Named one of the Top 50 Start-Ups by Built In Austin, Skills Fund is the leading lender in the United States for skills-based higher education.  We underwrite higher education programs based on their jobs outcomes for students, and offer their students access to competitive financing products that empower them to transform their careers and lives.

Since our founding 2 years ago, we’ve enabled thousands of students to obtain a high return on their education. 

What's the opportunity?

• You’ll implement day-to-day the company’s strategic communication plan to build our brand and engage key stakeholders, with a particular emphasis on research, original thought leadership content creation, and event planning. You easily collaborate with colleagues to generate ideas and translate those into powerful, actionable opportunities.
• Using the company’s empirical data and anecdotal insights, as well as third-party data, you will research key issues and trends on the connections among higher education, workforce training, employment and labor markets, lending and student loans, and economic mobility, prosperity and civic vitality. You effectively research beyond Google searches, including data analysis, interviewing sources, and synthesizing disparate types of information.
• You’ll create, present, and communicate research findings and data analyses in a way external stakeholders understand (read: kitchen table English) across a variety of media (blog posts, whitepapers, visualizations, web videos, podcasts, etc.).
• You’ll manage relationship tracking with key members of our growing tribe of stakeholders, understanding what topics engage different people and the best mechanisms to engage them. You’ll assist with maintaining our CRM and organize events both locally and nationally to amplify our work. You’ll establish and track key metrics to measure the impact and success the company’s communication plan.
• You’ll assist with a variety of company public relations efforts, including drafting press releases, op-eds, email campaigns, and media outreach.

What does it take to succeed?

Attitude: Positive, tenacious, curious, fun, inviting, warm. No BS. Zero office politics. No task is below you.  If you’re seeking to be a specialist in back-end or front-end, this position isn’t for you.  We all act with ownership over the company’s success and love having responsibility over many areas.

Qualities: Purpose-driven. Relentless in achieving important results. Have uncommonly high standards. Eager to take ownership. Exquisite ability to shift and focus and juggle many responsibilities at once. Welcome ambiguity and have a bias to action, even in its midst.

Disorders: Must love details to a fault.  Your friends say you talk in numbers.

Time: You’re ready for game time anytime. 9 – 5 = 4.

Fun: Must know it, have it, and be able to inspire.  You find joy in hard work. 

Impact: You’re hungry to be a part of something bigger than yourself. You don’t work just to make money. You work to create significant impact and have extreme dedication to professional and personal growth. You’re looking for an opportunity to build a great career and take on responsibility way above what you would receive in other organizations.

What do you need to apply?

Research Ability: This position is ideal for someone with research experience, ideally primary research including surveys, interviews, observations, and ethnographic research, and an understanding how to use and integrate in cohesive fashion both primary and secondary sources.

Statistical Ability: You understand statistics and are comfortable with basic quantitative data and research (Excel doesn’t scare you – ideally you are semi-proficient).

Communication Skills:  You write well and engagingly. You are as comfortable writing a white paper as a short blog post – and understand that a picture (or graphic or visualization) can often be worth a thousand words. You have excellent verbal communication skills, both listening and speaking.

Subject Matter Passion:  Standing at the nexus of education, finance, and labor markets, Skills Fund is leading the creation of new and better pathways to prosperity. You are downright excited – giddy almost – to become a subject matter expert on the intersection of economics, public policy, labor markets, education, and debt as they impact both national and individual prosperity, opportunity, enlightenment, and success.