Road Scholar Position Vacancy
Job Title:
Status:
Reports To:
Location:
Associate Director, Programs
Full-Time professional position
Director, Program Development
Boston, MA
The Associate Director is responsible for increasing and retaining Road Scholar business through strong relationship management of a select group of our educational travel partners. This position is accountable for strategy, development, growth and management of a portfolio of programs, including the creation of new learning/travel adventures, quality control, annual capacity planning and administration/oversight of existing program inventory, with the goal of increasing enrollments and repeat business and ensuring highest program quality. Performance evaluation will be tied to the overall success of programs in Associate Director’s portfolio. Moderate travel and some weekend and evening work are typical.
Specific Responsibilities:
- Partner with the Vice President of Road Scholar Programs and the Director of Program Development on the strategic direction of Road Scholar programs
- Create, develop and maintain a portfolio of educational programs suited to the boomer-and-beyond demographic – ensuring optimal value pricing and highest quality, which solidifies brand loyalty for life
- Direct and manage program development through the program lifecycle; work with Program Coordinator to provide administrative oversight of programs in portfolio
- Create future capacity plans and convey program plans to providers; monitor and analyze program inventory to maximize enrollments and minimize late program cancellations
- Collaborate with Program Pricing team to analyze market and competitor pricing to be used in the evaluation and negotiation of pricing of all program elements.
- Identify and resolve program quality issues with the focus on customer satisfaction and retention – working with our partners/vendors identifying issues, devising contingency plans and taking positive action
- Ensure timely promotion of all programs working within marketing and production schedules
- Remain strategic while ensuring compliance with Road Scholar policies and guidelines; support continuous enhancement of policies and guidelines
- Participate in new initiatives or projects as determined by Director
- Bachelor’s Degree required
- 4-5 years professional experience and product knowledge; travel industry and direct marketing experience a plus
- Experience with project/account management necessary
- Pro-active, driven individual who is results-oriented
- Demonstrable experience in a hectic, deadline-driven extremely high-volume business environment; unflappable
- Strong negotiating capability or ability to quickly learn negotiation skills a must
- Analytical skills, good with numbers and varying levels of detail, data-driven; resourceful in pulling analytical data
- Polished, professional verbal/written communicator
- Expert influencing and people skills; ability to produce through multi-functional teams
- Interest in educational programming, world events and destinations; experienced traveler