---
title: 'Senior Manager, Strategic Partnerships at Pursuit'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/senior-manager-strategic-partnerships-pursuit-new-york-3rnrc79c96gp'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-17'
---

# Senior Manager, Strategic Partnerships at Pursuit

- **Company:** Pursuit
- **Location:** New York, NY
- **Posted:** 2026-09-14
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-17
- **Apply:** https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/pursuit/jobs/8201016

## Job description

## About Pursuit

Pursuit is a social impact organization building the future of economic mobility in the age of AI. For over a decade, we've transformed lives through immersive training programs that propel adults from low-income backgrounds — often without college degrees — into high-growth tech careers. Our graduates, who we call Builders, have generated nearly $1 billion in lifetime wage gains.

As AI reshapes every industry, Pursuit is becoming an AI-native organization — training AI-native talent, embedding AI into our operations, and building scalable systems to extend our impact. From local partnerships to national policy, we're rethinking how opportunity works at scale.

## The Role

Pursuit is hiring a Senior Manager, Strategic Partnerships to join our External Affairs team at a pivotal moment of growth.

This role sits at the intersection of government and education/workforce partnerships, policy, and execution. You will be the day-to-day operating lead for a multi-year, state-funded initiative that brings Pursuit’s AI-native training to three New York regions in partnership with community colleges, workforce nonprofits, and regional economic development organizations. You'll take it from contract award through partner mobilization to launch, and then help us turn what we learn into a model other markets can run.

The ideal candidate is a strong operator and relationship-builder who thrives in complex, multi-stakeholder environments, brings rigor to systems and processes, and understands how partnerships power mission-driven scale. You are comfortable being the person who holds the timeline when multiple organizations each own a piece of it.

## What You'll Do

Partner Management & Delivery

- Serve as the day-to-day owner of a portfolio of workforce, higher education, employer, and economic development partners
- Run the partnership operating rhythm: recurring check-ins, all-partner convenings, and a shared view of status, owners, and next steps that every party trusts
- Shepherd agreements from term sheet to execution in partnership with cross-functional internal stakeholders
- Negotiate and hold the line on deliverables, timelines, and shared definitions: who recruits, who teaches, who reports, what counts as success
- Surface partner risk early and drive it to resolution rather than reporting it
- Onboard new partners and build the templates, briefing materials, and playbooks that make the next partnership faster to stand up

Grant & Contract Stewardship

- Manage public grants and contracts from post-award through closeout: workplans, milestones, reporting calendars, and modifications
- Own reporting, compliance, documentation, and audit readiness, including subrecipient monitoring and pass-through requirements
- Serve as the primary operational point of contact for government partners
- Partner with Finance on budgets, invoicing, reimbursement mechanics, disbursement schedules, and partner payments

Cross-Functional Execution

- Translate external commitments into internal project plans with defined scope, timelines, named owners, and deliverables — and hold the org to them
- Run the internal cadence that keeps delivery on track: workstream check-ins, milestone or gate reviews, and a single source of truth for status
- Partner with Program and Instruction on staffing, curriculum adaptation, train-the-trainer, and cohort calendars; with Admissions and Recruitment on candidate profiles and enrollment targets; with Finance on contracting and subawards
- Broker decisions that cross team lines, escalating clearly, with options and a recommendation, rather than letting them sit
- Drive internal knowledge sharing and continuous improvement based on partner insights, project learnings, and ecosystem trends
- Use AI tools daily to compress the operational overhead of this work — tracking, drafting, synthesis, reporting — and share what works with the team

Ecosystem & Representation

- Represent Pursuit in external meetings, working groups, site visits, and industry convenings
- Contribute to partnership strategy, thought leadership, and convening efforts, including materials that travel to funders, policymakers, and employer partners
- Bring the field back in-house: what peer organizations, agencies, and employers are doing, and what it means for Pursuit's strategy

What Success Looks Like

In your first 90 days, you know every partner organization and its key people by name, you own a live status picture that leadership and partners both rely on, and you've closed the open agreements and definitions that gate launch.

By the end of your first year, the regions have launched on schedule, funder reporting is timely and clean, partners describe working with Pursuit as unusually well-run, and the operating model you built is documented well enough to be run again in a new market.

## About You

Required

- 5+ years of experience across some partnerships, grants or contract management, policy, and program operations
- Direct experience managing government funding — state, federal, or city grants or contracts — including reporting and compliance obligations
- Demonstrated project management ability in environments with multiple external organizations and no direct authority over them
- Excellent written and verbal communication; you can write the partner email, the funder memo, and the internal status update, and each one lands with its audience
- Comfort operating across teams and managing multiple priorities against hard external deadlines
- A detail-oriented executor who can also think systemically — you fix the instance and then fix the process
- Genuine interest in AI, workforce development, and economic mobility

## Preferred

- Experience with workforce and higher education institutions
- Familiarity with subrecipient monitoring, cost reimbursement contracts, or multi-party subgrant structures
- Experience standing something new up — a program, a partnership, a market — rather than only maintaining it
- Hands-on fluency with AI tools in your own workflow

Logistics

- Reports to Vice President, Head of External Affairs
- Individual contributor role
- Hybrid, based in our Long Island City office [3 days/week in office]
- Expect periodic travel within New York State (once per quarter) for partner site visits.

Salary & Benefits

The expected salary range for this role is $140,000–$160,000 base, commensurate with experience.

The compensation range above reflects the expectations laid out in this job description; we are often open to a wide variety of profiles and recognize the person we hire may be less experienced (or more senior) than posted. If that ends up being the case, the updated salary range will be communicated to you as a candidate.

Pursuit offers:

- An opportunity to work at the intersection of tech and social impact, and make a direct impact on the communities we serve
- Competitive compensation in base, plus bonus and a full benefits package
- 401k match
- Unlimited PTO and an all-Pursuit summer break the last week of August and a week-long holiday the last week of December
- Monday and Friday work-from-anywhere policy
- Catered lunches once a week and delicious snacks
- Dedicated time to build in AI and hone your AI skills

Pursuit Values Diversity

Our team has a wide range of backgrounds and experiences, and we value the richness that diversity brings to our organization. We welcome new perspectives and affirm that all employment decisions are made without regard to race, color, ancestry, religion, national origin, age, familial or marital status, sex, sexual orientation, pregnancy, gender identity or expression, disability, genetic information, veteran status, or any other classification protected by federal, state, or local law. Pursuit is an equal opportunity employer.

## About Pursuit

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Pursuit is a social impact organization that transforms lives by training adults from underrepresented communities for high-growth careers in AI and technology, using an innovative outcomes-based financing model.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Nonprofit)
- **Headquarters**: Long Island City, New York, USA
- **Founded**: Not publicly available
- **Founders**: Not publicly available

## Core Business
- Primary industry: Workforce development, technology education, AI training, and employer services.
- Target customers: B2B (employer partners ranging from startups to Fortune 500 companies) and B2C (adult learners, referred to as “Builders,” from low-income and underrepresented backgrounds).
- Mission or purpose statement: “To create transformation” by catalyzing long-term change through community development, a revolutionary training and employment program, an innovative financing model, and sustained career support.

## Products & Services
- **Pursuit AI-Native Program**: Flagship training program that equips Builders with AI skills, professional competencies, and community support to thrive in AI-driven workplaces. Includes career coaching and a sourced job opportunity with partner employers.
- **Employer Partnerships (Pursuit Commit)**: Helps companies hire, retain, and nurture talent from non-traditional backgrounds through on-the-job support, training, and retention services.
- **Pursuit Bond**: An outcomes-based financing model that ties funding to successful long-term career outcomes, leveraging impact investment and capital markets alongside philanthropy.
- **Community Development**: Outreach and programs that introduce AI concepts early, making technology approachable and accessible to excluded communities.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not applicable (nonprofit). The organization is in the early stages of a multi-year campaign with a directional goal of $45 million over three years.
- **Key Metric**: Historically, program participants have experienced a 400%+ jump in income on average, earning a starting salary of approximately $94,000 (up from an average of $18,000 before the program).
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Employer hiring partners include venture-backed startups and Fortune 500 companies. Specific names not listed in sources, but cited as “best-in-class partners, funders, and employers.”
- **Growth Signals**: Shift to an AI-first curriculum, scaling fundraising to $45M, hybrid work model, and active hiring for senior roles (Director of Individual Giving, Chief of Staff, Account Executive for Job Outcomes).

## Competitive Advantages
- **Outcomes-Based Financing (Pursuit Bond)**: Aligns funding with actual job placement and career success, reducing risk for funders and incentivizing long-term support.
- **Integrated Model**: Combines community development, AI training, employer partnerships, and lifelong career support in a single, compounding system.
- **Proven Income Lift**: 400%+ average income increase and $2M lifetime earnings boost per Builder.
- **AI-Native Focus**: Early mover in preparing non-traditional talent for AI-driven roles, with a curriculum built around AI skills.

## Strategic Focus
- Scaling the AI-Native Program to meet growing demand for AI talent.
- Expanding employer partnerships to secure more job opportunities and improve retention.
- Raising $45 million through a multi-year campaign to fund growth and sustainability.
- Strengthening individual giving and philanthropy to diversify funding sources.

## Why Work Here
- **Mission-Driven Impact**: Employees directly contribute to economic transformation for individuals, families, and communities, tackling systemic inequality.
- **Hybrid Work Culture**: Office in Long Island City with a hybrid approach; includes group lunches, happy hours, and game nights.
- **Benefits**: Premium health, dental, and vision coverage; virtual care and mental health platforms; health club/fitness class memberships; unlimited PTO; flexible parental leave; 401k with robust employer matching; pre-tax commuter benefits; flexible spending accounts.
- **Team & Values**: Diverse, passionate team with backgrounds in workforce development, tech, impact, policy, and operations. Values diversity and inclusion, equal opportunity employer.
- **Growth Opportunities**: Active hiring for senior leadership roles (Chief of Staff, Director of Individual Giving) and operational roles (Account Executive for Job Outcomes), signaling organizational expansion.

## Sources
1. [Pursuit Careers](https://www.pursuit.org/careers)
2. [Pursuit Homepage](https://www.pursuit.org/)
3. [Pursuit Our Approach](https://www.pursuit.org/our-approach)
4. [Pursuit Our Team](https://www.pursuit.org/our-team)
5. [Built In NYC](https://www.builtinnyc.com/company/pursuit)

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