Overview

At BetterUp, we believe it takes two people to develop great leaders: an individual who’s ready for new challenges and a world class coach. Our innovative approach helps employees at all levels in their organization find more meaning and satisfaction in their roles to do their best work. Our product was developed by a team of behavioral scientists, researchers, and technologists and we’re transforming the way companies approach leadership development. We have a passion for our mission and people who thrive at our organization are inspired by our coaches and the value we contribute to the workforce.

BetterUp is currently seeking a senior, innovative, experienced, and highly trained behavioral scientist passionate about self-discovery and unlocking human potential through coaching. BetterUp’s Director of Assessments will work with other social scientists, data scientists, and product managers to develop and enhance our assessments and talent development solutions. The leader will manage the development, validation, and maintenance of assessments that are simultaneously innovative, sophisticated, practical, efficient, and impactful.

This is a great role for someone who is wants to build, consult, collaborate, innovate, and make a significant impact in a fast-paced, scrappy, startup environment. At BetterUp you’ll have the opportunity to work side by side with talented, motivated, and intellectually stimulating colleagues who thrive on helping organizations solve their most pressing behavioral business challenges.

Key Responsibilities

Strategic Leadership

  • Actively monitor cutting-edge assessment trends and proactively anticipate needs of the marketplace
  • Sustain a thorough understanding of company capabilities and experience, and formulate ideas for transitions to new areas of organizational and personal capability
  • Actively monitor activities of competitors and helping formulate strategic plans
  • Identify workable and persuasive solutions to the most complex client needs
  • Provide the strategic direction and coordination of activities related to the creation, production, quality control, and distribution of assessments, training, and marketing materials
  • Conceive of and execute strategies that prompt repositioning and reaction by competitors
  • Foster the organization’s visibility among current and potential clients

Technical Leadership

  • Establish item bank system. Create, maintain, and edit items and assessments. Serve as the resident “approver” of items and scales prior to being deployed to production use.
  • Develop and apply expertise in multiple technical areas relevant to the business (e.g., noncognitive measurement, psychometrics, data analysis, individual differences, training, organizational development, performance management)
  • Develop and apply expertise with technology concepts and applications related to assessment, database design, data management and visualization, advanced analysis techniques, and some proficiency with newer programming languages (e.g., R, Python)
  • As the analytics agenda of the team develops, work in a number of areas including organizational analytics, network analytics, predictive analytics and NLP, advanced recruiting tools, surveys, automated reporting and metrics, and external HR technology.
  • Recommend changes in assessment content and processes, based on research findings and feedback from internal and external stakeholders.
  • Survey literature for changes in practice that affect assessment scale/item content, assessment development, and item bank maintenance.
  • Monitor item banks to ensure new content is filling gaps.
  • Serve as a source of expert guidance to other staff on specific technical areas (e.g., HIPAA and EEOC issues, advanced analytic techniques, job knowledge tests, IRT, validation techniques and guidelines)
  • Help ensure the overall quality of the company’s work and promote positive reputation with clients
  • Develop and maintain a reputation within the scientific and/or professional community for a program of research or area of expertise, and produces innovative research or techniques that can be replicated and marketed to new clients

Project work

  • Independently direct or provide oversight for the most complex, difficult, and challenging projects
  • Manage multiple challenging projects simultaneously
  • Engage senior leaders as advocates and enablers to ensure projects achieve desired business outcomes

Staff Management

  • Serve as a role model of professionalism and respect, valuing divergent opinions and diversity
  • Work collaboratively across team, group, and department boundaries, and puts organizational interests above own or team interests and willingly provides assistance to others when needed
  • Direct the work of and mentor project staff, provide coaching and feedback to improve product quality and staff skills
  • Effectively assign and monitor staff work on projects and provides guidance to ensure quality results

Internal/External Client Interaction:

  • Provide product support services to internal staff, development partners, AEs, and others for issues surrounding the use, and the reliability and validity of assessment solutions.
  • Serve as a key point of contact for internal stakeholders and take responsibility for fully managing relationships, including helping to define needs, negotiate requirements and changes in scope, and ensure excellent customer service. This will occasionally include external clients as well.
  • Develop effective and productive relationships with key internal stakeholders and external clients
  • Make effective presentations to internal and external audiences (including clients and the professional community)

Skills / Experience

  • PhD in I/O Psychology, Educational Psychology or related area
  • Demonstrated expertise in research/consulting work as evidenced by publications in peer-reviewed journals, books/book chapters, conference presentations, history of successful product development and client engagements
  • 10 years post-academic consulting/research/operational testing experience
  • Vision: The ability to connect day-to-day activities, projects, and tactics with broader ramifications for company and client strategy, operations and business processes.
  • Scrappiness: Someone who gets excited about rolling up their sleeves and doing whatever it takes to deliver exceptional client experiences, in a way that you impress yourself. You do not hesitate to get involved, from the high-level, strategic work to the tactical (sometimes thankless) work.
  • No ego teammate: We thrive in an environment of healthy and respectful collaboration that is fundamentally driven by the desire to succeed as a team. A general desire to contribute, without attachment to any one specific outcome other than the success of our clients and BetterUp.

Benefits

We provide amazing benefits, but if you ask the team, they’ll tell you that the greatest benefit we offer employees is an incredibly meaningful mission and transformative work.

  • Full coverage medical, dental and vision insurance
  • Unlimited use, at your own discretion, vacation policy
  • 14 paid annual holidays
  • 5 BetterUp Inner Work days (https://www.betterup.co/inner-work)
  • 5 “Volunteer Days” to give back
  • Professional development through BetterUp coaching for you and a significant other
  • 401(k) self contribution
  • A competitive compensation plan with opportunity for advancement

BetterUp Inc. provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, genetics, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status. In addition to federal law requirements, BetterUp Inc. complies with applicable state and local laws governing nondiscrimination in employment in every location in which the company has facilities. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation, and training.