Research Analyst, Alpha - $100,000/year USD
5+ years
Austin, TX
Full-time
Onsite
1 month ago
About the role
- $100,000/year W2 salary, paid weekly; day-one health, dental, vision benefits
- On-site at an Alpha K-8 campus in Denver, CO; Oklahoma City, OK; Tulsa, OK; Nashville, TN; Austin, TX; Brownsville, TX; Fort Worth, TX; Houston (Central, South, or The Woodlands), TX; Park City, UT (Salt Lake City area); or Toronto, Canada (relocation support provided)
You are not a teacher. You motivate.
The most supportive thing you can do for a kid who hit 99% of their goal is refuse to call it done. If that standard makes you uncomfortable, stop reading. If it makes you light up because holding the bar is how you show a student you believe they can clear it, keep going.
At Alpha, students learn their academics through AI-powered apps. No lectures. No textbooks. Half your day you run one-hour life-skills workshops on public speaking, focus, and giving and receiving real feedback. The other half, you sit with students 1:1 or in small groups, review their progress through Coachbot analytics, and push each of them to 100% of their weekly app goals. You will not deliver a script — workshops are a starting point, but the best in this role adapt them and design new ones when something's missing.
A quarter succeeds when every student in your cohort hits their weekly app goals, passes the Test2Pass for every life-skills workshop, and 90%+ say they love you. Missing any of those three is missing the job. In year one you master the playbook; as you prove you can hold the bar, the path opens to Lead Guide, where you coach newer hires while still working directly with kids.
If you love traditional teaching, want a curriculum handed to you, or believe warmth and high standards are in tension, this is not the job. If you've been an athletic coach, a camp counselor, a tutor who refused to let a kid quit, or a performer who could hold a room of eight-year-olds, the final step before an offer is a full day on campus coaching real Alpha students. If that is the part that excites you most, apply today.
What You Will Be Doing
- Leading one-hour life-skills workshops for K-8 cohorts on public speaking, focus, feedback, and other durable skills, adapting the playbook and designing new sessions when you spot a gap
- Running daily 1:1 and small-group motivation sessions that push every student to 100% of their weekly app goals, using Coachbot analytics, Alpha's incentive systems (school currency, leaderboards), and your relationship with each kid to break resistance
- Administering the Test2Pass (Alpha's mastery-based assessment) for each life skill, and coaching students who don't pass until they do
- Adapting your coaching style across a wide age range, from kindergarteners who need high energy and movement to 8th graders who need real talk and accountability
- Being the adult who holds the bar and the adult kids want to talk to; warmth earns you the right to push, and pushing shows you believe they can get there
What You Won’t Be Doing
- Lecturing at a whiteboard; academic instruction lives in the apps, not in you
- Writing curriculum from scratch; you bring a proven playbook to life with energy and storytelling
- Supervising kids at computers; motivation here is active, personal, and relentless
- Lowering a weekly goal to help a student hit it; if a kid is behind, the fix is the kid, not the target
- Grading homework, running standardized test prep, or managing parent communication; Campus Leads own parent-facing work, and none of the rest exists here
Research Analyst Key Responsibilities
Ensure every student in your K-8 cohort hits their weekly learning goals, masters each life skill, and leaves the year saying they loved you.
Basic Requirements
- Willing to work in-person at an Alpha campus in Denver, CO; Oklahoma City, OK; Tulsa, OK; Nashville, TN; Austin, TX; Brownsville, TX; Fort Worth, TX; Houston, TX (Central, South, or The Woodlands); Park City, UT; or Toronto, Canada (relocation support provided)
- Bachelor's degree in any subject
- At least 3 years working directly with K-8 students (classroom teaching, coaching, tutoring, camp counseling, or youth program leadership)
- A specific example you can describe of motivating a K-8 student to a hard goal: the goal, what you did, and the outcome
- Willingness to let AI handle the instructional content while you focus on motivation and life-skills coaching
- Daily use of generative AI tools (e.g., ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude)
- Legal right to work in the US without visa sponsorship (or in Canada for the Toronto campus)
Nice-to-have Requirements
- Experience in youth athletics coaching, debate, camp leadership, drama, or after-school programs where you were directly responsible for motivating kids toward specific goals
- Personal history of high achievement (academic, athletic, or professional), such that holding others to a hard bar is a pattern, not a posture
- Storytelling and stage presence strong enough to hold a room of 12-year-olds for an hour without raising your voice
- Track record of turning disengaged or resistant students into active participants
About Alpha
Want to join a learning rebellion that’s transforming the traditional classroom?
Alpha School is on a mission to reshape education with a bold approach that harnesses AI to accelerate learning and unleash student potential.
They don’t play by the old rules.
Alpha is creating a new paradigm where students master core academics in just two hours a day, freeing up time for hands-on, passion-driven learning that truly prepares them for the real world.
Alpha School is rewriting the rules of education.
Sounds too good to be true? It’s not.
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 (40 hours per week), long-term position. The position is immediately available and requires entering into an independent contractor agreement with Crossover as a Contractor of Record. The compensation level for this role is $50 USD/hour, which equates to $100,000 USD/year assuming 40 hours per week and 50 weeks per year. The payment period is weekly. Consult www.crossover.com/help-and-faqs for more details on this topic.
Crossover Job Code: LJ-4415-US-Austin-ResearchAnalys.001