Policy Director

Digital Promise

11d • Hybrid

About The Position

The Director of Policy is a cross-functional leader responsible for cultivating and advancing the partnerships, state and district implementation strategies, and ecosystem approaches needed to scale Powerful Learning. This role is central to advancing powerful learning across schools, districts, and states by shaping and executing an external learning agenda. The position will be part of the Powerful Learning team, but it will involve significant collaboration across various teams within Digital Promise and with external partners, operating at the nexus of policy, practice, research, and implementation.This position will focus on partnership architecture, implementation strategy, state and local education agency engagement, ecosystem coordination, and the translation of research, practice, and field learning into scalable system design. The Director will work in a highly matrixed way across internal teams and external collaborators to help shape initiatives that advance Powerful Learning, strengthen Digital Promise’s learning agenda, and support adoption in SEA and LEA contexts.

Requirements

• 10+ years of experience in education strategy, partnerships, policy, implementation, systems change, or related leadership roles.
• Significant experience working with or within SEAs, LEAs, intermediary organizations, or cross-sector partnerships in education.
• Experience working with state advocacy organizations and/or state policymakers (legislators, governor’s office agenda staff) to advance policy goals
• Experience translating research, policy, and field learning into practical implementation approaches for school systems.
• Familiarity with state and district conditions that shape implementation, including governance, funding, procurement, accountability, and capacity constraints.
• Proven ability to conduct market/landscape analysis and build a "Partner Prospectus" or business case for collaboration.
• Experience in legislative tracking, drafting testimony, and navigating federal/state funding streams.
• Demonstrated success working across multiple teams and functions to move complex initiatives from concept to implementation.
• Experience building and managing strategic partnerships that advance system-level change, instructional transformation, or innovation adoption.
• Ability to work as part of a team in a fast-paced, high-energy environment
• A thorough understanding of the Digital Promise frameworks, competencies and the ability to apply this knowledge to support of schools and districts
• Deep understanding of how change happens in state and local education systems, including the realities of implementation in public education contexts.
• Strong grasp of the relationship between policy, infrastructure, instructional practice, and system design.
• Ability to think strategically about how to build enabling conditions for Powerful Learning across schools, districts, and states.
• Strong partnership development, coalition-building, and relationship management skills.
• Exceptional writing and public speaking skills. Ability to translate complex technicalities into a compelling vision for a funder or a partner CEO.
• Strong analytical skills, including the ability to identify patterns across research, field practice, and policy developments.
• Ability to navigate ambiguity, manage complexity, and influence across a matrixed organization.
• Commitment to evidence-based practice, innovation, and learner-centered transformation.
• Knowledge of functions, features, limitations, and practical applications of the technologies available to support student learning experience and program management (i.e., Asana, Microsoft & Google suites, Salesforce, Qualtrics, etc.)
• Ability to leverage AI and other emerging technologies for efficient and effective work products
• Demonstrated ability to build trust and credibility with senior leaders, state and district partners, researchers, funders, and implementation partners.
• Strong interpersonal judgment and collaboration skills across diverse teams and stakeholder groups.
• Ability to listen deeply, synthesize multiple perspectives, and move groups toward clarity and action.
• Skill in acquiring new knowledge through professional development activities for one's self, such as participating in coaching, attending professional conferences, self-directed reading, and monitoring industry trends
• Skill in developing, maintaining, and leveraging networks across a range of people and groups inside and outside the organization, such as influential people and learning and performance experts

Nice To Haves

• Experience supporting initiatives related to instructional improvement, innovation, future-ready learning, AI in education, competency-based learning, or related areas is strongly preferred.
• Knowledge of emerging technologies and their implications for teaching, learning, and system design preferred.
• Advanced degree preferred in education policy, education leadership, public policy, learning sciences, educational technology, or a related field.
• Equivalent experience will be considered.

Responsibilities

• Help align strategy, priorities, and execution across multiple Digital Promise teams in support of Powerful Learning and related system-change initiatives.
• Work across research, practice, partnerships, product, and policy, to develop coordinated approaches that connect learning science, implementation, and system adoption.
• Help define, support, and/or manage cross-functional bodies of work, including shared scopes, milestones, risks, and decision points, ensuring initiatives remain aligned to organizational impact goals and the Powerful Learning vision.
• Support senior leadership in translating emerging opportunities into actionable collaborations and implementation strategies.
• Coordinate with external consultants, contractors, and strategic partners as needed to advance initiative design and execution.
• Ensure organizational health and cultivate a positive and inclusive and highly collaborative workplace culture across diverse departmental groups and consultant partnerships, ensuring strong cross-organizational alignment.
• Identify, cultivate, and manage high-value partnerships with State Education Agencies, Local Education Agencies, intermediaries, technical assistance providers, higher education institutions, philanthropy, and other field leaders whose work can advance Powerful Learning and the broader learning agenda.
• Help design partnership strategies that link Digital Promise’s expertise in research, learning, educational technologies, and innovation with external partners’ strengths in policy, implementation and systems transformation.
• Build and sustain coalitions that can support durable field adoption, shared learning, and long-term systems change.
• Conduct landscape analysis to identify strategic opportunities, emerging initiatives, and partnership gaps across the education ecosystem.
• Develop partnership concepts and collaboration models that position Digital Promise to play a connective role across research, policy, practice, and innovation.
• Develop and advance strategies for engaging State Education Agencies, Local Education Agencies, and other system-level actors in the adoption and implementation of Powerful Learning and powerful technology approaches.
• Help design state- and district-facing implementation models that support coherent change across policy, instructional practice, talent development, data use, edtech procurement, and innovation adoption.
• Advise on how Digital Promise’s work can support states and districts as they build the enabling conditions for future-ready systems, including instructional coherence, interoperability, responsible AI adoption, and stronger R&D-to-practice connections.
• Support the development of scalable approaches for state and district implementation, including playbooks, partnership structures, readiness criteria, and implementation supports.
• Work with partners to identify problems worth solving, define measurable outcomes, and ensure that implementation efforts are grounded in real system needs and practical pathways to scale.
• Help shape and advance a cross-team learning agenda focused on what it takes to create the conditions for Powerful Learning at scale.
• Ensure that partnership and implementation strategies generate actionable learning for Digital Promise and the field, particularly around how powerful learning models are adopted, supported, and sustained in diverse contexts.
• Partner with internal and external research collaborators to connect practice-based insights to broader questions about instructional transformation, system redesign, and future-ready learning environments.
• Support the development of feedback loops across policy, practice, and product or model development so that implementation learning informs future design.
• Contribute to a field-facing body of knowledge about how systems can move from fragmented innovation toward coherent, learner-centered transformation.
• Monitor and interpret key state and national developments related to education policy, implementation conditions, emerging technologies (and A in particular) I in education, instructional change, and system transformation.
• Translate policy trends, system constraints, and field signals into recommendations that inform Digital Promise strategy and partner engagement.
• Support the design of partnership and implementation strategies that reflect the realities of governance, local control, public trust, procurement, sustainability, and long-term adoption in SEA and LEA settings.
• Contribute to the development of frameworks and approaches that help partners build durable enabling conditions for innovation, including responsible use policies, implementation guardrails, quality assurance thinking, and continuous improvement structures.
• Help develop strategies that move initiatives from pilot to durable system adoption, including sustainability planning, transition pathways, and long-term partnership structures.
• Support states, districts, and partner organizations in building the internal capacity, routines, and strategic alignment needed to sustain powerful learning and future-ready system design over time.
• Identify opportunities to align philanthropic, public, and partner investment around long-term implementation and ecosystem-building priorities.
• Contribute to the design of models that can be replicated and adapted across contexts without losing coherence or quality.

Benefits

• Digital Promise Global offers a competitive total rewards package including coverage of 85% of health insurance premiums for employee coverage and 75% of health insurance premiums for dependent and family coverage, 15 vacation days, 12 sick days, 3% 401k employer contribution, 3% employer 401k match, and a flexible work environment.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director
• Number of Employees: 1-10 employees