General Manager - Alabama
About Primer
Primer is a growing network of K–8 schools restoring the timeless foundations of American education. Inspired by the original teaching primers that shaped a nation of readers, thinkers, and builders, our schools begin with what has always worked, and build for what lies ahead. Close-knit learning environments. Skilled educators. A culture that takes kids seriously as learners and leaders.
Primers shaped the first 200 years of American children. Primer will ready them for the next.
About the role
As the Alabama General Manager you'll own the full P&L and operational quality of our presence in Alabama and you'll be the face of Primer across the state.
You'll need to excel at operating high and low simultaneously — moving between long-range market strategy and the granular details of a campus launch, often within the same afternoon. One morning you might be helping with a campus decision. By lunch you're walking a potential real estate site. By evening you're reviewing enrollment and financial performance data across the state.
We're building for every family in Alabama — not just the easy ones to reach. That means designing solutions that work without raising costs, finding creative paths where others would just spend money, and staying in the field when it matters most. This isn't a role you manage from a desk.
This is a senior operator role with real ownership of a growing business.
Responsibilities
Own Alabama market performance end-to-end — P&L, enrollment growth, retention, and the quality bar across all campuses, current and future.
Lead Primer's Alabama expansion across the state:
Develop and execute a multi-year market strategy — campus density, real estate sourcing, market selection, and timeline.
Partner closely with real estate, education, operations, and finance teams to launch new campuses under budget and ahead of schedule.
Evaluate every site and initiative with a clear-eyed view of unit economics — if it doesn't pencil out, say so.
Be the face of Primer in Alabama:
Build relationships with politicians, local officials, community organizations, and potential partners.
Lead recruiting events, open houses, and campus tours; engage directly with families to drive enrollment.
Adapt your outward focus seasonally — heavier recruiting activity during peak enrollment windows, more strategic and operational work in steadier periods.
Pilot and refine localized approaches: admissions tweaks, go-to-market adjustments, and market-specific processes. Document what works, build it into playbooks, and close the loop — don't just solve the problem once.
What we're looking for
Proven GM experience with direct P&L ownership and a track record of hitting aggressive growth, expansion, and margin targets.
Multi-site operational instincts — you can run multiple locations without losing the thread on quality or culture. Backgrounds in healthcare, QSR, retail, or charter networks translate well.
Strong ties to Alabama and a real stake in its future — you understand the families and communities, and you're energized by the chance to do something that matters for them.
Strong analytical and commercial acumen — you can read performance data, model site economics, and make tradeoffs with numbers in hand.
Clear, proactive written communication — your updates give leadership enough context to act without needing a follow-up call.
Direct conflict engagement — you pick up the phone, sit in the tension, and don't triangulate when a direct conversation would serve better.
Bias to action and full ownership — when you see a problem, it's yours. You don't confuse completing a task with owning the outcome.
Intellectual honesty - you flag bad news early, pressure test your own assumptions.
Willingness to travel extensively across the state, including 3+ hour drives to Birmingham, Huntsville, Montgomery, Dothan, and Mobile.
Why this role may not be a fit
You prefer a well-defined playbook over building one. Alabama is still early; the playbooks are still being written.
Your instinct when things are hard is to add headcount or resources — not to redesign the system or find a creative path through the constraint.
You're most effective managing remotely. This role requires sustained field presence: campus visits, community events, real estate walks, and in-person family engagement.
You'd rather stay in a strategic lane than flex into the operational details. This role requires both, often on the same day.
You've never been fully accountable to a P&L, or you've managed sites without owning their economics.
You don't have deep ties to Alabama and would be starting from scratch building trust and relationships.
Primer is a mission-first company. We believe our mission is the highest-leverage way we can create positive change. In service of that, we keep work centered on mission execution and avoid social or political activism at work that’s unrelated to the mission. If that energizes you, we’d love to see you apply.