Partnership Account Specialist II

The Clearing House; Herndon (VA); Remote; USD 68,000 - 75,000; Full time

Job summary

A national education data organization is seeking a Specialist II for Partnership Initiatives in Herndon, Virginia. The role involves driving the adoption of services and fostering partnerships with educational entities while ensuring effective communication and collaboration across teams. Interested candidates should possess a Bachelor's degree and at least three years of relevant experience in operations or business development. This position offers a remote-first model with occasional on-site requirements.

Benefits

Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision insurance

401k matching contributions

Flexible spending accounts

Employee Education Assistance Program

Paid parental leave

Qualifications

• 3 years of experience in operations, business development, or customer service.
• Proficient in analyzing data and deriving insights.
• Excellent communication skills to convey complex topics simply.

Responsibilities

• Support partnership initiatives aligned with organizational goals.
• Monitor performance metrics of partnership strategies.
• Collaborate with internal teams to enhance service offerings.

Skills

Customer relationship management

Communication skills

Project management

Problem-solving

Data analysis

Education

Bachelor's degree

Tools

Microsoft Office Suite

Salesforce

Job description

About the Role:

The Specialist II, Partnership Initiatives plays an integral role in supporting the strategy to promote, position and drive the adoption and use of the Clearinghouse’s offerings to educational organizations that have a need to access the company’s data or services. These organizations include governmental and other entities with a legitimate reason to use Clearinghouse data to monitor student progress or to examine trends that impact public policy. Under the direction of the Manager, Partnership Initiatives, this role works directly on, and may lead, partnership initiatives that advance the mission and strategic initiatives of the organization and/or enhance the overall brand of the company.

The Specialist II, Partnership Initiatives exercises sound judgment and can navigate competing demands for creation of new solutions. This position closely monitors the development of initiatives around the expansion of Clearinghouse services and the use of Clearinghouse data, including coordinating the intentional promotion and adoption of data access to partners and education organizations. The ideal candidate understands the importance of the role as it relates to the success of the organization; has a strong understanding of Clearinghouse products and services and their impact across a broad spectrum of business and policy priorities. The candidate provides business intelligence and metrics, working very closely with Education Solutions staff and leadership in defining standard business practices and procedures. This position may need to travel for conferences, events, and/or to client sites, when needed (10% in a given year).

Currently, this is a remote-first position, and this position may be required to periodically work on-site at our office and the frequency would depend on the department/division's requirements. Therefore, candidates must either reside within a reasonable distance to commute to our office or be willing to travel to our office in Herndon, when required.

How You Contribute:

• Demonstrate the Clearinghouse's core competencies: Customer Focus, Optimizes Work Processes, Collaborates, Communicates Effectively, and Be Open and Authentic.
• Provides guidance when selecting, contacting, partnering, and maintaining business relationships with constituencies who align with the Clearinghouse’s mission and/or the leaderships’ strategic priorities.
• Serves as the liaison between business development, product management, and implementation, ensuring that new partnerships, initiatives, and service offerings are aligned with realistic and actionable activities.
• Responsible for overseeing an up to date “coverage map” of channel partner resellers.
• Ensures that appropriate metrics are in place to measure performance and progress towards strategic goals.
• Supports and proposes the strategy for promoting, positioning, and selling Clearinghouse services relating to data to education organizations and leads the organization’s approach to intentionally promote data/insights access as a strategic asset to further company goals and objectives.
• Establish standard operating procedures and parameters to qualify and evaluate potential Clearinghouse partnerships, to include vetting their service line interest/need, qualified use case, and geographical service coverage.
• Manages the process of evaluating, ideating, and implementing strategic corporate partnerships including vetting, contracting, implementing, monitoring, and reporting on partnership efforts.
• Provides daily operational support to partners when and where needed; including the onboarding of new participating institutions, responding to service issues and inquiries, and delegating requests to the appropriate departments accordingly.
• Partners and works cooperatively with others across the Clearinghouse to achieve shared objectives.
• Facilitates the execution of the partnership strategy by working collaboratively across the organization in pursuit of defined corporate goals and objectives.
• Translates and communicates complex topics in a variety of forums, tailoring messages to fit and influence target audiences, both internal and external.
• Advises leadership on critical changes in the competitive landscape, marketplace, and external business environment; drives organizational change by forging new working relationships both externally and internally, across the organization.
• Works with colleagues across the organization to determine how to best report and share current partner portfolio and information; makes necessary updates to internal trackers and ensures that the website is up to date.
• Demonstrate openness to new perspectives and ideas.
• Build trust with internal and external stakeholders by demonstrating consistency between words and actions.

Position may be required to perform other duties as required. These essential functions are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the job. Reasonable accommodations will be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform these essential functions.

What You Bring to the Table:

• Bachelor's degree. A combination of education and experience including military service will also be considered.
• 3 years of progressively responsible operations, business development and/or customer service experience.
• Demonstrated proficiency and knowledge in Clearinghouse services and business processes.
• Proven history of managing customer relationships and expectations in a high-performance environment.
• Demonstrated ability to:
  • Thrive in a fast-paced environment, including experience with conceptualizing and leading projects independently with minimal supervision.
  • Overcome barriers and obstacles to improve organizational outcomes.
• Excellent communication skills, with a demonstrated ability to reduce complex technology terms and concepts into readily understandable concepts.
• Proficient with Microsoft Office Suite and other collaboration tools.
• Must be currently authorized to work in the United States on a full-time basis. We do not intend to sponsor external applicants for work visas, and may consider sponsorship only if no qualified candidates can be found who are authorized to work without sponsorship.
• Must be at least 18 years old.

Additional Desired Qualifications:

• Experience with Salesforce and/or Pardot.
• Familiarity with:
  • Marketing big data and/or data related services.
  • The problems, issues, and methods of education institutions and organizations.

Physical Demands:

• Use of a computer for 8 or more hours a day.
• Use of a telephone and/or copy machine.
• Frequently required to sit for 7 or more hours per day.
• Occasionally required to use hands and fingers to operate, handle, and reach.
• Vision abilities include close vision and the ability to adjust focus.
• May need to travel via car, train, airplane, when needed (10% in a given year).

Benefits and Related Information

The National Student Clearinghouse provides a robust benefit program designed to help meet the needs of each employee and their family, both now and in the future. We offer comprehensive medical, dental, and vision insurance, as well as life and disability insurance benefits, for employees and their qualified dependents. Health care, dependent care, and limited purpose flexible spending accounts, as well as a health savings account, are options available for employees to set aside pre-taxed dollars for certain qualifying expenses. We offer a very generous 401k matching contribution program with the opportunity to defer pre-tax and Roth contributions, as well as catch-up contributions for those who are eligible! We are proud to offer a competitive paid leave program consisting of vacation, sick, and personal time, as well as paid holidays, up to 3 weeks of paid parental leave during a 12-month period, and up to 5 days of paid military leave per calendar year. Vacation time will accrue based on length of service, and new full-time hires can accrue up to 13 days of vacation and up to 10 days of sick time per year. On an annual basis, new employees may use up to 32 hours of accrued sick time as personal time. Additionally, the Clearinghouse observes at least 11 paid holidays per year. Another perk is that employees have the option to get reimbursed for basic wholesale company and roadside assistance memberships (e.g., Costco and AAA) and to request a buy back on portions of unused accrued vacation based on tenure and certain other qualifications. Employees can further their education and professional development by using our Employee Education Assistance Program, which establishes reimbursement for qualified education expenses upon successful completion of the program, and leveraging the enterprise-wide LinkedIn Learning subscription. There are additional employee benefits too, including but not limited to, mental health and well-being benefits. To find out more, please request a copy of our Benefits at a Glance!

Additionally, we reasonably believe that the salary range for this position is between $68,000 - $75,000.

The pay range listed above represents a general guideline and is not a guarantee of compensation or salary, and the National Student Clearinghouse considers a number of factors when determining base pay for offers, which include but are not limited to, responsibilities and scope of the job and the candidate’s experience, education, knowledge, skills, and abilities, as well as internal equity and alignment with market data. Internal Candidates: If you feel that you qualify and meet the requirements of the job, we highly encourage you to apply and focus on preparing for the application process. Once the final candidates are selected, they can anticipate a review of the compensation prior to any offer made.

This job announcement was posted to the National Student Clearinghouse’s Careers site at www.studentclearinghouse.org/careers on 9/26/2025 and the online application period will be open for at least 3 days. A completed online application is required to be considered for this opportunity.

Equal Opportunity Employer/Protected Veterans/Individuals with Disabilities: The National Student Clearinghouse is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer. Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to actual or perceived race, creed, color, religion, alienage or national origin, ancestry, citizenship status, age, disability or handicap, sex, marital status, veteran status (or known to have a spousal, family, business, social or other relationship or association with a protected veteran), sexual orientation, genetic information, arrest record, natural hairstyle, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, or local laws. Our management team is dedicated to this policy with respect to recruitment, hiring, placement, promotion, transfer, training, compensation, benefits, employee activities and general treatment during employment.

Pay Transparency Notice: The National Student Clearinghouse is a federal contractor that abides by all applicable equal opportunity laws and regulations. Under these laws, companies doing business with the federal government must provide applicants and employees with certain policies, including the following information. The contractor will not discharge or in any other manner discriminate against employees or applicants because they have inquired about, discussed, or disclosed their own pay or the pay of another employee or applicant. However, employees who have access to the compensation information of other employees or applicants as a part of their essential job functions cannot disclose the pay of other employees or applicants to individuals who do not otherwise have access to compensation information, unless the disclosure is (a) in response to a formal complaint or charge, (b) in furtherance of an investigation, proceeding, hearing, or action, including an investigation conducted by the employer, or (c) consistent with the contractor’s legal duty to furnish information. 41 CFR 60-1.35(c)