Program Director, State Strategy & Execution

ACT Education•Iowa City, IA

14h•Remote

About The Position

The Program Director of State Strategy and Execution is a critical individual contributor role on ACT's State, Government and Public Relations team, responsible for translating state-level goals into coordinated, cross-functional action. As ACT sharpens its focus on state markets, this role ensures that every team touching a target state – from State/District Sales to Product to Government Relations and Policy – is rowing in the same direction toward the same goals. The Program Director, State Strategy and Execution is an organized, strategic orchestrator: someone who can document the full picture of a state relationship, spot misalignment before it becomes a problem, and lead through collaboration rather than authority. This role acts as the backbone across multiple teams by coordinating work, maintaining accurate tracking systems, and ensuring a shared understanding of priorities, actions, and outcomes. The role drives alignment and execution of a sales strategy through influence, organization, and process management rather than formal authority or ownership. Success in this role requires exceptional cross-functional credibility, understanding of ACT’s existing products and relationships, disciplined accountability tracking, and the judgment to escalate when the work demands it.

Requirements

7+ years of experience in strategy, program/project management, or cross-functional operations in a matrixed organization.
Demonstrated ability to coordinate complex, multi-stakeholder work across teams without direct authority.
Strong analytical skills with experience translating data and relationship intelligence into actionable strategy.
Experience building and maintaining tracking systems, dashboards, or reporting tools for executive audiences.
Exceptional written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to translate complexity into clear direction.
Proven ability to manage competing priorities and communicate across teams with diplomacy and directness.
Strategic Thinking – Sees the full state picture and identifies where priorities conflict or where opportunity is being left on the table.
Influence Without Authority – Builds buy-in across divisions through credibility, clarity, and relationship, not org chart position.
Accountability Orientation – Tracks what matters, flags what's off course, and follows through until the work is done.
Cross-Functional Collaboration – Comfortable moving between sales, product, policy, and operations contexts and translating across each.
Executive Communication – Can distill complex state portfolio dynamics into crisp, decision-ready summaries for senior leadership.
Judgment & Escalation – Knows when to resolve independently, when to escalate, and how to do both in a way that builds trust.
Bachelor's degree in education policy, public policy, economics, statistics, data science, or a related field, or equivalent combination of education and experience.

Nice To Haves

Experience in K-12 education policy, state government relations, or education sales environments.
Experience working in a chief of staff or similar role.
Familiarity with state procurement cycles, education agency relationships, or statewide assessment markets.
Background in revenue operations, sales strategy, or account-based planning.
Experience working in or alongside a revenue-generating organization (sales, business development, or partnership management).

Responsibilities

Translate the state-by-state strategy into cross-team initiatives with clear owners, timelines, and success measures.
Manage the Senior Directors’ and SVPs priorities, ensuring time and attention are allocated to the highest-leverage work.
Coordinate cross-functional state strategy meetings.
Own the tracking and reporting cadence on state-by-state goal progress – not just measuring outcomes, but proactively flagging when a team's activity is misaligned with the state strategy before it becomes a problem.
Build and maintain dashboards and reporting tools that surface goal progress, relationship health, revenue trends, and execution gaps for leadership review.
Provide regular updates to internal teams on state portfolio performance, including risks, wins, and recommended pivots.
Track revenue gaps and growth opportunities within existing state relationships to facilitate strategy development.
Maintain documentation for the cross-functional plan to capture identified opportunities, coordinating across sales, product, and policy teams to execute with precision.
Work with Policy and Government Relations team members to track state policy developments that may affect ACT's market position.
Coordinate across divisions without direct authority – leading through collaboration, clarity, and accountability rather than organizational hierarchy.
Drive cross-team working sessions to align on state priorities, resolve execution conflicts, and maintain momentum toward shared goals.
Escalate when a division's independent pursuit is working against the state strategy, with the standing and judgment to stop, redirect, and refocus the work.
Identify and address organizational gaps that prevent effective state execution – surfacing structural or process issues and building solutions in partnership with division leads.
Foster a culture of accountability, transparency, and mission alignment across the senior leadership team.