Program Manager

**Venture Mentoring Service of Alberta - Program Manager**

**Full time independent contractor role for one year with the ability to renew**

**Salary - $75,000-85,000/year**

**About VMSA**

The **Venture Mentoring Service of Alberta** (VMSA) is an entrepreneur mentorship program that supports entrepreneurs at the scale-up stage by surrounding them with a team of experienced business leaders who provide ongoing coaching, guidance and mentorship as they scale their business. Based on the VMS team-mentorship model established at MIT, VMSA’s focus is on developing the individual entrepreneur so they have the ability to better solve their business challenges.

**About the role**:
Do you have a passion for mentorship? Do you find fulfillment in helping people grow and develop their leadership skills? Are you excited by seeing entrepreneurs bring their ideas to life? If you consider yourself a relationship builder and connector then you may be the right Program Manager for the Venture Mentoring Service of Alberta (VMSA).

You will be responsible for the successful day-to-day operations of the VMSA program, ensuring high engagement and member satisfaction. You will lead all intake and onboarding processes and are responsible for managing Mentor team construction and rotations. You are the first point of contact for all VMSA members and will provide guidance and support in addressing questions or concerns. You also oversee the planning and execution of all VMSA events, training, and engagement activities.

**This is an independent contractor role,** and you must have the ability to work as an independent contractor. The contract is for one year with the opportunity to renew on an ongoing basis. Platform Calgary is the host partner of the Venture Mentoring Service of Alberta. VMSA staff are contract employees of Platform Calgary, and work (hybrid) out of the Platform Innovation Centre.

**What will you do?**
- Oversee day-to-day program operations, ensuring VMSA maintains high member satisfaction
- Lead quality control and act as the main point of contact for VMSA members by conducting regular check-ins with program members to collect feedback, monitor satisfaction, and address any concerns
- Build an engaged community of Mentors and mentees through regular internal and external events, training, and outreach.
- Lead and coordinate all Mentor team building, Mentor rotations, and program exits
- Facilitate all program onboarding and orientations
- Manage relationships with key community stakeholders
- Plan and oversee all internal communication, including: VMSA newsletter, Slack channel, social media channels
- Provide input on the strategic direction of the program
- Internal owner of Persto; VMSA’s program management software

**What do you need to do the job?**
- Excellent communications skills with a high degree of professionalism
- Experience building relationships across multi-faceted stakeholder groups
- Strong program or project management skills
- Strong strategic, planning, and organization skills
- Experience planning and organizing engagement events and training opportunities
- Understanding of Alberta’s entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystem is an asset
- Understanding of mentorship and coaching is an asset
- Familiarity with entrepreneurship principles and key challenges of entrepreneurship is an asset
- Ability and willingness to travel within Alberta, and work in flexible locations and remotely
- Competency with GSuite, Zoom, Asana, Slack

**Traits and Attributes you have**:

- Outgoing and personable with a friendly and trusting demeanor
- Strong emotional intelligence with a high degree of empathy and a strong judge of character
- Self-starter with the ability to see an organization's vision and work proactively to achieve it
- Strong decision-making skills and the ability to handle challenging situations with professionalism
- High attention to detail and service-oriented
- Community builder mindset
- Collaborative with the ability to work remotely and in-person
- Goal-oriented and results-driven

**Job Type**: Contract