Senior Program Manager

First Descents (FD) is a nonprofit that provides life-changing outdoor adventures for young adults (ages 18-39) impacted by cancer and other serious health conditions. The Senior Program Manager (SPM) – Partnerships & Recruitment is responsible for leading and managing FD’s partnerships and recruitment initiatives. For this role, partnerships are defined as relationships and collaborative initiatives spanning healthcare, advocacy organizations, outdoor organizations, and non profits.

This role oversees the organization’s program recruitment strategy while executing FD’s partnership strategy and maintaining and activating a robust portfolio of major healthcare partners.

This is a hybrid position based in Denver, Colorado with the requirement to be in the office two days per week, and any additional time required to complete tasks in person. The SPM will report to the Vice President of Programs and Strategic Initiatives.

• Provide strategic analysis and recommendations across program design, innovation, and lifestyle programming.

• Draft an annual budget and performance plan for all partnerships and recruitment related functions.
• Track and achieve associated Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).
• Oversee the recruitment team, including program managers, program coordinators, contract staff, and interns.
• Develop and implement FD’s partnership strategy, including actionable tactics to deepen relationships with new and existing partners, to advance FD’s programmatic initiatives (e.g., Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI), Recruitment, and Community Adventures (CA)).
  • Strengthen partnership data management, communication strategy, and documentation, with a focus on improving efficiencies, relationships, and impact (e.g., plans, Salesforce communication automation and related tasks).
• Represent FD and present at external meetings and conferences to advance relationships with target healthcare providers, patient advocacy organizations, hospitals, and research partners.
• Educate and train partners to speak on behalf of FD and refer their patient/community base to FD programs.

• Develop and implement a communication and recruitment strategy to drive inquiries; deliver a strong and consistent program fill-rate; work to continually optimize applicant experience and engagement.
  • Accountable for core program fill rate.
  • Accountable for driving 2,000+ inquiries annually.
• Own communication, recruitment pipeline, healthcare referral process, and overall participant pathway from initial inquiry to long-term community engagement with a focus on participant experience, creating efficiencies, removing barriers, and managing risk.
  • Identify opportunities to improve the functionality and potential participants’ user journey of FD’s website, inquiry process, application design, and recruitment pipeline.
  • Collaborate with other teams and departments (e.g. marketing and community engagement) to ensure consistent messaging, reduce silos, and create an integrated recruitment strategy.

• Monitor and analyze key program metrics and KPIs, such as survey findings and completion rates, then implement changes as needed.
• Maintain and leverage partnership, recruitment, and JEDI dashboards to identify trends, surface growth opportunities, and drive program planning decisions.
• Collaborate with the finance and operations team to refine and optimize Salesforce standard operating procedures, reporting, and processes.
• Oversee annual Out Living It (OLI) Impact Survey (prep and launch with Marketing Team, monitor completion rates, analyze findings once completed, etc.).
• Collaborate on external research and development initiatives; establish and uphold quality…