Manager, Learner Services & Experiences

At Meritus College, learner support is not a collection of disconnected services - it is a coordinated system designed to remove barriers, accelerate progress, and ensure every learner has access to the resources they need to succeed.

The Manager, Learner Services & Experiences, is responsible for ensuring that this system functions seamlessly. This role oversees the full ecosystem of learner support services, including academic advising, tutoring, wellness, accessibility, and library services. These services are delivered through a combination of AI-powered tools and external partners. This role ensures that services are available, accessible, high-quality, and effectively integrated into the learner experience. As Meritus College continues to build, you will own the learner services system end to end, setting the standards for how services are delivered and holding providers, tools, and processes to them.

The Manager, Learner Services & Experiences, serves as the central coordination point across services and as the primary escalation point for complex learner needs. They work closely with Learner Success Partners (coaches), instructors, instructor and program design team, and external providers to ensure learners are connected to the right support at the right time. This role reports to the Director of Instruction and Learner Experience.

This is a high-ownership, systems-oriented role designed for scale.  It is a player-coach role that combines hands-on ownership of learner services with program management for the work: translating priorities into plans, coordinating providers and dependencies, tracking work, and building the service standards, policies, and workflows that do not yet exist. The Learner Success Partners (LSPs) report to this role. Because Meritus College is a small, collaborative team, you will lead as a working member of it: handling complex learner situations alongside LSPs, building shared coaching practices with them, and supporting their day-to-day work and growth.

You will be the connective point between how learner services are designed and how learners experience them. Working with the Manager, Instruction and Program Design, you will use what LSPs and service providers see in live delivery to improve services, policies, and courses rather than waiting for a formal review cycle.

Responsibilities

The responsibilities will include, but are not limited to, the following:

Program and Project Management (15%):

Own the learner services portion of the instruction and learner support workplan, in coordination with the Manager, Instruction and Program Design, maintaining projects, milestones, owners, timelines, and statuses

Coordinate the learner services operating rhythm: facilitate team meetings and internal reviews, set agendas, document decisions and next steps, and ensure follow-through

Represent learner services in Functional Lead syncs within Meritus College, raising progress, asks, dependencies, decisions needed, and wins

Define and report learner services metrics (e.g., service use, time to resolution, learner satisfaction, persistence) to College leadership

Make staffing, capacity, and budget recommendations as enrollment grows, including LSP caseload ratios and vendor capacity

Learner Services Operations (20%):

Ensure all learner support services are operational, accessible, and aligned with learner needs

Create and maintain clear pathways for learners to access services such as academic advising, tutoring, wellness, and accessibility support

Monitor service usage and identify trends in learner needs and barriers to access

Continuously improve processes to create a seamless and intuitive learner experience

Translate College model into a coordinated set of services spanning advising, academic support, wellness, career, coaching, and financial and child care resources

Own the accommodations process end to end, from intake and documentation through approval, faculty notification, and record-keeping, in partnership with the Operations and Compliance team

Create and maintain service standards, response-time expectations, and learner-facing guides so services are consistent, accessible, and usable at scale

Service Coordination & Escalation (15%):

Serve as the primary escalation point for complex learner issues that require coordination across multiple services

Partner with Learner Success Partners (coaches) to ensure learners are connected to the appropriate resources

Ensure timely resolution of learner issues, maintain accurate documentation, and communicate with coaches and instructors

Establish protocols for learner crises, wellness concerns, and other urgent situations, including when and how to involve College leadership and outside resources

Manage the learner complaint and grievance process in partnership with the Compliance team, so complaints are documented, resolved, and tracked as accreditors and state regulators require

LSP Team Leadership & Support (15%):

Serve as the day-to-day lead for the Learner Success Partners (LSPs): hold regular check-ins, help prioritize their work, and be their first call when a learner situation gets complicated

Work with LSPs to build shared coaching practices (outreach, check-ins, referrals, and documentation), using case consultations and peer feedback to keep support consistent across learners

Coordinate LSP caseloads with the team, balancing assignments as enrollment grows and learner needs shift

Help onboard and train new LSPs on the learner services ecosystem, referral and escalation protocols, and FERPA and data privacy requirements

Use shared team measures (e.g., learner contact rates, referral follow-through, persistence) to spot where learners need more support and where the team needs more capacity

Vendor & Tool Management (10%):

Act as the primary liaison for external service providers including library and tutoring services, and AI-supported tools

Monitor service performance and learner experience across vendors and tools

Provide feedback and insights to improve service quality and effectiveness

Partner with leadership to identify opportunities to enhance or expand services over time

Manage vendor relationships end to end, including scoping, selection, contract terms and service-level expectations, performance reviews, and renewal recommendations

Evaluate AI-enabled support tools before and after adoption, with safeguards for learner privacy and accuracy and clear handoffs to a person when a learner needs one

Process Design & Continuous Improvement (15%):

Build and refine workflows for service access, triage, and escalation

Identify gaps in the learner services ecosystem and build practical solutions

Use learner feedback and data to inform improvements to services and processes

Contribute to the long-term design of a scalable, high-impact learner support model

Maintain learner services documentation (policies, procedures, service records, and outcome data) to a standard that holds up under accreditation review, in partnership with the Operations and Compliance team

Cross-Functional Collaboration (10%):

Partner with the instruction team so learners get coordinated, consistent support.

Provide guidance and clarity on how and when to utilize learner services

Share insights and trends to inform learner experience improvements

Partner with the Manager, Instruction and Program Design to turn what LSPs and service providers see in live delivery into course revisions, and to build learner services into courses where learners need them

Partner with recruitment and enrollment on the handoff from admission to onboarding so new learners are connected to services and an LSP from day one

Skills and Competencies

We recognize that some individuals from underrepresented backgrounds may hesitate to apply if they don’t meet 100% of the listed qualifications.  Please don’t let that discourage you from applying! We value the unique skills, experiences, and perspectives that each applicant brings, and we encourage you to apply if you believe your background demonstrates the required skills and competencies:

Must Haves for all roles at Meritus College:

Committed to Merit America’s mission to pave pathways to family-sustaining careers, break the poverty cycle, and create upward mobility for low-wage workers

Demonstrated history of embodying our values, which inform our work and drive our organization's culture

Shared sense of responsibility and ownership for our collective work in making a positive impact on the community we support, true to our value of Win & Lose Together

Committed to continuous learning and growth in advancing inclusive excellence and closing gaps across lines of difference

Passionate about fostering a workplace culture that embraces and values individual differences, aligned with our core value of inclusivity

Must Haves for this role:

Education

Bachelor's degree required; Master's degree in higher education, counseling, or a related field preferred.

Experience

5+ years in student services, academic advising, coaching, or learner support, including designing or running support services for online, adult, or non-traditional learners

Systems Thinking & Operations

Ability to manage and improve complex systems involving multiple stakeholders, tools, and processes

Strong organizational and project management skills in fast-moving environments

Experience building or refining processes to improve user experience

Comfortable in a start-up environment, creating service standards, policies, and processes where none exist, and moving the work forward while building the system around it

Team Leadership

Experience leading a team, formally or informally, ideally coaches, advisors, or other frontline support staff

A collaborative leadership style: you build shared practices with colleagues, give and ask for direct feedback, and work through difficult learner situations alongside your team

Learner Support & Problem Solving

Experience supporting learners, students, or participants in education, workforce, or customer-facing environments

Familiarity with accessibility, accommodations, or wellness support frameworks

Working knowledge of student data privacy laws and disability accommodation requirements (ADA/Section 504) in higher education, or the ability to get up to speed quickly

Strong critical thinking skills to diagnose and resolve complex or ambiguous challenges

Ability to navigate sensitive situations with empathy and sound judgment

Coordination & Communication

Strong cross-functional collaboration and communication skills

Ability to coordinate across multiple stakeholders, including external partners

Clear, concise communication with both learners and internal teams

Data & Continuous Improvement

Comfort using data and feedback to identify trends and inform decisions

Ability to translate insights into actionable improvements

Detail-oriented with strong follow-through

Understands and can apply data privacy and data security framework to all sensitive learner data.

Nice to Haves for this role:

Experience in higher education, student services, workforce development, or customer experience operations

Experience working with external vendors or managing partnerships

Experience working with or alongside AI-enabled tools or digital support systems

Other Logistics

This position is full-time

Location: Remote

Salary: $105,000