Working at Exeter

See our current staff & administrator openings

Phillips Exeter Academy has a variety of positional openings for staff and administrative roles.

Employee Development

At Exeter, employee development will focus on nurturing careers and providing opportunities for professional growth. All employees will be given clear expectations and will be expected to perform their job responsibilities with proficiency and an appreciation of the importance of their responsibilities and a commitment to excellence. Employees seeking to develop skills and experiences in order to grow and take on new responsibilities will be supported as appropriate. Employees are entitled to clear, honest and timely feedback on the performance of their responsibilities, and will be held accountable for acting on such feedback where a need for improvement has been identified.

Continuing Education Reimbursement

Paid in full when directly job-related and your department requests coursework. Otherwise, 50% of tuition/books if coursework has potential application at PEA.

Internal Trainings

PEA provides a number of internal trainings for employment development. These trainings include topics such as Crucial Conversations, Manager Training, ServSafe, Reporting Laws, and various regular offerings throughout the year.

Professional Development Plans

PEA employees are provided an annual opportunity to discuss their professional development goals and performance. During this process the employee completes a self-appraisal and the direct supervisor will complete an appraisal for the employee. At that time, a meeting will be scheduled to discuss outlined goals.

Professional Speakers

Throughout the year, PEA hosts a number of reputable speakers through various trainings, assemblies, and events.

Employee Engagement

Employee engagement is focused on building connections and supporting the well-being of all employees. Our goal is for employees to feel connected to our community as a whole, that their work has meaning and impact, and that they are appreciated for the work that they do. Employee voice is encouraged and agency is attained through open channels of communication and engagement that support the success of the Academy. The Academy seeks to be a best place to work where all adults have a strong sense of belonging and inclusion, and where there is a common understanding of what it means to do things with a commitment to excellence, personal growth, accountability to oneself and others, respect, gratitude, humility and generosity of spirit.

Be Well

Be Well Exeter is a holistic health and well-being program covering six themes: environmental, financial/health consumer, lifestyle, mind/spirit, physical, and workplace/community. It offers a variety of speakers each month.

Calm Subscription

PEA offers employees a Calm subscription which gives unlimited access to the full library of content at Calm.com and in the Calm app. Calm provides guided meditations and specialized music playlists to help with stress and focus, mindful movement video and audio, relaxing Sleep Stories, tailored content for children, wisdom-filled masterclasses led by experts, and much more.

Celebrations and Awards

PEA invites all employees to our multiple events over the year. Whether it’s to celebrate our colleagues at staff award ceremonies, or to socialize at one of our frolics, employees come together as a community while enjoying food, beverages, and camaraderie.

Community Leave Time

Community Time Leave allows employees to connect through service to help us build strong relationships while modeling non sibi with our colleagues or others to increase our sense of belonging within our own community. Part-time employees receive 10 hours, and full-time employees receive 20 hours, each year.

Summer Flex Time

Summer flex time offers greater flexibility in summer work hours. All staff and administrators are eligible. Administrative offices remain open during core summer hours. Employees work their full number of hours during the week. You may leave at noon on Friday or shorten the number of days you work each week by flexing your start and end times during the week. Flextime arrangements vary by department.

Care.com Membership

Caring for your family while you are at work can often be a challenge. Whether it’s after-school care, caring for a child who is home ill or the responsibility for aging parents, sometimes you need additional support, even at a moment’s notice. To help alleviate life’s unexpected challenges, PEA employees have free Care.com access to support a productive work-life balance.

Employee Assistance Program

ESI Employee Assistance Group is the nation’s most comprehensive employee assistance program (EAP) delivering more than twice the benefits and services to employees. These added benefits include thousands of online trainings, employee coaching, self-help center with personal and professional development resources. There is also broad suite of services to HR managers and supervisors.

Theater and Arts

PEA students offer many cultural events for all our community members to take advantage of. Employees can attend theater productions at our Goel Theater, listen to a music concert, and explore our Lamont Art Gallery, all for free.

Compensation & Benefits

Compensation and Benefits packages should attract a high performing and diverse workforce — employees who are committed to the mission and values of the school and have the skills necessary to succeed.

Our compensation and benefits should be highly competitive with comparable markets. Benefits should be relevant, flexible and contribute to attracting and retaining employees of the highest talent.

Our compensation structures should be transparent, clearly communicated and have the flexibility to recognize outstanding performance.

Retirement Plan

PEA offers a “defined contribution” 403(b) plan, managed by Vanguard. The auto-enroll/increase feature applies from day 1 (pretax voluntary employee contributions). PEA contributes 9% of salary or 12% of salary for employees age 50+ or whose salary exceeds the IRS step rate. Employer contributions are 100% vested from day 1, and there is no waiting period. A full range of investment choices, withdrawal features and distribution options are available.

Time Off

Staff may be eligible for 5+ weeks of time off (holidays and vacation), as well as 2+ weeks of paid personal/sick leave and time off for jury duty, bereavement leave, military leave, family and medical leave, and community service leave.

Tuition Scholarship

Benefits-eligible employees, whose children qualify for admission to PEA, are eligible to receive a scholarship equal to the day tuition at PEA for their qualified children. This benefit is prorated for employees who work between 1,000 and 1,560 hours.

Dining and Facility Use

Enjoy a delicious, free meal in the dining hall during your work hours. Additionally, make use of our incredible facilities, including the ice rink, gymnasium, Class of 1945 Library and swimming pools, all for free. In addition, household members are also eligible for this benefit. (Dining benefit is for employees only).

Continuing Education Reimbursement

Paid in full when directly job-related and your department requests coursework. Otherwise, 50% of tuition/books if coursework has potential application at PEA.

Health Plan

We offer two health plans through Anthem. To help offset your deductible, PEA funds half in either in a health savings account (HSA) or health reimbursement account (HRA). Both plans cover inpatient, outpatient, mental health and prescription drugs. Five quality/cost-savings tools are offered to help make you a well-informed health care consumer. You and PEA share the cost of the health plan.

Dental Plan

Northeast Delta Dental provides two plans. The Low Plan offers preventive, basic, major and orthodontic services with an annual maximum benefit of $1,000. The High Plan offers the same coverage as the Low Plan, but with an annual maximum benefit of $2,000. You and PEA share the cost of the dental plan.

Personalize your premier benefits package with certified financial planning, chronic condition management, and identity theft insurance – all included in your benefits package. Additionally, we offer an onsite childcare center, spouse and child life insurance, prepaid legal insurance, pet insurance, home/auto insurance, dry cleaning, and local merchant discounts.

Equity & Inclusion

Our DEI Statement

In the 21st century, our pursuit of knowledge and goodness, united in usefulness to our ever-changing world, requires us to redefine how we achieve excellence in education. We must harness perspectives from every quarter to encourage adults and students to think critically, realize and challenge their assumptions, and collaborate to forge a greater understanding of the world. This means developing an inclination toward, and facility with, diversity of thought, perspective and experience. This also means cultivating the empathy, understanding, and respect necessary to open one’s mind to those thoughts, perspectives and experiences that differ from one’s own. Excellence today requires nothing less.

The Trustees of Phillips Exeter Academy commit to ensuring that Exeter is a diverse and inclusive community where each person has the tools to flourish. Diversity and inclusion are critical to sustaining and strengthening our tradition of excellence in all aspects of life at Exeter – academic, programmatic and organizational. Fostering an experience where all participants feel they can bring their full selves forward is not merely aspirational, it is fundamental to our educational mission and method. Our commitment to our community is to do more than assemble a diverse population of students and adults: our commitment is to teach the skills, model the behaviors, provide the resources, and cultivate the environment of inclusion that is required to unlock the richness of that diversity. Only through inclusion can diversity act as a catalyst to dispel ignorance and fear, and create space to achieve equity and excellence. Only when we put these values into action, by both our words and our deeds, can we construct authentic bridges across differences and empower all individuals to become their best and fullest selves, both at Exeter and throughout their lives.

Our Harkness pedagogy is grounded in the belief that we are all better equipped to learn and to lead when our thoughts are tested by others, particularly by those whose thoughts or identities are different from our own. Only when we skillfully engage our differences – whether they are grounded in race; ethnicity; national or geographic origin; religious, philosophical or political beliefs; gender or gender identity; sexual orientation; age; physical ability; family structure, socioeconomic status or life experience – will we find a path to that greater understanding of the world and how we can be of service to it.

Professional Development Opportunities and Resources

Exeter Diversity Institute (EDI)

Exeter Diversity Institute is open and free of charge for all PEA employees. Participants experience a Harkness classroom as a student, studying literary and historical texts; leaders will model classroom approaches that facilitate in-depth conversations about privilege, race, equity, and belonging. Participants also have opportunities to participate in special interest workshops that could cover a wide range of topics from courageous conversations with colleagues to understanding implicit bias, to how to support international students in the dorms.

Real Talk: Identity-Informed Conversations with Colleagues

Real Talk: Identity-Informed Conversations with Colleagues brings colleagues together from across the Academy to share ‘real’ reflections about how they experience life from the vantage point of their respective identities. The Real Talk cohort meets biweekly and over lunch throughout the academic year. The “REAL” element of these conversations is an invitation to offer personal experiences and perspectives that aren’t typically shared with colleagues. Real Talk stemmed from a desire to foster meaningful connections between colleagues through intentional dialogue, and to encourage greater consideration for how members of this community navigate their daily experiences. It also provides an opportunity to learn how and when to probe personal experiences.

Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (JEDI) Conversations and JEDI Labs

JEDI Conversations are bite-sized (one hour) engagements open to all employees on select Wednesdays at 3pm. Participants may join the conversation in-person or virtually. JEDI conversations are a way to introduce new vocabulary, build community through cross departmental discussions, and learn more about Exeter’s commitment to DEIJ and antioppression. Participants are highly encouraged to keep the conversations going between meetings- maybe with colleagues or maybe with family and friends.

JEDI Lab is opportunity for folks to come together to share their approaches to JEDI topics, seek feedback from community members, and collaborate with each other. Examples of ideas to bring to JEDI Lab include: making space in department meetings to share learnings from DEIJ professional development, strategies for holding yourself and others accountable to equity practices, or how to leverage the diversity of groups for better decision making. Participants don’t need to have the answers— just a willingness to share your questions and advice with the group.

Department Specific

The Office of Equity and Inclusion also offers department specific workshops, trainings, and thought partnership throughout the campus.