The Senior Program Manager will drive new initiatives by validating vocations, architecting market strategies, forging partnerships, and guiding students through training and placement while optimizing workflows and outcomes.
Emerge Career’s mission is to break the cycle of poverty and incarceration. We’re not just building software; we’re creating pathways to real second chances. Through an all-in-one platform deeply embedded within the criminal justice system, we recruit, train, and place justice-impacted individuals into life-changing careers.
Our vision is to become the country’s unified workforce development system, replacing disconnected brick-and-mortar job centers with one integrated, tech-powered solution that meets low-income individuals exactly where they are. Today, the federal government spends billions annually on education and training programs, yet only about 70% of participants graduate, just 38.6% secure training-related employment, and average first-year earnings hover around $34,708.
By contrast, our seven-person team has already outperformed the job centers in two entire states (Vermont and South Dakota) in just the past year. With an 89% graduation rate and 92% of graduates securing training-related employment, our alumni aren’t just getting jobs—they’re launching new lives with average first-year earnings of $77,352. The results speak for themselves, and we’re just getting started.
Before Emerge, our founders Zo and Gabe co-founded Ameelio, an award-winning tech nonprofit that is dismantling the prison communication duopoly. Backed by tech luminaries like Reid Hoffman, Vinod Khosla, and Jack Dorsey, and by major criminal-justice philanthropies such as Arnold Ventures and the Mellon Foundation, Ameelio became a recognized leader in the space. Because of this experience both Zo and Gabe understood what it took to create change from within the system. After serving over 1M people impacted by incarceration, they witnessed firsthand the gap in second-chance opportunities and the chronic unemployment plaguing those impacted by the justice system. Emerge Career is committed to solving this issue.
Our students are at the heart of our work. Their journeys have captured national attention on CBS, NBC, and in The Boston Globe, and our programs now serve entire states and cities. And we’re not doing it alone: our vision has attracted support from Alexis Ohanian (776), Michael Seibel, Y Combinator, the Opportunity Fund, and public figures like Diana Taurasi, Deandre Ayton, and Marshawn Lynch. All of us believe that, with the right mix of technology and hands-on practice, we can redefine workforce development and deliver true second chances at scale.
Emerge Career was designed to tackle two systemic issues: recidivism, fueled by post-incarceration unemployment and poverty, and labor shortages in key industries. Over 60% of formerly incarcerated people remain unemployed a year after incarceration, seeking work but not finding it. The reality is shocking, workforce development programs are severely limited inside prison, with only one-third of incarcerated people ever participating. To worsen, the available prison jobs offer meager wages, often less than $1 per hour, and often do not equip individuals with the skills for long-term stable employment.
- You love supporting other people’s growth. This role will often feel like case work, and you’re drawn to that. You’ve dedicated your life volunteering, working in social impact, or finding ways to make the playing field more fair. You find joy in helping others rise. You don’t hesitate to call, text, or meet with a student who needs you. You show up consistently, personally, and with heart.
- You believe everyone deserves a second chance. You treat everyone with dignity. You know how to meet people exactly where they are—with empathy and compassion—helping create a space where everyone feels seen and valued, regardless of their background..
- You are entrepreneurial. You’re scrappy, resourceful, autonomous, and low-maintenance. You know process matters—but at this stage, speed and iteration matter more. You’re comfortable building quickly and changing procedures often to get to the right solution. You roll up your sleeves and solve problems. No job is too small.
- You play to win. You stay optimistic when things get tough and keep moving when others slow down. You’re not rattled by change or new ideas. You don’t need to agree with everything, but you bring a “yes, and” mindset that helps ideas grow instead of shutting them down.
- You work hard. You show up early, stay late, and do what needs to get done—no ego, no excuses. You don’t wait around or ask for permission. This isn’t a 9-to-5. The team puts in 10+ hour days because we care about the mission and each other. If that sounds miserable, this isn’t for you. If it sounds exciting, you’ll fit right in.
- You are a straight shooter. You don’t shy away from hard conversations—internally or externally. You bring clarity, care, and accountability to every interaction.
- You love learning. You understand that recent advancements in AI have shifted the way we work and what it means to be a high performer. You tinker with new tools. You enjoy being an early adopter. You’re always rethinking and optimizing how you work so you can keep leveling up. Nobody needs to tell you to keep upping your game.
- You are a tech optimist. You understand that not every part of an educational journey can or should be automated. Still, you believe that with the right builder mindset, smart tooling, and thoughtful design, one person can comfortably serve hundreds of individuals.
- You are a strong builder. In past roles, you’ve likely found yourself eager to solve problems directly rather than wait on an engineering team. You enjoy taking initiative, diving into documentation, learning new tools independently, and developing your own solutions. You naturally gravitate toward automating workflows, building internal dashboards (we use Retool), and running analytics to gain deeper insights. You have experimented with branching logic and variables to personalize marketing communication (we use Customer.io) and discovered a passion for orchestration tools like Zapier, N8N, or Relay that help you quickly build impactful solutions.
What we’re looking for: (minimally)
- Willing to relocate and work in-person in New York City
- Five or more years of professional work experience
- Demonstrated experience working with underserved populations
- Demonstrated experience in early-stage startups. You were most likely a founding team member of at least one startup when they had less than 10 people
- Demonstrated experience with workflow automation tooling
- Deeply curious and highly attuned to human behavior and emotion
What we’re looking for: (preferred)
- Involved with or impacted by the criminal justice system
You’re a builder with a founder’s mindset, equally comfortable sealing a contract with a key training vendor and jumping on a late-night call with a student who needs encouragement. You move effortlessly from high-level strategy and tough negotiations to hands-on service because closing the loop between vision and impact is what drives you. As the owner of the first cohort in a new vocation, you will cultivate industry partnerships, design the launch playbook, and personally guide each participant through training, certification, and placement, proving the model works before we scale it nationwide.
- Discover & validate new vocations (0→1). Use labor-market data, wage trends, and licensing requirements to pick the right trades—and prove there’s real demand before we invest.
- Architect the go-to-market playbook. Map every step from first idea to statewide rollout: market sizing, regulatory checks, curriculum needs, training partnerships, contract negotiations, and kill-switch criteria.
- Forge the ecosystem. Secure hiring commitments from employers, MOUs with training schools, and buy-in from credentialing bodies so each program launches with jobs waiting at the finish line.
- Design the pilot experience. Partner with Ops to recruit a “lighthouse” cohort, screen for fit, and guide students through training, certification, and job placement—owning outcomes end-to-end.
- Run fast experiments. Stand up scrappy processes, build automations, and lightweight tooling (Retool, Customer.io, Zapier) to test assumptions and shrink time-to-insight.
- Iterate relentlessly. Capture data on enrollment funnel, completion, placement, and employer satisfaction; diagnose root causes and ship fixes weekly.
- Document the blueprint. Translate wins, failures, SOPs, and templates into a repeatable playbook the wider team can use to spin up the next vocation without you.
- Enable scale. Train hand-off owners, set up dashboards, and integrate workflows into our core platform so New Initiative #1 becomes a steady state program—and you can jump to the next one.
- Act like a founder. Own strategy, ops, and relationship-building; chase blockers until they move; and keep the bar high on speed, quality, and student impact.
- Base salary: $70K - $115K
- Goal-based bonus structure
- Meaningful equity
Start Date:
ASAP
About the Interview Process:
- Application
- Cultural fit & technical screen (60 min)
- Getting to know you interview (60 min): A more in-depth discussion about your background, experiences, and goals.
- Reference checks. We will select 3-4 people you’ve worked with and request introductions. We will request these when the time comes . We’re looking for honest and raw not flawless references
- Paid Work Trial (2-5 days). You’ll come onsite to work on a real project, with access to internal tools and team collaboration. You’ll be paid $500 per day. All travel expenses will be covered.
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