Director of Advancement, Alpha - $400,000/year USD

About the role

Families who enroll at Alpha seldom find us through advertising. They come because someone they trust—across a dinner table or during a conversation—told them, "This made a real difference for my child." Your responsibility is to own that word-of-mouth engine for an entire region: the dinners, the parent ambassador network, the relationships with civic leaders, the CEO who creates a pathway for a 14-year-old's first meaningful project.

In a typical week, you will be present in four different rooms. You will design and execute the region's event calendar, from a 150-guest open house to an intimate eight-person dinner, hosting several each month. You will identify and recruit current parents who are genuinely eager to share their experience with prospective families, and you will facilitate those one-to-one connections. You will cultivate relationships with city officials and business leaders, converting them into event venues, advocates for new campus launches, and tangible opportunities for students. And you will deliver on the Alpha Networks promise: introductions, expert-led masterclasses, internships, alumni transitions—tracked family by family.

There is no complete playbook waiting for you. You will create it as you go, and the systems you develop will be adopted by colleagues building the same infrastructure in other cities. As the region expands, the challenge intensifies rather than simplifies: the number of doors opened per family must increase even as total enrollment grows. Success is measured by the proportion of growth that comes from real people advocating for Alpha, assessed over years rather than quarters.

Responsibilities

• Designing and executing the region's event calendar: open gatherings, curated dinners organized by city and grade level, and family retreats, managing several per month within budget
• Securing venues, hosts, and vendors, then serving as the live host for each event
• Recruiting current parents to serve as ambassadors, equipping them with authentic stories, and pairing them with prospective families and campus tours
• Establishing relationships with public officials and business executives, and converting those relationships into venues, support for campus expansion, and opportunities for students
• Connecting enrolled families into parent circles and students into mentorships, masterclasses, and real-world internships, and transitioning graduating families into alumni status within 30 days
• Recording every gathering, introduction, and first-contact attribution in the CRM so that "doors opened per family" reflects an accurate, trackable metric
• Drive people-first referrals as the majority source of enrollment growth in your region

What You Won’t Be Doing

• Purchasing growth through paid media, ad spend, or impression and lead-volume metrics
• Controlling the brand narrative or top-level campaigns; that responsibility belongs to Marketing
• Handling admissions processing, conducting tours, or managing enrollment paperwork; those are owned by Admissions and Family Success
• Operating a campus on a day-to-day basis, or managing the physical facility
• Treating raw attendance and headcount as if a full room were the measure of success
• Waiting for a completed playbook, templated materials, or support staff before beginning your work

Requirements

• 5+ years building communities or relationship-driven programs in K-12 education, membership organizations, or a comparable network business, where growth was generated through people: referrals, members, congregations, chapters, alumni, or a client book, with measurable results
• Personal experience designing and executing 20+ gatherings across the full spectrum, from intimate curated dinners to 100+ person open events, with budget accountability
• Established and sustained relationships with public officials or business executives that resulted in concrete, identifiable value
• Disciplined CRM usage; tracking relationships, attributions, and actions is an existing practice
• Currently resides in, or will relocate to, one of these regions: San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, Denver, Greenwich (CT), Miami, Atlanta, Boston, Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Dorado (PR), Nashville, or Park City (UT)
• Authorized to work in the US without requiring visa sponsorship

Nice-to-have Qualifications

• Led regional growth, community building, or partnerships for a network-oriented organization: a school network, membership club, franchise, or civic or faith-based institution
• Developed and monetized a high-trust relationship portfolio as a client-facing leader in wealth management, consulting, or business development
• Rose through admissions, advancement, community organizing, or hospitality, and were consistently chosen to host and represent the organization
• Established relationships with local government or business leaders in your city
• Deep understanding of how families make high-stakes educational decisions

About Alpha

Join the team building school around student growth. 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. Alpha is where you can do the most meaningful work of your career.

Pay

The compensation level for this role is $200 USD/hour, which equates to $400,000 USD/year assuming 40 hours per week and 50 weeks per year.

Schedule

This is a full-time (40 hours per week), long-term position. The position is immediately available. Evenings and weekends spent in rooms with high-expectation parents, elected officials, and entrepreneurs are standard, as is frequent local travel.