Program Manager

Who We Are:

Emerge Career’s mission is to break the cycle of poverty and incarceration. We’re not just building software; we’re creating pathways to real second chances. Through an all-in-one platform deeply embedded within the criminal justice system, we recruit, train, and place justice-impacted individuals into life-changing careers.

Our vision is to become the country’s unified workforce development system, replacing disconnected brick-and-mortar job centers with one integrated, tech-powered solution that meets low-income individuals exactly where they are. Today, the federal government spends billions annually on education and training programs, yet only about 70% of participants graduate, just 38.6% secure training-related employment, and average first-year earnings hover around $34,708.

By contrast, our seven-person team has already outperformed the job centers in two entire states (Vermont and South Dakota) in just the past year. With an 89% graduation rate and 92% of graduates securing training-related employment, our alumni aren’t just getting jobs—they’re launching new lives with average first-year earnings of $77,352. The results speak for themselves, and we’re just getting started.

Before Emerge, our founders Zo and Gabe co-founded Ameelio, an award-winning tech nonprofit that is dismantling the prison communication duopoly. Backed by tech luminaries like Reid Hoffman, Vinod Khosla, and Jack Dorsey, and by the most prominent criminal-justice philanthropies such as Arnold Ventures and the Mellon Foundation, Ameelio became a recognized leader in the space. Because of this experience both Zo and Gabe understood what it took to create change from within the system. After serving over 1M people impacted by incarceration, they witnessed firsthand the gap in second-chance opportunities and the chronic unemployment plaguing those impacted by the justice system. Emerge Career is committed to solving this issue. 

Our students are at the heart of our work. Their journeys have captured national attention on CBS, NBC, and in The Boston Globe, and our programs now serve entire states and cities. And we’re not doing it alone: our vision has attracted support from Alexis Ohanian (776),  Michael Seibel, Y Combinator, the Opportunity Fund, and public figures like Diana Taurasi, Deandre Ayton, and Marshawn Lynch. All of us believe that, with the right mix of technology and hands-on practice, we can redefine workforce development and deliver true second chances at scale.

Why We Do This:

Emerge Career was designed to tackle two systemic issues: recidivism, fueled by post-incarceration unemployment and poverty, and labor shortages in key industries. Over 60% of formerly incarcerated people remain unemployed a year after incarceration, seeking work but not finding it. The reality is shocking, workforce development programs are severely limited inside prison, with only one-third of incarcerated people ever participating. To worsen, the available prison jobs offer meager wages, often less than $1 per hour, and often do not equip individuals with the skills for long-term stable employment. 

Who You Are:

1. You love supporting other people’s growth. This role will often feel like case work, and you’re drawn to that. You’ve dedicated your life volunteering, working in social impact, or finding ways to make the playing field more fair. You find joy in helping others rise. You don’t hesitate to call, text, or meet with a student who needs you. You show up consistently, personally, and with heart.
2. You believe everyone deserves a second chance. You treat everyone with dignity. You know how to meet people exactly where they are—with empathy and compassion—helping create a space where everyone feels seen and valued, regardless of their background..
3. You are entrepreneurial. You’re scrappy, resourceful, autonomous, and low-maintenance. You know process matters—but at this stage, speed and iteration matter more. You’re comfortable building quickly and changing procedures often to get to the right solution. You roll up your sleeves and solve problems. No job is too small. 
4. You play to win. You stay optimistic when things get tough and keep moving when others slow down. You’re not rattled by change or new ideas. You don’t need to agree with everything, but you bring a “yes, and” mindset that helps ideas grow instead of shutting them down.
5. You work hard. You show up early, stay late, and do what needs to get done—no ego, no excuses. You don’t wait around or ask for permission. This isn’t a 9-to-5. The average person at Emerge is working ~60 hours a week. Nobody is micromanaging or breathing down your neck. If that sounds miserable, this isn’t for you. If it sounds exciting, you’ll fit right in.
6. You are a straight shooter. You don’t shy away from hard conversations—internally or externally. You bring clarity, care, and accountability to every interaction.
7. You love learning. You understand that recent advancements in AI have shifted the way we work and what it means to be a high performer. You tinker with new tools. You enjoy being an early adopter. You’re always rethinking and optimizing how you work so you can keep leveling up. Nobody needs to tell you to keep upping your game.
8. You are a tech optimist. You understand that not every part of an educational journey can or should be automated. Still, you believe that with the right builder mindset, smart tooling, and thoughtful design, one person can comfortably serve hundreds of individuals.
9. You are a strong builder. In past roles, you’ve likely found yourself eager to solve problems directly rather than wait on an engineering team. You enjoy taking initiative, diving into documentation, learning new tools independently, and developing your own solutions. You naturally gravitate toward automating workflows, building internal dashboards (we use Retool), and running analytics to gain deeper insights. You have experimented with branching logic and variables to personalize marketing communication (we use Customer.io) and discovered a passion for orchestration tools like Zapier, N8N, or Relay that help you quickly build impactful solutions.

What we’re looking for: (minimally)

• Willing to relocate and work in-person in New York City
• Five or more years of professional work experience
• Demonstrated experience working with underserved populations
• Demonstrated experience in early-stage startups. You were most likely a founding team member of at least one startup when they had less than 10 people
• Demonstrated experience with workflow automation tooling
• Deeply curious and highly attuned to human behavior and emotion

What we’re looking for: (preferred)

• Involved with or impacted by the criminal justice system

What You’ll Do: 

Coach participants to success

• Interview participants
• Facilitate educational sessions to prepare participants for hands-on training
• Reach students where they are—calls, texts, group sessions
• Run interactive coaching that diagnoses blockers (time, confidence, skills) and co-creates solutions students can actually execute
• Identify at-risk students before they disappear; use cohort data to prioritize who needs intervention now
• Document patterns in our LMS so the entire team learns what works

Design systems that scale support

• Iterate our study plan model into something students follow without constant handholding
• Record FAQ videos and write SOPs that answer the same questions once, not a hundred times
• Spot usability bugs and friction points; troubleshoot with urgency so students don't get stuck
• Draft processes fast, test them with real cohorts, kill what doesn't work

Automate the repetitive, elevate the strategic

• Audit where your time goes; collaborate with engineering to prototype LLM-powered outreach, eval rubrics, or triage systems
• Write clear product requirements that turn "this takes forever" into "the platform does this for us"
• Push to eliminate manual work so you spend more hours building relationships, less time on repetitive procedural tasks

Orchestrate the partner ecosystem

• Communicate with government agencies, training providers, employers, and recruiting partners
• Prepare sharp reports and decks for partner meetings; represent student needs and program impact with data
• Enroll students into the right vocational programs

Act like an owner

• Chase blockers until they move—whether it's a missing certification, a confused student, or a stalled partnership
• Keep the bar high on speed, quality, and student outcomes; celebrate wins and diagnose failures with the same intensity
• Bring founder energy to a role that blends coaching, ops, product thinking, and relationship-building

Benefits You’ll Receive: link

Start Date:  ASAP

Salary: 

• Base salary: $70K - $115K
• Goal-based bonus structure
• Meaningful equity

About the Interview Process:

1. Application 
2. Take Home Challenge (We give you 3 days to prepare but only expect you to spend 3 hours on it)
3. Take Home Review
4. Cultural fit & (60 min) 
5. Getting to know you interview (60 min): A more in-depth discussion about your background, experiences, and goals.
6. Reference checks. We will select 3-4 people you’ve worked with and request introductions. We will request these when the time comes . We’re looking for honest and raw not flawless references
7. Paid Work Trial (2-5 days). You’ll come onsite to work on a real project, with access to internal tools and team collaboration. You’ll be paid $500 per day. All travel expenses will be covered.