Citywide Career Navigation Manager

The Door; New York (NY); On-site; USD 70,000 - 80,000; Full time

Job summary

The Door in New York City seeks a Citywide Career Navigator Manager to support youth ages 16–24 with exploration, planning, and pathway connections across the city.

You will build trusted relationships, coach participants, and connect them to The Door's wraparound services and partner programs. This full-time role reports to the Director of Youth Exploration & Career Navigation Hub.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent required or preferred.
• Minimum 3–5 years of experience working with young people aged 16–24.
• Coaching, navigation, or related workforce development experience.
• Strong relationship-building, partnership-building, and communication skills.
• Commitment to youth development, equity, and social justice.
• "No Eject, No Reject" approach and authentic youth voice are valued.

Responsibilities

• Build trusting, authentic relationships with young people aged 16–24.
• Conduct strengths-based career exploration conversations and goal setting.
• Develop individualized career and education plans that evolve over time.
• Provide warm referrals to citywide opportunities and partner programs.
• Coordinate with external partners for warm handoffs and align with the Hub's continuum.
• Maintain timely documentation in Salesforce and participate in team meetings.

Skills

Relationship-building

Communication

Partnership-building

Coaching

Youth engagement

Education

Bachelor's degree

Associate's degree

Industry-recognized credential

Tools

Microsoft Office

Salesforce

Job description

Citywide Career Navigation Manager

The Door | The Hub

Salary:$70,000-$80,000

Reports To:Director, Youth Exploration & Career Navigation Hub

Hours:Monday through Friday, 35 hours per week, occasional evening and weekend hours as needed.

Job Location: Main Office - 555 Broome Street - New York, NY 10013

Position Type: Full Time

Salary Range: $70,000.00 - $80,000.00 Salary/year

Job Details

About The Door

The Door has served as one of New York City's most trusted places for teens and young adults for more than 50 years. The Door's mission is to empower young people to reach their potential by providing comprehensive youth development services in a diverse and caring environment.

A nationally recognized model for holistic youth support, The Door reaches up to 10,000 young people annually through a wide range of free, co-located services. Youth ages 12 to 24 can access health care and health education, mental health counseling and crisis intervention, legal services, career and education programming, housing supports, services for runaway and homeless youth, arts and recreational programming, and nutritious daily meals, all under one roof. The majority of youth served are navigating systemic barriers, including disconnection from school or work, housing instability, and involvement in foster care or the justice system.

Within this model, The Door operates a robust Career and Education Services Department (CareerED), including general work-readiness training and 14 sector-based workforce programs aligned with high-demand industries such as construction, green jobs, healthcare, information technology, retail, culinary arts, theater production, and commercial driving. These programs combine technical training, industry-recognized credentials, paid internships, and job placement support, in partnership with institutions such as CUNY and leading employers.

About the Youth Exploration & Career Navigation Hub

In Fall 2026, The Door will launch NYC's first Youth Exploration & Career Navigation Hub (the Hub). The Hub addresses a longstanding citywide gap: while NYC has invested heavily in education, workforce, and youth services, the broader system remains fragmented, difficult to navigate, and not designed around how young people actually explore options, make decisions, and move forward over time. Over 106,000 young people ages 16 to 24 are disconnected from school and work in NYC, and there is currently no place where a young person can walk in and receive personalized exploration, navigation, and warm connections to best-fit opportunities citywide.

The Hub is a welcoming, youth-centered space where young people walk in, get paired with a dedicated Citywide Career Navigator, explore their interests and goals through trust-based coaching, and receive warm referrals to best-fit education, training, and employment opportunities across NYC. Onsite, the Hub also offers a Career Exploration & Readiness Continuum: four immediate-entry, stackable pathways (immersive Virtual Reality career exploration withTransfr, a 9-session Career Readiness Certificate Program, the 6-weekTransfrTrek cohort, and the 7-week Mesa Alumni Lab cohort) that allow young people to build skills, confidence, and clarity at their own pace. A defining feature of the Hub is its commitment to ongoing support and returnability: young people are never exited from the program, never rejected, and always welcomed back without stigma when a pathway does not work out. The Huboperateson a "No Eject, No Reject"philosophy.

The Hub is youth-informed and co-designed. Its model was shaped by a comprehensive research and design process that included 8 youth focus groups engaging approximately 75 young adults across diverse NYC populations (foster care-involved youth, runaway and homeless youth, young people in GED programs, CTE seniors, and Eagle Academy alumni), nearly 50 interviews with cross-sector leaders, assessment of 9 national Youth Engagement Centers, and a literature review of 50+ reports. Youth voice is not a one-time planning input; it is a core accountability mechanism. The Hub will operate a paid Youth Advisory Council that plays an active, ongoing role in shaping the Hub's design, implementation, and continuous improvement, including naming programs, co-designing curricula, participating in staff hiring panels, and providing ongoing feedback on participant experience.

The Hub is explicitly external-facing and citywide. Unlike traditional onsite programs, the Hub's mission is to connect young people to best-fit opportunities anywhere in NYC, not just inside The Door. This requires strong cross-sector partnership building with workforce providers, community-based organizations, intermediaries, school networks, postsecondary institutions, public agencies, and employers across the city. The Hub is also closely aligned with the Pathway Gap Collaborative, a 75+ organization cross-sector effort building shared infrastructure and tools to strengthen youth pathway navigation citywide, and the broader emerging collective impact effort to improve youth economic mobility across NYC. Every Hub team member is expected to actively build, sustain, and grow citywide partnerships in support of the young people they serve.

Position Overview

Senior Citywide Career Navigators serve as trusted guides, coaches, advocates, and connectors for young people navigating education, career, and employment pathways.

This is not a traditional case management role.

Navigators build meaningful relationships with young people, help them explore possibilities, understand pathways,identifybest-fit opportunities, overcome barriers, and stay connected to support over time. Theyprovideindividualized guidance while helping young people navigate a complex ecosystem of workforce, education, training, and employment opportunities across New York City.

Because the Hub's mission is to connect young people to best-fit opportunities anywhere in NYC (not just onsite at The Door), Navigators must also actively build and sustain warm partnerships with external organizations across the city, so that referrals are not coldtransactions,but trusted handoffs grounded in real relationships.

Why This Role Matters

The Hubseeksto transform how young people access career exploration, navigation, employment, and postsecondary opportunities in New York City. Senior Citywide Career Navigators will play a critical role in ensuring young people do not have to navigate complex systems alone. Through trusted relationships, personalized guidance, and strong connections to opportunities, Navigators will help young people build pathways toward long-term economic mobility and success.

Primary Responsibilities

Career Exploration & Navigation

• Build trusting, authentic, sustained relationships with young peopleages16-24.
• Conduct strengths-based careerexplorationconversations, including discussions of interests, strengths, goals, and barriers.
• Use career assessments and tools to support exploration.
• Develop individualized, flexible career and education plans that evolve over time as goals, readiness, and opportunities shift.
• Support young people in understanding labor market trends, credential requirements, and pathway options.
• Help youth make informed decisionsregardingemployment, postsecondary education, training, apprenticeships, and other opportunities.

Citywide Navigation & Referrals

• Maintain current, deep knowledge of workforce, education, training, and employment opportunities throughout NYC.
• Make warm, well-matched referrals to best-fit opportunities both within and beyond The Door, including workforce training programs, jobs, college pathways, alternative high schools, and the Hub's onsite Career Exploration & Readiness Continuum.
• Use the New Visions Career Directory, One Degree, and the broader Pathway Gap Resource Hub toidentifybest-fit opportunities citywide.
• Coordinate warm handoffs with partner organizations; coordinate with Peer Advocates toaccompanyyoung people tonew programsas needed.
• Support young people in navigatingapplication, enrollment, and onboarding processes.

Coaching & Ongoing Support

• Provide ongoing coaching and encouragement as young people move through pathways.
• Welcome young people back without stigma when a pathwaydoesn'twork out; help them reflect, recalibrate, andidentifytheir next step. The Huboperateson a "No Eject, No Reject" philosophy.
• Connect young people to The Door's full suite of wraparound services (mental health, primary care, housing, legal, food, etc.)andexternal wraparoundsupportsas needed.
• Maintain regular communication and follow-up with participants.

Partnership & Ecosystem Building

• Actively build and sustain warm partnerships with external workforce providers, colleges, training providers, employers, and community-based organizations across NYC. This is a core expectation of the role.
• Participate in citywide partnership meetings and collaborative initiatives, including the Pathway Gap Collaborative and broader emerging collective impact efforts.
• Helpidentifygaps, opportunities, and challenges within the workforce ecosystem and share insights back to Hub leadership.
• Serve as an ambassador for the Hub and its mission.

Documentation & Continuous Improvement

• Maintaintimelyandaccuratedocumentation in Salesforce, including case notes, referrals, and outcomes.
• Track participant progress, outcomes, and persistence.
• Participate in team meetings, caseconferences, training, and continuous improvement discussions.
• Engage in ongoing professional development, including training from the Center for Fair Futures (trauma-informed coaching and postsecondary navigation), WPTI, Shared Lane, NYCPS, and others.
• Incorporate feedback from young people and the Youth Advisory Council into practice.
• Participate in YAC-led hiring panels for Hub staff.

Who ThrivesInThis Role?

• Authentic, warm, and consistent.Young people repeatedly told us during the design process that they engage most with adults who are "real," "consistent," and able to "meet us where we're at."
• Non-judgmental.Navigators must welcome young people back without stigma when a pathwaydoesn'twork out, and treat re-engagement as part of the journey, not as failure.
• Trauma-informed and patient.Navigators must be calm and compassionate, particularly with young people experiencing homelessness, foster care involvement, or other significant barriers. One negative interaction can push a young person away; one supportive adult can change everything.
• Curious and humble.Navigators should treat each young person astheexpert on their own life, listen deeply, and follow through on what they say.
• Persistent and follow-through-oriented.Navigators do what they say they willdo, andstay with young people even when the work is hard or progress is slow.
• Strong relationship builders, internally and externally.Navigators need to build trust quickly with young people, deepen relationships with internal Door staff and supports, and actively cultivate partnerships with external organizations across NYC where young people are being referred.
• Knowledgeable about NYC.Navigators must build (and continuously update) a deep understanding of NYC's workforce, education, and youth-serving ecosystem to make warm, well-matched referrals.

Qualifications

Required

• Bachelor's degree,Associate'sdegree, industry-recognized credential, or equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Minimum 3-5 years of experience working with young people or young adultsages16-24.
• Experience providing coaching, advising, navigation, counseling, workforce development, education, youth development, or related services.
• Strong relationship-building, partnership-building, and communication skills; partnership building is a core requirement of the role.
• Commitment to youth development, equity, and social justice.
• Commitment to the "No Eject, No Reject" approach and authentic youth voice.

Preferred

• Experience working with young people facing systemic barriers, including housing instability, foster care involvement, justice-system involvement, mental health challenges, or disconnection from school or work.
• Working knowledge of NYC's workforce and postsecondary ecosystem, including programs offered by DYCD, SBS, CUNY, NYCPS, and community-based providers.
• Experience with motivational interviewing, coaching, or trauma-informed practice.
• Familiarity with labor market trends and emerging career pathways.
• Cultural humility andlivedexperience or deep familiarity with the communities The Door serves.
• Proficiencyin Microsoft Office and willingness to learn Salesforce and other data systems.
• Bilingual(English/Spanish/French)skillspreferred to support diversepopulations.

The Door is an Equal Opportunity Employer

The Door is committed to building a diverse workforce and strongly encourages individuals with lived experience and those reflective of the communities we serve to apply.