Strategy Officer, Participation
- Employer
- Lumina Foundation
- Location
- Indiana, United States
- Salary
- Competitive Salary
- Date posted
- Apr 7, 2021
View more
- Position Type
- Jobs Outside Academe, Non-profit & Government Organizations
- Employment Level
- Administrative
- Employment Type
- Full Time
Lumina Foundation is an independent, private foundation in Indianapolis that is committed to making opportunities for learning beyond high school available to all. We envision a system that is easy to navigate, delivers fair results, and meets the nation’s need for talent through a broad range of credentials. Our goal is to prepare people for informed citizenship and for success in a global economy.
Lumina is working with partners to design a learning system that gives every person—regardless of race and ethnicity, income, or other socioeconomic factors—the opportunities that only education and training after high school can provide. To achieve our mission, we work with governmental, nonprofit, and private-sector organizations to bring about widespread change. Our work relies on strategic communication, empowering leaders who can bring about change, policy outreach to state and federal officials, investments in proven and promising practices, and targeted efforts to measure and evaluate progress.
Lumina Foundation has a passionate and committed staff and is among the nation’s top private foundations, with an endowment in excess of $1.2 billion.
Purpose
The Strategy Officer for Participation works with the director to
implement Lumina’s strategy, approach, and portfolio of grants and
contracts designed to increase enrollment and re-enrollment in AA
degree and short-term credential programs. The strategy officer
should have practical expertise in effective approaches to
identifying, informing, engaging, and enrolling students in
high-quality programs, well designed to promote credential
attainment. The officer should also have insight into innovative
marketing strategies, behavioral barriers to enrollment, and best
practices in student advising and navigation. In addition, the
officer should be conversant with an array of strategies and
reforms that address equity, quality, scale, and innovation to
dramatically increase the enrollment, persistence, and completion
of postsecondary credentials, particularly for learners of color
and adults.
This position works in a collaborative and integrated manner within the Learning and Work division as well as across all other areas of the foundation to ensure that the goals of Lumina’s Strategic Plan are realized, and to assist the nation in making significant improvements in credential attainment.
The Role
• Commitment to Equity: Strategy Officers advance Lumina’s
commitment to ending systemic racism and barriers to learning
beyond high school for Black, Latino and Native American
individuals. Officers will further Learning and Works’ specific
practices that promote racial and ethnic diversity in hiring,
contracting, grantmaking, inclusive decision making, and achieving
fair and just outcomes arising from the department’s exercise of
its duties and responsibilities and effectively communicate
Lumina’s commitment to internal and external partners
• Strategy Conceptualization & Leadership: Manage an assigned
portfolio of grants and contracts through the lifecycle,
proactively addressing questions and concerns, and communicating
with director on ways to support, enhance, or pivot in strategy
execution
• Strategy Analysis and Synthesis: Analyze and synthesize
information across a variety of sources, and then make
recommendations to the Strategy Director and executive team member
about the design, development, and piloting of new initiatives;
partner on integrated strategy approaches that aim to scale
promising practices. Likewise, Strategy Officers need to have the
critical thinking skills necessary to extract key lessons from past
or current work, and to use those learnings to both shape and
inform future work. Finally, Strategy Officers must be strong
writers who can both review and revise incoming material, as well
as convey their thoughts and Lumina’s key messages in a clear and
articulate manner.
• Portfolio Design and Management: Responsible for leveraging
existing relationships with trusted colleagues and cultivating new
partnerships to develop a portfolio of grants and contracts related
to the assigned strand of work. The portfolio must either directly
lead to an increased number of enrollments or facilitate a change
in conditions that will likely lead to the increased enrollment and
re-enrollment in AA degree and/or short term credential programs.
The Strategy Officer must constantly stay abreast of key issues and
players in the field in order to assess how the portfolio can be
enhanced.
• Integration and Collaboration: Collaborate in an intentional and
forward-thinking way with colleagues across the organization to
maximize the impact of the Foundation’s resources. Examples include
working closely with Strategic Impact to develop metrics and
targets to ensure grants and contracts are designed to produce
results, with Stakeholder Engagement so that convenings are used as
a key tool to advance strategic priorities, and with Impact
Ventures to explore alternative ways of supporting mission-aligned
efforts. Importantly, the Strategy Officer will deeply engage his
or her supervisor consistently for feedback, guidance, and
alignment.
Education/Experience
• Bachelor’s degree or an equivalent combination of education and
experience.
• At least five (5) years of experience working with postsecondary
providers to improve outcomes for Today’s Students. Applicants with
backgrounds in higher education, healthcare, workforce development,
education sales or some other mix of relevant skills and
experience.
Skills, Competencies and Characteristics
• Ability to learn quickly and connect learning to ongoing
conversations related to the assigned body of work.
• Ability to demonstrate how best to use the Foundation’s resources
to ensure the policies and practices envisioned in the current
Strategic Plan are aligned with Lumina’s principles of learning and
credentialing.
• Ability to make decisions in concert with others without complete
information and to thrive in an outcomes-oriented, continuously
evolving work environment in which thinking beyond the curve is
encouraged.
• Project management skills with demonstrated ability to execute
and follow through to achieve intended results, by following
through on commitments, prioritizing work, and managing time and
resources well.
• Experience building and managing diverse networks that support
efforts to produce systemic change.
• Excellent verbal communication skills, with the ability to
communicate accurately, effectively, and in ways appropriate to
different audiences.
• Strong writer, with the ability to review, revise and synthesize
a variety of information and help connect the Foundation’s work to
broader discussions within the higher education landscape.
• Ability to manage internal and external constituents, projects,
and budgets.
• Analytical, problem-solving, and research abilities and an
ability to coordinate with researchers and program
evaluators.
• Capable of applying adaptive problem-solving skills in response
to unforeseen challenges and new assignments.
• Ability to prioritize a wide range of duties and
responsibilities, organize tasks, and remain flexible to changing
and multiple requests.
• Ability to work collegially and diplomatically across the
organization and audience groups, with an ability to resolve any
conflicts.
• Exercise sound judgment in handling sensitive or confidential
information.
• Ability to use technology effectively, including databases,
spreadsheets, Microsoft Office 365 products such as Outlook and
Word, Salesforce, WebEx and Yammer.
Work Environment and Physical Demands
• Work is performed in an office environment, mostly
sedentary.
• Visual and auditory acuity for extensive use of various forms of
technology.
• Currently Lumina staff are not traveling. When travel resumes-
this position travels 10-20%, including overnight stays.
This Position Summary is only a summary of the typical job functions, not an exhaustive list of all possible responsibilities, and may be subject to change at any time due to reasonable accommodation or other reasons.
Applicants should send to the e-mail address below:
• a letter of interest, and
• a resume as an attachment outlining experience relevant to the
position.
Amber Shelton
Human Resources Manager
lfecareers@luminafoundation.org
Equal Opportunity Employer
Get job alerts
Create a job alert and receive personalized job recommendations straight to your inbox.
Create alert