Program Manager

Who are we?

Talent Kick is a Swiss-wide entrepreneurial excellence program that supports talents from the top universities in Switzerland in forming interdisciplinary teams, and in getting hands-on experience as entrepreneurs during their studies.

We are looking for a highly motivated Program Manager 100%, permanent - (f/m/d) to lead our program activities.

Your mission

You will work closely with our talents and teams as well as experienced entrepreneurs and partners to boost entrepreneurial excellence in Switzerland. As a Program Manager, you will have a crucial role by coordinating and executing the program and making a significant contribution to the success of each batch, the founders and their startups. In this position, you’ll be responsible for managing all our program components, including workshops, bootcamps, celebrations, coaching sessions in collaboration with our coaching team, and other founder support activities. You will continuously be in contact with our participants and teams, and your role is pivotal in optimizing and enhancing the program in collaboration with the rest of the team.

Who are we looking for?

You are a proactive self-starter who thrives with autonomy and loves working in a fast-paced, start-up-like environment. You bring strong event-management, coordination, and organizational skills, and you enjoy tackling new challenges.

You have demonstrated experience supporting startups on their journey, through working in other accelerators or incubators or other forms of venture support. You ideally have already founded a startup yourself and want to support young founders in navigating the startup journey from team forming to scaling. You take ownership, are excellent at communication and organization, and can manage multiple work streams simultaneously. You are skilled at collaborating with external partners and stakeholders and you enjoy proactively creating opportunities to enhance both the program and the experience and opportunities for of our participants.

You are motivated to facilitate, grow and continuously improve an established program that empowers young talents to become successful entrepreneurs. You love working with people and are excited by seeing the direct results of your work in the success of our teams and founders.

Key activities and responsibilities

Lead the planning, organization, and execution of the program, ensuring alignment with the organization’s objectives and supporting participants’ success:

• Planning, organising, and facilitating workshops, bootcamps, and events (incl. moderation and speaker coordination), and management of the overall program components and timeline.
• Communication,coordination and support of program participants and contributors, incl. team-specific sessions on a regular basis (incl. monthly mini-board sessions, bi-annual goal setting sessions etc.)
• Coordination of the collaboration with the coaching team and the leadership coaches, program participants, and coaching tool providers.
• Maintaining the participant CRM with relevant progress and program deliverables, as well as our online community platform and relevant website content.
• Facilitate and enhance our collaborations with program-adjacent ecosystem partners together with the Talent Kick team to enhance the program support for participants, teams and batches and to create a thriving support ecosystem around Talent Kick and our collaborators.

Monitor program effectiveness and impact, identify and recommend necessary adjustments to enhance program outcomes and participant satisfaction, and, where approved by management, implement such adjustments, with responsibility for supporting the achievement of critical program KPIs (e.g., NPS and participant satisfaction).

Identify program growth and improvement opportunities together with the Talent Kick team and lead their implementation

Foster a collaborative and inspiring environment that supports participants’ personal and professional growth, strengthens their entrepreneurial leadership skills, and develops the competencies needed to build successful ventures.

What we offer

• A high degree of self-organization and flexibility in a remote/in-person combination workstyle at top innovation hotspots in Switzerland;
• The chance to proactively shape the organization as a whole, participate in strategic and operational discussions, and take active ownership of new projects you would like to initiate and shape;
• Driven, supportive, and empowering team environment, supporting personal and professional growth in a fun and impactful environment, with the option to receive 1:1 leadership coaching
• Quarterly team retreats and off-site trips to reconnect, reflect, and co-create in inspiring locations
• A chance to make an impact in young professionals’ lives by creating a strong support community for their journey to entrepreneurial success.

Ideal profile

• Strong event-management and organizational skills in a startup-like environment, strong entrepreneurial drive, and strong motivation to make an impact by supporting and closely working with young talents, teams, and entrepreneurs;
• Ideally multiple years of hands-on experience founding and leading an early-stage startup, ideally from pre-seed through seed stage and/or multiple years of experience in program management or as a mentor in an accelerator, incubator or university setting.
• Reliable, detail oriented with a proactive and hands-on leadership style, willingness to learn and grow, and excited to evolve with the team and responsibilities;
• Strong team player with excellent analytical skills and excellent communication in English (French or German is a plus) and willingness to travel within Switzerland frequently for events;
• Ideally a Master’s degree in business, technology, education, or related fields, familiarity with the Swiss academic ecosystem (through education or otherwise) and with CRM/project management/community platforms like Monday.com and Circle.

How to apply

If you would like to work in a stimulating environment with a small driven team, please submit your complete application file (CV and cover letter in English, as well as copies of your work certificates and diplomas) in this form. We’re looking forward to receiving your application!