Early Childhood Specialist, Alpha - $100,000/year USD

"I got my time back, and I still get to be passionate and work with students."

— Christie, former school principal, now Alpha Reading Specialist

Alpha is hiring.

Alpha students finish all of their academics in two hours a day. That's not a typo, and it's the whole reason this job exists.

Adaptive software handles the academic instruction. What it can't do is convince a seven-year-old that she's capable of more than she thinks — and that's the job. In this role, you'll be a guide, spending your day building confidence, focus, resilience, and the willingness to attempt hard things in children who are still learning to tie their shoes.

You'll lead one K-3 cohort band, either Kindergarten-1st grade or 2nd-3rd. Half your day is high-energy, hour-long workshops on life skills: public speaking, giving and taking feedback, holding attention. The other half is coaching, one-on-one and in small groups, using live learning data to keep every child moving toward an ambitious weekly goal. Students should walk out of your workshops more capable than they walked in, and out of your coaching sessions believing they can do more than they thought.

Your early childhood background is directly relevant here — the difference is that you won't be delivering academic instruction. That work is handled by adaptive software, which means your expertise in child development, relationship-building, and age-appropriate engagement is the entire job, not a support function.

This is a full-time, on-site role, five days a week, at an Alpha campus. We recruit nationally, so job boards may display this opportunity in nearby cities that do not have a campus.

Current Openings

• AZ - Scottsdale
• OK - Tulsa
• TN - Nashville
• TX - Austin, Brownsville, Plano, and The Woodlands (Houston)
• UT - Park City (Salt Lake City area)
  
  

Interested in a different Alpha campus? Apply anyway and name your preferred location — we'll route you to the right opening.

What You Will Be Doing

• Run hour-long life-skills workshops where K-3 students practice communication, focus, and feedback out loud and on their feet — not from a seat, and not from a lecture.
• Coach students individually and in small groups, using Coachbot (Alpha's live learning-analytics tool) to see exactly who is off pace and intervene before a weekly goal slips out of reach.
• Assess life-skill mastery through Test2Pass, Alpha's demonstrate-it-to-pass standard, and keep coaching until a student can actually do the thing — participation isn't the bar.
• Shift your approach to the developmental stage in front of you: songs, movement, and storytelling for the youngest cohort; independence, self-tracking, and accountability for 2nd and 3rd graders.
• Build enough trust with each child that they'll attempt something hard in front of you and stay in it when it doesn't work the first time.
• Own your cohort's numbers. You'll see your students' progress on a dashboard every week, and so will everyone else.
  
  

What You Won’t Be Doing

• Teaching academic lessons from the front of a room. Adaptive software delivers the academics.
• Writing curriculum from scratch. You'll personalize and sharpen proven playbooks, not invent them.
• Supervising a silent computer lab. If students are working independently and you're standing still, something has gone wrong.
• Lowering the bar when a student struggles. You move the student toward the goal — never the goal toward the student.
• Grading papers, assigning homework, or fielding routine parent email.
• Working remotely or part-time. This is on-site, five days a week, on a campus.
  
  

Early Childhood Specialist Key Responsibilities

Build a cohort of K-3 students who love coming to school, hit ambitious learning goals week after week, and leave elementary school with the life skills — confidence, focus, communication, resilience — that will still be paying off twenty years from now.

Basic Requirements

• Willing and able to work on-site, five days a week, at one of the Alpha campuses listed in this posting.
• Bachelor's degree in any field. A teaching certificate is not required.
• At least 3 years working directly with children ages 4-9 — teaching, coaching, tutoring, camps, youth programs, children's theater, or a similar setting where kids showed up because of you.
• A track record of getting young children to reach a goal they didn't think they could reach, with specific examples you can walk us through.
• Experience leading structured activities for groups of young children and keeping 10-15 or more students engaged, focused, and participating.
• The ability to explain ideas clearly to young learners and redirect a group in real time when attention, behavior, or motivation slips.
• A track record of acting on feedback by changing your approach and improving the outcome.
• Comfortable being measured. You'll be accountable to weekly cohort data, and you'll use that data to decide where to spend your time.
• Willing to let AI handle the academic instruction while you focus on coaching, motivation, and life skills.
• The ability to be genuinely warm and completely immovable on expectations, at the same time.
• Legal authorization to work in the United States without visa sponsorship.
  
  

Nice-to-have Requirements

• Experience in youth sports, children's theater, camp leadership, Montessori, progressive education, or high-engagement after-school programs.
• A personal history of chasing something ambitious — in academics, athletics, the arts, or your career — and finding out what it takes.
• Storytelling or performance chops that hold a room of six-year-olds without you raising your voice.
• Specific examples of turning a reluctant or shy child into a confident, participating one.
  
  

About Alpha

Join the team building school around student growth

Alpha reimagines the school day around faster learning, stronger mentorship, and more time for students to build real-world skills.

Roles with real student impact: Alpha hires teachers (guides), operators, admissions experts, school & curriculum leaders, and remote team members.

Education work that pays like it matters: Alpha offers six-figure roles for people ready to help build a radically better school experience.

A culture built for builders: Alpha is fast-moving, ambitious, and student focused. It’s for people who want to improve the system, not maintain it.

Alpha is where you can do the most meaningful work of your career.

There is so much to cover for this exciting role, and space here is limited. Hit the Apply button if you found this interesting and want to learn more. We look forward to meeting you!

Working with us

This is a full-time, W2 employee position with immediate access to benefits (https://support.crossover.com/article/7581-w2-benefits-u-s-paychex-paid-only). All roles are year-long positions. The compensation level for this role is $100,000 USD/year. The payment period is weekly. Consult www.crossover.com/help-and-faqs for more details on this topic.

Crossover Job Code: LJ-5149-US-Brownsvi-EarlyChildhood.003