Youth Development Specialist, Alpha - $100,000/year USD

About the role

This is not a teaching position. This is a motivation role. The most powerful support you can offer a student who reaches 99% of their target is to insist they finish. If that principle unsettles you, this role is not a fit. If it energizes you—because maintaining high expectations is how you demonstrate belief in a student's capacity—read on.

Responsibilities

• Facilitating one-hour life-skills sessions for K-8 groups on public speaking, concentration, feedback, and other transferable competencies, customizing the framework and creating new modules when you identify unmet needs
• Conducting daily individual and small-group coaching conversations that drive every student to 100% weekly app completion, leveraging Coachbot data, Alpha's motivation systems (campus currency, performance rankings), and your personal rapport with each child to overcome disengagement
• Delivering the Test2Pass (Alpha's competency-based evaluation) for each life skill, and providing continued coaching to students until mastery is demonstrated
• Adjusting your approach across a broad developmental spectrum, from kindergarteners requiring energetic and kinesthetic engagement to eighth graders needing direct conversation and personal responsibility
• Serving as the adult who maintains rigorous expectations and the adult students trust; care creates the foundation for challenge, and challenge communicates your confidence in their ability

Requirements

• Available to work on-site at an Alpha campus in Scottsdale (Phoenix), AZ; Oklahoma City, OK; Tulsa, OK; Nashville, TN; Austin, TX; Brownsville, TX; Fort Worth, TX; Houston, TX (Central, South, or The Woodlands); Park City, UT - relocation assistance provided
• Bachelor's degree in any discipline
• Minimum 3 years direct experience with K-8 students (classroom instruction, coaching, tutoring, camp counseling, or youth program management)
• A concrete example you can articulate of motivating a K-8 student toward a challenging objective: the objective, your actions, and the result
• Comfort allowing AI to deliver instructional content while you concentrate on motivation and life-skills development
• Daily engagement with generative AI platforms (e.g., ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude)
• Authorization to work in the United States without requiring visa sponsorship (or in Canada for the Toronto location)

Nice-to-have Requirements

• Background in youth sports coaching, competitive debate, camp direction, theater, or after-school initiatives where you held direct accountability for student motivation toward defined outcomes
• Demonstrated pattern of high personal achievement (academic, athletic, or career), such that maintaining rigorous standards for others reflects consistent behavior, not performance
• Communication and presence capable of sustaining attention from a room of middle schoolers for an hour without volume escalation
• History of converting reluctant or oppositional students into engaged contributors

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. There is so much to cover for this exciting role, and space here is limited.

Working with us

This is a full-time (40 hours per week), long-term position. The position is immediately available and requires entering into an independent contractor agreement with Crossover as a Contractor of Record. The compensation level for this role is $50 USD/hour, which equates to $100,000 USD/year assuming 40 hours per week and 50 weeks per year. The payment period is weekly. Consult www.crossover.com/help-and-faqs for more details on this topic.