Manager, University Network & Strategic Partnerships

About the role

Clasp is a mission-driven, venture-backed startup transforming access to education and career pathways-starting with the healthcare workforce. By enabling employers to invest in future talent where it matters most-easing overwhelming student debt-our platform creates lasting bonds between employers and employees. We believe that when employers have a stake in the cost of education, we can create a more sustainable, equitable, and skilled workforce. Fresh off our Series B, we're entering our next phase of growth. Clasp is a Forbes Fintech 50 company, an SHRM portfolio company, and has been named by Business Insider as one of the "Top 14 Healthcare Startups to Watch in 2026" and one of the "43 Startups to Bet Your Career On in 2025." We're not just building a fintech product-we're driving economic mobility. If you're excited to build, grow, and make a real impact, join us. What We Need Clasp is building the Clasp University Network-a long-term ecosystem of university and healthcare training program partnerships designed to create a steady stream of qualified student applications while fostering durable, non-transactional relationships with educational institutions. We are seeking a strategic and execution-oriented leader to design and scale this network. This role goes beyond traditional school outreach or partnership development. You will define the future-state strategy for the network, build and manage strategic institutional partnerships, lead a team of outreach professionals, and translate partner insights into scalable systems, programs, and product improvements. This is a highly cross-functional role that combines network strategy, partnership development, people leadership, program design, and operational execution.

Responsibilities

• Develop and own the long-term strategy, roadmap, and operating model for the Clasp University Network.
• Define partner segmentation, partnership models, success metrics, and renewal strategies.
• Lead and coach School Outreach Leads responsible for prospecting, outreach campaigns, and meeting generation.
• Establish team goals, performance standards, and enablement programs to improve outreach effectiveness.
• Build and manage a portfolio of strategic university and healthcare training program partnerships.
• Create deeper, multi-threaded institutional relationships across faculty, program leadership, career services, and student organizations.
• Launch and scale application-driving partnership programs, including information sessions, ambassador programs, webinars, office hours, and faculty toolkits.
• Develop repeatable partnership playbooks, programming runbooks, templates, and enablement materials.
• Monitor partnership performance, application conversion metrics, and leading indicators to drive continuous improvement.
• Conduct ongoing partner and student discovery through interviews, focus groups, and surveys to inform strategy and product development.
• Partner closely with Marketing, Product, Operations, Talent Ecosystem, and Partner Success teams to execute programs and scale the network.
• Identify resource gaps and advocate for the tools, reporting, content, and operational support needed to grow the network effectively.

Requirements

• Demonstrated experience building strategic partnerships and/or scaling partner networks in higher education, workforce development, B2B2C, or related environments.
• Proven ability to develop strategy, operating models, and scalable systems-not just execute individual partnerships.
• Experience managing pipelines, performance metrics, conversion funnels, and iterative improvement processes.
• Strong leadership and people management skills, with experience coaching and developing team members.
• Excellent communication and relationship-building abilities across executive stakeholders, institutional partners, and student audiences.
• High ownership mentality with the ability to thrive in ambiguity and build new programs from the ground up.
• Strong cross-functional collaboration skills and the ability to influence product, marketing, and operational priorities.
• Experience leveraging CRM systems, outreach tools, and data to drive decision-making.
• Familiarity with HubSpot, Notion, AI tools, and basic funnel analytics preferred.
• Experience within healthcare education ecosystems, nursing, allied health, or workforce development programs is a plus.
• Experience translating partner feedback into product requirements or roadmap recommendations is a plus.
• What We Give In Return
• Competitive cash and equity compensation
• Health benefits (health, dental, & vision), 401k
• Commuter benefits
• Flexible PTO policy
• Opportunities to grow and perform in a fast-paced environment alongside a stellar team
• Salary
• The salary range for this position is competitive and will be commensurate with the candidate's experience, qualifications

Benefits

Additional Information

Manager, University Network & Strategic Partnerships Remote (EST or CST Preferred) Open to Remote in EST or CST Locations

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