Higher Education Applicant Support Associate

Imagine a world powered by everyone’s full potential.  

That’s what we’re building at Acuity Insights.

With our product, Casper, we are working to ensure everyone has fair access to higher education made possible by holistic admission processes that recognize applicants for their full potential, shaped by their lived experiences, cultural influences, values, and soft skills.

With our products, One45 & Analytics, we deliver technology that enables education programs to streamline and optimize complex operations needed to successfully train and graduate the world’s future doctors, nurses, and other healthcare professionals.

We are at a new growth stage as a company, and now you have the chance to be part of Acuity Insights’ startup-to-scaleup journey as a Higher Education Applicant Support Associate, providing higher education applicants with the information and assistance they need to prepare for and complete the Casper admissions test.

As an Applicant Support Associate on the Casper Operations team, you'll help support our most widely used product, Casper.

Casper is a soft skills test used in the admissions process of hundreds of academic programs globally, including teacher's colleges, engineering, and medical schools. Over 140,000 applicants take the test every year. 

Applicants depend on your work to help them take the test, and their test results empower schools to make informed admissions decisions. That means your work will significantly influence the academic and career paths of thousands worldwide.

In this multi-faceted role, your day-to-day will consist of various supporting activities and tasks, like answering applicant inquiries or assisting with requests from our Support Agents or Customer Success team.

As our Support team members move toward specialized focus areas, you also will become the Casper Operations Support team’s go-to person for Special Test Arrangements.

Special Test Arrangements

In this role, you will lead the support for applicants with disabilities, functional limitations, or temporary medical conditions who need additional time, assistive software, assistive personnel or other arrangements when taking the Casper test. You’ll enable a test experience that meets their unique needs so they have a chance to pursue the education they want.

You get to directly support 1% of all applicants taking the Casper test across all programs and geographies, own the queue of incoming submissions, and respond to the majority of special test arrangement requests, an average of 1,200 submissions a year.

The work entails processing and parsing technical documents, understanding the nature of the requests and identifying deficiencies in documentation or unreasonable demands while protecting the confidentiality and privacy of applicants.

You'll collaborate with applicants to finalize their special test arrangements, ensuring compliance with our policies. Occasionally, you'll liaise with other team members, including Security and Product teams, as well as external medical professionals and the applicant’s parents, to navigate unique situations. Your evaluations and decisions regarding applicant requests will be informed by their individual circumstances and recommendations from qualified professionals.

Test Support

As an Applicant Support Associate, you will also immerse yourself in the Casper test experience and help with the behind-the-scenes work involved in scheduling and setting up tests. That includes preparing technical support and personnel and coordinating contract support agents and proctoring teams. 

You also get to provide live test support a few times a month. This involves directly assisting applicants with questions and troubleshooting, guiding Test Support Agents and proctors on processes and effective communication, and handling escalating and complex incidents.

Process Optimization

Right now, we’re at the start of a new growth phase, giving you a chance to impact how our test support infrastructure and processes evolve directly and are optimized to support a higher volume of applicants this fiscal year.

Leveraging your drive to challenge the status quo and interest in continuous improvement, you will seek and identify opportunities to streamline and automate our support operations, explore and experiment with solutions, and lead your initiatives to implement new tools, processes, and policies.

An example improvement project includes developing a more robust special test arrangement request review process that ensures qualified medical oversight. Another initiative is collaborating with the Product and Security teams on opportunities for system enhancements to reduce the manual workload involved in processing each request.

As a contributor on the Support team, you'll represent the voice of the applicants and gather and share their feedback, insights, and concerns with our teams. You'll also anticipate and communicate the impact of product and process changes on applicants and advocate for their needs to drive improvements in the Casper test experience.

Measurements of Success

Your success at Acuity Insights is measured by two key metrics: ensuring 100% of special test arrangements are processed on time and Applicant Satisfaction Score, which you share with other Casper Operations team members. 

You’ll know you are meeting performance expectations in your role when:

• 100% of requested special test arrangements are processed on time and ready for the applicant at their test time. 
• The Casper Operations Support team maintains an Applicant Satisfaction Score of >6/7.
• Your contributions to streamlining and automating support operations help increase the team’s overall capacity to spend time on other high-value, high-impact strategic initiatives for the business.
• Peers, collaborators, and leaders you support and collaborate with across other functions, like Customer Success, feel and recognize the impact of your work.

The Team

You’ll be part of a Support Team that currently has members in Vancouver, Calgary, Montreal, Toronto, and Melbourne, Australia, and report to Gregory Wong  (Manager, Operations—Support), who is based in Toronto, Canada.

Working Hours

2-3 days per week, your hours will be:

• 7 am to 3 pm AEST (5 pm to 1 am EST) to facilitate meetings with Canadian team members and, plus on occasion, participate in live test support.

The remaining 2-3 days per week, your hours will be:

• 9 am to 5 pm AEST (7 pm to 3 am EST)

• Bring some professional experience in a role with an operational and administrative focus doing work that includes reviewing and processing documentation, handling personal information protected by privacy laws, or communicating about sensitive topics. 
• Consider yourself an expert at organizing chaos and creating structure around you. You skillfully maintain your digital workspace, manage details, time, and resources, prioritize tasks and responsibilities, and have a plan to meet deadlines and goals. 
• Have helped coordinate or spearhead operations-related projects from initiation to completion, for example, implementing a new tool, process or standard involving multiple collaborators and stakeholders.
• Are digitally savvy and a quick learner of new software with some experience operating in a remote work environment where you’ve relied on online technologies for collaboration with team members or communication with customers. 
• Naturally compassionate and adept at balancing empathy and high operating standards when navigating situations and leading conversations that bring out emotions. 
• Are an operator at heart with an inclination to streamline processes and maximize efficiency. 
• Are growth-focused and have a learner's mindset. You embrace candid, constructive feedback to develop yourself professionally and personally and relish learning new technology and applications.
• Don’t mind covering odd hours (evening and weekend tests) and are open to working on a weekend with time in lieu. 

• Caring toward people. You take the time to listen and understand, encourage, and provide helpful feedback that can foster growth in others.
• Curious by nature. You are open-minded, like asking questions, exploring, experimenting, and learning new things.
• Driven to learn and problem-solve, both independently and with collaborators. You are solutions-oriented and continuously seek to improve your skills, methods, and practices, and support others. 
• Adaptable and drawn to startup-like environments where you can help build, innovate, and initiate and own projects that drive positive change.
• Autonomous and resourceful, you are at your best when you handle your work and time independently and proactively seek support when you get stuck or need feedback.
• Self-aware, with an understanding of your strengths and where you have growth opportunities.
• Motivated by purposeful work that resonates with your values and interests serves the greater good.

We are only able to consider applicants with the right to live and work in Australia.

To ensure an equitable and inclusive process, all candidates will receive equal consideration for an interview, whether applying, introduced as a referral or contacting the manager or recruiter directly.

We look at every resume.

Your application is evaluated based on your professional experiences, how you’ve applied your knowledge and skills to make an impact, and the personal qualities you demonstrate.

Our interview process is designed to be a two-way discovery and create space for meaningful conversations.

We want to learn who you are as a human & professional, understand your experiences, assess your skills, and ensure alignment with our mission, values and business needs.

We encourage you to be curious and ask insightful questions throughout our conversations.

Here are the steps you can expect:

• Review & Selection. A human, not an AI, reviews your resume and assesses your experience and application responses against our hiring criteria.
• Intro Conversation with Recruiter. If selected, you’ll have a 30-60 minute phone call to share your background and professional interests and learn more about the company, team, role and compensation.
• Communication Proficiency Assessment. On your own time, spend up to 20 minutes on a shortened version of our situational judgment test, Casper, to help us assess your communication approach and English language proficiency.   
• Meet The Manager & Local Team Member. Have a 45-minute video call with your potential future manager, followed by a 45-minute conversation with an Australian-based team member to discuss relevant experiences and learn more about the function, team and day-to-day of the role and working for a Canadian company from Australia. 
• Meet The Team. Connect with 2 more future peers and collaborators in 1-on-1 video conversations, each 30 minutes long, and learn more about the team, role, and life at Acuity Insights.
• Wait For a Decision. The Hiring Manager consolidates and evaluates feedback from the team to make a hiring decision within 2-4 days.
• Receive an Offer / Reference Check. If you're a good fit for the role, team, and company, we'll invite you to an offer conversation. The offer is contingent upon the completion of a reference check.

• Work remotely. Enjoy the freedom and flexibility of working from anywhere within Australia.
• Fair pay. Get paid fairly for your work with a salary aligned to your role, skill level, and job responsibilities, informed by internal pay equity and market data.   
• Investment in your growth. Access a $3,000 yearly budget for professional and personal development.
• Flexible paid time off.  Enjoy two weeks of disconnected vacation at year-end, self-directed vacation time, extra Fridays off throughout the year, and time off during medical, family, or mental health situations without financial worry.
• Company equity. Become a partial owner of Acuity Insights when you join, sharing in long-term value creation and financial success through our employee stock option plan.
• Support for holistic wellness. Access a stipend of $500 per year to use on a mental health platform membership of your choice (for example, BetterHelp or Inkblot).
• Hardware & workspace equipment. Receive a Mac laptop, extra monitor and other workspace equipment needed for your home office.

Acuity Insights is a Canadian company founded in 2014.

Behind Acuity Insights, you'll find a team of 125+ caring, curious, and driven individuals collaborating remotely across Canada and some international locations.

We are dedicated to building a workplace where everyone feels respected, valued, and well-supported. Our systems and policies generate a sense of belonging, strive for social justice, promote equity, embrace diversity, and champion inclusion, where every individual can grow and thrive.

The presence and representation of a wide range of identities, backgrounds, and perspectives on our team is a strength. Our diversity fuels our ability to innovate, helps us build and evolve our market-leading products, contributes to a healthier work environment, and enables us to build a sustainable and capable organization to deliver the business outcomes we want.

We encourage individuals from non-traditional backgrounds or historically marginalized and underrepresented groups to explore and apply to this role. 

Thanks for considering Acuity Insights as your next employer