Role Description · March 2026
Director,
Community Experience
Volta Labs · Halifax, Nova Scotia
Full-time Reports to: Jaco Burger, CINO Halifax, NS (in-person)
Why This Role Exists
Laura's primary objective is the founder and builder experience — ensuring activation and retention across Volta's community and programmes.

Volta operates three interconnected pillars: Startup Success, Builders & Community, and the SME AI Lab. Each pillar has its own people and its own targets. But they only work at scale when someone owns the connective tissue — the program operations, the community health, the coaching coordination, and the builder pipeline that links community talent to Lab deployment.

This role is that connective tissue. The Director of Community & Programs leads the day-to-day running of the Residency program, owns the Builders & Community strategy, and serves as the bridge between the community and the Lab.

This is a hands-on role at a lean, ambitious organisation. "Director" reflects scope, not separation from execution. The coaches deliver founder coaching and Amy handles event logistics — everything else in this role's scope, you do directly. Volta's AI automation stack handles the repetitive layer so your time is spent where it matters: relationships, judgment calls, and making the program run well.
—

About Volta

Volta Labs is Atlantic Canada's AI-native innovation hub, based in Halifax with operations across all four Atlantic provinces. We run three things: a Residency program for early-stage founders, an SME AI Lab that places vetted builders with businesses to solve real problems, and a builder community of 251+ AI practitioners across the region. We are funded by ACOA and the Province of Nova Scotia. Our model is built on measurable outcomes — everything we do produces data that we can stand behind.

28
active portfolio companies in the Residency
251
builders across NS, NB, PEI & NL
66%+
SME AI engagement success rate (industry avg: 5%)
01

Core Responsibilities

Startup Success — Residency Program Leadership
Day-to-day running of the Residency program. Owns the application and onboarding pipeline — applications in, interview coordination, approvals, and ensuring every resident knows what they have access to and how to use it. Maintains the data integrity in Impact OS that makes coaching and go/no-go decisions possible, and coordinates the monthly evaluation cycle with Jaco.
Coach Coordination
Coaches report to Laura. Owns the coordination layer of the coaching bench — Jared Perry, Shri, and Shahriar Amin as the bench grows. Roster management, briefing rhythms, portfolio context prep before coaching cycles, and 1:1 check-ins to surface issues early. Jaco leads ongoing support and training for coaches — holding quality standards and developing the bench. This role owns the coordination, reporting line, and data layer that makes that possible.
Support Engagement Oversight
Reviews open support engagements and liaises with advisors and coaches to ensure hours approved in Impact OS align with logged hours. When invoices are submitted, verifies they tie to system records before moving to finance. Monitors AWS application approvals for portfolio companies.
Monthly Evaluation Processing
Works with Jaco through the monthly evaluation cycle — reviewing which companies are ready for 1:1 support, which are waiting for a seat, and which are not continuing. Manages the allocation of teams to coaches for the following month. Ensures companies awaiting a seat submit their monthly updates before evaluation week (last week of every month).
Builders & Community Strategy
Owns the health, growth, and experience of Volta's builder network across Atlantic Canada. Community strategy, experience architecture, province activation (NB, PEI, NL beyond NS), builder-leader relationships, health synthesis, and the Pulse data program. The community is not just an asset — it's a pipeline for the Lab and a co-founder pool for portfolio startups.
Sprint Community Synthesis
Sprint community synthesis — reads builder demand and feedback patterns, surfaces trends and recommendations to Matt for Sprint direction decisions. Does not own Sprint design or oversight. Matt leads Sprint architecture. This role ensures builder community signals reach Matt in a form that informs Sprint cohort decisions, and tracks outcome data so Sprint's impact on the builder pipeline is documented.
Builder-to-Lab Pipeline
Serves as the bridge between the Builders & Community pillar and the SME AI Lab. Monthly sync with Andy Farnsworth (Lab Director) to align builder readiness with Lab demand. The Lab's ability to hit its 26–32 engagement target depends on a supply of vetted, deployment-ready builders — this role owns that supply side.
Community Data Quality & Hygiene
Ensures Impact OS, Pulse scores, and community engagement data are current, consistent, and accurate at all times. Jaco and Matt access health data directly from the system — clean data means they always have an accurate, up-to-date community health picture without needing a report produced. Community data quality is not a nice-to-have; it is the foundation of every programme decision.
02

What You Own vs. Work Alongside

Owns
Residency application & onboarding pipeline
Monthly evaluation cycle (with Jaco)
Coach coordination — reporting line, roster, briefings, 1:1s
Support engagement & invoice reconciliation
AWS credit application approvals
Community strategy, architecture & data quality
Builder-to-Lab pipeline (monthly sync with Andy)
Province activation — NB, PEI, NL (H2 2026 scope)
Builder-leader relationships & check-ins
Works in close partnership with Amy (peer, both report to Jaco)
Works Alongside (Not Owns)
Event logistics Amy
Sprint event logistics & scheduling Amy
Sprint design, architecture & direction Matt
Coach ongoing support & training Jaco leads
Direct founder coaching Jaco + bench
Lab engagements & SME relationships Andy
External partnerships & board Matt
Invoice processing & financial reporting Jaco
03

The Day-to-Day Operational Layer

Below the strategy and community health work is a real operational layer that keeps the Residency running. This is not work that gets delegated — it's work that requires the same person who knows the context, the companies, and the coaches. Volta's AI automation stack reduces the admin burden significantly, but these tasks are yours to own and execute consistently.
1
Application Processing & Interview Coordination
Review new Residency applications as they come in. Coordinate interview scheduling, communicate with applicants post-interview, and manage the flow from application through to approval or decline. Keep applicants informed at every stage.
2
New Resident Onboarding
Ensure every new resident is fully onboarded — they know what they have access to, where to find it, and how to use Impact OS, the coaching system, and Volta's support infrastructure. Existing residents receive reminders and updates whenever anything changes.
3
AWS Application Approvals
Process AWS credit applications for portfolio companies. Review, approve, and communicate with founders. Keep records updated in Impact OS.
4
Hours & Invoice Reconciliation
Review all open support engagements and liaise with advisors and coaches to ensure that hours approved in Impact OS align with hours actually logged. When invoices are submitted, verify they match the hours in the system before passing to Jaco for payment. Flag discrepancies before they become problems.
5
Company Update Monitoring
Monitor company updates in Impact OS for all residents — especially those in 1:1 coaching support. The data in the system is the evidence base for coaching and go/no-go decisions. If companies aren't submitting updates, you follow up. If the data is stale, you surface it.
6
Pre-Evaluation Monthly Update Chase
In the weeks before evaluation week (last week of every month), ensure all companies awaiting a 1:1 coaching seat have submitted their monthly updates. These updates are required for evaluation — companies that don't submit aren't evaluated. You own making sure this happens.
7
Monthly Evaluation Processing
Work through the evaluation cycle with Jaco each month — reviewing which companies advance to 1:1 support, which continue in their current track, and which exit. Once decisions are made, manage the allocation of teams to coaches for the next month, update Impact OS, and communicate outcomes to the relevant founders and coaches.
04

What Success Looks Like

30
Days
Can name every active resident and their current context
Shadowed 5–6 coaching sessions to understand the coaching dynamic
Understands how Impact OS works end-to-end
First coach briefing rhythm established with Jared Perry
Portfolio health summary delivered to Jaco
Impact OS fully current: 100% of active companies with data < 30 days old
100
Days
Coach coordination fully running — briefings, roster, 1:1s
First go/no-go memo submitted for Jaco review
Sprint Spring cohort launched and running
Scope document with Amy finalized — clear owns for both
Community data quality maintained — clean, consistent, accessible at any time
Builder-leader check-in system established
1 yr
Year One
20–25 vetted builders in active pipeline for the Lab
2+ Sprint cohorts completed with outcome data
Community data quality fully systematic — Jaco and Matt always have accurate, current health data as the foundation of every programme decision
80%+ Pulse response rate from active builders
Active community leaders in 2+ provinces beyond NS
At least one Sprint graduate matched to a startup team
05

Who You Are

You are relational first — you build trust quickly, remember people, and understand that community health is made of individual relationships, not event attendance numbers.
You are data-comfortable — you can work in an ops platform, synthesise numbers into insights, and translate what the data shows into clear signals for leadership decisions.
You are a finisher — you follow through, close loops, and take real satisfaction in systems that run cleanly and consistently. Half-done doesn't sit well with you.
You are comfortable with ambiguity and autonomy — Volta is a lean team. You will often need to make judgment calls without a full playbook and bring the structure back to the team.
You are comfortable doing the work yourself — this is a small organisation. There is no execution layer between you and the output in most areas of this role. The coaches deliver coaching; Amy delivers events. Everything else, you do directly.
Experience in community building, program management, or startup ecosystems is more relevant than any specific industry background. You don't need to have run a residency program before — but you need to be the kind of person who can learn a complex system quickly and run it reliably.