Job Description
Job Summary:
The VP of Programs leads the strategy and execution behind Scholars of Finance’s core student experience—ensuring our chapters and programs are consistent, high-quality, and deeply impactful nationwide. You will be a key decision-maker on the Executive Team, leading a team that supports campus leaders, delivers flagship programming, and strengthens SOF’s curriculum and measurement over time. This role is a rare opportunity to shape the community, content, and systems that will influence thousands of future leaders who will one day shape our economic system. The starting salary for this role is $140K.
About Scholars of Finance
Scholars of Finance is a rapidly growing organization on a mission to transform our economic system to help make the world a better place. We are sending thousands of purpose-driven, principled future leaders into the finance industry to positively influence the trillions of dollars it manages and allocates. College is the entry point into finance, so we provide leadership development to undergraduates and help them secure roles in finance where they can effect systemic change.
Since 2019 we’ve raised more than $10M and impacted 7,000+ students across 60+ universities, and we’re just getting started. We’re a close, motivated team with a big vision of a future where all finance leaders steward the world’s capital with integrity, humility, compassion, and excellence. We are fortunate to be backed by world-class Founding Partners like BlackRock, Goldman Sachs and U.S. Bank, and are being advised by incredible leaders in the industry to achieve our mission.
Transformation You’ll Drive
- Build the best student leadership development organization in the world—where students become purpose-driven, principled, high-performing future leaders with the ability to affect systemic change in finance.
- Lead 10+ programs, across 60+ sites, for 4,000+ students to deliver transformative impact consistently.
- Turn a strong brand and leadership community into a high-energy national movement that transforms the lives of everyone involved.
- Develop and empower a team that multiplies impact with clear priorities, strong coaching, and excellence that scales.
What You’ll Do - Executive Leadership and Management
- Set the vision, priorities, and operating cadence for Programs, aligned to strategy and student outcomes.
- Lead, coach, and develop a high-performing team for leadership coaching, program development, and program management.
- Build a culture of trust, accountability, and continuous improvement among our Programs team members.
- Own key decisions and trade-offs across chapter health, program execution, and program evolution—driving clarity, focus, and speed.
- Build and run the Programs operating system (KPIs, dashboards, meeting rhythms, escalation paths, and retrospectives).
- Partner cross-functionally to ensure Programs work is integrated with Technology, Operations, Corporate Partnerships, and Development.
- Manage budgets and resourcing, anticipating seasonal workload shifts and adjusting plans accordingly.
What You’ll Do - Chapter Success & Leadership Coaching
- Lead the Chapter Success & Leadership Coaching team—coaching Chapter Success Managers & Leadership Coaches to strengthen student leader performance, retention, and oversight.
- Improve the chapter leader experience through scalable playbooks, training, communications, and systems that reduce friction.
- Define what a “healthy chapter” is and drive consistent program execution and student engagement across the network each term.
- Implement early-warning monitoring and escalation for at-risk chapters and sensitive situations, ensuring timely, values-aligned responses.
- Use data and field insights to diagnose patterns, prioritize investments, and raise network-wide outcomes.
- Strengthen key campus relationships as needed and ensure high-quality external-facing chapter interactions.
What You’ll Do - Program Research and Development
- Drive the R&D agenda for student programming and measurement—balancing innovation with operational feasibility and scale.
- Own learning and measurement systems (e.g., surveys, feedback loops), translating insights into clear program improvements.
- Guide the iteration of flagship curriculum and experiences, ensuring high quality and strong enablement for facilitators and implementers.
- Maintain a prioritized pipeline of program improvements and experiments with clear hypotheses, success metrics, and documentation.
- Ensure program materials and implementation guidance are scalable and usable by the Chapter Success & Leadership Coaching team.
What You’ll Need - Foundational Qualifications
- 10+ years of relevant experience leading programs and/or operations in finance, education, leadership development, talent, community, or mission-driven organizations
- 3+ years of experience managing and developing high-performing teams managing multiple different workstreams and timelines.
- Strong cross-functional leadership, including the proven ability to manage competing priorities and find win-win solutions.
- Ownership and execution in fast-moving, deadline-driven environments. Experience in startups, scaleups, or high-growth companies strongly preferred.
- Exceptional written and verbal communication. You can write with precision quickly and serve as a public face of an organization confidently.
- Proven ability to launch and improve programs with clear goals, timelines, resourcing, and measurable outcomes.
- Bachelor’s degree required with a track record of high performance, strong judgment, and continuous improvement.
What You’ll Need - Leadership and Management
- Experience building and running an operating cadence that drives execution: priorities, metrics, accountability, and adaptation.
- Ability to lead through others across multiple workstreams, including full-time staff, interns, contractors, and senior stakeholders.
- Track record maintaining consistent program quality across multiple sites/chapters and improving performance over time.
- Strong people leadership: you coach, set clear expectations, and build followership. You can coach coaches, empowering others to multiply impact and extend culture.
What You’ll Need - Mentality for Success
- Mission-driven: you love our mission and have a passion for making finance a force for good and a commitment to developing ethical & morally sound leaders.
- Systems-and-scale orientation: you build repeatable processes that enable consistent quality across a growing footprint.
- Strong strategic judgment: you identify opportunities, anticipate risks, and make clear trade-offs, considering all stakeholders affected.
- Measurement mindset: you use data and feedback to improve effectiveness and communicate impact to senior stakeholders.
- Growth mindset: you seek and thrive on feedback, and you proactively drive your own growth and learning to expand your impact.
- Humility: you are both a leader and a “do-er.” After building a strategy, you’ll roll up your sleeves and do whatever it takes to get it done.
- Courage: you challenge the status quo when logic and reason require it. You will speak up when you believe something isn’t right or must change.
- SOF Values & Principles: You exemplify the four values and 12 principles of Scholars of Finance, both professionally and personally.
Benefits You’ll Enjoy
- 401(k) match (100% match up to 5% of the base salary)
- Generous health, dental, and vision insurance
- Unlimited PTO; all federal holidays off
- Quarterly team offsites, expenses fully-paid when in-person
- High-growth culture to accelerate your professional development
- A unique company ensuring all team members thrive holistically
$140,000 - $150,000 a year
We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process, such as reviewing applications, analyzing resumes, or assessing responses. These tools assist our recruitment team but do not replace human judgment. Final hiring decisions are ultimately made by humans. If you would like more information about how your data is processed, please contact us.
