Salary Range: $62,500
Grant Duration: 18-20 months
Grant End Date: December 31, 2027
The Career Advisor for the Single Parent Empowerment Program (SPEP) provides high-touch advising, mentoring coordination, career skill development, and student support for single parent participants across three partner institutions. This role is designed to strengthen student persistence, career readiness, professional identity development, and engagement in the program’s core components, including mentoring, peer networking, job shadowing, micro-internships, and the Washington, DC skill-building retreat.
The Career Advisor works closely with the Senior Program & Grants Manager to ensure the delivery of program activities and student-facing services, supporting grant outcomes, data collection, and the student experience. This position requires strong interpersonal skills, comfort working with nontraditional learners, and experience in workforce readiness, student support, or career coaching.
The Washington Center is a hybrid organization with the majority of employees working on average one day per week at TWC’s Residential and Academic Facility. The individual in this role is expected to reside in the greater Washington, DC metropolitan area. Given our organizational mission focus on skills, workforce development and collaboration, there are times where cross-collaboration among teams and departments will require more than one day per week in the office. This role will include travel to partner institutions and program work on some evenings and weekends.
Key Job Responsibilities
Career Coaching & Student Support
- Provide individualized and small-group career coaching for 70–75 single parent students focused on:
- Career goal-setting and pathway planning
- Skill assessment and competency development
- Resume, cover letter, and LinkedIn branding
- Interview preparation and mock interviews
- Navigating education-to-employment transitions
- Conduct regular check-ins to monitor student progress, barriers and persistence.
- Collaborate with institutional partners to triage student needs and refer students to appropriate campus or community resources.
Mentoring & Peer Network Coordination
- Oversee the single parent mentoring program (opt-in), including:
- Mentor recruitment support
- Matching participants with mentors
- Providing toolkits, expectations, and engagement prompts
- Tracking mentor–mentee engagement and outcomes
- Lead campus-based and virtual peer networking activities to strengthen community, belonging and emotional support.
Job Shadowing & Micro-Internship Support
- Coordinate with Employer Relations to identify and communicate job shadowing opportunities aligned with student career goals.
- Assist with scheduling, preparation, onboarding and feedback collection for job shadow experiences.
- Helping students navigate expectations.
- Conducting check-ins.
- Documenting skill development and challenges.
- Capture outcomes, reflections and participation data for evaluation and reporting.
Program Delivery & Event Support
- Support the planning and execution of the Washington, D.C. Skill-Building Weekend Retreat, including:
- Facilitating networking sessions
- Supporting workshops, site visits and speaker engagement
- Assisting in on-site troubleshooting and participant support
- Partner with internal teams (Programs, Admissions, Marketing & Communications) to support recruitment, storytelling and participant communications.
- Maintain accurate student records and support required grant reporting.
Required Education and Experience
An equivalent combination of education, training, and experience will be considered.
- Bachelor’s degree required; Master’s degree in Higher Education, Counseling, Social Work, Workforce Development or related field preferred.
- At least 2 years of experience providing career advising, coaching, mentoring, student support or case management.
- Experience working with non-traditional learners, low-income students, adult learners or student parents strongly preferred.
- Knowledge of career readiness frameworks (NACE competencies, work-based learning models, etc.).
- Experience coordinating mentoring or peer support programs is a plus.
- Strong interpersonal communication skills, cultural humility and ability to build trusting relationships.
- Comfort facilitating workshops, group coaching and virtual engagement.
Competencies Required to Perform the Job Successfully
- Communication & Interpersonal Skills
- Equity & Inclusion Mindset
- Teamwork & Collaboration
- Initiative & Problem-Solving
- Self-Awareness & Adaptability
Supervisory Responsibility
This position has no supervisory responsibilities.
Physical Abilities
Physical abilities commonly associated with the performance of the functions of this job. Reasonable accommodation can be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform described essential functions of this job. These physical demands are representative of the physical requirements necessary for an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job.
Application Instructions
To apply to this position, please do so via our online application form.
—
This job description no way states or implies that these are the only duties performed by the employee occupying this position. Employees may be required to follow other job-related instructions and to perform other job-related duties as requested, subject to all applicable state and federal laws.
Certain job functions described herein may be subjected to possible modification in accordance with applicable state and federal laws.
The Washington Center is an Equal Opportunity Employer. It is the policy of The Washington Center to provide equal employment opportunities without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, marital status, veteran status, sexual orientation, genetic information or any other protected characteristic under applicable law. Provisions in applicable laws providing for bona fide occupational qualifications, business necessity or age limitations will be adhered to by the organization where appropriate.
We commit to continuously striving for diversity, equity and inclusion through ongoing education and self-awareness. At The Washington Center, each person brings unique and varied experiences which inform our thoughts, actions, and decision-making processes. Our mission is to create an inclusive, safe environment for our staff and our students, where everyone’s differences are celebrated, every perspective is valued, and everyone feels safe to bring forth their authentic selves.