Who we are

Across the country, college completion rates are abysmal. In 2025, just under 25% (23.5%) of the country’s population 25 years or older has attained a Bachelor’s degree or higher. Traditionally underserved populations — like working students, parent learners, and those who are the first in their families to attend college — disproportionately suffer.

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We think this status quo is unacceptable. Rivet School is college built for real life — a new type of college experience designed from the ground up to support traditionally underserved students. Rivet School students earn an accredited, job-relevant bachelor’s degree in as little as 2-3 years, and for around $10,000 total. We’re part of Southern New Hampshire University’s Community Partnerships portfolio — a network of innovative organizations that use a unique university-to-community model.

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​​Rivet School is a fast-growing nonprofit currently supporting ~450 students across the nation (including California, Chicago, and the Gulf South), and aiming to grow to 800 students by 2027. We’re a tight-knit, supportive, and diverse team.

Why we need you

While Rivet School was founded in California, we’re now beginning to expand nationally, going deep in Chicagoland and the Gulf South (including Louisiana and Mississippi) to serve new student populations.

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At Rivet School, we find our students through a mix of direct online outreach, word-of-mouth referrals, and partnerships with employers and community organizations. While all three channels contribute to our growth, partnerships require nuanced strategy and relationship-building expertise to drive impact.. But when they work, it’s like magic! Partnerships lead to a win-win-win outcome for everyone involved: Rivet School grows, our partners get great outcomes for their clients/employees, and prospective students unlock new opportunities through a college degree.

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For example, we work closely with Ochsner Health, the largest medical provider in Louisiana, where they refer non-degree holding non-clinical employees who want to advance within the sector. These students earn an AA or BA degree in Healthcare Management and gain the non-clinical skills necessary to move into leadership, management, and more specialized positions.

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We’re growing our Partnerships team, and we need you to help us cultivate, successfully onboard, and maintain lasting Rivet School referral partnerships. Our students perform better when a committed partner is backing them. The more stakeholders we have rooting for our students’ success, the more likely it is they’ll make it to the finish line. You’ll join our Partnerships team and support in doubling down on effective partnership and B2B2C strategies (like partnering with healthcare employers for our Healthcare Pathway, or school districts for our Educator Pathway), all with the goal of recruiting future Riveters and growing our impact.

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As our next Partnerships Lead, you’ll be a part of the Growth team, led by Nora Maxwell, Chief Growth Officer. You’ll be managed by our Director of Partnerships, and will work directly with a team of Partnerships Leads. Each Partnership Lead owns a portfolio of 30+ partners based across different geographic regions and sectors and recruitment stages.

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Responsibilities will include, but are not limited to:

• Referral partnership onboarding (~15% of role): Onboard new referral partners through 1:1 conversations, info sessions with potential Rivet School students, custom collateral creation, and more. After the Chief Growth Officer or Director of Partnerships conducts initial partnership fit assessment and discovery calls, you'll jump in to run recruitment strategies and campaigns. You’ll collaborate with cross-functional leadership at partner organizations, ensuring that partnership launches drive broad employee or client awareness and lead generation.
• Referral partnership account management and student recruitment (~50% of role): Help maintain long-lasting and effective referral partnerships through ongoing check-ins, applicant and student data collection, and collaboration with key partners. You’ll help partners refer potential students to Rivet School by sharing best practices and opportunities to align with the partner’s mission, talent development goals, and strategy, and recruit prospective students both virtually and in-person via tabling events, info sessions, and more. You’ll also work across the Partnerships team — and organization at large — to collaborate on tasks and to-do’s, share and learn from each other’s work, and support with one-off projects.
• Supporting “VIP” partner accounts (~15% of role): Together with the Director of Partnerships, ensure that Rivet School’s highest-yield partnerships run smoothly. You’ll attend ongoing check-ins and support the Director of Partnerships with effective follow-through and account management.
• Strategic planning and projects (20% of role): Based on your knowledge of our partners’ and students’ needs, you’ll play an integral role in shaping our partnership strategy, and you’ll work to amplify the voice of our partners and students across the organization.

Who you are

Below we list some of the specific skills, experiences, and dispositions we're looking for in a candidate. We also don't expect all strong candidates to excel at each and every one of these skill areas! So if you're intrigued by this role, but have less familiarity with one of the bullets below, we strongly encourage you to apply anyway.

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Characteristics & qualities

• You have a deep interest in helping traditionally underserved students access opportunity. A typical Riveter is 25-60 years old; a first-generation college student; Black, Latino, and/or AAPI; a parent or has significant family responsibilities; and has previously enrolled in and stopped out of college. You understand that our current education system discriminates against low-income people and people of color in systemic ways, and you want to be part of changing outcomes.
• You are an excellent communicator, writer, and presenter (both in-person and virtually). You’re excited to serve as the face of Rivet School — communicating and presenting our mission, vision, and program elements to different audiences and in different environments. You’ve planned for and led high-stakes meetings, and you’ve been told your presentations are engaging and clear. In this role, you will be spending the majority of your time planning for and executing external meetings and presentations.
• You understand how to build strategic partnerships. You recognize that B2B2C organizational models work when everybody wins. You are savvy at determining the self-interest of partners and know how to deliver results that support partner goals, their employees’ or clients’ goals, and Rivet School’s goals.
• You are a data-driven and rigorous thinker. You sweat the small stuff, always follow through on your commitments, and are meticulous about documenting, communicating, and organizing your work.
• You are excellent at building and stewarding authentic relationships. You’re great at building trust and establishing consensus within and across diverse groups.
• You find a way to get things done. You’re a self starter who deftly navigates operational and organizational hurdles to make partnerships work.
• You have a history of creating flawless deliverables, whether in school, at work, or in your personal life. These could include presentations, email communications, reports, handbooks or manuals, and/or spreadsheet trackers.
• You’re capable of juggling multiple projects at once. You’re a fast learner, like building new things, and are comfortable navigating complexity and ambiguity. You care deeply about achieving excellence, but never at the expense of yourself or others.
• You’re deeply invested in your own growth, and you actively seek out opportunities to improve.

Our Core Value Expectations

• Not Yet: You’re open & receptive to feedback, acknowledging gaps and taking steps to correct them.
• No BS: You are honest, communicative, and balance competing interests appropriately, and help foster an environment in which the full team can do the same.
• We are the Riveters: You treat Fellows and team members as whole people with whole lives and do not shame team members or fellows for falling short of expectations.
• Own the Journey: You adopt a low-ego, self-responsible approach to work and collaboration, taking accountability for mistakes and proactively seeking solutions to challenges.

Work experience and background

• You should have experience in building and maintaining partnerships across organizations to achieve a common goal. You may or may not have had the word “partnerships” in your title previously, but your work experience will show that you’ve built effective partnerships with vendors, peer organizations, employers, sponsors, donors, or other functional teams, among others. We’re particularly interested in candidates who have created and managed partnerships that accomplish results.
• You’ve likely worked on a team with a shared goal or objective — perhaps working towards a shared financial goal or recruitment target.

In general, we define “work experience” broadly, and we care as much about work experience as we do your character, potential, and belief in our mission of building a better college experience for low-income and working students.

Finally, we do not absolutely require a bachelor’s degree, but we do view it as an asset. Rivet School also supports staff members without a BA on their pathway to earning a college degree. We also are particularly enthusiastic about candidates who share proximity to our learners — candidates who worked while attending college, attended a community college en route to a BA, were an adult or parent learner, or in some other way deviated from the so-called “traditional” pathway.

Why you should apply

As a member of our Growth team, you’ll play a crucial role in taking Rivet School to the next level. Your work will directly impact the lives of our growing student body and will help increase equitable access to high-quality higher education and life-sustaining careers.

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You’ll also join a committed, high-performing, thoughtful, and very fun (if we say so ourselves) team. On our quarterly surveys in 2024, our team members rated (with a 100% response rate) an average 4.8 out of 5 on the question "My manager creates a trusting and open environment," and 4.6 out of 5 for "I would recommend Rivet School as a great place to work.”

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I've never worked in a more supportive organization. The team fosters a culture of collaboration and openness that makes me feel comfortable bringing my whole self to work every day.

Collaborative work is woven into the Rivet School culture. As an introvert who usually prefers to work alone, I find collaborating with my team to be fun, productive, and supportive.

‍It is really wonderful knowing that when I'm having a bad day or challenge outside of work that I can ask for support or space and my manager/teammates will understand.

I appreciate our open discussions on race, equity and inclusion and how each of us takes responsibility to use this lens in our work.

I am so invested in our mission and the current goals we have in place. I actually believe in the work we do matters, and that's very motivating. It makes work fun when the people I interact with also believe that. Alignment!

This is consistently the most healthy, encouraging, and positive work environment I have ever been a part of. I feel valued, supported, and understood. Beyond grateful for Rivet School.

Learn more about the Rivet School team on our website here, or on Glassdoor.

The nitty gritty

• Target start date: September 1, 2025
• For this role, candidates will need to live in one of three regions: the Bay Area, the Chicagoland area, or Louisiana. You’ll need to travel locally/regionally for in-person partner meetings and events, and periodically nationally as well. Outside of these in-person commitments, you're free to work where you like.
• This is a full-time role. If you’re based in the Bay Area, you’ll be expected to work in our office in Richmond, CA 1x/week. This policy is flexible and responsive to individual team member needs. Our hybrid work environment also enables team members to take extended periods of remote work. Note: team members outside of the Bay Area will work fully remotely.
• Work hours can be flexible, but availability for and responsiveness to partners and Rivet team members is a must.
• We offer comprehensive health benefits (medical, dental, vision, STD/LTD, and life), including 50% premium support for spouses and dependents. We also offer 15 days of PTO for the first year of employment and 18 days per year afterward, 17 recognized holiday days off in 2025, 8 days of Wellness Time (formerly known as sick time), 3 Rivet Rest Days (full office closure), access to a professional development fund, and generous leave policies (parental leave, bereavement, etc.).
• To ensure equity in our hiring process, we assess candidates using pre-set questions and evaluate each step in the hiring process against a pre-set rubric. The steps in this hiring process are as follows: Initial application form (below), phone screen (30 minutes), role fit screen (30 minutes), performance task (90 minutes), final-round interview (3 hours), and reference checks. While we reserve the right to adjust this process, we’re committed to holding all candidates to the same process and sharing updates as soon as possible.
• At Rivet School, we use a competency-based hiring and leveling framework to ensure equity and fairness in promotions and compensation. The associated starting salary range for the level of this position is $71,000–$82,000 and official titles range from Partnerships Lead I to Senior Partnerships Lead, commensurate with experience and skill. If you are in a more senior role but have interest in joining our team, feel free to reach out directly to Nora Maxwell (nora@rivetschool.org) to learn more.

Rivet School works to upend historically entrenched inequities by reimagining the post-secondary school experience, especially for first-generation and non-traditional students. We commit to living our mission and values by hiring a diverse team, and especially welcome candidates who reflect the identities and experiences of the students we serve — who are majority parents, Black and Latinx, and low to middle-income — to apply.

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As an equal opportunity employer, Rivet School is committed to providing employment opportunities to all qualified individuals and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, ethnicity, religion, sex, gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, age, marital status, veteran status, pregnancy, parental status, genetic information or characteristics, or any other basis prohibited by applicable laws.

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