Academic Coach, Alpha - $100,000/year USD

About the role

Alpha isn’t a traditional school. Students master a full day of academics in about two hours through adaptive software. Your job is the part technology can’t do: coaching Pre-K through 8th graders on life skills like public speaking, focus, and giving and receiving feedback.

Half your day you run hands-on workshops using structured playbooks and storytelling. The other half you sit with students 1:1 or in small groups, review their progress in adaptive learning apps through Coachbot analytics, and push them to hit 100% of their weekly goals. Students prove mastery through Test2Pass assessments, not participation grades.

In year one you own a cohort of students and master Alpha’s playbook: life skill workshops, motivation sessions, mastery-based assessments. As you prove you can hold every student to 100% of their goals while keeping satisfaction scores above 90%, the path opens to Lead Guide, where you coach other Guides while continuing to work directly with students.

Responsibilities

• Deliver one-hour life skill workshops to Pre-K–8 students on public speaking, focus, collaboration, and giving and receiving feedback (hands-on and project-based).
• Run daily 1:1 and small-group motivation sessions where you review each student’s progress in adaptive learning apps (using Coachbot analytics), set goals, and push them to hit 100% of their weekly targets.
• Administer and evaluate Test2Pass assessments to confirm students have truly mastered each life skill, not just participated.
• Adapt your coaching style across a wide age range, from Pre-K students who need high energy and movement to 8th graders who need real talk and accountability.
• Build genuine relationships with each student so they trust you enough to accept coaching through resistance, distraction, and self-doubt.

What You Won’t Be Doing

• Taking on traditional academic instruction or lecturing (students learn core subjects through adaptive apps, not from you).
• Writing lesson plans or curriculum from scratch (Alpha provides life skills playbooks; your job is to bring them to life with energy and storytelling).
• Managing parent relationships or school administration (Campus Leads own those responsibilities; you stay focused on your students).
• Grading homework or managing standardized test prep (none of that exists here).
• Working in isolation (you’re part of a campus team with Lead Guides, Campus Leads, and peers who share feedback and hold each other accountable).

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in any field.
• 3+ years of experience working directly with Pre-K–8 students through teaching, coaching, counseling, or youth program leadership.
• A track record of coaching individual Pre-K–8 students toward ambitious academic, behavioral, or extracurricular goals, with concrete examples of the actions you took and the results achieved.
• Ability to lead engaging live workshops and communicate with energy, clarity, and presence across the Pre-K–8 age range.
• Comfort motivating resistant students, holding ambitious standards, and working in a non-traditional, coaching-first school model rather than delivering traditional academic instruction.
• Willing to work in-person at Alpha’s Central Houston, South Houston, or The Woodlands campus (relocation support provided).
• Legal right to work in the United States without visa sponsorship.

Nice-to-have

• Experience in youth athletics coaching, camp leadership, or after-school program work where you were directly responsible for motivating kids to hit specific goals.
• Track record of high personal achievement (academic honors, competitive athletics, or leadership roles that required sustained excellence).
• Natural storytelling ability: you can hold a room of 12-year-olds’ attention for an hour without raising your voice.
• Experience motivating disengaged or resistant students and turning them into active participants.

About Alpha

Alpha reimagines the school day around faster learning, stronger mentorship, and more time for students to build real-world skills. Roles with real student impact: Alpha hires teachers (guides), operators, admissions experts, school & curriculum leaders, and remote team members. Education work that pays like it matters: Alpha offers six-figure roles for people ready to help build a radically better school experience. A culture built for builders: Alpha is fast-moving, ambitious, and student focused. It’s for people who want to improve the system, not maintain it.

Pay

$100,000 USD per year, paid weekly.

Benefits

Day-one health, dental, and vision benefits.