Student Basic Needs Coalition is a nonprofit working to address college students’ needs for food, housing, transportation, and healthcare. It builds coalitions and technology resources that help students connect with benefits, training, and advocacy, supporting their ability to enroll, stay in school, and graduate.
Its programs include SNAP Into Action and a Peer Navigator network, alongside platforms such as NAVVY, the College SNAP Project, and the College Medicaid Project. The organization also trains campus staff, develops student leaders, and works with campuses and state coordinators to expand basic-needs support across the country.
Remote Chief Growth Officer, United States
Lead growth for SBNC’s AI-enabled student benefits platform through institutional sales, partnerships, and marketing. Build recurring revenue, strengthen partner success, and expand direct access for students.
Description
- Set SBNC’s growth and marketing strategy across institutional and direct-to-student channels
- Use data, partner feedback, and organizational positioning to identify priority markets, customer segments, and distribution opportunities
- Meet targets for Navvy screener adoption, partnerships, and revenue
- Report performance to the executive team, funders, and board
- Lead go-to-market strategy for paid offerings, covering segmentation, positioning, packaging, pricing, pilot design, sales approach, and willingness-to-pay tests
- Build and lead the growth function, including its roles, systems, processes, staff development, and future hiring
- Develop and manage a nationwide pipeline of campus, state, system, and institutional partners
- Lead partnership sales from initial outreach through negotiation, closing, and implementation
- Manage key state- and system-level relationships and oversee the broader partnership portfolio
- Use HubSpot CRM data and forecasts to improve pipeline visibility and guide decisions
- Grow earned revenue alongside philanthropic funding while protecting equitable student access
- Own the earned-revenue P&L and set annual and multi-year targets with the COO
- Develop a partner-success model that can scale and support successful launches
- Lead renewals, account expansion, retention, upselling, and revenue growth
- Work with the Chief Product Officer to deliver Navvy effectively and bring partner and student insights into product development
- Maintain a growth-team community of practice among institutional partners
- Monitor partner satisfaction and account health
- Lead demand generation, brand awareness, and growth marketing
- Manage marketing contractors and external partners within available budget
- Strengthen SBNC’s reputation with institutional buyers through case studies, conferences, thought leadership, and sales materials
- Expand direct student reach through creator partnerships, social media, search, and referrals
- Develop distribution partnerships beyond campuses with nonprofits, food banks, and workforce programs
- Run structured channel experiments with clear hypotheses, success thresholds, and stop criteria
- Track completed screenings, cost per completed screening, and subsequent benefit applications
Requirements
- Commitment to SBNC’s mission of helping postsecondary students connect with needed resources
- Approach students as co-designers and prioritize those facing the greatest barriers
- Show resourcefulness and urgency while maintaining quality and follow-through
- Commitment to Design for Scale
- Comfort taking on varied responsibilities and owning outcomes
- Startup mindset and willingness to learn from feedback
- Functional or executive leadership background with at least seven years of management experience
- Substantial experience leading growth, partnerships, business development, sales, or a related function
- Willingness and ability to handle individual contributor work
- Direct ownership and growth of at least $500,000 in annual recurring revenue from higher education institutions, government agencies, systems, or similarly complex institutional buyers
- Experience leading new business development and partner success or expansion, including renewals and upsells
- Experience developing and executing go-to-market plans, including market research, positioning, pricing, pipeline development, and adoption testing
- Experience partnering with or overseeing marketing to drive pipeline growth or adoption
- Experience building systems, processes, or a team from the ground up in an early-stage or resource-constrained setting
- Strong relationship-building and communication skills
- Ability to work across complex institutions and influence senior decision-makers
- Strategic and analytical thinking
- Experience using market feedback, performance data, experimentation, and CRM platforms such as HubSpot or Salesforce
- Must live in and be authorized to work in one of the 50 U.S. states or the District of Columbia
- SBNC does not provide visa sponsorship
- Preferred: experience turning grant-funded or free pilots into paid recurring offerings
- Preferred: familiarity with budgeting and procurement at colleges, systems, and state agencies
- Preferred: experience pricing mission-driven offerings
- Preferred: experience with SaaS or technology-enabled services
- Preferred: experience building an institutional buyer brand and sales enablement
- Preferred: experience in digital or consumer marketing, community or channel partnerships, or product-led growth
- Preferred: experience reaching students, young adults, or low-income communities through digital channels, creators, or community organizations
- Preferred: experience managing external marketing agencies or contractors and allocating a marketing budget
- Preferred: knowledge of public benefits programs or student basic needs
- Preferred: experience building practitioner networks or communities of practice
Benefits
- Target performance bonus of 10%
- Medical insurance with employee-only coverage fully paid and 50% dependent coverage
- Flexible paid time off after a 90-day introductory period
- 12 weeks of paid parental leave
- 11 federally recognized holidays
- Paid organization-wide closures: one week in March, one week in July, one week in November, and two weeks at year-end
- Starter 401(k) retirement plan
- Home office setup stipend
- Fully remote work