Executive Director, EaR Strategy & Alignment, Public Affairs

College Board•New York, NY

7d•$152,000 - $230,000•Remote

About The Position

The Engagement and Reach (EaR) division advances College Board’s mission by shaping how our work is understood, experienced, and acted on—helping protect the organization’s reputation while accelerating engagement and growth. This is a high-performing, collaborative team of communicators, marketers, creatives, and strategists who work together to deliver clear, compelling stories and turn them into creative, data-informed work that drives engagement, adoption, and real results. The team partners closely with leaders across the organization to shape strategy, influence decisions, and amplify the impact of College Board’s highest-priority enterprises in service of our mission. As the Executive Director, EaR Strategy and Alignment, Public Affairs, you are a policy communications strategist who knows how to build a campaign around an idea, not just a product. You bring deep experience marshaling media, evidence, and stakeholders to advance a specific policy or legislative agenda, and you're comfortable doing that work in complex, high-visibility, and often politically charged environments. You serve as the primary EaR integrator for policy, research, and stakeholder initiatives, embedded across Global Policy and External Relations (GPER), Learning and Assessment (L&A), Higher Education, Membership, and Access (HMA), and other College Board teams with policy or external affairs priorities. You bring the range to move between these groups and spot connections they may not see in each other's work. In this role, you lead EaR’s involvement across Public Affairs end to end, owning strategy development, intelligence-informed counsel, and measurable results without direct financial ownership. You work closely with divisional leadership to translate legislative agendas, research roadmaps, regulatory developments, and stakeholder priorities into integrated communications campaigns, align messaging, media strategy, sequencing, and risk management, and drive EaR-led execution through disciplined cross-functional coordination. You also coordinate closely with other Strategy and Alignment Partners supporting AP, the SAT Suite, and BigFuture to ensure seamless EaR support for their policy priorities.

Requirements

10+ years of experience in public affairs, policy communications, or strategic communications, including significant experience within complex, high-visibility, politically sensitive environments
Experience supporting state or federal legislative or regulatory initiatives through communications strategy
Strong communications strategy background, including experience designing and executing integrated campaigns that marshal media, messaging, and stakeholder sequencing across policy and research initiatives
Proven ability to lead cross-program or cross-organizational strategy in complex, matrixed settings, building trust and influence without direct authority and working through ambiguity
Exceptional writing skills, with demonstrated ability to translate complex policy or research content into clear, compelling narratives
Experience collaborating with research or subject matter experts to align publication releases with strategic messaging and media engagement
Proven ability to assess external landscapes, anticipate risks and opportunities, and recommend effective engagement strategies
Strong rapid response and crisis communications experience in politically or publicly sensitive environments
A goal- and metric-oriented mindset with experience using data and insights to guide strategy and measure impact
Executive presence, including the ability to represent EaR credibly with senior program leaders, navigate complex conversations, influence decision-making, and communicate clearly and confidently
Ability to manage multiple initiatives, priorities, and stakeholders simultaneously
Ability to travel 4 to 7 times per year to College Board offices or on behalf of College Board business
Authorization to work in the United States for any employer
A passion for expanding educational and career opportunities and mission-driven work
Curiosity and enthusiasm for emerging technologies, with a willingness to experiment with and adopt new AI-driven solutions and a comfort learning and applying new digital tools independently and proactively.
Clear and concise communication skills, written and verbal
A learner's mindset and a commitment to growth: welcoming diverse perspectives, giving and receiving timely, respectful feedback, and continuously improving through iterative learning and user input.
A drive for impact and excellence: solving complex problems, making data-informed decisions, prioritizing what matters most, and continuously improving through learning, user input, and external benchmarking.
A collaborative and empathetic approach: working across differences, fostering trust, and contributing to a culture of shared success.

Responsibilities

Serve as the Single-Threaded EaR Leader for Public Affairs
Own coordinated strategy and measurable outcomes across Public Affairs disciplines, while discipline leaders retain execution ownership within their respective domains
Act as the primary day-to-day EaR contact for GPER, L&A, HMA, and other policy-adjacent teams
Operate as a senior embedded partner within divisional leadership teams
Provide strategic counsel on communications approach, sequencing, and risk
Escalate conflicts or alignment gaps as needed and ensure timely resolution
Lead Integrated Policy and Research Communications Strategy
Translate legislative agendas, regulatory developments, research roadmaps, and stakeholder priorities into coordinated communications campaigns
Develop structured campaign plans that align messaging, media strategy, executive positioning, stakeholder sequencing, and risk mitigation
Identify opportunities to proactively shape policy and research narratives in priority markets and moments
Align communications strategy in support of priority partnerships, endorsements, and sponsorships that advance policy, research, or stakeholder objectives
Ensure communications strategies evolve as policy, regulatory, research, or partnership dynamics shift
Lead special initiatives ranging from program launches to enterprise pilots
Orchestrate the EaR Studio Model
Define business needs and align them to a flexible bench of EaR domain experts functioning as a Studio, including media relations, messaging and editorial, insights and intelligence, digital amplification, creative, and copyediting resources
Ensure the right expertise is engaged at the right time based on program priorities
Ensure efficient internal communications and knowledge sharing within and across Studios
Maintain momentum as policy, research, or stakeholder priorities evolve and ensure changes are reflected across EaR workstreams
Leverage Intelligence and Foresight to Strengthen Impact
Integrate policy landscape analysis, media intelligence, stakeholder insights, and narrative tracking into campaign planning
Anticipate emerging risks or moments of heightened scrutiny and coordinate proactive or rapid-response strategies
Provide divisional leaders with clear insight into external dynamics and communications implications
Drive Execution, Measurement, and Reporting
Provide high-level project management across initiatives to keep work on pace
Establish clear goals, metrics, and reporting tied to business and EaR outcomes
Own impact reporting; Monitor performance and recommend adjustments to improve results
Develop and implement effective processes, tools, and systems to support efficient, consistent, and high-impact execution for all priority initiatives and projects.
Communicate progress, risks, and outcomes to divisional and EaR leadership