Role: Head of Programs

Reports to: CEO

Salary: $150-175K

Status: Full-time

Location: Remote (approximately 25% travel)

Who We Are: National Math Stars ensures mathematically extraordinary students from all communities have the resources they need to reach the frontiers of math and science. Once a student becomes a National Math Star, we work closely with them and their families over a 10-year journey, from elementary through high school, to provide them with extraordinary scholarships, individualized guidance, and mentoring to achieve exceptional outcomes. We currently serve 71 students and are in the process of recruiting our third cohort, of 100 additional Stars, from across six states.

Role Overview: The Head of Programs leads the strategic design and implementation of our Stars program, ensuring exceptional experiences for National Math Stars families. In this role, you will lead our growing Programs Team in supporting our Stars' current needs, while charting a vision for how our program can evolve to meet their future needs. You will be joining the team during a period of rapid growth, so an important part of your role will be building processes and systems to ensure visibility and consistency. You will plan and manage a budget of increasing size and complexity each year. As a part of National Math Stars' Leadership Team, you will also play a key role in organizational strategy-setting.

Our preferred start date for this role is early to mid-April, though we have flexibility for the right candidate. This is a remote position with estimated 25% travel for team meetings, conferences, program events, and in-person family visits.

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Key Responsibilities:**

The Head of Programs' key responsibilities fall under the following categories:

Supporting National Math Stars Families

• Directly support a small number of National Math Stars families in the advisor role, working with them to ensure progress, identify appropriate opportunities, and clear obstacles, and using the lessons from this hands-on experience to guide your leadership
• Join calls with families beyond your caseload to provide additional support with particularly challenging issues
• Plan onboarding process for new families each year, including coordinating our flagship Welcome Weekend event (for 250+ attendees)
• Support Programs Team in planning and delivering the right supports to our families at the right times, empowering them with templates and resources (e.g., agendas for check-ins), expert advice, connections / introductions, and more
• Build a community among National Math Stars families, through both events (virtual and in-person) and asynchronous platforms (e.g., Facebook, Slack / Discord)
• Build / improve processes and systems (incl. trainings, ride-alongs, databases) to ensure (1) we understand each Star's progress and needs, and (2) team members are empowered to deliver consistent and exceptional family experiences

Managing and Growing the Programs Team

• Manage and coach the Programs Team, which currently includes 2 family advisors, a math mentor coach, and 19 part-time math mentors
• Hire exceptional new members of the team to support our organization's growth. (In 2025, we anticipate adding a program operations associate, 3 more family advisors, and many more part-time math mentors)
• Become a subject matter expert and go-to resource for the Programs Team on how to support our families across a range of topics (e.g., advanced math/STEM opportunities, school policies and advocacy, the needs of highly gifted students)
• In collaboration with Leadership Team, develop a longer-term departmental growth plan that will allow us to serve our growing population of Stars while keeping Programs Team workloads sustainable and family experiences consistently excellent

Working with Ecosystem Partners to Unlock Star Experiences

• Maintain a deep understanding of the ecosystem of STEM opportunities available to our Stars through desktop research, conversations with program leaders, and site visits
• Manage existing connections and develop new connections with course providers, clubs, camps, and other STEM organizations to ensure they understand and welcome our Stars
• Build data pipelines with key partners to ensure we have a full picture of Star progress
• Monitor our families' experiences with different STEM opportunities and develop perspectives / recommendations to guide matching Stars to the right opportunities

Budgeting and Resource Management

• Set annual budget for overall Programs department, as well as for individual initiatives
• Monitor spend throughout the year to ensure compliance with budget; review monthly financials and explain variances
• In collaboration with Operations department, build multi-year budget projections based on anticipated organizational growth

Evolving Program Design Based on Current Data and Future Needs

• In collaboration with Leadership Team, define / refine program success metrics
• Build / improve data gathering and display mechanisms (surveys, databases, dashboards etc.) to track performance against program success metrics
• Use qualitative and quantitative data to continuously evaluate and evolve program design
• Anticipate new family needs (e.g., as Stars approach middle/high school) and design new / different program supports to address those needs
• Run experiments with various aspects of program design; roll out the most effective approaches to our full population

Supporting Other Departments and Overall Strategy

• Regularly report on Programs progress to Leadership Team and Board of Directors
• In collaboration with CEO and Leadership Team, advise on pace of growth, target geographies, and other strategic decisions
• Support admissions of new Stars by (1) collaborating with Admissions team to define selection criteria, and (2) acting as a part of the admissions committee each summer
• Ensure close alignment between program delivery and other parts of the organization

Skills and Experience:

• Excitement for our mission and goals
• Deep empathy and ability to develop trust with students and families from diverse backgrounds and experiences
• Ability to hire and lead a highly effective team across multiple functional specialties
• Entrepreneurial drive to build new programs, processes, and structures from scratch
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• High level of autonomy and relentless drive to get things done
• Familiarity with building and managing budgets of >$1M
• Ability to gather and interpret quantitative and qualitative data (including through experimentation), and to use that data to inform decision-making
• Understanding of the advanced math / STEM enrichment space (previous experience with STEM enrichment is a plus but not required; advanced math degree a plus but not required)
• Understanding of the needs of highly gifted children and their families (previous experience working with gifted students is a plus but not required)

We know that many strong candidates may not check all of these boxes. If the role seems like a good match for your personal mission and experience, we encourage you to apply even if you meet only some of these criteria.

We value and encourage diversity and solicit applications from all qualified applicants without regard to race, color, gender, sex, age, religion, creed, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, marital status, sexual orientation, physical or mental disability, medical condition, veteran status, gender identity, genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local law.