Fast Facts

Podium Education is seeking a Head of Student Experience Ops to lead the enhancement of student experiences and operational excellence, ensuring the delivery of high-quality educational programs. This strategic role focuses on student retention and satisfaction while supporting Podium's mission to change lives through innovative educational solutions.

Responsibilities: Key responsibilities include defining the strategic vision for student support, overseeing instructional delivery and quality, enhancing student retention metrics, and implementing scalable operational systems for accountability and excellence.

Skills: Candidates should possess strong leadership skills, a data-driven mindset, exceptional organizational abilities, and a focus on optimizing processes with human-centered design principles.

Qualifications: Preferred qualifications include 7+ years of leadership experience in education or related fields, a proven track record in student retention and instructional operations, and an entrepreneurial approach in a fast-paced environment.

Location: This role is remote-flexible, with options to work from the Austin, TX office occasionally.

Compensation: Not provided by employer. Typical compensation ranges for this position are between $100,000 - $160,000.

Head of Student Experience OpsWho we are

AtPodium Education, we believe that a college degree should be a springboard to achieving the American Dream. Yet, American Higher Education is at a crossroads: half of college graduates end up underemployed, and unemployment rates for new college grads are the highest in generations. As a result, confidence in the investment in a college education has hit an all-time low. 

Our mission is to help solve this problem and change the lives of millions of students.

We do this by partnering with colleges and companies to supercharge the undergraduate degree by providing students with the experience, career exposure, and skills to launch a great career. Podium serves a population of over 2,000,000 students across 100 of the largest and most well-known universities in the country, including Georgetown, UNC, Harvard, ASU, and Texas A&M. 

Podium Education programs are offered as online courses within standard university semesters. Through Podium, students gain real-world experience while tackling projects from the world's most recognized brands, such as L’Oreal, Netflix, Shopify, Uber, Google, and Airbnb. Our flagship program is the Global Career Accelerator (here’s an example: https://www.globaltech.asu.edu/about). 

Everything we do and how we measure our success is about impacting students’ lives:

• Student Experience - Customer NPS is better than Netflix, Apple, and Amazon.
• Student Access - Programs are for credit, count towards graduation, and are financial aid eligible. One-third of our students are first-generation to attend college.
• Student Outcomes - Two-thirds of students say Podium helped them achieve tangible career outcomes within six months (eg, “I got my first internship”). Over 90% report feeling more confidence and clarity in their career journey.

Podium Education is a privately held growth stage company based in Austin, TX with prominent investors, including Sequoia Capital, Owl Ventures, Lumos Capital Group, Learn Capital, Lachy Groom, Goldcrest Capital, and Album VC. 

We are looking for a Head of Student Experience Ops to join our Department. This is a great opportunity to help millions of students achieve their dreams, while helping scale Podium into America’s next great edtech company. 

Overview

We are seeking a highly strategic and detail-obsessed leader to oversee and elevate the enrolled student experience, incorporating all instructional delivery and student support, across our organization. This person would partner with executive and product leadership in developing new models, creating new experiences and implementing new products. You would be a key person in helping balance quality, time and budget across initiatives and our team. This role is central to our mission of driving student success, retention, career outcomes, and satisfaction at scale. The ideal candidate will bring both a big-picture vision and a relentless focus on process optimization, operational excellence, and people leadership, while also helping define and deliver our big-picture vision for student experience. As a member of the Podium leadership team, this role will shape how we deliver our programs, support instructors, and ensure every student’s journey is seamless, engaging, and impactful.

Key Responsibilities

Instructional Operations, Student Experience & Retention

• Help define the multi-year vision on how instruction, student support, and content will combine seamlessly into a life-changing experience for our students. Partner across Podium to prioritize and execute on how we deliver that vision at scale.
• Oversee instructional delivery, ensuring teaching excellence, consistent quality, and alignment with organizational goals.
• Own student retention and satisfaction metrics, designing proactive processes and communication strategies that improve persistence and engagement.
• Collaborate with enrollment leadership, technology, and product teams, to ensure seamless student onboarding and ongoing support.
• Identify opportunities to continuously improve our strategies and processes impacting an ideal student experience. 

Process, Data & Continuous Improvement

• Implement scalable operational systems that ensure accountability, efficiency, and excellence in every student and instructor touchpoint.
• Define and track KPIs for student success, student satisfaction, instructional quality, and operational performance.
• Leverage data and reporting to inform decision-making, measure progress, and drive continuous improvement.

Leadership & Collaboration

• Serve as a key member of the Podium leadership team, shaping strategy and organizational growth with the Product, Operational, and Partnership teams.
• Collaborate cross-functionally with product, enrollment, technology, and operations teams to innovate and deliver a world-class student experience.
• Partner with technology and learning experience teams to ensure infrastructure supports high-quality instruction and student engagement.
• Promote a culture of accountability, empathy, and excellence. Attract, retain, and develop a high-functioning team of great humans.

Qualities & Skills

• Highly attentive with an obsessive attention to detail while maintaining strategic perspective.
• Proven ability to optimize processes with both efficiency and human-centered design.
• Data-driven mindset with expertise in translating metrics into action.
• Exceptional leadership and people management skills; able to inspire, hold teams accountable, and drive results.
• Strong communication and collaboration skills for working with diverse internal and external stakeholders.
• Bring energy, optimism, and empathy (for our students and our team members) to all that you do. Be the kind of teammate and manager that makes work a joy for others.

Preferred Qualifications

• 7+ years of progressive leadership experience in education, student success, instructional operations, or a related field.
• Track record of scaling programs, teams, or operations in a growth environment.
• Demonstrated success in retention, student experience, or instructional quality initiatives.
• Strong analytical, organizational, and decision-making skills.
• A strategic mindset with the ability to identify problems before they occur and provide solutions that are carried through to completion.
• Entrepreneurial mindset with comfort in high-growth, evolving environments.

This role is remote-flexible. We are located on South Congress Ave (next door to Allen’s Boots!) and would love to have you in the office occasionally, but no relocation necessary. 

Benefits

• 401k, Health, Vision and Dental insurance packages
• Short term disability insurance
• Unlimited Paid Time Off
• Discounted Wellhub Membership
• Access to 3 Mental Health Applications
• One Medical Membership
• 8 Company-Paid for Therapy Sessions
• Free access to upskill through our Global Experiential Programs
• Excellent Birthing and Bonding Leave policies
• Sleep coach for post-partum and infant coaching
• Student and Partner focused half days every First Friday of the month
• Summer Fridays - half day on Friday during the summer months
• Extremely talented and intelligent co-workers
• A massive impact on universities and the lives of others, every single day