Program Manager, High School

About the Role

The Program Manager owns the planning, execution, and quality of the programs and processes the Network uses to support our high schools. The role requires sound judgment and strong execution, turning school design decisions into clear plans, timelines, and standard work that schools can reliably follow.

A central mandate is the annual high school scheduling and graduation cycle. The Program Manager will coordinate the Network teams that shape each scholar’s schedule, from course offerings and course requests through final schedules, and ensure every schedule keeps scholars on a path to graduation. This includes keeping credits and graduation status accurate, identifying scholars who fall behind earlier, and coordinating recommended actions with school leaders, so that graduation pathways are managed year-round rather than reviewed once at the end of the year.

The Program Manager also manages the high school annual calendar ensuring seniors complete key milestones in their final year and are supported as they move from high school to college. This includes coordinating timelines across teams so schools receive clear, timely direction and each milestone is executed to standard.

Working across school and Network teams, including college counseling, school operations, registrar, assessment, athletics, arts, and external programs teams, the Program Manager will clarify ownership, resolve competing timelines, and ensure work spanning teams has clear follow-through. The Program Manager will provide senior leadership with accurate data, analysis, options, and recommendations when decisions require their approval.

The Program Manager will help reimagine how the Network centrally supports the running of our high schools, questioning established approaches and designing solutions around the needs of schools. This includes building AI-enabled tools that reduce manual coordination and free team capacity for analysis, sound judgment, and solving complex problems.

This role is well suited to someone who has thrived as a program manager, strategy and operations professional. We seek a highly organized operator who can manage many moving parts across a school year, keeps scholar outcomes at the center of every decision, and follows work through to the last detail.

Key Responsibilities

Graduation Pathways and Scheduling

• Manage graduation pathways for every high school scholar, maintaining accurate credit, schedule, and graduation status data and identifying off-track scholars with a recommended action.
• Lead graduation reviews throughout the year, including the end-of-year review following final grades and AP results and recurring check-ins with school leaders.
• Develop recommendations for off-track scholars, including schedule changes, doubling up on courses, exceptions, and grade placement changes, and prepare requests that require executive approval.
• Coordinate the annual scheduling cycle across Network teams, from confirming course offerings and collecting course requests to finalizing individual scholar schedules, aligned to graduation requirements, staffing, and enrollment projections.

High School Calendar and Events

• Own the high school scope and sequence, the annual calendar of planning milestones, Network events, and scholar experiences, ensuring schools receive clear, timely direction.
• Bring high school requirements into Network-wide planning, including the academic calendar, assessment and AP exam schedules, and school design changes.
• Lead school-facing execution of major high school events, including orientation, AP exam administration, and Commencement, with clear plans, accountable owners, and quality standards.
• Manage high school scholar clubs and Network-hosted trips, reviewing clubs against our standard for rigor and quality and establishing clear requirements and handoffs with partner teams.

High School Re-enrollment and College Transition

• Partner with college counseling and scholarship teams on key senior milestones, including college commitments and scholarships, with clear handoffs and shared tracking.
• Maintain accurate, current school profiles that present each high school’s academic program to colleges.
• Manage the high school re-enrollment process, ensuring clear responsibilities, timelines, and escalation paths that account for graduation status and grade placement.
• Lead senior transition post high school, establishing a clear timeline of senior-year milestones and tracking each senior’s progress toward graduation and post-secondary plans.

Cross-Functional Partnerships

• Represent our high schools in Network planning, champion Success Academy’s high school design and standards, and ensure decisions reflect school experience and implementation needs.
• Serve as a primary point of contact between high school leaders and Network teams, resolving cross-functional issues, clarifying handoffs, and holding partners accountable for agreed deliverables.
• Prepare high school leaders and staff to meet new expectations, building lasting adoption and adjusting implementation based on school feedback.

Design Thinking AI and Automation

• Apply design thinking to identify and redesign repetitive or error-prone high school processes, using automation and AI to improve accuracy and scalability.
• Manage our AI-enabled graduation tracking tool as the single source of truth for credits, schedules, and graduation status, including recommendations that identify scheduling options to return scholars to an on-track pathway.
• Translate operational needs into requirements for AI-enabled workflows and agents, including expected outcomes, data inputs, human checkpoints, and quality controls, partnering with internal technology and data teams through testing and adoption.
• Maintain standard work and lead retrospectives to improve each annual cycle, embedding redesigned workflows in playbooks and documentation so critical work is not dependent on any one individual.

Data Performance and Executive Reporting

• Establish KPIs and dashboards to track on-track rates by school and grade, intervention progress, and timeliness of key milestones.
• Own the accuracy and completeness of high school graduation and scheduling data, partnering with data and registrar teams on data standards.
• Produce clear executive reports and presentations that communicate graduation status, risks, decisions required, and recommended actions.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree required; advanced degree preferred.
• 4–6 years of experience in roles such as program management, management or internal consulting, strategy and operations, or chief of staff. 
• Demonstrated success managing complex, multi-stakeholder programs from planning through execution, with sustained adoption and improved outcomes.
• Multidisciplinary and entrepreneurial, with the ability to connect strategy, design, and execution, navigate ambiguity, and own measurable outcomes across a broad scope of work.
• Track record of working effectively in a matrixed organization, building alignment and influencing cross-functional partners without relying on formal authority.
• Design-thinking orientation and demonstrated experience using AI and automation to redesign workflows, drive adoption, and improve efficiency or accuracy. Familiarity with AI-enabled workflows, agents, or no-code and low-code platforms strongly preferred.
• Strong analytical judgment, with experience managing large data sets, maintaining data quality, and translating analysis into clear recommendations and executive reporting.
• Exceptional organizational and program-management skills, with the attention to detail needed to manage concurrent priorities, dependencies, and deadlines across an annual cycle while maintaining quality.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to simplify complexity and influence executives, Network partners, and school-based teams.
• Ownership, sound judgment, and initiative to anticipate risks and drive work at pace, paired with curiosity and humility to question assumptions and master a new domain.
• Deep commitment to improving the quality, consistency, and effectiveness of support provided to high schools, educators, and scholars.

Competencies

• Scholar-Centered Ownership: Keeps scholar outcomes at the center of every decision and follows work through to the last detail, so every scholar stays on a path to graduation and toward post-secondary plans.
• Program and Process Execution: Turns school design decisions into clear plans, timelines, and standard work, and manages many moving parts across the scheduling, graduation, and senior-year cycles while maintaining quality.
• Analytical Judgment: Maintains accurate credit, schedule, and graduation data and turns analysis into clear recommendations and executive reporting.
• Influence and Cross-Functional Partnership: Builds alignment across college counseling, registrar, school operations, and other Network teams without formal authority, clarifying ownership and holding partners accountable.
• Design Thinking and Innovation: Questions established approaches and uses design thinking, automation, and AI-enabled tools to reduce manual coordination and improve accuracy at scale.

Compensation, Benefits, & Perks

At Success Academy, we invest boldly in our Network team with a comprehensive package designed to support your health, financial future, and overall well-being:

• Day-One Health & Wellness: Medical, dental, and vision coverage starting your first day (SA covers 82% of our core medical plan), plus a free One Medical membership and confidential mental health support via EAP/Talkspace.
• Financial Security: 403(b) retirement plan with a 3% employer match, up to $2,400/year in employer HSA contributions, employer-paid life/disability insurance, and Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) eligibility.
• Time to Recharge: Generous paid time off, paid holidays, and paid parental leave.
• Perks & Stipends: A $50/month cellphone stipend ($600/year), pre-tax commuter benefits, backup family care, and performance-based earning incentives.

This is a hybrid position based in our NYC Financial District office, requiring on-site work Tuesday through Thursday and remote work on Monday and Friday.