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SalaryThe Organization: Merit America
The American economy is broken. Today 53 million working adults–nearly half of the U.S. workforce–do not earn a living wage. And these talented workers have few options to advance: college is too long and expensive, full-time bootcamp programs don't offer enough flexibility, and online courses don't have the structure or support to translate learning into a new career. The result? Talented workers, disproportionately people of color and women, get stuck in low-wage roles with no way to build a better life for themselves and their families.
Merit America is a national nonprofit that creates pathways to family-sustaining careers for Americans stuck in low-wage work. Our fast, flexible solutions are built for working adults: we start by analyzing tens of millions of job postings to identify in-demand, high-paying tech careers and then work with industry-recognized partners to train for these roles with part-time programs that combine flexible online learning with best-in-class coaching. Finally, we work with a broad constellation of local and national employers like JPMorgan Chase and Infosys to place learners into higher-earning, family-sustaining jobs, driving an average wage gain of $24k three months or more after completing the program. Merit America is on a mission to build a scalable pathway for workers to join the middle class through merit, not money. We're on track to generate $1B in wage gains by 2025.
About the Role:
The primary mission of the Learner Support Specialist (LSS) is to provide assignment feedback and evaluation to thousands of learners participating in Merit America programs across all tracks (IT Support, Java, Data Analytics, & future offerings). The contributions of the LSS are critical to the learner experience by ensuring that their professional collateral and interview skills meet Merit America's quality standards and demonstrate career readiness.
The Learner Support Specialist is an exempt position and will report directly to Ericus Adams, Manager, Learner Support and Readiness, and work primarily with Program Team members within Merit America. A successful candidate should possess subject matter expertise as it relates to professional development, the job application process, career collateral, and interviewing; demonstrate excellent written and verbal communication skills, as they will be responsible for providing timely and professional feedback to learners; and be comfortable working with a diverse group of learners and team members, in support of creating an inclusive and equitable learning environment.
What You'll be Doing:
The responsibilities of the Learner Support Specialist will include but are not limited to, the following:
Learner Readiness & Support: 70%
- Analyze and evaluateprofessional development assignment submissions and provide unbiased, constructive feedback based on defined rubrics to ensure learners' career collateral is job-ready
- Provide clear, compelling, and relevant feedback to assigned learners to educate and advise on best practices, highlighting their strengths and setting them up for success as they apply to new jobs.
- Ensure that feedback on all learner assignments is delivered within set turnaround periods (often 1-2 weeks after submission)
- Offer direct support to learners requiring additional help, beyond their Program Success Manager & Career Coach, through live or asynchronous sessions focused on developing their career collateral (resume, cover letter, LinkedIn) or interviewing skills.
- Build a positive and supportive learner experience through communications via Slack, e-mail, and live interactions, cultivating learners' social capital
- Actively communicate with Pod teams to flag missing, incomplete, and/or inappropriate submissions
- Identify and summarize common patterns and trends in learner assignments
- Maintain a resource bank of additional materials that learners can utilize to improve their career collateral and interview readiness
- Ensure all learners on the assigned roster have updated professional collateral (LinkedIn, resume) links in Salesforce before the learners progress to the Job Success phase of the program
Subject Matter Expertise: 10%
- Stay current on industry trends and best practices related to career collateral and interviewing techniques (video interviews, etc.)
- Maintain knowledge of Merit America's program standards, core competencies, and policies
- Explore and utilize new technologies (i.e. AI) that have the potential to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of our career collateral review and feedback process
Program Support: 20%
- Collaborate with the Sustainability and Program Experience teams to ensure that our assignment review process and career collateral are focused on meeting Merit America standards and are aligned with employer expectations
- Aggregate common patterns and trends in learner assignments to support the development of new training, curriculum, or rubrics to bolster program effectiveness
- Maintain accurate records and documentation of all assignments reviewed to ensure our ability to provide continued service to learners
- Support ad-hoc projects as needed to support ongoing program development and evaluation
- Identify areas of improvement in the current evaluation process, such as reducing turnaround time, improving feedback quality, or enhancing rubric effectiveness
- Actively receive and respond to feedback to support the implementation of new systems, procedures, and technologies to improve the assignment review process and learner experience
Skills and Competencies:
We know that women, people of color, and individuals with disabilities are often less likely to apply to a position if they don't match 100% of the job qualifications. Don't let that be the reason you miss out on this opportunity! We encourage you to apply if you can demonstrate many of these skills and competencies. Below are the skills that are relevant for thriving in this role:
Must Haves:
- Strong knowledge of professional skills such as resume & cover letter writing, interviewing, communicating professionally, etc.
- Proven interest and previous experience with career coaching, tutoring, education, counseling, youth development, non-profits, or other mission-driven work
- Strong interpersonal and communication skills
- A mindset of growth and continuous improvement
- Proven commitment to providing personalized support to meet individual learner needs
- Demonstrated passion and commitment to understanding and empathizing with people of diverse backgrounds
- Ability to take the initiative and move autonomously in ambiguous, quickly changing environments
- Exceptional operational and organizational skills and the ability to manage your schedule and balance multiple demands
- Be energized by our organizational mission - to provide a pathway to family-sustaining careers for Americans without college degrees
- Proven history of living within our values
- Sense of deep personal responsibility for our collective success
- Commitment to DEIJ
Nice to Haves:
- Experience with Salesforce or other CRM platforms
- Experience with Canvas or other LMS systems
- Proficient with Google Workspace (Google sheets, docs, etc.)
- Commitment to lifelong learning and ongoing personal and professional development
- Ability to work collectively and independently while delivering pertinent feedback to colleagues and direct manager
- Prior experience in workforce development, edTech, or equivalent training programs
- Ability to communicate effectively with peers and direct managers to improve processes and procedures.
Details/Logistics:
- This position is full-time: 4-day work week (Fridays are an operating day if there is a holiday closure during the week)
- Location: Remote
- Salary: $58,275
Our goal is to have competitive and equitable compensation. We have a market-based compensation approach, which means we benchmark each role from reputable data sources. We compare our benchmarks against similarly sized non-profit organizations with comparable annual budgets and geographical areas. We pay the same rate for the same roles and adjust to comply with statutory mandates.
We take care of our employees by providing the following perks and benefits:
- 4-day work week (Fridays are an operating day if there is a holiday closure during the week)
- Medical, Dental and Vision insurance (100% Paid Employee Only Coverage)
- Flexible Spending Account and Health Savings Account
- Dependent care Flexible Spending Account
- Health Reimbursement Account fully funded by Merit
- Education reimbursement & personal development stipend
- Short and long-term disability
- Unlimited vacation (after a 90-day introductory period)
- Paid Parental Leave and Adoption benefits (after 1 year of employment)
- 11 federally recognized holidays
- 1 week office closure in July (week of July 4th)
- 2 week holiday office closure in December/January
- 401(k) retirement plan with automatic Merit contribution
- Employee Assistance Program | Talkspace | Sanvello
- Discount perks at work program
- Phone/technology stipend
- Home office setup stipend
Remote Work & Sponsorship
Candidates must reside within the 50 states or District of Columbia and have full authorization to work in the 50 U.S. states & the District of Columbia (international work abroad, including the U.S. territories (Puerto Rico, Guam, U.S. Virgin Islands, and other islands are excluded). In addition, Merit America doesn't offer employment visa sponsorship.
Equal Opportunity Statement
Building an inclusive, high-performing team that is diverse across lines of personal identity is integral to our success and we are proud to be an equal opportunity employer.
This means we do not discriminate against any job applicant or employee because of their race, ethnicity, color, religion, national origin, sex, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, age or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws. This applies to all terms and conditions of employment.
We actively strive and evolve to develop and maintain workspaces that are fully inclusive. We encourage candidates from underrepresented groups to apply.
Still excited about our work? You can learn more about our work in this video we made with our founding partner, Google.
E-Verify Statement
This employer participates in E-Verify and will provide the federal government with your Form I-9 information to confirm that you are authorized to work in the U.S. If E-Verify cannot confirm that you are authorized to work, this employer is required to give you written instructions and an opportunity to contact Department of Homeland Security (DHS) or Social Security Administration (SSA) so you can begin to resolve the issue before the employer can take any action against you, including terminating your employment. Employers can only use E-Verify once you have accepted a job offer and completed the I-9 Form.
