Director, Early Learning Market Development

Highlights for Children• US,

8d•Remote

About The Position

Highlights for Children’s Early Learning business supports educators, caregivers, and families of children from birth to age five through solutions focused on family engagement, classroom practice, and customized support. The Director, Early Learning Market Development & Partnerships builds strategic partnerships that broaden Highlights’ reach, reflect its mission and strengths, and generate sustainable revenue. This is a hands-on player-coach role focused on developing new markets, cultivating relationships with collective purchasing organizations and other stakeholders, and shaping solutions around customer needs. The Director balances near-term revenue opportunities with long-term market access, trusted partnerships, and repeatable approaches to durable growth. The position is remote within the United States and requires regular travel to customer sites, industry events, and target markets. The Early Learning team primarily operates on Eastern Time.

Requirements

Significant experience developing markets and generating revenue in early childhood education or a closely related field.
Demonstrated success entering new markets, building customer relationships, and creating sustainable growth opportunities.
Experience working with collective purchasing organizations, Early Learning Coalitions, public agencies, workforce or regional networks, or similar stakeholder groups.
Strong understanding of early learning funding, procurement, decision-making processes, and the broader provider landscape.
Ability to identify opportunities, navigate ambiguity, move quickly, and convert relationships into meaningful business outcomes.
Experience leading, coaching, or coordinating distributed market-facing teams and flexible coverage models.
Strong commercial judgment, relationship-building skills, communication abilities, organization, and follow-through.
Ability to balance strategic thinking with direct execution and adapt quickly based on market feedback and emerging opportunities.

Responsibilities

Expand Highlights’ presence in priority early learning markets, building on work and lessons learned in Florida.
Develop and maintain relationships with Early Learning Coalitions, public agencies, regional networks, and other organizations influencing purchasing decisions and access to providers, educators, families, and children.
Identify opportunities through market discovery, customer engagement, and understanding local funding, procurement, and decision-making processes.
Develop market-specific strategies that connect customer needs with Highlights solutions, including semicustom approaches where they create stronger customer value.
Lead opportunities from initial engagement through proposal development, procurement, implementation, renewal, and expansion.
Represent Highlights’ mission, brand, content, and expertise while building long-term partnerships.
Generate revenue in new and existing markets while building a foundation for sustained growth.
Evaluate opportunities based on customer need, market accessibility, funding pathways, and long-term growth potential.
Develop practical market-entry and expansion approaches using local relationships, field learning, and targeted investments.
Maintain visibility into opportunities, customer relationships, market conditions, and next steps to support consistent progress and follow-through.
Bring market insights and recommendations into strategic planning and growth decisions.
Stay actively engaged in customer relationships, market-development activities, and critical growth opportunities.
Recruit, coach, and lead market-facing resources, including employees, independent representatives, and other flexible coverage models.
Establish expectations and operating disciplines for customer engagement, opportunity management, forecasting, and execution.
Partner cross-functionally to align solutions, pricing, proposals, implementation, and customer support with market needs.
Capture and share market learning, customer insights, and proven practices to improve effectiveness across markets.
Represent Highlights in industry forums, conferences, and customer settings to strengthen market presence and relationships.