Director of Client Relations, Alpha - $200,000/year USD

Alpha School; Chicago (IL); On-site; USD 149,000 - 201,000; Full time

Job summary

Alpha School seeks an on-site Director of Client Relations to own the campus admissions process end-to-end—from inquiry to enrollment decision. You will manage 20+ active families, lead campus tours, shadow days, and log every interaction in HubSpot and the SIS, keeping the pipeline healthy.

You will work with affluent families, deliver clear guidance, and use AI tools to summarize interactions for leadership.

Qualifications

• 3+ years in a client-facing role where a buyer was a single family at $25,000+ per client.
• Owned an enrollment or client journey from inquiry to commitment.
• Managed 7+ client relationships simultaneously in a CRM or tracking system.
• Ability to say no if fit isn't there and maintain relationships.
• Experience using AI tools in client-facing workflows.

Responsibilities

• Own the campus enrollment journey from inquiry to onboarding.
• Manage 20+ active families at different stages and respond to inquiries promptly.
• Lead tours, open houses, info sessions and shadow days for families.
• Deliver admit or decline decisions directly to families.
• Maintain HubSpot and SIS records and summarize activity with AI tools; report weekly to leadership.

Skills

Client-facing sales

CRM management

AI tools usage in workflows

Executive-level communication

High-value client handling

Tools

HubSpot CRM

SIS system

AI tools (ChatGPT/Claude)

Job description

"Alpha School students, on average, experience 2.4 to 2.6 times the academic growth of traditional school students" — Forbes

Alpha is hiring.

You have sat across from a client and known the honest answer was no. Saying it cost you something: a number, a manager's approval, a commission. Here, that answer is the job.

Alpha is a private K-12 school network. Students do academics in about two hours a day and spend the rest building real skills, and the test scores prove it works. This is an on-site job at one campus, in person, every day, in one of 10 markets: Los Angeles, La Jolla, or Malibu, CA; Austin, TX; Boca Raton, FL; Boston, MA; Chicago, IL; Greenwich, CT; Nashville, TN; or Park City, UT.

Parents pay a premium for it, research everything, and ask you hard questions about rigor and expectations in the first ten minutes. The model only works when the families inside it actually want it. In a small cohort, one family who signed up for something else changes the room for everyone.

You will own one campus's admissions process end-to-end. First inquiry, fit conversation, campus tour, shadow day, decision conversation. You are the person that family talks to from the inquiry to the first day of school. A normal week might look like: answering every inquiry within four hours, walking a skeptical father through the afternoon block, running a shadow day, logging it all in HubSpot, and calling a family to say their child would be better served somewhere else. You will carry 20 or more active families at different stages simultaneously. You form the fit judgment, and you deliver the news, in person, in your own words.

The network is growing, and the playbook is evolving with it. The people who prove out a market write the FAQs, the fit criteria, and the standards the next campus inherits, and they become the name affluent families in their city trade with each other.

This is an on-site job at one campus, in person, every day. The kinds of people who do it well: admissions and enrollment professionals from selective schools; high-ticket consumer closers whose buyer was a family, like luxury real estate agents, private client advisors, or premium practice owners; and hospitality and private service operators who have run white-glove experiences for demanding clients.

What You Will Be Doing

• Owning the enrollment journey for every prospective family, from first inquiry through onboarding, and running a real needs assessment before you present anything.
• Carrying 20 or more active families at once, answering every inquiry promptly and reviewing applications daily.
• Leading campus tours, open houses, info sessions, and shadow days that show families exactly who this is and is not for.
• Forming the admit or decline recommendation and delivering the decision to the family yourself.
• Keeping HubSpot and the student information system (SIS) current after every interaction, using AI tools like ChatGPT or Claude for prep and summaries, and reporting pipeline health to leadership weekly.

What You Won't Be Doing

• Chasing a seat-fill number. A family who enrolls and leaves is a worse outcome here than a family you turned away.
• Getting overruled on fit to protect a relationship or hit a yield target.
• Running scripts, call blitzes, or discount closes.
• Handing families down a chain of coordinators, or waiting on a committee for routine calls.
• Giving amenity tours that dodge the hard questions.

Director Of Client Relations Key Responsibilities

Enroll the right families at one campus and make even the declines feel like good service.

Basic Requirements

• 3 or more years in a client-facing role where an individual or family was the buyer at $25,000 or more per client, or $2,000 or more per month. (Direct B2C/D2C only; B2B and enterprise sales are not applicable.)
• You have personally owned a client, admissions, or enrollment journey from first inquiry through the commitment decision.
• You have managed 7 or more client relationships at once in a CRM, database, or tracking system.
• You have told a prospective client not to buy, enroll, or join because it was not the right fit.
• You have used AI tools in a client-facing workflow.
• You communicate concisely and professionally in live conversations and writing with executives, high-net-worth individuals, or other demanding clients.
• You have personally led polished in-person tours, presentations, meetings, or hosted experiences for affluent families, senior executives, or other high-profile visitors.
• You can build a multi-touch relationship over 30 or more days and stay engaged with families who are not ready to enroll immediately.
• You have personally owned an enrollment, membership, client-count or revenue target for at least 12 months, with results you can explain.
• You have built a demand channel that brought in paying clients or enrolled families, and owned a referral relationship with an external organization that sent them to you.
• You live in, or will move within 60 days to, an open campus market: Los Angeles, La Jolla, or Malibu, CA; Austin, TX; Boca Raton, FL; Boston, MA; Chicago, IL; Greenwich, CT; Nashville, TN; or Park City, UT.
• Willing to work on-site at your campus daily.
• Authorized to work in the United States without visa sponsorship.

This role is titled Director of Client Relations here, and the requirements above describe exactly the kind of client-relationship ownership that title implies: a buyer who is a family, a long sales cycle, a CRM full of active relationships, and a willingness to say no when fit isn't there.

If your "client relations" background is B2B account management, note the explicit carve-out: this role is direct B2C/D2C only, with an individual or family as the buyer at $25,000+ per client or $2,000+/month.

Nice-to-have Requirements

• Admissions or enrollment management experience at a selective private, independent, or boarding school.
• Luxury residential real estate, private banking, family office, concierge medicine, or high-end event planning, where the family was your buyer.
• You built the enrollment process or service standards yourself instead of inheriting them.
• You already know affluent families, preschools, or family advisors in one of the 10 markets.
• Owner-operator experience where you sold, delivered, and kept high-value clients yourself.

About Alpha

Join the team building school around student growth

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.

There is so much to cover for this exciting role, and space here is limited. We look forward to meeting you!

Working with us

This is a full-time, W2 employee position with immediate access to benefits. All roles are year-long positions. The compensation level for this role is $200,000 USD/year. The payment period is weekly. Consult www.crossover.com/help-and-faqs for more details on this topic.