Director, Discovery App

ABOUT BASTA

First-generation college students have what it takes to bring immense value to the workforce, but often face systemic barriers in professional knowledge, networks, and opportunity. More than half of recent grads are underemployed, with most projected to remain underemployed 10+ years after graduation. Basta is closing the employment gap for first-generation students, enabling them to secure great jobs, launch careers, and change the face of leadership in the workforce.

Since 2016, we have built innovative, data-driven solutions ensuring students convert their hard-earned degrees into a great first job. Through AI-enabled, personalized career preparation and partnerships with top employers, we are accelerating the professional journey of thousands of first-gen students at 300 campuses…and counting! Basta participants are now thriving in their first jobs at Bloomberg, Snap Inc., Citi, DonorsChoose, and over 100 other companies.

ABOUT THE DIRECTOR, DISCOVERY APP ROLE

Discovery, Basta’s core scaling initiative, is an a la carte and synchronous career readiness program that has reached 5,000 students in three years. The Director, Discovery, will drive the program to 2x its participant reach this year while ensuring a high-quality, high-impact experience for students and partners. Rooted in Basta’s mission to create equitable career pathways, this role is central to translating strategic vision into operational excellence, cross-functional alignment, and partner success. Thriving in this role requires a bold, data-informed mindset, a deep commitment to user experience, and a collaborative spirit that energizes teams and fuels innovation. The Director’s leadership will shape the future of Discovery—and with it, Basta’s ability to grow sustainably while delivering transformative outcomes at scale.

You will do this by:

• Program Strategy & Execution
  • Lead the strategic direction and execution of the Discovery initiative.
  • Ensure alignment between Discovery’s goals and day-to-day operations.
  • Develop and refine strategies to improve program effectiveness and engagement.
  • Oversee program delivery, logistics, implementation, quality assurance, staff, and results.
• Performance Management
  • Achieve growth targets for new user acquisition and session attendance for the Discovery career readiness app.
  • Meet partner retention targets by executing a strong customer experience and engagement strategy.
  • Hit user conversion targets by managing and optimizing each stage of the user journey through the Discovery funnel.
• Customer & User Engagement
  • Define Discovery’s customer success & user engagement strategies and manage the Senior Manager, Customer Success and Senior Manager, User Experience in executing it
  • Cultivate relationships with Discovery partners and users.
  • Serve as the primary relationship manager for high-priority customers (e.g., Blackstone, enterprise partners).
  • Partner with the customer success team to enhance user experience, including onboarding and engagement strategies.
  • Support Customer Success Managers to resolve customer challenges.
• Impact & Innovation
  • Partner with Head of Learning & Experience, Head of Impact & Experience and Director of Data Strategy to support impact measurement operations and ensure continuous improvement.
  • Utilize data, customer feedback, and internal insights to drive program innovation.
  • Collaborate with product and data teams to refine and scale Discovery’s features.
• Operational Excellence
  • Ensure Discovery can scale its reach seamlessly through better systems, tools, and access to data.
  • Identify and implement process improvements that increase efficiency and effectiveness.
  • Manage Coordinator, Discovery Operations to monitor and optimize internal workflows to maintain high-quality program execution.
• Manage Cross-Functional Team
  • Oversee and coordinate efforts across diverse teams, both direct reports and peers, to ensure Discovery’s success.
  • Align team priorities with organizational objectives and strategy.
  • Foster collaboration and accountability among team members.

The Director, Discovery App is likely to see themselves in the following examples which are designed to help you determine if this opportunity aligns with your own passion, purpose, skills, and experiences.

• Being Resilient: The Director adapts quickly when Discovery partnerships shift, technical issues arise, or key metrics aren't immediately met. They model calm perseverance for their team, ensuring progress continues despite challenges.
• Collaborates: The Director unites cross-functional teams—like product, data, and customer success—around shared goals for Discovery, cultivating open communication and ensuring consistent execution aligned with strategy
• Customer Focus: The Director listens deeply to enterprise partners and users, translating feedback into product and engagement strategies that improve satisfaction and deepen impact.
• Strategic Mindset: The Director refines Discovery’s long-term roadmap by connecting macro trends, user insights, and data—transforming them into program strategies that advance Basta’s mission and fuel sustainable growth.
• Decision Quality: The Director uses a combination of stakeholder input, team expertise, and data insights to make clear, forward-moving decisions—especially when stakes are high or timelines are tight.

SUCCESS IN THE DIRECTOR, DISCOVERY APP ROLE LOOKS LIKE:

In your first year, success will be measured by your ability to drive program participation, strengthen partner relationships, and increase student impact. This means:

• At least 5,000 unique students join a live Discovery session this school year and 2,600 join at least 3 live sessions.
• 90%+ of Discovery partners achieve their student session attendance goals and report high satisfaction
• Discovery’s internal operational systems and processes run seamlessly; with effective collaboration across Product, Data, and Growth teams
• The three full-time Discovery team members meet their individual performance goals and receive timely feedback on their performance

YOU COULD BE OUR DIRECTOR OF DISCOVERY APP IF:

• Experience: You have 7-10 years of experience in product management, program management, or a related field with significant experience in cross-functional collaboration.
• Tech Savviness: You can work effectively with data and technology, including proficiency in Excel and familiarity with data dashboards.
• Behavioral Insight: You have experience in driving people to action, whether through recruitment, sales, volunteer coordination, or similar fields.
• Project Management: You possess an exceptional ability to work across different teams and manage projects without formal authority.
• Customer Experience/Partnership Management: You have successfully led customer experience or partnership management work, ideally in a B2B2C context
• Performance Management: You have experience setting and tracking goals, using data to drive accountability, and managing performance across teams or partners.

Bonus points for…

• Lived experience of the young people we serve
• Hybrid learning experience and an understanding of both tech and live session-based educational products.
• Experience in the nonprofit or education sector
• Familiarity with asynchronous learning modules and personalized learning paths.
• Background in behavioral science or similar fields focused on motivating group actions.
• Experience in organizing or running live events, campaigns or programs.

The Tangible Good

Basta is a remote-first hybrid organization. We offer a competitive compensation and benefits package* which includes medical, dental, vision, short-term disability, long-term disability, life insurance, retirement matching, paid parental leave, and more. We also offer a generous paid time off policy, including 15 paid vacation days (20 paid vacation days after your first year), all federal holidays, summer Friday half-days and an end of year shutdown annually.

• Basta reserves the right to change benefits at any time according to business need.
• *Applicants must be authorized to work for any employer in the U.S. Basta is unable to sponsor or take over sponsorship of an employment Visa at this time.
• *Basta does not currently cover the cost of relocation.

The Tangible Good

Basta is a remote-first hybrid organization. We offer a competitive compensation and benefits package* which includes medical, dental, vision, short-term disability, long-term disability, life insurance, retirement matching, paid parental leave, and more. We also offer a generous paid time off policy, including 15 paid vacation days (20 paid vacation days after your first year), all federal holidays, summer Friday half-days and an end of year shutdown annually.

• Basta reserves the right to change benefits at any time according to business need.
• *Applicants must be authorized to work for any employer in the U.S. Basta is unable to sponsor or take over sponsorship of an employment Visa at this time.
• *Basta does not currently cover the cost of relocation.