Director, Venture Factory

Nelnet Business Services (NBS) a division of Nelnet Inc. provides payment technology education services and learning management solutions to education and faith-based organizations serving more than 1300 higher education institutions 11500 K-12 schools 3500 churches and millions of individual students families and supporters across the globe. Our culture of service enables us to form long-lasting and trusted partnerships while our focus on creativity and innovative solutions empowers our customer communities to thrive.

As a Nelnet company the perks at NBS go beyond our benefits package. Youre part of a community invested in you as an individual and united by our mission to create opportunities for people where they live learn and work.

JOB RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Lead the development and execution of a repeatable opportunity-sourcing system to surface high-quality venture candidates across markets and domains.

• Engage with market startup ecosystems customers and internal resources to identify and synthesize venture hypotheses.

• Define and maintain formal opportunity qualification criteria including strategic fit differentiation and risk-to-ROI profile.

• Construct and manage a ranked venture backlog with explicit hypotheses kill criteria and investment caps.

• Launch prototypes and pilots required to produce validated business potential enforcing tight time-boxing and capital discipline.

• Personally participate in venture builds customer onboarding and validation discussions to ensure hands-on execution.

• Apply risk-adjusted investment logic and run weekly venture reviews with clear recommendations for continuation pivot or termination.

• Own promotion readiness and handoff to business units ensuring clarity on use cases customer targets and scale requirements.

• Track and report on success metrics including validated business potential pilot deployment and time-to-signal.

• Prevent zombie initiatives and premature scale pressure through disciplined decision-making.

Salary for this role is: $225000

Please note that we are unable to provide visa sponsorship for this position. To be considered candidates must already be authorized to work in the United States without the need for current or future sponsorship.

EDUCATION:

Required:

• Bachelors degree in Business Engineering or related field.

Preferred:

• Advanced degree (MBA or equivalent) or relevant entrepreneurial experience.

EXPERIENCE:

Required:

• Proven experience as a founder or early-stage operator with a track record of building selling and killing ideas.

• Demonstrated success in hands-on venture creation product development and go-to-market execution.

• Experience in managing cross-functional teams and driving rapid iteration in ambiguous environments.

Preferred:

• Experience in AI-enabled product building and experimentation.

• Exposure to market and startup ecosystems including venture studios and emerging products.

COMPETENCIES/SKILLS:

• Strategic thinking and pattern recognition across markets and technologies.

• Agility in execution and rapid learning from failure.

• Strong commercial and product instincts.

• Influence and collaboration across internal and external stakeholders.

• Discipline in capital allocation risk management and decision-making.

Our benefits package includes medical dental vision HSA and FSA generous earned time off 401K/student loan repayment life insurance & AD&D insurance employee assistance program employee stock purchase program tuition reimbursement performance-based incentive pay short- and long-term disability and a robust wellness program. Click here to learn more about our benefits: LINK.

Nelnet is committed to providing a welcoming and respectful workplace where all associates have the opportunity to succeed. As an Equal Opportunity Employer we ensure that all qualified applicants are considered for employment. Employment decisions are made without regard to race color religion/creed national origin gender sex marital status age disability use of a guide dog or service animal sexual orientation military/veteran status or any other status protected by federal state or local law. We value the unique contributions of every team member and believe that a positive work environment benefits everyone.

Qualified individuals with disabilities who require reasonable accommodations in order to apply or compete for positions at Nelnet may request such accommodations by contacting Corporate Recruiting at or.

Nelnet is a Drug Free and Tobacco Free Workplace.