Job Description

Who We Are
Our mission is simple but critical: to build pathways for adult learners to earn high-quality, workforce-aligned degrees and credentials from North Carolina’s public universities. At Project Kitty Hawk, our work reflects our company values:  Collaboration – We prioritize our partners’ success and reputation, aligning every initiative with their goals, reflecting their values, and enhancing their impact.  Innovation – We innovate, not replicate. As creative problem solvers, we use data-driven insights to push boundaries, continuously improve our services, develop solutions, and redefine what it means to serve nontraditional learners.  Empathy – We understand the unique challenges of nontraditional learners, and are committed to supporting them with empathy, respect, and solutions that fit their needs.  Integrity – We operate with transparency and accountability in everything we do. We uphold honesty, take ownership of our work, and maintain the highest standards.  Teamwork – We embody the collaboration we seek. We always strive to be dependable, supportive, and solutions-oriented teammates.  Together, we partner with universities in the University of North Carolina (UNC) System to produce innovative, flexible degree and credential programs in high-demand fields. Each PKH team member plays a vital role in advancing this mission and shaping the future of education for adult learners.  These values will enable us to realize PKH’s vision: to make North Carolina’s public universities the top choice for adult learners and to amplify the UNC System’s role as a national leader in higher education innovation, access, and student success. By joining our team, you have an opportunity to contribute to our achievement of that vision, in the process helping to create opportunities for thousands of learners to earn their success and move up the economic ladder. At Project Kitty Hawk we hire talented people who are not only dedicated to our mission but share our belief that working together makes us stronger and more effective. In this organization you’ll find individuals with a range of interesting backgrounds and life stories; the true magic happens when those individuals come together to solve problems in service of a common goal. We encourage you to bring your unique perspective, talents, and ideas to the table as we strive to make a meaningful impact.  
The Role

The Director of Higher Education Strategy supports Project Kitty Hawk (PKH) in extending the benefits of public higher education to all North Carolinians. This position is an experienced relationship manager who is familiar with public university operations and the adult learner market, thrives on building lasting relationships with UNC System Office leaders and prospective university partners, and has experience nurturing university and System relationships into formal partnerships that drive university and company growth. The role requires background experience in:

• Higher education leadership to facilitate strategic and productive engagements at all levels of PKH’s current and prospective partner institutions, including senior university leadership.
• Continuous improvement in university practice and process, including admissions, enrollment management, and student success.
• Ability to distill key lessons from work with individual universities to inform University System policy, practice, and procurement.
• Prospecting and account management to build relationships and nurture new partnerships.
• Internal project and process management to strengthen relationships through transparent and replicable university engagements.

This position requires strong self-motivation, a team-oriented mindset, and the ability to pivot quickly and decisively in a fast-paced environment.

What you'll do:

1. FASTER Initiative Coordination: The FASTER Initiative is a partnership with the UNC System to support System campuses in their efforts to enhance the student journey, from initial impression all the way to graduation. This role will:

2. Partnership Development (Business Development)

1. Build and manage a pipeline of prospective UNC System and national university partners, from initial prospecting through close.
2. Lead solution-scoping conversations with university leadership, translating institutional challenges (enrollment, retention, student success) into partnership opportunities.
3. Support development of scope documents and foundational partnership contracts, including drafting agreements and facilitating final delivery.
4. Lead transition phases from prospect to client, collaborating closely with Partnership Success to ensure seamless onboarding and integration.
5. Drive cross-functional collaboration with marketing, admissions, student services, and partnership success teams to identify new solutions that respond to the pressing needs of the UNC System and the state.
6. Conduct market viability assessments using UNC System and national datasets to build a deep knowledge of potential partners’ vision, programs, and objectives.

Informing System Strategy, Policy and Solutions

1. Develop mechanisms to synthesize lessons learned from FASTER initiative, partnership success, and student operations to inform UNC System President and System Office staff on opportunities for System-wide improvement.
2. With support from PKH colleagues, position PKH and its partners as a “test bed” for innovative practices, including facilitating implementation and evaluation of innovative practices and synthesizing results for university and System-level leaders.
3. By tapping networks across university partners and the System Office, examine gaps and pain points in university- and System-level practice and identify opportunities for PKH to address those gaps and pain points.

What you bring:

• Bachelor’s degree required; experience in partner and account management or business development.
• 5+ years of experience in higher education, public policy, nonprofit management, or consulting
• Proven track record of consultative or solution-based selling, ideally within higher education or edtech
• Direct experience in university consulting, advising institutional leadership on enrollment, student success, or operational improvement
• Experience managing and growing a partnership or sales pipeline
• Excellent communication skills and can communicate, present, and influence credibly and effectively at all levels of an organization, including executive and C-level.
• Natural relationship builder with integrity, reliability, and maturity.
• Driven to care for the partnership and its stakeholders, ensuring their needs are met and finding opportunities to make each partnership successful.
• Knowledge of public higher education, adult learners, and online delivery.
• Have a knack for navigating change and a willingness to think creatively to solve a problem.
• Effectively manage ambiguity.
• Understand (or know how to discover) what the partnership’s stakeholders care about and how to support their goals, strategic plans, values, and mission.
• Demonstrated ability to work constructively with cross-functional teams.
• Ability to work independently within a complex environment, to drive recommendations to stakeholders and to juggle multiple initiatives at once.

What We Offer
Project Kitty Hawk offers a comprehensive benefits package that includes full medical/dental/vision coverage, a 401K with match, and a generous time-off policy with paid volunteer time. In addition, we are committed to providing competitive salaries with the potential for performance bonus and remote working flexibility. Project Kitty Hawk is an Equal Opportunity Employer that does not discriminate based on actual or perceived race, creed, color, religion, alienage or national origin, ancestry, citizenship status, age, disability or handicap, sex, marital status, veteran status, sexual orientation, genetic information, arrest record, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, or local laws.     Project Kitty Hawk is dedicated to this policy concerning recruitment, hiring, placement, promotion, training, compensation, benefits, employee activities, and general treatment during employment. For individuals with disabilities who would like to request an accommodation, please contact Kelly Snow at klsnow@projectkittyhawk.com.