Book Club Operations Assistant Director - Remote

About PBC Guru

PBC Guru is a startup based in Maryland, just outside Washington DC. Our company brings the idea of a traditional in-person Book Club into the 21st century with a combination of technology and human facilitation to create meaningful online communities around books. Our Book Clubs are virtual, asynchronous, and scalable, meaning that hundreds of people can participate from anywhere in the world at whatever time is convenient for them.

We believe that regularly reading books is the single best way to improve people’s thinking, advance their careers, and create a shared language among groups. We manage numerous different types of Book Clubs, including professionally focused groups for companies and national associations, and general interest groups for university alumni associations and public libraries. We have a strong commitment to the achievement of excellence and diversity, and strongly encourage candidates to apply who will enrich a culturally inclusive environment. You can learn more about us at

About the Role

The Book Club Operations Assistant Director is a dual role (i.e. player-coach) managing your own set of Book Club clients and serving as the Assistant Director of the Book Club Operations team. The Assistant Director will have fewer Book Clubs to manage than a team member solely focused on Book Club management. Starting salary is $64,000 per year based on experience with room for further increases and annual bonuses based on performance.

For your own Book Club clients, you'll be responsible for managing all aspects of keeping an online Book Club engaging and managing the client relationships of each Book Club sponsor. This includes:

• Managing up to 40 online Book Club community forums including DEI/social justice-focused communities, professional development-focused communities, and general lifelong learning communities positioned across the globe
• Researching potential book options for various types of Book Club communities
• Effective communication and information exchange with a diverse group of individuals from all around the world
• Sending regular emails to participants, posting discussion questions, recommending books for groups to vote on, and participating actively in Book Club discussions
• Replying to member requests and incorporating feedback to continuously improve the Book Club program
• Participating in online discussion groups to encourage interaction and dialogue
• Moderating discussion groups to check that members are following community guidelines
• Moderate/Host Livestream Author Talka with best-selling authors
• Managing the onboarding of new Book Club community clients through all marketing and initial launch phases
• Managing client relationships to ensure that each Book Club program is meeting their organization’s objectives
• Regular calls with client contacts to discuss program success and areas for improvement
• Minimizing client churn (i.e. maximizing client service renewals)
• Continuously working to improve the Book Club experience by growing community membership, driving engagement, and promoting meaningful member-to-member interactions
• Leveraging and improving upon scalable success strategies that drive member loyalty, thereby increasing client renewal and expansion
• Monitoring and analyzing metrics on the health of each Book Club community to identify, ideate, and evaluate growth opportunities
• Launching and reporting on experiments that seek to find data-driven approaches for growing and increasing community member loyalty
• Working with the content development team to create new offerings aimed at increasing community member engagement
• Implementation of actionable strategies based on experiment findings
• Regular reporting of program analytics and success metrics to clients
• Reading books at least 10 hours a week (both fiction and non-fiction)
• Working regularly with the PBC Guru team to improve internal processes, provide guidance on improving existing features, and acting as a client advocate with a focus on improving the buyer experience

As the Assistant Director of the Book Club Operations team, you'll be responsible for supporting the management of the Book Club Operations team and leading the team to continuously improve operations. This aspect of the role includes:

• Serving as the direct manager for three to four full-time Book Club Operations managers and two part-time Book Club Operations specialists
• Meeting regularly with each member of the Book Club Operations team to support their success
• Working directly with the Director of Book Club Operations and CEO on overall strategy for the growth of Book Club Operations and programming
• Serving as the liaison to the Director of Book Club Operations and CTO on improvements to software and systems used for Book Club Operations and programming
• Supporting the Director of Book Club Operations and CFO with tracking Book Club Operations financials
• Leading efforts to improve internal processes and practices for Book Club Operations to increase efficiency, improve the participant experience, and support client goals
• Acting as a client advocate with a focus on improving their experience with our service
• Management support of the outreach and coordination with publisher contacts to secure authors for livestream author talk events for our Book Club programs
• Management support of livestream author talk event deliverables and moderator/host team execution with best-selling authors
• Management of all content writing and development processes for a diverse array of 40-50 selected Book Club titles every 10 weeks
• Hiring and training new team members on internal processes

Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree (combination of liberal arts and business preferred)
• Experience in diversity-related programs OR equivalent education/experience
• Demonstrated ability to communicate effectively with an understanding of different approaches and best practices
• Exceptional verbal and written communication skills
• Demonstrated knowledge of business operations through previous work experience
• Demonstrated knowledge of program management principles through work experience
• Tech-savvy initiative-taker with a demonstrated capacity to develop and lead the execution of projects with minimum supervision, understanding of objectives, and production of top-quality deliverables
• Commitment to collective learning, program design and iterative learning
• Keen attention to detail
• Adaptability and strong problem-solving skills
• Excellent active listening skills
• Ability to build rapport and collaborate with others within the company and externally
• Demonstrated interest and experience managing digital online communities (e.g. online discussion forums, social media discussion groups, etc.)
• Ability to collect and analyze data, spot trends, evaluate and recommend tools to enhance a thriving community engagement strategy
• Passion for reading many different kinds of books and connecting with people in discussions about them

Why Work for PBC Guru

• Chance to work in a fast paced and fast growing startup where you can expect to learn quickly and be challenged daily
• Opportunity for significant operational responsibility our first marketing manager
• Opportunity to shape the direction of our company brand and positioning
• Excellent growth and advancement opportunities
• Completely virtual team so you can work from anywhere
• Opportunity to travel regularly to interesting conferences in the corporate, education and library spaces
• 4 weeks PTO per year (required to take at least two weeks a year)
• Retirement savings with 4% company matching
• Flexible working hours
• Health insurance
• Free books

How to Apply:

The job application requires a resume, cover letter, three references, and responses to six short-answer questions. The Application Form is located here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdske6YYMHqb3O7OlBlttlKiJ4EN6fJbPLwvwk_6vOp0Kfp9g/viewform

Applications will be accepted until February 23, 2024, but interviews and hires will be on a rolling basis so please apply as soon as possible.

Applications will only be considered through the Google Form.

Job Type: Full-time

Pay: From $64,000.00 per year

Benefits:

• 401(k)
• 401(k) matching
• Dental insurance
• Flexible schedule
• Health insurance
• Paid time off

Schedule:

• Monday to Friday

Ability to Relocate:

• Remote: Relocate before starting work (Required)

Work Location: Remote