Executive Director - Greater Boston Region

Job Title: Executive Director - Greater Boston Area

Team: External Affairs - Greater Boston Area

Location: In-Person in Boston, MA

Employment Type: Temporary, Full-time

Start Date: March 2025

About Braven

Braven is a national nonprofit that prepares promising young people—many of whom are people of color, from low-income backgrounds, and the first in their families to attend college—to secure a strong first opportunity after college graduation through a career-accelerating program.

We work with higher education and employer partners to offer a life-changing experience that begins with a semester-long course for college students followed by support that lasts through graduation.  

Together, we are helping to open up access to the American Promise, empowering a generation of leaders who mirror the diversity of our country.

To learn more, take a look at Braven’s Impact Report and Jobs Report.

About the Role

In order to achieve its ambition of serving 80,000-100,000 Fellows over the next decade, Braven is hiring an Executive Director (ED) - Greater Boston Region who will lead our efforts to launch and oversee Braven’s potential new Greater Boston Region including its first potential new higher education partner within Greater Boston. Initially joining as a member of the External Affairs Team, they will build a strong coalition of corporate, philanthropic, and nonprofit partners in Boston and Greater Boston, ideally leading to Braven launching this new region. Suppose a partnership with a higher education institution in the Region solidifies, as expected. In that case, there is potential for this to become a permanent full-time regional leadership role of the Greater Boston team, where they will be responsible for all the major outcomes in the region and set the vision and direction for how Braven comes alive in their context successfully. They are the face of Braven externally and their region's most senior-level executive. They manage and lead the regional program team, build a regional advisory board, make expansion decisions alongside their board, lead their External Affairs team in close collaboration with the central External Affairs team, and ensure they and Braven are the primary thought leaders in the college-to-career space in their region.

The ED will report to the Founder & CEO and will be part of Braven’s Alignment Team (AT), the organization’s leadership body. The ED will manage the partnership with our first higher education partner in the Greater Boston region and manage the expansion to future higher education partners in Greater Boston over time. The ED will also work with their External Affairs Director and Central External Affairs team to raise roughly $7M for the first three years of programming prior to the launch of the new site, among other external priorities. Additionally, the ED and Greater Boston team will oversee the recruitment and engagement efforts around a large unit of volunteers plus part-time staff and interns annually.

What You’ll Do

Regional Strategy and Operations (20%)

• Implementing a comprehensive multi-year strategic plan to reach our vision for scale and excellent outcomes with our prospective partner and future Greater Boston region, higher education partners.
• With the Regional Managing Director, ensuring strong program execution resulting in both positive experiences and outcomes for Fellows, volunteers, and partners
• Building, managing, and expanding a regional advisory board that will help maximize the Greater Boston region’s impact, narrative, and sustainability

Stakeholder Management and Awareness Building (30%)

• Ensuring health of key stakeholder relationships at both university and employer partners, including university and corporate executives
• Raising Braven’s brand awareness through thought-leadership, awards, public speaking, social media, and press pieces
• Explore local political landscape and engage in critical policy efforts when relevant

Regional Fundraising and Sustainability (30%)

• Raising roughly $7M prior to the launch of the new school among other external priorities.
• Deepening our political capital and thought leadership to ensure that our region maintains its meaningful position in the educational fabric of the community
• Focusing on significantly growing and diversifying a sustainable funding base that will include gifts from individuals, corporations, foundations, and government 

Team Leadership and Management (20%)

• Attracting, hiring, and developing a team of diverse and talented staff members
• Directly manage the Regional Managing Director and Director, External Affairs
• Coaching and developing regional staff members to exhibit strong cultural leadership skills and orientations
• Serving as the model and leader of Braven culture within the hub 
• Serving on organization’s Alignment Team to influence organization-wide impact, growth, and sustainability

Requirements

Minimum Requirements

• BS/BA 
• 7-10 years leadership experience as an Executive, leading a department, or similar, with a verifiable track record of achieving successful outcomes while maintaining an inclusive, equitable, and sustainable team culture.

Preferred Qualifications 

• 1-3 years in non-profit field
• Proficiency in Google Suite, Slack, Jira, Confluence
• You have a demonstrated commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion
• You exemplify Braven’s core values
• Your experiences have informed your belief in Braven’s mission and have prepared you to work with, or for, Braven’s student Fellow population
• Motivation and drive to fundraise and ensure financial sustainability of the region; an ability to mobilize people and to create champions of an organizational mission
• Experience building and working in partnership with a Board of Directors, partner organizations, funders, and other key constituents
• Strong gravitas, communication skills, relationship-building skills, presence, and maturity that engender respect and facilitate a strong partnership with very senior-level staff and Faculty, high-profile community stakeholders and civic leaders, Braven staff, Fellows, and Leadership Coaches
• Uncommon level of personal responsibility, professional maturity and humility, commitment to personal growth, and understanding of one’s own leadership style and its impact on others
• Ability to make strong data-informed decisions because you excel at drawing actionable insights from analyses and translating for yourself and others how these insights further your strategy
• Experience that has informed your belief in Braven’s mission and have prepared you to work with, or for, Braven’s student Fellow population.

Please know that no one ever meets 100% of the preferred qualifications. If much of this describes you, we encourage you to apply.

Work Demands

• Ability to work in-person in Boston metro area 3 days per week 
• Ability to travel Greater Boston, especially Northwest of Boston, regularly and to Braven hub cities for meetings and events at least once a month

Additional Requirements

• Authorized to work in the U.S.
• Must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and provide proof of such by the date of hire. Individuals may claim exemption from the vaccine requirement for medical or religious reasons.

Application & Interview Process

While the interview process may vary slightly, the general process will be:

• Phone screen with Talent Team member
• Interview with Hiring Manager
• Performance Task
• Panel Interview with Key Braven Staff 
• Interview  with Founder/CEO and Chief External Affairs Officer
• Reference Checks
• Panel Interviews with Braven Board members and regional stakeholders

Benefits

Compensation and Benefits

The salary for this position, which depends on prior work experience and our assessment of your demonstrated fit for the role, will likely be $161,800-$202,200 . This is a full-time regular,exempt, and benefits eligible position where you will be working at 100% capacity. Braven offers competitive base salaries based on the midpoint of the market among not-for-profit organizations of similar size, with opportunities for salary growth over time. We believe in compensating staff members fairly in relation to each other, their qualifications, and their impact on behalf of the organization, and take internal and external equity seriously. Given our commitment to equity, Braven does not negotiate salary offers; instead each salary offer is determined carefully using external and internal benchmarking. You will have an opportunity to discuss salary in more detail after you begin the application process.

Braven also provides competitive, comprehensive benefits, recognition, and career development. While Braven reserves the right to change benefits at any time, current benefits include: 

• Unlimited vacation time in addition to org-wide holidays and three team-wide, week-long shutdowns in Spring, Summer, and Winter (this is a minimum of 24 days per year)
• Match of your 401K contribution up to 5% of your base annual salary, starting your first full month
• Coverage of 85% of health insurance premium for employee and dependents
• 12 weeks of paid parental leave
• A one-month paid sabbatical after 4 years on staff

Location

We gather in the office at least 3 days per week (on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday) and often work remotely 2 days per week (although certain commitments might adjust that from time to time). Therefore, this role requires teammates to live within commuting distance of the Greater Boston area. We believe in the magic, connection, and collaboration that happens when people work together face-to-face and we believe in giving people flexibility to focus, balance personal priorities, and save themselves two commutes per week.

Commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion 

At Braven, we are committed to attracting, engaging, developing, and retaining a diverse team. Braven operates in the context of our American culture, against the backdrop of systemic racism and oppression of marginalized people since our country’s founding. We are committed to assembling leaders at our organization who have emerged from everywhere, with a particular emphasis on those who share the racial and income backgrounds of our Fellows, and creating an inclusive culture that allows all teammates, of all experiences and identities, to thrive.  

Braven is an equal opportunity employer and considers qualified applicants for employment without regard to race, color, creed, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, age, disability, veteran status, or any other protected factor.  We encourage talented individuals of all backgrounds to apply.