Academic Coach, Alpha - $150,000/year USD

Crossover; San Jose (CA); On-site; USD 128,000 - 173,000; Full time

Job summary

Alpha reimagines the school day around faster learning, stronger mentorship, and real-world skills. This is a full-time in-person Academic Coach role across multiple US campuses, focusing on coaching rather than instruction, with AI handling delivery.

You bring a proven record of elite achievement and at least three years of coaching or leadership, ready to motivate students and families. Location includes Santa Barbara, Santa Monica, San Francisco, Greenwich, Boston, New York, or Seattle;

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree required.
• Exceptional achievement in a highly selective, globally recognized domain is preferred.
• At least 3 years coaching, mentoring, or leadership experience with measurable impact.
• Willing to work in-person at an Alpha campus across listed US locations.

Responsibilities

• Conduct 1-on-1 and small-group coaching to inspire high performance.
• Facilitate structured life-skills sessions demonstrating mastery.
• Set daily expectations with focused kickoffs to cultivate a culture of excellence.
• Monitor progress and refine coaching using real-time data.
• Build trusted mentorship with students and families through consistent high standards.

Skills

Coaching

Mentoring

Leadership

Education

Bachelor's degree

Job description

You know the most compassionate act you can offer a student is to keep standards high. You've earned recognition at a level that most people only observe from a distance—perhaps through elite athletics, a distinguished record at a top university, selection into a prestigious firm, or a venture you launched and grew independently. Now imagine channeling that discipline into a classroom of K-12 learners who have never encountered someone with your track record, demanding excellence they didn't realize they were capable of. If treating students to elite expectations feels too demanding, this isn't the right fit.

Alpha leverages AI-driven 1-on-1 instruction to enable students to complete core academics in roughly two hours each day. The remaining time is devoted to life skills, personally meaningful pursuits, and authentic development. At Alpha's most rigorous campuses, students require more than oversight. They need a credible mentor whose personal accomplishments exemplify what's possible—someone capable of reading group dynamics, establishing culture, and guiding them through doubt, distractions, and resistance.

Your role is not to instruct. AI manages the academic delivery. Your responsibility is to inspire, coach, and uphold the same exacting standards you've applied to yourself. Forty percent of your time is spent in direct 1-on-1 and small-group sessions that identify obstacles and establish ambitious objectives. Another forty percent involves facilitating structured life-skills sessions designed for genuine mastery, not mere engagement. The final twenty percent is devoted to setting expectations each morning through purposeful kickoffs that cultivate a culture intolerant of mediocrity.

The trajectory here emphasizes depth over hierarchy. You begin by mastering Alpha's approach and earning students' trust. Within a few months, you become the person they allow to challenge them beyond their perceived limits. The payoff isn't a title change. It's the same group of students, year after year, maturing with you as their steady guide. It's observing a student who struggled with eye contact in September deliver a confident presentation to a room of adults by May.

This position remains centered on students. They are the purpose, not a means to something else.

What You Will Be Doing

• Conducting 1-on-1 and small-group coaching sessions leveraging Coachbot analytics and student performance data to identify obstacles, establish ambitious targets, and ensure students follow through on commitments
• Facilitating structured life-skills sessions designed for mastery by drawing on credible examples from your own elite background, then evaluating mastery through Alpha's Test2Pass framework
• Establishing cultural expectations each morning with focused kickoffs that reinforce high-performance standards campus-wide
• Monitoring student progress continuously and refining coaching approaches based on real-time data rather than intuition
• Developing trusted mentorship with students and their families through consistent high standards and documented motivation strategies

What You Won’t Be Doing

• Delivering lessons, developing curriculum, or grading work — Alpha's AI-driven academic platform manages instruction; your focus is on motivation
• Presenting to a full classroom of 30 students (your work is intensive coaching in small settings, not large-group instruction)
• Overseeing other staff or pursuing management advancement (this role prioritizes direct student influence, not organizational leadership)
• Attending traditional faculty meetings or dealing with institutional red tape (your schedule stays concentrated on students)
• Reducing expectations to meet quotas (if a student achieved 99%, your task is to understand what prevented 100%)

Academic Coach Key Responsibilities

Drive exceptional student motivation, growth, and life-skill mastery at Alpha's highest-expectation campuses.

Basic Requirements

• Bachelor's degree
• At least one instance of exceptional achievement in a highly selective, globally recognized domain (examples: national or international competition medals, top-tier university with distinction, highly selective firm or fellowship, elite performing arts institution, or founding and scaling a successful venture)
• At least 3 years of experience in student coaching, youth mentoring, athletic coaching, or leadership roles where you measurably raised others' performance
• Willing to work in-person at an Alpha campus in Santa Barbara, CA; Santa Monica, CA; San Francisco, CA; Greenwich, CT; Boston, MA; New York City, NY; or Seattle, WA (relocation support provided)
• Legal right to work in the United States

Nice-to-have Requirements

• Background in elite competitive athletics (varsity D1, national team, or professional level) with experience coaching or mentoring younger athletes
• Experience in high-accountability environments like management consulting, investment banking, or military leadership
• Track record of youth development through mentoring in non-academic settings (community organizations, after-school programs, sports camps)
• Comfort presenting to and building trust with high-expectation families paying premium private school tuition

About Alpha

Alpha reimagines the school day around faster learning, stronger mentorship, and more time for students to build real-world skills.

Roles with real student impact: Alpha hires teachers (guides), operators, admissions experts, school & curriculum leaders, and remote team members.

Education work that pays like it matters: Alpha offers six-figure roles for people ready to help build a radically better school experience.

A culture built for builders: Alpha is fast-moving, ambitious, and student focused. It’s for people who want to improve the system, not maintain it.

Alpha is where you can do the most meaningful work of your career.

Working with us

This is a full-time, W2 employee position with immediate access to benefits (https://support.crossover.com/article/7581-w2-benefits-u-s-paychex-paid-only). All roles are year-long positions. The compensation level for this role is $150,000 USD/year. The payment period is weekly. Consult www.crossover.com/help-and-faqs for more details on this topic.