Executive Director

Resilient Coders

Job Description


About Resilient Coders
Resilient Coders is a highly competitive, free and stipended not-for-profit coding bootcamp. We train young adults of color from low-income backgrounds in software engineering and connect them with jobs as such. We do this because we believe in social justice through economic empowerment; and we understand that we all have a moral and economic imperative to create pathways to automation-resilient careers in our communities of color.

We’re at an inflection point. In the last year and a half, we’ve expanded beyond Massachusetts to Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, we’ve doubled the size of our team, and we’ve begun yet another transformation in our program, in pursuit of our aspiration to be a radically student-centric organization. For the last several years, we’ve led the tech workforce development field in both boldness of vision and depth of impact, fighting for better jobs, better wages, and stronger advocacy for our people. We’ve been generally successful. Now it’s time to push further. 

After founding Resilient Coders nearly eight years ago, its current Executive Director is stepping down to make way for new leadership to bring Resilient Coders to a new chapter.

Role

The Executive Director will have overall strategic and operational responsibility for Resilient Coders’ vision, staff, programs, and execution of its mission. The ED will collaborate with the Board of Directors, the dedicated team of Resilient Coders professionals, alumni, and community partners in continuing Resilient Coders’ track record as one of the leading providers of tech bootcamp to industry pipeline, strategic social justice implementation and mission alignment, and equitable wage access. The ED must be a visionary and inspiring leader who will build upon Resilient Coders’ success, maximize impact and increase the visibility of its exemplary services and programming.

The ideal candidate for ED is an authentic, inspiring, strategic leader who manages with empathy and vulnerability and brings stellar operations and workplace development skills, strong relationship-building, ambitious innovative ideas, and a deep commitment to the Resilient Coder mission. This candidate knows how to capacity build and scale an organization, build and steward deep relationships, inspire passion for the work of Resilient Coders with existing and new donors, diversify and strengthen the already committed and dedicated board while communicating a clear vision for this recognized leader in reducing wage disparity and increasing access to high income careers.

Responsibilities

Vision and Strategy
  • Provide strategic vision and leadership for Resilient Coders in service of its mission and to lead the organization into its next phase of development and impact
  • Ensure that Resilient Coders’ vision and values are expressed in every aspect of the organization, including its culture, personnel, and programs. 
  • Be a highly visible thought leader and ambassador in the tech bootcamp community, with partner organizations, civic leaders and funders.
  • Collaborate with the board and Executive Team in developing the next strategic plan that explores opportunities for expansion, additional resources, and ensuring that Resilient Coders continues to provide best-in-class services.

Institutional Advancement
  • Strengthen, develop and steward relationships with existing funders, new potential funding sources, government agencies, employers, and community partners.
  • Formulate and execute content marketing and development strategies that will ensure consistency throughout the organization and build upon Resilient Coders’ local and national reputation.
  • Work with the Chief of Staff to improve fundraising.
  • Organizational Development
  • Promote a kind, supportive, hard-working organizational culture.
  • Manage a great team, focusing on goals rather than tasks.
  • Nurture a collaborative workplace where Diversity, Equity and Inclusion is a guiding principle.  
  • Collaborate with the board, alumni, and staff across the organization.
  • Develop retention plans that include focus on equity, compensation and professional growth opportunities.

Strengthening Infrastructure and Operations
  • Provide direction and vision to the organizational talent structure while ensuring all staff have clear roles and responsibilities
  •  Communicate goals and our progress against them in a way that is frequent, clear, transparent, and egalitarian
  • Continue to promote a culture rooted in values of social justice, economic equity and grassroots organizing while ensuring the development and management of a high performing and effective organization
  • Facilitate cross-organization collaboration and strengthen internal communications across staff
  •  Ensure clarity and consistency throughout the organization's strategy, operational methods, and data collection processes to support the continued development and management of a professional and efficient organization
  • Oversee the financial status of the organization including working with the Chief of Staff, developing long and short-range financial plans, monitoring the budget and ensuring sound financial controls are in place; set financial priorities accurately to ensure the organization is operating in a manner that supports the needs of the program and staff
  • Stand for our values: The greatest triumph of Resilient Coders has been to prove that there exists an alternate model of workforce development that centers the student, the worker, and the community.  We’ve proven that it can work. Therefore, the single most important function of our Executive Director is to keep Resilient Coders in the forefront of a track that we have built. This requires makingtough decisions about what we do, what we don’t do, how, and why.

Qualifications

The ED must be a seasoned leader with a proven track record of scaling small size organizations, and development, finance, and/or communications experience in the nonprofit or education space and at least six years in a senior leadership role. 

The ED will have the following experience and skills:
  • Deep understanding of the root causes of racial and socio-economic disparities
  • Eagerness and mindset towards active donor development and growth
  • Demonstrated success in fundraising
  • Visionary approach, eager to tackle big problems, and delegate responsibilities to staff
  • Skilled relationship builder across stakeholder groups
  • Demonstrated commitment to historically and systemically oppressed populations
  • Ability to galvanize excitement from the outside world
  • Experience building culture and internal infrastructure to support a mission
  • Success building/growing economically sustainable organizations
  • Exceptional communication skills
  • Experience serving as the face of an organization and raising awareness for its work
  • Strong manager with a deep commitment to the professional development of staff; successful track record of recruiting and retaining a diverse team.
  • Proven ability to build a strong organizational culture while overseeing a complex team.
  • Innovative, entrepreneurial spirit with an openness to trying new things and paving the way for others to follow.
  • Commitment to inclusive strategy development
  • Decision-making and evaluation processes
  • Ideally you have some sort of domain knowledge around tech, tech recruitment, and/or pedagogy. 
  • Ideally you have an active professional network in Boston, Philadelphia, and/or Pittsburgh.
  • Wisdom of failure

This position description is based upon material provided by Resilient Coders, an equal opportunity employer.

Raven Stubbs

Talent Consultant

rstubbs@drgsearch.com

 

Sarah Raful Whinston

Senior Talent Consultant

swhinston@drgsearch.com   

 

To apply to this position please visit http://drgsearch.com/current-searches/?rpid=KRN61LHgmJ4