School Strategy Specialist - Chicago

Epic Kids Inc.; Chicago (IL); Hybrid; USD 65,000 - 78,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Mileage reimbursement

Travel coverage

Meals provided

Bonus up to $5K

Epic swag

Job summary

Epic is looking for a Strategic Partnerships Specialist to be the in-person presence in Chicago. You will work with teachers, librarians, and school staff to introduce Epic, support onboarding, and promote daily reading with Epic’s free educator access.

You’ll develop district relationships, run back-to-school demos, and help scale school-wide adoption by aligning with literacy goals and schedules. This is a field-based, educator-to-educator role.

Qualifications

• Experience building relationships with educators and librarians
• Strong communication and presentation skills
• Self-driven with ability to manage multiple schools

Responsibilities

• Own a portfolio of 10 to 15 priority districts and schools, prioritizing by tier.
• Partner with librarians and Epic champions to expand adoption across classrooms.
• Lead short demos at events and staff meetings to drive onboarding.
• Build district connections to move data privacy and program access forward.
• Track field learnings and contribute to the partnership playbook.

Job description

Epic is a digital reading platform for kids 12 and under, with a library of high-quality children’s books, audiobooks, and read-to-me titles. Epic is free for educators, and teachers and librarians across the U.S. use it every day to get kids reading more, with more joy. Many of our biggest champions are school librarians and ELA teachers who brought Epic into their buildings on their own.

About the role

As a Strategic Partnerships Specialist, you’ll be Epic’s local, in-person presence in your community, based inChicago. Your mission: help more educators discover Epic, bring it into their classrooms and libraries, and make reading with Epic part of their everyday routine.

You’ll work with schools and districts in your area, building relationships with teachers, librarians, and school communities. You’ll help educators who already love Epic share it with their colleagues, support teachers as they get started, and introduce Epic to schools that haven’t discovered it yet. This is a grassroots, educator-to-educator role. Epic is free for educators, so this isn’t about selling. It’s about being a trusted local voice who shows teachers how Epic fits into their day.

Along the way, you’ll share what you learn in the field and help shape the school partnership playbook that guides this work as it expands to new markets.

What you’ll do

• Own your portfolio.Work a list of 10 to 15 priority districts and their elementary and K-8 schools, prioritized by tier: schools with only a few active teachers, schools with recent sign-ups who never activated, and schools new to Epic.
• Ignite school wide adoption.Partner with school librarians, existing Epic champions, or library media specialists, to turn one user into a whole school, and re-engage stalled teachers, with a class, students and daily routines like independent reading and read alouds.
• Showcase Epic where educators gather.Lead short demos at back-to-school night and PD at staff meetings, literacy nights, and association events, and industry conferences. Rally schools to attend Epic’s onboarding webinars, co-hosting local sessions where possible.
• Unlock district doors.Build relationships with district library services, ELA and literacy coordinators, instructional coaches, and school leaders who can help Epic reach more classrooms. Flag where Epic isn’t yet on a district’s approved app list and connect the right district contacts with Epic’s team to move data privacy agreements forward.
• Champion healthy screen time.Learn local literacy goals and screen-time concerns, and packed schedules, and position Epic as support for what schools already prioritize.
• Track and celebrate.Log activity in a shared tracker, document weekly learnings and wins for the partnership playbook, and nominate standout educators and schools for recognition.

Who you are

We care more about your connection to kids, books, and classrooms than your title. You might be a great fit if you are:

• Former school principal, assistant superintendent, instructional coach, or education leader with deep, active relationships in Chicago.
• A current or former school librarian, library media specialist, or district library director
• A current or former classroom teacher, especially an ELA or reading teacher, pre-K through 7th grade
• A reading specialist, literacy coach, or instructional coach who supports K-8 teachers

You also bring

• Familiarity with the K-8 education landscape and how teachers and librarians choose the tools they use
• Relationships with educators in your market: teachers, librarians, coaches, and school staff. A superintendent’s phone number is not required.
• A genuine love of children’s books and getting kids reading
• Confidence presenting to teachers, whether in a staff meeting, a library, or a webinar
• A partnership instinct: comfort opening doors, following up, and moving from a first conversation to lasting use
• A self-directed, organized work style and comfort with simple tracking tools like Google Sheets
• Reliable transportation and the ability to visit schools in your market several days a week or as needed
• Comfort with a performance-based compensation component

Nice to have

• You already use Epic as an educator, librarian, or parent, or you’re an a current or past Epic Ambassador looking for a career change.
• Experience in community engagement, edtech partnerships, customer success, or education sales or your school’s PTA
• Connections to local library media associations, reading councils, literacy organizations, or regional education conferences
• Experience working with or inside a county office of education, BOCES, or other regional education agency
• Spanish or another language widely spoken in your market’s school communities

How we’ll measure success

• New teacher and librarian sign-ups in your portfolio
• Activated teachers: classes created, students added, and kids reading
• Growth in active teachers and daily student reading across your schools
• Schools moving up tiers, from a single user toward school-wide adoption
• School visits, educator meetings, and presentations delivered
• Quality of field insights contributed to the playbook

What we provide

• Onboarding and training on Epic, plus ongoing support from the Educator Engagement team
• Usage data and a prioritized school list for your portfolio
• Presentation decks, one-pagers, printed materials, and Epic swag
• Coverage of approved travel, meals, and materials

Compensation and terms

• Compensation:$50 per hour and quarterly bonus of up to $5K based on target achievement.
• Time commitment:25 - 30 hours per week, with 2 to 3 days in schools.
• Commute:Mileage reimbursed based on actuals as per IRS standards ($72.5 cents per mile)

As set forth in Epic Kids Inc.’s Equal Employment Opportunity policy,we do not discriminate on the basis of any protected group status under any applicable law.

If you believe you belong to any of the categories of protected veterans listed below, please indicate by making the appropriate selection.As a government contractor subject to the Vietnam Era Veterans Readjustment Assistance Act (VEVRAA), we request this information in order to measurethe effectiveness of the outreach and positive recruitment efforts we undertake pursuant to VEVRAA. Classification of protected categoriesis as follows:

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