a separate Customer Experience department that deals with everything money-related.
We are actively seeking candidates who are:
- Empathetic. Understanding where students and coaches are coming from and addressing the situation without judgment.
- Resilient. This role is always evolving. There is no real roadmap. We need someone who can roll with the uncertainty created by constant change and still maintain healthy boundaries around work-life balance.
- Humble. You can own your mistakes and model imperfection while in the spotlight. Finding ways to give credit and lift up others.
- Practiced Facilitators. Ability to hold space for a diverse set of learners and make sure students and coaches feel seen, heard, and respected.
- Collaborative. Working alongside others to create the best possible experience for students and coaches. Doing your part while trusting others to do theirs.
- Curious. Understanding that you don’t have all the answers while creating spaces for the community to share their wisdom.
- Organized. While in session, there are at least six calendars to be aware of, three Slack workspaces, and usually 20+ Slack channels to keep an eye on. There are often more than seven different time zones to plan around, multiple deadlines in a week for live events to be designed, and constant new issues arising.
- Strong Communicators. Not only will you need to be able to communicate via direct messages in Slack, but you’ll also need to be able to write templated messages for cohort coaches, announcements for students, as well as pieces of policy. You’ll also need to be comfortable leading and facilitating live Zoom calls with anywhere between one other person and 1000 people.
- Committed to anti-racism and social justice. Akimbo is building a culture that proactively works against hate, violence, and harm. We expect our staff and students to name, notice, and dismantle systems of oppression in our company, the community, and the world.
Reporting Line
The Director of Student Experience will report to the Chief Learning Officer and will work closely with the Director of Operations and the Director of Customer Experience.
Responsibilities
The Director of Student Experience leads our Student Experience department and is primarily focused on improving our student’s learning journey. This includes but is not limited to:
Leads the Student Experience Department
- Recruits, hires, manages, and trains our student experience team
- Maintains and improves the quality of student engagement and learning
- Models the behaviors and best practices we want our students to embody
- Demonstrates subject matter expertise in learning methods, community management, experience design, and team management
Process improvements
- Measures the effectiveness of our current learning processes
- Analyze our current effectiveness against company objectives
- Recommend process improvements that increase student engagement and student learning
- Lead interdepartmental collaboration to implement improvements
Supports the Chief Learning Officer
- Collaborates on the development of new offerings
- Assists in the creation of new policies, guidelines, and processes
Location & Time Zone
Akimbo is a remote, distributed company—we do not have an office, employees work from the location that best suits their needs, and all communications take place using digital tools.
Update: We don’t care where you choose to live or work, but your existing eligibility to work in the United States (as determined by the US Form I-9 Employment Eligibility Verification requirements) will determine the details of the job offer.
We require employees to be generally available during "office hours" so that real-time collaboration is easier. Office hours are Monday to Friday as follows. Outside of office hours, employees can schedule their working time as best suits their needs.
- San Francisco: 10am - 1pm
- Chicago: 12pm - 3pm
- New York: 1pm - 4pm
- London: 6pm - 9pm
- Sydney: 3am - 6am
Note: we know this is far from ideal for people in Australia, and while we do have students in AEDT/AEST (Sydney), the majority of our students and staff—six out of seven—are better served by the overlap provided in the above office hours.
Salary + Benefits
$120,000 USD, non-negotiable.
We believe that when we give people the opportunity to negotiate salaries, we reward those people who are skilled at negotiation. Being a good negotiator does not mean you have more job experience or that you will do better on the job. For this reason, we offer a fixed salary level for all people at the same job level. Our intention is to avoid unconscious bias that leads to pay discrimination.
Akimbo offers full-time employees health insurance (medical, dental, and vision), paid time off for federal holidays, an informal “take what you need” vacation policy, and a flexible remote work policy.
What We Welcome and Encourage
We welcome all applicants, regardless of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, or gender identity—and encourage Black, Indigenous, and non-Black people of color (BIPOC) to apply. We also encourage Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, Asexual (LGBTQIA+) folks and all people with non-dominant identities to apply.
Our community is committed to creating intersectional belonging that centers the voices and experiences of people with non-dominant identities—by focusing on impact over intent and prioritizing healing and learning over the comfort of our dominant community members. See our Community Practices for more detail on what we ask of people who work and learn with us.
We are using a name-blind system in our application form, which will record your name, but hide it during the first pass of written application review. We're doing this because research by the American Economic Association has shown that employers motivated by unconscious bias are 50% more likely to call back equally qualified job applicants with a "white-sounding" name. We’ll review the videos and a candidate’s name after we’ve used the name-blind system for the first pass.
What We Don’t
No resumes, no college degree required, no required number of years of experience. We acknowledge that the traditional higher education system and the related hiring pipeline to famous companies predominately favors wealthy, white Americans. As a learning institution we care about what you've learned throughout the course of your life, and we believe the best candidates will have learned relevant job skills and developed their leadership experience in a wide variety of ways.
We do not drug test or run criminal background checks. We acknowledge that law enforcement, the courts, and the carceral system disproportionately and damagingly affect the lives of Black and non-Black people of color.
We reject oppressive dress and grooming codes (like being "clean cut"), which reinforce white cultural norms. Someone's physical appearance and presentation is none of our damn business.
To Apply
Please fill out the application form to begin the process.
Note: the application includes both a written portion and a recorded video segment. For the video section, please choose a quiet spot where you could take a call. Production quality does not matter to us so long as we can see and hear you clearly. You’ll be able to complete the video section using any device that lets you participate in a video call (mobile, tablet, or desktop/laptop).
If you have questions about the application process, join us on Wednesday, June 2nd at 4pm Eastern (New York time) for a webinar info session about the job and Akimbo.
For everything else you can reach us at [email protected].
Timing
Applications close the night of June 17th at 11:59pm (midnight) Eastern Time (New York).
We’ll review applications on a rolling basis, first the written section, then the video responses. For candidates who are invited to interview, we’ll follow up by email to schedule a time.
The start date is flexible.
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PPS - We're also hiring for a Director of Operations