Fast Facts
Join Penn Foster Group as the Head of Academics & Student Affairs, a pivotal role aimed at enhancing learner outcomes and compliance across a large academic organization.
Responsibilities: Oversee the development and execution of a learner-centered academic strategy, manage accreditation processes, and ensure quality course design while enhancing student experience.
Skills: Proven leadership in academic environments, knowledge of accreditation standards, strong management capabilities, and a commitment to data-informed decision-making.
Qualifications: PhD required, with over 10 years of academic leadership experience and a background in managing large educational organizations and compliance processes.
Location: United States
Compensation: Not provided by employer. Typical compensation ranges for this position are between $120,000 - $180,000.
Position Summary:
The Head of Academics & Student Affairs is a senior academic and operational leader responsible for reimagining and scaling Penn Foster Group’s academic ecosystem to materially improve learner outcomes and completions while ensuring rigorous compliance with accreditation and regulatory requirements.
This role sits at the intersection of academic quality, student experience, operational excellence, and growth, transforming a large and complex academic organization into a cohesive, outcomes-driven system that supports learners end-to-end, from course design through graduation, at scale.
Key Outcomes This Role Owns:
- Improved learner persistence, satisfaction, and completion rates across programs
- Clear, compliant, and scalable academic governance aligned with accreditation standards
- A simplified, well-structured academic organization with clear accountability
- Supports the creation of high-quality, internally designed courses that scale efficiently
- Strong alignment between academics, student support, product, and business strategy
Essential Job Functions:
- Academic Strategy & Learner OutcomesDefine and execute a learner-centered academic strategy aligned with Penn Foster Group’s completion and growth goals.
- Translate learner data (progress, engagement, outcomes) into actionable academic interventions.
- Partner with Operations to ensure academic and non-academic supports work together to improve persistence and completion.
- Establish clear academic success metrics and accountability at every level of the organization.
- Academic Organization Design & LeadershipClarify roles, responsibilities, and decision rights across faculty, instructional staff, academic operations, and student-facing teams.
- Build strong academic leadership bench strength, with consistent performance expectations.
- Foster a culture of accountability, continuous improvement, and learner-first decision-making.
- Accreditation, Compliance & Academic GovernanceServe as a primary steward of accreditation integrity, ensuring all academic and student-facing practices meet or exceed accreditor expectations.
- Establish strong, auditable academic governance processes (faculty oversight, curriculum approval, assessment, documentation).
- Partner with Compliance and Legal to proactively manage risk while enabling innovation.
- Prepare the organization for accreditation reviews, reporting, and continuous compliance across institutions and programs.
- Curriculum, Course Design & Academic Quality at ScaleCollaborate with learning design and build the needed workflows and process for subject matter expertise in program architecture, course design, instructional delivery, and continuous improvement.
- Partner closely with Learning Design, Product, and Technology teams to:Design and refresh courses internally, at scale.
- Ensure instructional quality, consistency, and alignment with learning outcomes.
- Balance academic rigor with accessibility for diverse learners.
- Establish quality standards, review cycles, and faculty engagement models that scale efficiently.
- Student Affairs & Academic ExperienceOwn academic components of the student experience, including advising, instructional support, faculty interaction models, and academic policies.
- Ensure policies and practices are equitable, compliant, and designed to reduce friction for learners.
- Champion learner voice and feedback as core inputs into academic and operational decisions.
- Cross-Functional Partnership & Business AlignmentAct as a key partner to Growth, Product, Technology, and Operations leaders to ensure academic strategy enables, not limits, business growth.
- Balance speed, scale, and quality in decision-making, recognizing Penn Foster Group’s role as a mission-driven, high-growth education organization.
- Represent academics confidently and pragmatically with executive leadership and external stakeholders.
Knowledge, Skills, Abilities:
Required Qualifications:
- PhDrequired.
- 10+ years of progressive academic leadership within an accredited educational institution.
- Proven leadership of large academic organizations (50+ faculty/staff; FTE and adjunct models preferred).
- Direct oversight of institutional and programmatic accreditation processes, including preparation for reviews, reporting, and continuous compliance.
- Demonstrated ability to build and operationalize scalable academic systems, including faculty governance, registrar functions, policy management, and program review.
- Strong command of academic governance standards, documentation rigor, and audit-ready compliance processes.
- Track record of assessing organizational talent, redesigning team structures, and clarifying decision rights.
- Ability to establish measurable standards for instructional quality and learner outcomes.
- Demonstrated cross-functional partnership with Product, Operations, Compliance, and Technology leaders.
- Leadership of faculty development and continuous professional learning initiatives.
Preferred Qualifications:
- Background in online, hybrid, or digital enabled education environments.
- Familiarity with career-focused, workforce, or skills-based academic models.
- Exposure to multi-accreditor and multi-institution regulatory environments.
- Leadership of internally designed curriculum and scalable course refresh processes.
- Use of learner data and analytics to drive academic interventions and persistence outcomes.
- Oversight of post-graduation outcomes tracking or alumni engagement initiatives.
Leadership Capabilities:
- Operationally rigorous and systems oriented.
- Structured, disciplined administrator with a bias toward clarity and accountability.
- Data-informed decision maker.
- Change leader capable of modernizing legacy academic environments.
- Collaborative executive comfortable within a product-driven environment.
- Mission-driven leader focused on learner completion and academic quality.
About Us:
At Penn Foster Group, we are transforming online learning to help learners by uniting Penn Foster, CareerStep, Ashworth College, James Madison High School, the New York Institute of Photography, the New York Institute of Art and Design, and other education platforms. Together, we create an accelerated path to greater economic mobility through real-world skills and knowledge that enable them to achieve long-term success in the workplaces of the future. Our history dates back to 1890 when our founder, Thomas Foster, pioneered distance education by offering training by mail for coal miners to get the necessary skills for safer jobs. Today, with the partners who use our education and training programs, we continue that mission of providing accessible training and education for in-demand skills and are building a workforce that’s prepared for the future job market.
Equal Employment Opportunity:
We strive toward Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at Penn Foster Group by intentionally building teams that are diverse – in identities, lived experiences, and ideas to create a culture where people feel connected to each other and have a sense of belonging. We value diversity, equity, and inclusion because it is the foundation that enables us to achieve what we set out to do as an organization – from maximizing the number of learners who can reach their goals while giving them the kinds of experiences we want them to have, to becoming the type of company we want to work in.
What We Offer:
We offer a robust benefits package that includes medical, dental, vision, flexible spending, generous paid time off, sponsored volunteer opportunities, a 401K with a company match, plus free access to all of our online programs.
