Product Operations Associate KIPP Forward

Company Description

KIPP Public Schools is a national network of public charter schools that prepares students with the skills and confidence to create the future they want for themselves, their communities, and us all. We are a network of 270 schools, nearly 10,000 educators, and more than 160,000 students and alumni.

Our mission: Together with families and communities, we create joyful, academically excellent schools that prepare students with the skills and confidence to pursue the paths they choose—college, career, and beyond—so they can lead fulfilling lives and build a more just world.

Our vision: Every child grows up free to create the future they want for themselves and their communities.

The KIPP Foundation is a nonprofit organization that supports KIPP schools across the country. The KIPP Foundation trains and develops outstanding educators to lead KIPP public schools; provides tools, resources and training for excellent teaching and learning; promotes innovation; and facilitates the exchange of insights and ideas across KIPP and other public schools and organizations.

Job Description

Position Overview

The national KIPP Forward team at the KIPP Foundation provides critical training, support, and tools to KIPP Forward regional teams across the country to guide their work supporting KIPP students and alumni on their path toward college, career, and beyond. In service of our mission, KIPP Forward’s Product and Innovation team follows equitable design practices to understand user needs and develop innovative solutions. We serve as strategic design consultants to program teams, product manage a suite of internal data insight products, and oversee a portfolio of external third-party platforms with students, alumni, counselors, and leaders as users.

The Product Operations Associate will play a key role in managing data, user support, and team operations across several projects and product platforms. The Associate’s primary responsibility will be leading data and platform management for our national nudge technology project. Nudge texting has been shown through numerous studies to boost college enrollment and persistence for students from low-income backgrounds. The KIPP Foundation is entering its third year of sending behavioral science-backed nudge text messages to students using an AI Bot to respond to participants and answer frequently asked questions. In response to the pandemic, we’ve scaled our nudge work rapidly – currently nudging over 6,000 alumni enrolled in college and over 200 seniors in high school. This year, we expect to continue to expand our nudge work to include nudging juniors in high school, alumni who are not enrolled in a postsecondary pathway, and alumni interested in or participating in various career-development programs. Nudge is a complex project that includes multiple, simultaneous streams of work, extensive data and knowledge management, and community engagement. The Product Operations Associate will be responsible for data management across all student, parent and alumni participant segments and will schedule and send nudges via our platform, Mascot. The Associate will also manage our two knowledge bases that the artificially intelligent ‘Bot’ uses to answer participant questions.

Qualifications

Key Responsibilities and Duties

Data management for special projects:

• Manage student, parent, and alumni data, including updating mass-text opt-in coverage and refreshing data from our Salesforce Alumni Database to our nudging platform, Mascot
• Manage a large dataset of campus/institution-specific data used to personalize nudge campaigns, including periodically updating or checking the data for accuracy
• Support data management on other projects, as assigned

Nudge platform management:

• Schedule all national campaigns in Mascot and set filters for message segmentation including: refreshing and uploading datasets to Mascot for institution-specific, personalized nudges
• Monitor nudge conversations and response rates, flagging appropriate stakeholders when a participant may need additional coaching or intervention
• Manage and refine the AI knowledge bases to expand the bot’s understanding of incoming questions and increase the coverage and accuracy of responses
• Download and analyze nudge survey results and enable KIPP Forward regions to download and use their own survey results
• Troubleshoot platform issues with the vendor and facilitate ongoing improvements in service of KIPP Forward needs

Product user support:

• Design and lead trainings for regional users on how to use the Mascot platform, collect mass-text opt-ins, and manage their own data related to nudge
• Support regions in segmenting, filtering, and scheduling their own region-specific nudge campaigns
• Triage and respond to helpdesk tickets from regional team members related to Salesforce Alumni Database, Mascot and other KIPP Forward products in a timely and accurate manner
• Create codifying documentation of internal product operations, user guidance, and process improvements
• Provide regional user support on other KIPP Forward products as needed

Salesforce-Mascot platform integration support:

• Collaborate with the Alumni Database Product Manager on application programming interface (API) integration requirements and provide other support tasks related to this project
• Support other API integrations on other projects as needed

Contribute to special projects:

• Support or lead special projects across the KIPP Foundation team and broader organization, as needed
• Facilitate or provide operations support at convenings and events
• Provide cross-team support with initiatives that combine relevant or similar workstreams (examples could include, but are not limited to: strategic planning, product testing, and KIPP Forward retreat support)

 Key Competencies

• Achievement orientation
• Continuous learning
• Critical thinking and problem-solving
• Planning and execution

Experience and Qualifications

Strong emphasis will be placed on this individual’s attention to detail, technical competency, and adaptability. The Foundation is seeking an individual with: 

• Minimum of 3 years of relevant product operations experience, preferably related to education technology, K-12, postsecondary education, or career success
• An achievement orientation: self-directed and results-oriented, demonstrating initiative and follow-through and ability to adapt to changing circumstances
• Strategic thinking and problem-solving skills: comfort with ambiguity and an ability to break down complex problems
• Solutions-orientation: excellent analytical and critical thinking skills
• Strong analytical skills; adept at using Excel to analyze and organize complex datasets
• Excellent attention to detail
• Highly organized and able to manage multiple time-sensitive tasks each week
• Experience with Salesforce or other CRM, including creating and modifying reports
• Strong presentation skills: comfortable leading presentations and trainings to a diverse array of audiences
• Experience with API integration valued but not required
• Experience with nudge texting valued but not required
• Willingness to travel approximately 25% of time (note – KIPP staff members are currently not traveling for work during the COVID pandemic)
• Ability to model at all times KIPP’s values (sense of purpose, results, respect, constant learning and humility, and diversity and inclusivity) 
   

Additional Information

Work Conditions

• COVID-19 considerations: Vaccinations and masks required in shared workspaces and job-related travel.
• Full-time Exempt role

Location 

The KIPP Foundation has offices in Chicago, DC, San Francisco, and New York City, and this role can also be performed remotely within the United States.

Compensation and Benefits

KIPP offers competitive salary commensurate with experience. A comprehensive benefits package, generous vacation and PTO, 401k retirement plan with both pre- and post-tax options, as well as gym reimbursement, flexible spending account (FSA), and cell phone reimbursement are also offered by KIPP.