Associate, Early Childhood

Afton Partners is an impact-driven consultancy that reimagines and implements systems, policies, and practices that improve lives. We bring technical savvy and a relational approach to partnerships with clients across the early care and education, K-12, higher education, and workforce development sectors. Since 2011, Afton has collaborated on more than 150 initiatives in 40 states, and our clients include state and local government agencies, public school systems, charter schools, and philanthropies. We're creative, committed, and energized by complexity. Together, we can solve our toughest societal challenges and co-create a future where each person has the opportunity for growth and fulfillment.

Afton Partners seeks an Associate to support strategic planning, policy, and systems design engagements with Early Childhood clients across the country. Afton's Early Childhood practice advises state and local governments, philanthropic funders, and community-based and advocacy organizations working to improve conditions for families with young children, with an emphasis on early childhood education and care.

• Conduct policy, program, and landscape research on early childhood topics such as funding streams, governance structures, and comparative practices across states.
• Gather and code qualitative data from interviews, focus groups, and surveys, pulling out key themes.
• Collect, clean, and analyze quantitative data, including enrollment, cost, workforce, and funding data. Build clear, well-documented spreadsheets and models.
• Support cost modeling, revenue scenarios, and budget analyses by gathering and analyzing data.
• Turn research and data into clear takeaways, focusing on what matters most for the client's key questions and what it means for their decisions.
• Check your own work for accuracy, consistency, and polish before it goes to project leads.

• Prepare materials for commission, advisory body, and stakeholder meetings, including agendas, pre-reads, background documents, and discussion guides.
• Draft client deliverables or portions of them, including memos, research briefs, reports, and presentation slides.
• Ensure all written materials are error-free, well organized, and tailored to their audience.

• Coordinate logistics for interviews, focus groups, and convenings, and build clear, professional relationships with client staff.
• Support facilitation and stakeholder engagement by participating in meetings and focus groups, helping to design and implement a variety of interactive engagement approaches, and facilitating breakouts and small group interactions.
• Listen well and build trust across a range of stakeholders in the early childhood ecosystem, from parents and educators to agency officials and philanthropic leaders.

• Manage your own tasks against project work plans and deadlines, raising risks or questions early.
• Track project documents, timelines, and next steps to help the team stay organized.
• Take notes, capture decisions and action items, and synthesize client and stakeholder input.

• Seek out and act on feedback, taking on more independence and responsibility over time.
• Build your early childhood knowledge by keeping up with federal, state, and local policy developments.
• Contribute to business development in practical ways, such as conducting research for proposals, preparing background documents for prospective client meetings, and drafting RFP responses.
• Take part in team learning and help build a strong, collaborative team culture.

This position requires strong analytical and research skills, clear writing, and close attention to detail. You should also have a foundation in, or a strong desire to develop, management consulting skills: structuring problems, synthesizing information, supporting facilitation, and communicating with clients.

Research shows candidates from underrepresented backgrounds often apply only when they meet every listed qualification. If you have most of these qualifications, we encourage you to apply.