Program Director, Alpha - $150,000/year USD

Alpha School; Tulsa (OK); On-site; USD 135,000 - 165,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Day-one health benefits

Relocation support

Job summary

Alpha School is seeking a Program Director to build a coaching culture and develop Guides who work directly with students. You will lead life-skills workshops, use performance data to coach staff, and drive student outcomes across multiple campuses in Dallas, Oklahoma City, Austin, Fort Worth, and Tulsa.

Join a fast-moving, student-centered organization that rewards leadership and results with a competitive six-figure compensation and relocation support.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Education, Psychology, Business, Organizational Leadership, or a related field.
• Experience managing adult employees and hiring decisions.
• Proven coaching ability, data-driven problem solving, and youth leadership experience.
• Willingness to work on campus at multiple US locations.
• Legally authorized to work in the United States without visa sponsorship.

Responsibilities

• Develop Guides and coaches to deliver Alpha's coaching model with consistency and high standards.
• Lead life-skills workshops for K-8 students focusing on communication, focus, leadership, and resilience.
• Use student and Guide performance data to identify coaching opportunities and drive improvements weekly.
• Lead motivation sessions to help students own ambitious goals and achieve them.
• Maintain your own student cohort and model coaching excellence and accountability.

Skills

People management

Hiring experience

Coaching

Data-driven decisions

Program development

Education experience

US work authorization

Education

Bachelor's degree in Education, Psychology, Business, Organizational Leadership, or related field

Master's degree in Education, Psychology, Organizational Leadership, or related field

Job description

• Oklahoma City, OK

"the Great Educational Equalizer"

- Philosopher Johnathan Bi, on Alpha School

Alpha is hiring.

• On-site at an Alpha campus: Dallas, TX
• Oklahoma City, OK
• Austin, TX
• Fort Worth, TX
• Tulsa, OK
• $150,000/year W2 salary, paid weekly. Day-one health benefits.
• Relocation support available

The most supportive thing you can do for a kid who scored 99% is tell them they didn't pass.

Not because perfection matters. Because believing someone can do better is one of the greatest acts of respect.

Most schools protect students from failure. Alpha prepares them for success. We believe confidence isn't built by lowering the bar. It's built by helping students achieve things they once thought were out of reach. That belief shapes every decision we make.

Our model is different by design. Students master academics independently using AI-powered learning, freeing adults to focus on the work that changes lives: coaching character, building resilience, developing leadership, and creating the habits that lead to extraordinary outcomes. We don't need adults to deliver content. We need leaders who know how to bring out the best in people.

This role sits at the center of that mission. You'll develop the Guides who work directly with students, helping them become exceptional coaches rather than classroom instructors. You'll lead life skills workshops that students remember years later. You'll use performance data to identify where students or Guides are falling short and coach them back to excellence. You'll also lead your own student cohort, ensuring the standards you expect are the standards you model.

As Program Director, the ripple effect of your leadership is enormous. Every Guide you coach influences dozens of students. Every improvement you make to your campus culture compounds across hundreds of young lives. Success isn't measured by how many meetings you attend or how many reports you write. It's measured by whether students become more confident, more disciplined, more resilient, and more capable because of the culture you helped build.

This isn't a role for someone who wants to preserve the education system. It's for someone who believes young people deserve more than compliance, seat time, and average expectations. If you're energized by coaching people through difficult challenges, using data to drive better decisions, and holding high standards because you genuinely believe others can achieve them, you'll thrive here.

What You Will Be Doing

• Coach and develop Guides to deliver Alpha's coaching model with consistency, energy, and uncompromising standards.
• Lead engaging life skills workshops covering communication, focus, feedback, leadership, and resilience for K-8 students using proven playbooks.
• Use student and Guide performance data to identify coaching opportunities, remove barriers, and drive measurable improvements every week.
• Lead motivation sessions that help every student take ownership of ambitious goals and consistently achieve them.
• Maintain your own student cohort while modeling the coaching excellence and accountability you expect from every Guide.

What You Won’t Be Doing

• Teaching academic subjects. Students learn core academics independently through AI-powered learning applications.
• Writing lesson plans or designing curriculum. Your job is exceptional coaching, not creating instructional materials.
• Managing classrooms through lectures, worksheets, or behavior systems. Students own their learning, and you coach the habits that make success possible.
• Lowering expectations to avoid difficult conversations. High standards and genuine belief in every student's potential go hand in hand.
• Measuring success by activity instead of outcomes. Results matter more than effort alone.

Program Director Key Responsibilities

As Program Director, you'll build a coaching culture where exceptional Guides consistently develop students who love school, master academics at an accelerated pace, and build the resilience, leadership, and life skills to succeed far beyond the classroom.

Basic Requirements

• Willing to work on campus in Dallas, TX; Oklahoma City, OK; Austin, TX; Fort Worth, TX; or Tulsa, OK (relocation support provided).
• Bachelor's degree in Education, Psychology, Business, Organizational Leadership, or a related field.
• 5+ years of experience in education, learning and development, coaching, youth leadership, or a related field.
• Has directly managed one or more adult employees on an ongoing basis.
• Has personally selected at least one candidate for hire into their team.
• Has personally taken and put in writing at least one specific corrective action, directed at a direct report, in response to that person’s underperformance.
• Has personally formally proposed, with supporting justification, or approved the termination of at least one direct report for performance reasons.
• Sustained, recurring responsibility for the learning, behavior, motivation, or growth of children ages 5-14 in an educational, developmental, athletic, or youth leadership setting.
• Track record of building, launching, or significantly growing a program, team, school, business, or initiative from the ground up, rather than simply maintaining or inheriting one.
• Proven ability to use performance metrics and data to diagnose problems, prioritize actions, and deliver measurable results.
• Willingness to work in a school that deliberately rejects traditional pedagogy.
• Legally authorized to work in the United States without visa sponsorship.

Nice-to-have Requirements

• Master's degree in Education, Psychology, Organizational Leadership, or a related field.
• Experience coaching athletics, leading outdoor or experiential education, directing camps, youth programs, or other cohort-based organizations.
• Experience building or leading innovative education, EdTech, tutoring, nonprofit, or learning programs outside traditional classroom teaching.
• Personal history of exceptional achievement in academics, athletics, entrepreneurship, or leadership.
• Strong conviction that education should develop capable, resilient, independent young people rather than simply deliver academic content.

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.

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.