Youth Development Specialist, Alpha - $150,000/year USD

The most supportive thing you can do for a kid who scored 99% is tell them they didn't pass.

Not because perfection matters. Because believing someone can do better is one of the greatest acts of respect.

Most schools protect students from failure. Alpha prepares them for success. We believe confidence isn't built by lowering the bar. It's built by helping students achieve things they once thought were out of reach. That belief shapes every decision we make.

Our model is different by design. Students master academics independently using AI-powered learning, freeing adults to focus on the work that changes lives: coaching character, building resilience, developing leadership, and creating the habits that lead to extraordinary outcomes. We don't need adults to deliver content. We need leaders who know how to bring out the best in people.

This role sits at the center of that mission. You'll develop the Guides who work directly with students, helping them become exceptional coaches rather than classroom instructors. You'll lead life skills workshops that students remember years later. You'll use performance data to identify where students or Guides are falling short and coach them back to excellence. You'll also lead your own student cohort, ensuring the standards you expect are the standards you model.

The ripple effect is enormous. Every Guide you coach influences dozens of students. Every improvement you make to your campus culture compounds across hundreds of young lives. Success isn't measured by how many meetings you attend or how many reports you write. It's measured by whether students become more confident, more disciplined, more resilient, and more capable because of the culture you helped build.

This isn't a role for someone who wants to preserve the education system. It's for someone who believes young people deserve more than compliance, seat time, and average expectations. If you're energized by coaching people through difficult challenges, using data to drive better decisions, and holding high standards because you genuinely believe others can achieve them, you'll thrive here.

Apply if you're ready to build a culture where excellence is expected, coaching changes lives, and students discover they're capable of far more than they imagined.

What You Will Be Doing

• Coach and develop Guides to deliver Alpha's coaching model with consistency, energy, and uncompromising standards.
• Lead engaging life skills workshops covering communication, focus, feedback, leadership, and resilience for K-8 students using proven playbooks.
• Use student and Guide performance data to identify coaching opportunities, remove barriers, and drive measurable improvements every week.
• Lead motivation sessions that help every student take ownership of ambitious goals and consistently achieve them.
• Maintain your own student cohort while modeling the coaching excellence and accountability you expect from every Guide.

What You Won’t Be Doing

• Teaching academic subjects. Students learn core academics independently through AI-powered learning applications.
• Writing lesson plans or designing curriculum. Your job is exceptional coaching, not creating instructional materials.
• Managing classrooms through lectures, worksheets, or behavior systems. Students own their learning, and you coach the habits that make success possible.
• Lowering expectations to avoid difficult conversations. High standards and genuine belief in every student's potential go hand in hand.
• Measuring success by activity instead of outcomes. Results matter more than effort alone.

Youth Development Specialist Key Responsibilities

Build a coaching culture where exceptional Guides consistently develop students who love school, master academics at an accelerated pace, and build the resilience, leadership, and life skills to succeed far beyond the classroom.

Basic Requirements

• Willing to work on campus in Dallas, TX; Oklahoma City, OK; Austin, TX; Keller (Fort Worth), TX; or The Woodlands (Houston), TX (relocation support provided).
• Bachelor's degree in Education, Psychology, Business, Organizational Leadership, or a related field.

5+ years of experience leading adults in education, learning and development, youth leadership, coaching, or a comparable performance-driven environment.

• Demonstrated success managing a team of five or more people, including hiring, coaching, performance management, and difficult accountability conversations.
• Experience working directly with children ages 5-14 in an educational, developmental, athletic, or youth leadership setting.
• Track record of building, launching, scaling, or significantly improving a program, team, school, business, or initiative.
• Proven ability to use performance metrics and data to diagnose problems, prioritize actions, and deliver measurable results.
• Legally authorized to work in the United States.

Nice-to-have Requirements

• Master's degree in Education, Psychology, Organizational Leadership, or a related field.
• Experience coaching athletics, leading outdoor or experiential education, directing camps, youth programs, or other cohort-based organizations.
• Experience building or leading innovative education, EdTech, tutoring, nonprofit, or learning programs outside traditional classroom teaching.
• Personal history of exceptional achievement in academics, athletics, entrepreneurship, or leadership.
• Strong conviction that education should develop capable, resilient, independent young people rather than simply deliver academic content.

About Alpha

Join the team building school around student growth

Alpha reimagines the school day around faster learning, stronger mentorship, and more time for students to build real-world skills.

Roles with real student impact: Alpha hires teachers (guides), operators, admissions experts, school & curriculum leaders, and remote team members.

Education work that pays like it matters: Alpha offers six-figure roles for people ready to help build a radically better school experience.

A culture built for builders: Alpha is fast-moving, ambitious, and student focused. It’s for people who want to improve the system, not maintain it.

Alpha is where you can do the most meaningful work of your career.

There is so much to cover for this exciting role, and space here is limited. Hit the Apply button if you found this interesting and want to learn more. We look forward to meeting you!

Working with us

This is a full-time (40 hours per week), long-term position. The position is immediately available and requires entering into an independent contractor agreement with Crossover as a Contractor of Record. The compensation level for this role is $75 USD/hour, which equates to $150,000 USD/year assuming 40 hours per week and 50 weeks per year. The payment period is weekly. Consult for more details on this topic.

Crossover Job Code: LJ-4844-US-Brownsvi-YouthDevelopme.001