Industry Partner Support Specialist

About NAF:

NAF is a national network of education, business, and community leaders who work together to ensure high school students are college, career, and future ready. NAF’s educational design ignites students’ passion for learning and gives businesses the opportunity to shape America’s future workforce by transforming the learning environment to include STEM infused industry-specific curricula and work-based learning experiences, including internships.

Since 1980, NAF has been partnering with high-need communities to improve outcomes for students by implementing NAF academies – small learning communities within existing high schools. NAF has grown from one NAF Academy of Finance in New York City to hundreds of academies across the country focusing on growing industries including: finance, hospitality & tourism, information technology, engineering, and health sciences. During the 2020-2021 school year, over 117,000 students attended 619 NAF academies across 37 states, plus DC, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands. In 2020, NAF academies reported 99% of seniors graduated with 87% of graduates planning to go to college.

Summary: 

The primary function of the Corporate Engagement & Relations (CE&R) Team is to develop mutually beneficial relationships with employer partners and influence their ability to impact communities within the NAF Network. The work involves developing NAF academy programs: work-based learning, advisory board support, industry skill building, social capital programs and opportunities for students and corporate partner employee volunteers. 

The Industry Partner Support Specialist will work with the CE&R team to develop, implement, and support strategies to increase high quality work-based learning and advisory board experiences. This role requires an individual with knowledge of NAF’s educational design and experience in the private sector, industry, and/or the public sector. The ideal candidate is a highly motivated, detail-oriented, strong communicator, can manage multiple projects simultaneously, and has a proven track record of effective collaboration and project management. 

The Industry Partner Support Specialist will support and track results and outcomes when implementing quality work-based learning opportunities, programs, trainings, and resources. Success measures include achievement of grant deliverables for Industry Partners, student impact, employer partner volunteerism, advisory board recruitment/placement, and paid internships supported by NAF corporate and local partners – and will be used to measure performance and facilitate continuous improvement discussions.

Travel required regionally and nationally – normally approximately 40%. Due to COVID restrictions travel is temporally suspended and all activities/position functions will be done remotely until further notice.

Principal Accountabilities:

• Manage projects using defined project management tools and communication vehicles; efficient cross-functional coordination, and effective inter/intra team communications to deliver high-quality project outcomes.
• Manage timelines, identify opportunities, track project status, and clearly communicate status to project stakeholders and internal teams.
• Ensure performance indicators are informing decisions;quickly manage change efforts as needed.

Responsibilities Include, but are not limited to:

Support Industry Partner Employee Volunteerism for NAF Student Work-based Learning (60%)

• Administrative support for full cycle of NAF industry partner programs
• Work collaboratively to plan, develop, and assist in the implementation of high-quality and impactful work-based learning programs (including large scale employee volunteerism) and resources; improve and track performance indicators
• Follow-up with and/or assist with readiness assessment of potential academy partners; provide partner documentation or resources as needed
• Develop and provide support to employee volunteer surveys; assist in virtual event management planning and support

Resource Development and Maintenance (30%) 

• Agenda/meeting notes support
• WBL metrics/dashboard quarterly reporting and other reports as needed
• Provide basic research, internal publication and reporting needs
• Create resources and templates for use in advisory board elements of the NAF educational design 

Operations support (10%) 

• Maintain, submit, and review all expense reports accurately and on-time 
• Assist in the review of documents of the CE&R Team and maintaining annual assessment of required updates, working cross-functionally to create and update resources

Educational/Training Requirements:

Bachelor’s degree or education and/or business field, or equivalent combination of education experience.

Experience:

• Experience managing multiple projects supporting multiple stakeholders, developing dashboards, virtual engagements, and templates/resources
• Knowledge of and experience with NAF’s educational design
• Project management, relationship management and professional customer service skills
• Demonstrated experience of database management, event management and effective industry communication and collaboration
• Experience with creating and maintaining resources to support effective industry partner employee engagement, trainings, and measurement/tracking

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:

• Commitment to the NAF mission and vision for young people 
• Knowledge of work-based learning best practices and familiarity with internships
• Demonstrated experience/proficiency of Microsoft Office Suite and Outlook
• Proactive and goal-oriented individual who can overcome obstacles using demonstrated innovative problem-solving skills
• Demonstrated experience of excellent communication skills (verbal, written, virtual, social media)
• Highly organized with strong attention to detail
• Software tool skills - Smartsheet, Asana, SalesForce, or CRM - preferred
• Bilingual English/Spanish preferred

To Apply:

Interested applicants may send a resume and cover letter to resumes@naf.org. Please include the position title, your first name and last name in the subject line.