Chief Growth Officer

This is a fully remote position, open to applicants in United States.

📋 Description

• Develop and implement SBNC's growth and marketing strategy for both institutional and direct-to-student channels.

• Analyze priority markets, segments, and distribution opportunities leveraging data, partner insights, and organizational strengths.

• Meet targets related to Navvy screener adoption, partnerships, and revenue generation.

• Provide performance reports to the executive team, funders, and board members.

• Take ownership of and enhance the go-to-market strategy for paid offerings, covering aspects like segmentation, positioning, packaging, pricing, pilot design, sales approach, and willingness-to-pay assessments.

• Establish and oversee the growth function, including roles, systems, processes, staff development, and future recruitment.

• Create and manage a nationwide pipeline of campus, state, system, and institutional partnerships.

• Spearhead partnership development and sales, from initial outreach through negotiation, closing, and implementation.

• Personally manage critical system- and state-level relationships and oversee partnerships.

• Utilize HubSpot CRM data and forecasting to enhance pipeline visibility and decision-making.

• Scale earned revenue in tandem with philanthropic revenue while ensuring equitable access for students.

• Oversee the earned-revenue P&L and establish annual and multi-year targets with the COO.

• Develop a scalable partner-success model and ensure successful partner launches.

• Manage renewal and expansion strategies, focusing on retention, upsells, and revenue growth.

• Collaborate with the Chief Product Officer to ensure effective Navvy delivery and incorporate partner/student insights into product development.

• Foster a growth-team community of practice among institutional partners.

• Monitor partner satisfaction and account status.

• Lead initiatives in demand generation, brand awareness, and growth marketing.

• Supervise marketing contractors and external partners as budget permits.

• Enhance SBNC's brand among institutional buyers through case studies, conferences, thought leadership, and sales support.

• Manage direct-to-student outreach via creator partnerships, social media, search, and referral channels.

• Establish non-campus distribution partnerships with nonprofits, food banks, and workforce initiatives.

• Conduct structured channel testing with hypotheses, success metrics, and criteria for stopping.

• Monitor completed screenings, cost per completed screening, and downstream benefit applications.

⛳️ Requirements

• Strong commitment to SBNC's mission of connecting postsecondary students with essential resources.

• Treat students as co-designers and prioritize those facing significant barriers.

• Exhibit resourcefulness and urgency while ensuring quality and follow-through.

• Commitment to Design for Scale.

• Ability to wear multiple hats and take ownership of outcomes.

• Startup-oriented mindset and openness to learning through feedback.

• Functional or executive-level leadership experience with over 7 years of management experience.

• Extensive experience in leading growth, partnerships, business development, sales, or related functions.

• Willingness and capability to engage in individual-contributor tasks.

• Have personally driven at least $500K in annual recurring revenue from higher education institutions, government agencies, systems, or similarly complex institutional buyers.

• Experience in leading new business development and partner success/expansion, including renewals and upselling.

• Proven track record in developing and executing go-to-market strategies, including market research, positioning, pricing, pipeline development, and adoption testing.

• Experience partnering with or overseeing marketing efforts to enhance pipeline or adoption.

• Background in building systems, processes, or teams from the ground up in early-stage or resource-limited environments.

• Excellent relationship-building and communication skills.

• Capability to navigate complex institutions and influence senior decision-makers.

• Strategic and analytical mindset.

• Familiarity with utilizing market feedback, performance data, experimentation, and CRM tools such as HubSpot or Salesforce.

• Candidates must reside in and be authorized to work in one of the 50 U.S. states or the District of Columbia.

• SBNC does not provide visa sponsorship.

• Preferred: experience in converting grant-funded or free pilots into paid recurring offerings.

• Preferred: knowledge of college, system, and state-agency budgeting and procurement processes.

• Preferred: experience in pricing mission-driven offerings.

• Preferred: background in SaaS or tech-enabled services.

• Preferred: experience in building institutional buyer brand and sales support.

• Preferred: expertise in digital or consumer marketing, community/channel partnerships, or product-led growth.

• Preferred: experience in reaching students, young adults, or low-income communities through digital channels, influencers, or community organizations.

• Preferred: ability to manage external marketing agencies or contractors and effectively deploy a marketing budget.

• Preferred: knowledge of public benefits programs or student basic needs.

• Preferred: experience in building practitioner networks or communities of practice.

🏝️ Benefits

• Target performance bonus of 10%.

• Medical insurance with 100% coverage for employee-only plans and 50% for dependents.

• Flexible PTO following a 90-day introductory period.

• 12 weeks of Paid Parental Leave.

• 11 federally recognized holidays.

• Paid organization-wide office closures: 1 week in March; 1 week in July; 1 week in November; 2 weeks at the year's end.

• Starter 401(k) retirement plan.

• Stipend for home office setup.

• Fully remote work environment.