You are mission-driven and action-oriented. You love to get involved and work as part of a team to accomplish something great. Any job is your job if it helps the team succeed, and you thrive on variety. Today, you’re looking for a role where you can use those traits to make a real difference in the world by advancing the most important social issues facing humanity today.

If that sounds like you, Arabella Advisors can’t wait to meet you.

The Associate Director of Learning and Development is a newly created position that sits in Client Services Acceleration (CSA) and reports to the lead of CSA. This person will partner with client service leadership and the knowledge manager to design and deliver timely, relevant, and actionable trainings that improve the quality of client service delivery. This person will also take ownership of the cross-team onboarding curriculum and own content for client service team retreats. This person will also manage a client service focused professional development library.

Essential Responsibilities

Curriculum Development & Technical Assistance (50%)

• In partnership with the lead of Advisory Universal Services, build curriculum for Universal Services practice to ensure staff at all levels have the right knowledge and skills to be flexible generalists and continue to develop at the firm.
• In partnership with Advisory Service leads, build specialized curriculum for evaluation and program management practices
• Coach Advisory senior specialists in building and leading their respective communities of practice to ensure consistent quality
• Collaborate with the Managed Nonprofit Organizations (MO) team members to evaluate and redesign, as necessary, parts of the MO onboarding curriculum; assess learning needs and design appropriate curricula for specialty learning areas.
• Ensure any curriculum supports Advisory and MO client service team members in developing Arabella core competencies.

Onboarding design and management (15%)

• Develop and maintain complete understanding of Arabella services and skills expected of team members by attending orientation sessions and shadowing projects, where appropriate
• Manage and continually improve cross line of business onboarding, design and manage Advisory onboarding, and provide oversight and coaching for MO onboarding
• Refresh and maintain guides for successful onboarding that team members are expected to achieve in a given timeline (e.g. six months into the job

Retreat content ownership (10%)

• Define vision and timing for retreats and lead content development in coordination with internal business leaders and/or representatives

Client Work (20%)

• Manage workstreams and streamlined projects for Advisory and/or MO projects across different services and issues

Other Internal Work (5%)

• Complete other internal tasks as assigned at team and firm level

To Be Successful in This Role, You’ll Need:

• Bachelor’s degree
• 6+ years of work experience with steadily increasing responsibility; at least 2 years in a client services environment (e.g., consulting, legal services)
• Degree, certificate, and/or related experience in learning and development, curriculum design, and/or adult learning is highly desirable
• Ability to manage and lead complex projects, oversee and delegate to others, and meet deadlines
• Excellent presentation and facilitation skills and the ability to manage group dynamics both in-person and during virtual trainings
• Experience in leading learning initiatives and organizational development a plus

Other Characteristics:

• Excellent communication skills, including the capacity to persuasively convey information and concepts to stakeholders
• Highly collaborative working style and strong interpersonal skills
• Resourcefulness that spurs innovation and problem solving
• Flexibility
• Genuinely enjoys people and connecting with them, has a good sense of humor, and likes forging bonds with colleagues
• Is a committed learner who likes to tackle new assignments
• Never settles for the status quo—constantly looking for improvements and identifying best practices
• Commitment to Arabella’s mission and values

Our Core Competencies:

• The ability to provide excellent service, including being able to address complex service matters, implement and communicate service changes to everyone involved, and to coach teammates on how to apply the firm’s service standards
• The ability to manage large-scale and cross-firm projects, including delegating and managing all resources, identifying and implementing improved processes, monitoring consistency across project teams, and providing direction and support to teammates
• The ability to facilitate and negotiate among stakeholders with conflicting needs and to generate consensus among decision makers
• The ability to help effectively communicate difficult messages; to adapt style, tone, and content to meet various needs; and to coach teammates on crafting content
• The ability to work cooperatively and inclusively with others to achieve shared goals, including encouraging and facilitating effective compromise, drawing on the capabilities of all team members, and leading team-level knowledge sharing
• The ability to use available resources and feedback to continually develop mastery in your role and facilitate team and project-level learning, including coaching others
• The ability to solve complex challenges by identifying innovative solutions and facilitating coordination with others

About Arabella Advisors

Arabella Advisors helps foundations, philanthropists and investors who are serious about impact achieve the greatest good with their resources. We work on issues ranging from the social and economic advancement of women and girls, and conservation of our climate and planet, to reducing poverty and inequity in the United States and around the world. Our staff members are mission-driven and action-oriented, and have a unique combination of experience in philanthropy, business, nonprofits, government, finance, law, and other fields. We combine creative, strategic thinking with knowledge and networks developed through decades of hands-on experience. The fastest-growing philanthropic advisory firm in the nation, Arabella is also a certified B Corporation.

About Arabella’s Client Services Acceleration Team

The Client Services Acceleration team (CSA) is the backbone of the client service teams (Advisory and Managed Organizations) at Arabella. CSA ensures that client service team members have the skills, knowledge, and capacity to provide our clients with the high level of service they expect when hiring Arabella. CSA’s role is to ensure we learn from our work, improve our services, recognize gaps in teams’ skills and knowledge and fill them. Every member of the CSA team will also maintain a small portfolio of client work to ensure that CSA remains connected to the work that the client service teams do.

Working with Us

We are committed to having a passion-driven, inclusive, transparent, collaborative, healthy, and fun culture. We invite you to visit our careers page to learn more.

To encourage work/life balance, we offer flexible work options. Our office is an open space with cubicles and standing desks and informal work areas. Our salaries are closer to the range of a nonprofit and our benefits are excellent. You’ll start with three weeks of vacation, 80 hours of personal time, and 20 hours of paid time to volunteer at an organization of your choice. In addition to six federal holidays, you get to pick four more from a list of inclusive religious holidays and your birthday.

We have a competitive health package that includes medical, vision, dental, and prescription insurance. We also provide funds for professional development, a fitness benefit, and cover part of your personal cell phone plan.

How to Apply

Submit a resume and a one-page cover letter online. The cover letter should address why you’re excited to work at Arabella and why you’re qualified for this specific job.

We value diversity and inclusion and encourage all qualified people to apply. If we can make this easier through accommodation in the recruitment process, please let us know.

While Arabella is open to individuals from various locations applying to join our team, please note that we generally are unable to pay for relocation expenses.

We will review applications as they are received and look forward to hearing from you.