Degree Partners wants to hire our next Director of Student Success
About Us:
Degree Partners is a nonprofit founded in Austin, TX, in 2012. We find, enroll, and coach students through competency-based Associate of Arts (AA) and Bachelor of Arts (BA) programs, in partnership with Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU), which confers the degree. We provide personalized advising and coaching from enrollment through graduation and into a living-wage job.
Since our founding, we have advised 2,400+ prospective students, formally welcomed 630+ students, and enabled 250+ graduates to earn 300+ AA and BA degrees. Our coaches support around 50 students at a time, compared to 1,000–1,500 for a typical college advisor. Fifty-eight percent of our graduates are parents, 61% are first-generation college students, 81% are students of color, and 73% of current students work full time. Our on-time graduation rates are about double the average for part-time students at 2- and 4-year universities around the country, and 79% of our graduates never take out a loan.
With outcomes like this, you’d think it’d be easy to find, enroll, and graduate hundreds and thousands of deserving students. However, our students face a multitude of barriers that make college access and completion nearly impossible. That’s why we need you. Delivering these outcomes requires a relationship-driven student experience, disciplined and innovative program design, and a team that can execute with both rigor and care. If you are hungry to grow Degree Partners’ impact in Texas through world-class student success leadership, read on!
About You:
The Director of Student Success (DSS) leads Degree Partners' work to deliver an exceptional student experience from enrollment through graduation and into a living-wage post-degree job, producing persistence and completion outcomes that far outpace the status quo. This role owns the middle and end of the student journey: preparing for and making the enrollment decision, the coaching relationship that carries students through their degree, and developing a new career coaching strategy that ensures graduates are qualified and competitive for in-demand, living-wage jobs.
The Director is both an individual contributor and responsible for building, developing, and managing a team. Together, the Student Success team delivers a personalized, relationship-driven student experience that centers the lived realities of adult students balancing significant responsibilities like work and caretaking while also facing historical barriers like being first-generation college students. The Director leads a team of five (Enrollment Manager, Student Success Coordinator, and three to five Student Success Coaches) and is responsible for designing, refining, and executing the programs that produce Degree Partners' core outcomes: enrolling “hard-to-reach” adult learners, persistence, graduation, and living-wage employment. They will lead Priority 1 of the organizational strategy, which centers on defining, refining, codifying, and executing the end-to-end student experience and designing, testing, and implementing a new evidence-based career coaching strategy. This is a season of significant change for Degree Partners as we implement our new 2026-2029 strategic plan, and the Director is expected to bring their team along with clarity, care, momentum, and commitment to student outcomes as programs evolve.
The Director reports to the Deputy Director, who is charged with implementing our strategic plan and day-to-day management of our program, and serves on the leadership team alongside the Executive Director, Deputy Director, and Director of Partnerships. They work closely with the Director of Partnerships to ensure a coherent student experience from initial inquiry through graduation, to align the student journey with the career pathways and employer partnerships that role owns, and to leverage wrap-around supports our partner organizations provide to help students address barriers that might interrupt persistence and completion. The Director is responsible for carrying the emotional weight of strengthening and evolving our student success programs– from advising, to enrollment, to coaching and wrap-around support, and to career transition– ensuring students are enrolling, persisting, graduating, and achieving strong post-graduation outcomes at levels far above the average.
How You’ll Spend Your Time:
- Own the student experience from initial contact through graduation and into a living-wage, in-demand job
- Design and implement an evidence-based career coaching strategy that connects students to intentional career pathways
- Lead, hire, and develop a team of five: an Enrollment Manager, a Student Success Coordinator, and three to five Student Success Coaches
- Run the annual performance management cycle, one-on-ones, team meetings, and quarterly stepbacks for your team
- Maintain a small caseload of 3–5 students to stay close to the student experience and inform program design
- Serve on the leadership team, contributing to organizational strategy and representing the student success team and leading with student outcomes data
- Partner with the Director of Partnerships to ensure clean handoffs from lead generation into enrollment and aligned career pathways
A Few Good Reasons to Join the Team:
- This is a level 4 position, and the salary range is $80,000-$119,000
- Lead a high-impact function during a pivotal season as we implement our 2026–2029 strategic plan
- Report to the Deputy Director and serve on the leadership team, shaping strategy at the highest level
- Join an org and team that takes impact and culture very seriously
Nitty Gritty Requirements:
- 5+ years in student success or a related field, with a minimum of 2 years supervising staff and leading a program or department. This role requires prior experience managing coaches or advisors, setting team-level strategy, and reporting on outcomes to senior leadership.
- Proven program builder who has taken at least one program from concept to launch to iteration, owning the design, the metrics, and the results. Able to connect department-level decisions to organizational strategy and explain those tradeoffs to senior leadership.
- Based in Texas, with a strong preference for candidates located in Greater Austin or the Dallas–Fort Worth area.
Traits and Skills That Set You Apart:
- You can move from a blank page to a clear, evidence-based program, and refine it over time based on data and feedback
- You translate program design into operational reality and hold a team accountable to outcomes
- You lead teams through change, bringing people along with transparency and steady momentum even when the path is shifting
- You drive team members toward action and outcomes without sacrificing relationships or care
- You’re comfortable owning multiple units (enrollment, coaching) and making them work together as one coherent student experience
- You use both quantitative and qualitative data to make program decisions, and you dig into the numbers rather than around them
- You have prior experience working with post-traditional or first-generation college students
- Familiarity with competency-based education (CBE) is a plus
- Familiarity with career coaching, workforce development, or employer partnerships is a plus
- You’re in it for the impact on people’s lives; we are a mission-driven organization, and students always come first
Ready to Apply? Head to https://degreepartners.org/careers/ to apply. Submit your application by October 9, 2026
Degree Partners is committed to offering fair pay, based on job level, experience, knowledge, skills, and performance
Pay: $80,000.00 - $119,000.00 per year
Benefits:
- Dental insurance
- Health insurance
- Paid time off
- Parental leave
- Retirement plan
- Vision insurance
Work Location: Remote
