Head of Strategic Planning (Core Training)

About Pursuit

Our mission is to create economic transformation. By training low-income adults to launch and advance careers as software engineers, we help our Fellows go from earning $18,000 to over $90,000 starting salary on average, adding an estimated $2M in lifetime earnings. Pursuit partners with leading companies like Blackstone, USV, Citi, Peloton, and Uber to employ Fellows in career-defining engineering roles and supports them with on-the-job training to ensure potential translates to performance. Since 2013, Pursuit has created ~$1B in total lifetime wage gains, creating lasting economic mobility that spans generations. 

Pursuit’s proven solution is built on two interconnected components: training (which includes community development, Core pre-job training, and Commit on-the-job training) and a financial product (known as Bond). However, growing training alone will not meet the magnitude of need nor solve new societal challenges ahead. The typical expectation is to expand our training to other cities, but this will not come anywhere close to creating good jobs for millions of low-income Americans. Instead, our strategy for scaled impact is to evolve our financial product and create tools for other organizations, jobs, and places. We believe that this will not only create good jobs for millions of low-income Americans but will also generate a new trillion-dollar market directly tied to results in the long term.

Head of Strategic Planning (Core Training) 

The Pursuit Core Fellowship is a 4 year leadership training program focused on economic transformation that selects and trains high need New Yorkers to become software developers, at over 300 best-in-class companies, including Peloton, Blackstone, Uber, and Citi. On average, Pursuit Fellows go from making $18,000 pre-program to $90,000+ upon starting their first job, resulting in an estimated lifetime earnings increase of over $2,000,000. With a decade of proven success and a demonstrated proof of concept, Pursuit is expanding its Core leadership team to lead the organization into the next phase of growth and enable its vision for national scale.

The Head of Strategic Planning (Core) will be an essential part of the Core Leadership team, responsible for designing the strategy and operating model of the Core Fellowship training to 200+ Fellows per year. The immersive, in-person intensive training aims to equip Pursuit Fellows with the technical and higher-order thinking skills necessary to excel at Pursuit’s hiring partners, including Fortune 500 companies and fast-paced tech startups. Responsibilities include aligning operational design and implementation with Fellowship's business model, enabling P&L management and job attainment rates, and overseeing data management throughout the Fellowship lifecycle. Reporting to the soon-to-be-hired General Manager (with interim reporting to the COO), and collaborating closely with other Core leaders focused on Core delivery and product design, this position offers the opportunity to directly impact the lives of Pursuit Fellows, their families, and communities. The ideal candidate has experience in strategic consulting or business operations within high performance startups. 

As the Head of Strategic Planning you will: 

• Oversee the overall strategy and timeline of the Core product, including designing and managing pilot initiatives related to the Fellowship.
• Support General Manager, Core in Chief of Staff capacity, ensuring alignment and clear KPIs across Core verticals, and reporting on overall progress toward outcomes.
• Collaborate closely with Head of Core Product, Head of Delivery and Operations, and VP of Employment to design the overall Fellowship program and strategy, incorporating industry-based training and feedback from hiring partners.
• Operationalize the Core Product for the Core training team, and build a roadmap for delivery.
• Design strategy, frameworks, and guidelines for decision-making about Pursuit Fellow needs and action plans, ensuring persistence and job readiness outcomes are met. 
• Own overall data management across Fellowship, ensuring systems and tools are set up to monitor and report on drivers and progress to goals.
• Project manage priority, cross-functional milestone events such as Hackathon and Demo Day to ensure they meet multiple goals across training and business development.
• Oversee and project manage Core launch staffing, timelines and launch week , collaborating across Fellowship, Growth and Enterprise teams to ensure timelines meet all stakeholders' needs.
• Hire and manage a manager of strategy and planning.
• Work closely with the Growth team to advise on the admissions process and ensure evaluation approach and bar meet Fellowship standards.

What you need to be considered for Head of Strategic Planning role: 

• 10-15 years of experience in startup or consulting industries, ideally with experience as a consulting manager or director-level business operations.
• Expertise in organizational design and operating model development.
• Demonstrated experience aligning corporate strategy and strategic priorities with delivery functions.
• Proficiency in data management, including forecasting toward goals, informing decision-making, and tracking program outcomes.
• A strong passion for Pursuit's mission and business model, along with a belief in the potential of individuals to learn to code and become leaders in the tech industry.
• Strong cross-functional leadership skills, with the ability to collaborate effectively across different teams and functions within the organization.
• Excitement for Pursuit’s mission and business model, and a belief in the potential of anyone to learn to code and become leaders in tech.

Where you’ll work: 

• On site in our Long Island City Office 4-5 days/week

Salary & Benefits:

The salary range for this role is $160k-$200k base + incentive compensation.

The compensation range above is for the expectations as laid out in the job description, however, we are often open to a wide variety of profiles and recognize that the person we hire may be less experienced (or more senior) than this job description as posted.  If that ends up being the case, the updated salary range will be communicated to you as a candidate.

Pursuit offers: 

• Great culture where transparency, respect, teamwork, and kindness are valued
• Competitive compensation in base, plus bonus and a full benefits package
• 401k Match
• Unlimited PTO and an all-Pursuit summer break the last week of August and a week-long holiday the last week of December
• Flexible, hybrid work schedule with catered lunches once a week and delicious snacks
• An opportunity to work at the intersection of tech and social impact, and make a direct impact on the communities of those we serve.

Pursuit values diversity: 

Our team has a wide range of backgrounds and experiences, and we value the richness that diversity brings to our organization. We welcome new perspectives and affirm that all employment decisions are made without regard to race, color, ancestry, religion, national origin, age, familial or marital status, sex, sexual orientation, pregnancy, gender identity or expression, disability, genetic information, veteran status, or any other classification protected by federal, state, or local law. Pursuit is an equal opportunity employer.