Regional Placement Manager

Education First; Boston (MA); On-site; USD 55,000 - 60,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

401(k) match

Health insurance

Paid vacation

Travel opportunities

Job summary

Education First (EF) is seeking a Regional Placement Manager in Boston, MA to lead a team of local coordinators across your region. You’ll recruit host families, engage with schools and communities, and build relationships to create great matches for international students.

You’ll manage a large portfolio, use data to drive action, coach coordinators, and identify opportunities to turn prospects into placements. Some travel and flexible schedule may be required.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or commensurate experience in a related field.
• Strong communication and relationship-building skills.
• Experience coaching, motivating or holding others accountable to goals is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Coach, motivate and hold local coordinators accountable to individual and team placement goals.
• Manage a large portfolio of placement opportunities, using data, activity and pipeline information to identify priorities and drive action.
• Help coordinators create clear action plans, prioritize their opportunities and consistently follow through.
• Develop creative strategies to recruit new host families and create placement opportunities within local communities.
• Build strong relationships with coordinators, schools, community organizations, host families and other local partners.
• Develop a strong understanding of your region, including local communities, school policies and placement opportunities.
• Help your team identify the right student for each host family and work through challenges that arise during the matching process.
• Make outbound calls, follow up consistently and work collaboratively across HSEY to keep opportunities moving and deliver a positive experience for students, host families and our local partners.

Skills

Relationship-building

Coaching

Communication

Goal-oriented

Data-driven

Education

Bachelor’s degree or commensurate experience

Job description

EF High School Exchange Year brings international high school students to the U.S. for a semester or academic year, where they live with volunteer host families and become part of a local community. To make those cultural exchange dreams a reality, we first need to find great host families and connect them with the right students. That's where you come in!

As a Regional Placement Manager, you will lead a team of local coordinators across your region and help them build the relationships, opportunities and partnerships that lead to great host family matches. You'll coach, motivate and hold your team accountable as they recruit new host families, engage with local schools and communities, and create awareness around the value of cultural exchange.

Once a host family is found, you'll help your team identify the right student match and work through the details needed to create a successful experience for everyone involved. You'll manage a large portfolio of opportunities, use data and activity to understand what's happening across your region, and constantly look for ways to turn opportunities into action.

At the heart of this role is helping people take action, building strong local communities and making dreams come true for students around the world.

What you’ll do

Regional Placement Managers are relationship builders, coaches, strategists and problem-solvers. You'll work closely with a large group of local coordinators, helping them stay focused on their goals, navigate challenges and take the right actions to find host families and create successful matches.

• Coach, motivate and hold local coordinators accountable to individual and team placement goals.
• Manage a large portfolio of placement opportunities, using data, activity and pipeline information to identify priorities and drive action.
• Help coordinators create clear action plans, prioritize their opportunities and consistently follow through.
• Develop creative strategies to recruit new host families and create placement opportunities within local communities.
• Build strong relationships with coordinators, schools, community organizations, host families and other local partners.
• Develop a strong understanding of your region, including local communities, school policies and placement opportunities.
• Help your team identify the right student for each host family and work through challenges that arise during the matching process.
• Make outbound calls, follow up consistently and work collaboratively across HSEY to keep opportunities moving and deliver a positive experience for students, host families and our local partners.

Experience managing a sales or recruitment pipeline is helpful, as is a competitive streak, an entrepreneurial spirit and a willingness to tackle challenges head on. Most importantly, we're looking for someone who knows how to build trust, inspire action and deliver results.

What we’re looking for

This role is a strong fit for someone who enjoys building relationships, being on the phone, working toward clear goals and helping others take action. You don't have to have every answer, but you do need to be someone who can ask the right questions, find solutions and keep moving when things get challenging.

• Bachelor’s degree or commensurate experience, with relevant experience in sales, volunteer management, recruiting, customer success or another relationship-driven role.
• Strong communication and relationship-building skills, with the ability to influence action and move work forward without direct authority.
• Experience coaching, motivating or holding others accountable to goals is a plus.
• Comfortable with outbound calling, high-volume outreach and consistent follow-up.
• Strong organizational skills and the ability to manage multiple priorities and a large portfolio of opportunities without losing sight of the details.
• Comfortable using data, activity and performance metrics to guide decisions and measure progress.
• Motivated by clear goals and energized by working in a fast-paced, performance-driven environment.
• Positive, adaptable and solution-oriented, with the judgment and follow-through to navigate challenges and changing priorities.
• Genuine interest in international education and experience working with people from diverse cultures and backgrounds is a plus.
• Ability to travel 2 - 4 times per year and work occasional evenings or shift weekend days as needed.

Why you’ll love working here: perks, benefits, and more!

This is the most fun, high caliber place you’ll ever work. Ask any employee why they love EF (whether they’ve been here 10 minutes or 10 years) and they’ll probably tell you the same thing: it’s the people. When you work at EF, you join a purpose-driven, international and energetic community that thrives on continuous learning, fearless innovation and mutual support.

In addition, you can expect:

• Commitment to professional growth: robust monthly calendar of trainings and workshops
• Four weeks paid vacation your first year, ten paid holidays, and two floating holidays
• Exciting business travel opportunities
• 25% company match on your 401(k) contributions
• Market-leading medical, dental and vision coverage, along with options for life and disability insurance, legal and pet insurance
• Dependent care, healthcare and commuter Flex Spending Accounts (FSAs)
• Access to fertility care and family-building support
• Wellness benefits including a yearly fitness reimbursement
• Frequent social and learning events, including access to our employee-run resource groups
• Robust Employee Assistance Program
• Tenure-based sabbatical eligibility
• EF Product Discounts (discounts on travel, international language schools, Au Pair program and more)
• Discounts at local venues and businesses
• Amazing offices designed to match the caliber of the people who work there, plus the flexibility of working from home one day a week.
• Compensation range for this role is $55,000 to $60,000, based on experience. Bonus potential is available based on individual sales performance. This role is eligible for overtime.

About Us

Some companies are in the business of banking. Others are in the business of shoes. Or sports. Or soft drinks. At EF, we're in a different kind of business. One that's a little less tangible, and a lot more important. Because our business, what we make, makes everything else possible. We're in the business of understanding. Between people. Between cultures.

For over half a century we’ve been the leader in international educational programs and experiences designed to foster such understanding. Through language, cultural exchange, academic studies, and educational travel, we create the kinds of immersive experiences that challenge biases, open minds, and pave the way for a more understanding world.

You’ll find our offices and schools located in some of the world’s greatest cities, and filled with smart, driven people (over 50,000 of us) who push each other to be better every day. But it’s what we do together - building greater understanding, breaking down barriers, and creating a better world - that makes all the difference.

Founded in 1965 in Sweden, EF (Education First) is a global association of education companies that share a common mission of opening the world through education. EF has been recognized on Forbes 2025 and 2024 World’s Best Employers and 2024 Top Companies for Women lists, Fast Company’s 2025 Next Big Things In Tech, and was a 2024 App Store Award winner in Cultural Impact.

About the Team

EF High School Exchange Year is a non-profit high school foreign exchange program affiliated with Education First. We’ve been promoting global awareness through student exchange for over 40 years. Our ideals are simple: we believe that cultural exchange makes the world a better place. We bring high school students from around the world to live with volunteer host families across the USA for a semester or full academic year. This J-1 Visa exchange program fosters cross-cultural understanding, tolerance, open-mindedness and global connections.