Emerge Career

Senior Program Manager, New Initiatives

New York, USA · Senior

Sponsorship not specified$70k-$115kDetected 348 days ago

Communication

About the role

Our vision is to become the country's unified workforce development system, replacing disconnected brick-and-mortar job centers with one integrated, tech-powered solution that meets low-income individuals exactly where they are.
Today, the federal government spends billions annually on education and training programs, yet only about 70% of participants graduate, just 38.6% secure training-related employment, and average first-year earnings hover around $34,708.
By contrast, our seven-person team has already outperformed the job centers in two entire states (Vermont and South Dakota) in just the past year.

As the owner of the first cohort in a new vocation, you will cultivate industry partnerships, design the launch playbook, and personally guide each participant through training, certification, and placement, proving the model works before we scale it nationwide.
Discover & validate new vocations (0→1).
Design the pilot experience.
Partner with Ops to recruit a "lighthouse" cohort, screen for fit, and guide students through training, certification, and job placement-owning outcomes end-to-end.
Stand up scrappy processes, build automations, and lightweight tooling (Retool, Customer.io, Zapier) to test assumptions and shrink time-to-insight.
Document the blueprint.
Own strategy, ops, and relationship-building; chase blockers until they move; and keep the bar high on speed, quality, and student impact.
We're not just building software; we're creating pathways to real second chances.
Because of this experience both Zo and Gabe understood what it took to create change from within the system.

recidivism, fueled by post-incarceration unemployment and poverty, and labor shortages in key industries.
Over 60% of formerly incarcerated people remain unemployed a year after incarceration, seeking work but not finding it.
A more in-depth discussion about your background, experiences, and goals.
Reference checks.
All travel expenses will be covered.

Reference checks.
We will select 3-4 people you've worked with and request introductions.
We will request these when the time comes.
We're looking for honest and raw not flawless references Paid Work Trial (2-5 days).
You'll come onsite to work on a real project, with access to internal tools and team collaboration.
You'll be paid $500 per day.

Emerge Career's mission is to break the cycle of poverty and incarceration.
Through an all-in-one platform deeply embedded within the criminal justice system, we recruit, train, and place justice-impacted individuals into life-changing careers.
With an 89% graduation rate and 92% of graduates securing training-related employment, our alumni aren't just getting jobs-they're launching new lives with average first-year earnings of $77,352.
The results speak for themselves, and we're just getting started.
Before Emerge, our founders Zo and Gabe co-founded Ameelio, an award-winning tech nonprofit that is dismantling the prison communication duopoly.
Backed by tech luminaries like Reid Hoffman, Vinod Khosla, and Jack Dorsey, and by major criminal-justice philanthropies such as Arnold Ventures and the Mellon Foundation, Ameelio became a recognized leader in the space.
After serving over 1M people impacted by incarceration, they witnessed firsthand the gap in second-chance opportunities and the chronic unemployment plaguing those impacted by the justice system.
Emerge Career is committed to solving this issue.
Our students are at the heart of our work.

This listing is sourced directly from Emerge Career's careers page and normalized into a canonical job model.