Business Operations Manager

Job Description

The Purpose of Zearn

Zearn is the nonprofit educational organization whose mission is to inspire all kids to love learning math. Everything we do is driven by our belief that every kid is a math kid.

Our top-rated learning platform is designed to catch kids up and move them forward in grade-level math. And it works. Large-scale efficacy research shows students who use Zearn make significant gains in math proficiency, including the students who start multiple grade levels behind.

As a nonprofit, all of our work is driven by what is best for kids. At the same time, we operate as an intense and fast-moving technology company, inclusively solving hard problems that will impact current and future generations. The problems we solve require expertise in teaching, learning science, software development, design, video production, and countless other disciplines. As an organization that is always stretching to get to the next level of impact, every single person owns mission critical work.

If you’re ready to join our Team of problem solvers, and own work that will drive us to achieve impact at scale, we are looking for you.

Learn more about us at https://about.zearn.org/. 

The purpose of the Business Operations Manager at Zearn is to play a crucial role in ensuring Zearn’s Partnerships team achieves adoption at scale with schools and districts across the country.  You will collaborate with cross-functional teams to improve systems, manage key metrics, and lead structured experiments that strengthen how our Partnerships team operates across the sales lifecycle. 

As a generalist problem-solver and project leader, you’ll help translate strategy into clear requirements, scalable processes, and practical solutions (including automation and AI-enabled tools) to optimize business processes end-to-end, ensuring the success of high-priority initiatives and driving measurable impact. This is achieved by:

Leading sales operations efficiency initiatives by designing and optimizing systems, processes, and AI-powered automations that accelerate our team’s velocity

• Identify opportunities to better optimize systems to drive efficiency across all aspects of our sales process, from inquiry to account management.
• Evaluate AI tools and other platforms to identify the most promising ones for each use case, and then lead the execution of experiments, structured pilots and roll-outs (setup, training, iteration based on learnings).
• Collaborate with the technical team to design and roll-out updates to existing systems (e.g., CRM workflows, reporting, integrations).
• Support day-to-day project management for 1–2 major redesigns of key Partnerships processes, including researching best practices, translating strategy into process maps, maintaining cross-functional alignment, and iterating based on results.
• Work cross-functionally with other teams at Zearn including Finance, Support, and Legal to identify and execute on opportunities to improve the efficiency of cross-team work.
  
  

Acting as an analytic powerhouse and strategic partner to drive innovation and scaled adoption of Zearn

• Identify and track key sales metrics (e.g., win rate, sales cycle length, funnel conversion, customer ROI).
• Work alongside the Director of Business Operations to create an adaptive experimentation culture where we continuously look at metrics, test ways to improve them, measure, learn and reflect on ways to improve efficiency as we grow.
• Support Partnerships team with additional data or Salesforce projects for strategic states (e.g., data cleaning, dashboards, segmentation, invoicing).

Enabling strategic growth by developing and executing on a new approach to district outreach

• Create and maintain a database of strategic districts.
• In partnership with the Director of Business Operations, develop a plan for outreach to strategic  districts, including automated campaigns, lead scoring and lead qualification. 
• Collaborate with the technical team to integrate CRM and marketing systems, ensuring they are optimized for effective outreach.
• Support preparation for high priority events or meetings by compiling relevant data, researching key context and talking points, and packaging information in digestible format for the Partner Success team.
• Build lightweight operating infrastructure for new large-scale partnerships (internal fact base, Salesforce progress tracking, workflows).

The Next Problems for this Role to Solve

• How do we better leverage our existing systems to make our sales processes more efficient?
• Where are the biggest hurdles/pain-points in our current sales process? What small and large experiments can we conduct to improve those pain-points?
• Which districts should we focus our outreach efforts on?  
• How do we optimize our district outreach to be efficient and effective? 

The Skills and Behaviors You’ll Use

• Structured problem solving: You can take a big, messy question and break it down into a clear plan of action that helps our team move forward.
• Data fluency: You are comfortable diving into spreadsheets and Salesforce to find the story the data is telling and then sharing those insights simply with others.
• Curiosity and experimentation: You enjoy testing new tools and AI workflows to see what actually works and you are quick to pivot when an experiment doesn't go as planned.
• Collaborative project leadership: You know how to keep a project on track while making sure everyone feels heard and aligned.
• Operational empathy: You build systems with the end user in mind, ensuring that every new process actually makes life easier for our Partnerships team.
• Humility and ownership: You are just as happy digging into tactical data cleaning as you are helping the Director of Business Operations set a new strategy.

Potential Markers of these Skills

• 5+ years of experience in Business Operations, Revenue Operations, or Sales Operations; or 3+ years of experience at a top-tier management consulting firm
• Demonstrated strength in structured problem solving—able to take ambiguous questions, define the problem, develop options/recommendations, and drive execution in partnership with stakeholders
• Highly proficient with data analytics in Google Sheets and/or Excel; comfortable working with messy data, creating reliable reporting, and communicating insights clearly
• Demonstrated ability to project manage multiple long-term cross-functional projects and initiatives in a fast-paced high-growth environment
• Ability to evaluate tools and best practices (including AI-enabled tools) and translate learnings into practical, scalable process and system improvements
• Humility, a team-oriented mindset, and a willingness to roll up your sleeves and dig into the tactical alongside the strategic
• Flexibility to adapt to new business needs as they surface in a fast-paced environment
• Bachelor’s Degree in a related field required

THIS IS AN INDIVIDUAL CONTRIBUTOR ROLE

• Title: Business Operations Manager
• Reports to: Director of Business Operations

HOW WE WORK:

• We aim to create a numeracy movement. This is no easy feat, and no one of us can solve this on our own.  Given that, Zearn is a transparent, collaborative, and open-to-feedback culture. 
• Our work is often collaborative in nature:
• We own our deliverables in close collaboration with others
• We communicate openly, and share early thinking and drafts often
• We seek ways to create and improve systems, and work with each other to contribute thinking in both asynchronous and synchronous discussions.
• We create a sense of community through regularly sharing context so we can collectively solve problems to drive Zearn’s velocity.

LOCATION:

This role is remote and can be performed in any of the following states/locations:  

CA, CT, FL, IL, LA, MA, MD, NC, NJ, NY, OH, OR, PA, TN, TX, VA, WA, WI and Washington D.C. 

COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS:

The compensation range for this role is $100,000 - $115,000 per year.

We offer a competitive benefits package, including comprehensive medical, dental and vision plans, short- and long-term disability, life insurance, 401K matching, parental leave, and a flexible PTO policy. We also offer a collegial and passionate culture and the potential to positively impact the lives of millions of children.

TO APPLY: https://apply.workable.com/j/147C50A793

Zearn is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. All employment is decided on the basis of qualifications, merit, and business need.