Code Platoon is an award-winning non-profit organization whose training program prepares veterans and military spouses to become professional software developers.

We are looking for an energetic, organized, personable veteran, reservist, guardsman, or military spouse to help market our program to potential student applicants. This is a great way to give back to the veteran community by connecting vets and their spouses with a retraining opportunity.

The Community Outreach Manager will travel out to locations where veterans and spouses congregate (we will identify many, but hopefully you can identify some) and help distribute our materials, and talk with veterans and spouses about our program. Travel will be in the greater Chicago area, and will be compensated.

This person will also interact with other Veteran Serving Organizations (we have contacts at many) and help identify ways to promote Code Platoon with their audiences. This may include the use of social media and other marketing channels. No prior marketing experience is required, but you must have an interest and willingness to learn.

We will provide the training and materials you need to help interested veterans and spouses understand whether our life-changing program is for them. If interested, send your resume to Info@CodePlatoon.org.

You will be responsible for prospecting and recruiting companies with long-term technology hiring needs into our network, then growing, nurturing and maintaining these partner companies through close account management and ongoing engagement strategies. Many of the companies will be Chicago-based, but you will also work to identify remote-hire tech companies across the US. You will also coordinate opportunities for these employers to interact with our students, including but not limited to hosting events and attending networking events.

Why work with Code Platoon?

Code Platoon is an award-winning, mission-driven nonprofit, poised to meaningfully impact where technology training and workforce development meet. Our hands-on approach to teaching veterans and military spouses in demand software languages maximizes their skill sets gained through military experience, ultimately providing well rounded employees to companies with career opportunities.

Our current roster of partners includes some of the leading technology firms in Chicago. These partnerships provide a career to our nation’s heroes, not just a job, but we need your help expanding our network and providing more opportunities to our graduates. While you can work part-time, flexible hours, and flexible location, we do require a full commitment to our mission: help veterans and military spouses find meaningful careers as software development professionals through training and internship opportunities. Our team of seasoned professionals will eagerly welcome you, as we work together to find the best career opportunities in technology for those that need it the most.

High-level view of who you are:

• You are familiar with outreach, business development and account management best practices. This might include pipeline management strategies, a mastery of objection handling, and a track record of building excellent client relationships with a variety of professionals across various industries.
• You are results-oriented and track your results closely. Contacting hundreds of potential leads a week is exciting to you. You create clear task lists and always follow up, never missing a beat.You are a careful listener and can translate the needs of hiring managers into opportunities to partner with Code Platoon.
• You have been in the tech space previously and can “speak” tech both to recruiters and hiring managers.
• You are organized and detail-oriented. You take CRM diligence seriously and keep timely records of all external activity.

Position Details

• Contractor position
• Hours per week: 10-20 hours
• Reports to: Executive Director
• Location: Remote with some in person required (125 S. Clark St., Chicago)

As a Technical Strategic Partnerships Manager, you will achieve the following results:

Ensure that in all of our markets, we are the top of mind talent source.

Make industry-leading companies champions of our program.

• Develop, grow and maintain employer relationships through tactical outbound sourcing, engaging executives at Chicago’s and the nation’s leading companies, who are seeking technical talent.
• Take a consultative approach to investigating a company’s needs and uncovering new opportunities.
• Maintain accurate and timely records of activity

About Code Platoon

Code Platoon is a non-profit ‘coding bootcamp’ for veterans, active duty and military spouses. Our immersive 14-week program trains deeply interested beginners to become professional software developers. Students that are accepted and enroll in our program will put in 60 to 70 hours a week, learning Python, React, and other technologies, as they prepare to transition into a career in software development.

Code Platoon partners with tech companies to provide apprenticeships and financial support. Our combination of careful screening, world-class curriculum and instruction and corporate apprenticeships leads to an outstanding track record of successful job outcomes for our graduates.

Next Steps:

If you are interested, please send your resume to info@codeplatoon.org

Code Platoon is a non-profit coding bootcamp that prepares US military veterans and military spouses for careers in software development. We’ve had 9 cohorts graduate since 2016 with a strong 80%+ placement rate due to our small class sizes, industry volunteers, and excellent instruction. We are looking for someone to continue this history of excellence.

Each session is 14 weeks long, and we run 3 sessions a year. We are looking for a full-time instructor to help teach Python / Django and Javascript / React. Classes will be held every day, with a few hours of instruction, and many hours of project work for the students.

Why Should You Want This Job?

You will be part of a community catapulting 12 to 20 veterans and military spouses (per cohort) into careers in programming. As part of this community, you will help develop curriculum, lead lectures, and provide students input and feedback on their progress. Code Platoon’s community includes active board members who will be there to support you.

What We are Looking for in an Instructor:

You love teaching. We hope that you have taught before but if you haven’t, that’s okay! We are happy to train you; we just ask that you are passionate about education, helping others, and have professional experience developing in Python / Django and/or React/Redux. You know the ins and outs of TDD, Agile methods, and pair-programming. You know design patterns well.  OO comes naturally to you, but also see beauty in functional programming. You can evaluate code and refactor with ease. Most importantly, you can teach this skill to others.

You know the full stack: HTML, CSS, Ajax, jQuery, etc, Javascript, PostgreSQL, CLI, Git. And more.

Lastly, you understand that good software developers don’t just know how to code; they have emotional intelligence that allows them to give and receive feedback, and they understand that often the way forward is through pure grit and determination. You will help model and advance these meta-skills.

Responsibilities

As an instructor, you will teach every day (M – F) for the 14 week program.  Even though students will often work 60 to 80 hours a week, your schedule will be normal business hours.  We are flexible about how much time you spend lecturing, how much time you spend leading a joint class exercise, and how much time you spend in a flipped classroom setting, where the students are working on projects and you are supervising and helping them get ‘unstuck’. But in general, of your workday, you can expect to spend some time teaching, some time overseeing student’s work (lots of debugging), and some time preparing curriculum for the next day.

About Code Platoon

Code Platoon is a nonprofit coding boot camp that prepares veterans and military spouses for careers in software development.  Students spend a couple months on pre-work before they arrive for the in-person portion of the program. Students can expect to work 60 to 80 hours a week during those 14 weeks, and in that time are taught enough to be prepared to work as junior programmers when they finish. After the classroom portion is complete, many of our students will be matched with a sponsor company, and will begin a 3 to 6 month paid internship.

Next Steps

If you are interested in this position, please email Jonathan Young at jon@codeplatoon.org.  Please include any relevant work experience, links to projects, a LinkedIn profile, or anything you think might help us know more about your background.

Lastly, if you know someone who would be a great fit for this position, we are offering a $2,000 referral bonus for a successful hire. Please connect your referrals to jon@codeplatoon.org so that we can track their progress.