Senior Director, Employer Engagement

Strada Education Foundation•Washington, DC

3d•Hybrid

About The Position

The Employer Alignment pillar at Strada Education Foundation focuses on ensuring individuals have access to postsecondary programs that lead to quality jobs and career mobility. The Senior Director of Employer Engagement is a critical operational role responsible for executing Strada’s strategic employer-facing partnerships. Reporting to the VP of Employer Alignment, this role serves as the operational engine for the team, managing and administering projects and daily activities to advance Strada’s Employer Alignment strategy. The ideal candidate is a meticulous project manager, a strong communicator, and a self-starter who thrives in a task-oriented environment, possessing the autonomy to execute clear objectives. This role is ideal for someone who enjoys building systems, managing internal and external projects and programs, drafting actionable resources, and nurturing stakeholder relationships. Strada Education Foundation supports programs, policies, and organizations that strengthen the connections between postsecondary education and employment in the U.S., with a particular focus on assisting those facing the greatest challenges. Their strategic plan emphasizes five key areas: Clear Outcomes, Quality Coaching, Affordability, Work-Based Learning, and Employer Alignment. They utilize various impact lever teams, including research, grantmaking, policy solutions, communications, investments, and affiliates, to advance their work. Strada collaborates with a wide range of partners across the U.S., including educators, employers, policymakers, learners, and other nonprofits and trade associations, offering a dynamic and collaborative professional environment with ample learning and professional development opportunities.

Requirements

Execution-Focused: Highly organized, process-oriented, and enjoys administrative and project management tasks.
Relationship Builder: Experience working with employer-oriented organizations or state agencies; strong communication skills and skilled at managing stakeholder relationships deferentially and effectively.
Collaborative & Direct: Enjoys working in a highly collaborative environment; comfortable sharing ideas and engaging in healthy debate; communicates updates straightforwardly and in real-time.
Self-Directed: Possesses critical thinking skills to understand role's value to the mission and independence to execute tasks without a rigid roadmap.
Strong Writer: Demonstrated ability to draft playbooks, reports, and clear correspondence for public audiences.
Experience working with chambers of commerce, industry associations, and economic development partners, to manage project operations, drive execution, and develop public-facing resources to advance talent development efforts.
8+ years of professional experience in program/project management, partnership management, or a related field, ideally within education, workforce development, or economic development sectors.
Contract & grant administration: Demonstrated experience managing contracts, tracking deliverables, and administering grant funding to external partners or subgrantees.
Project management tools: Proficiency with project management and CRM platforms (e.g., Asana, Salesforce, Monday.com, Givingdata or similar) to track deliverables and partner relationships at scale.
Presentation fluency: Advanced ability to craft high-quality, compelling presentations (PowerPoint) paired with a solid working comfort in Excel, effectively organizing information and translating it into highly polished visual narratives for key stakeholders.
AI integration: Comfort working with generative AI tools to accelerate workflows and elevate output quality.
Cross-functional collaboration: Experience working across internal teams (e.g., research, communications, policy) to synthesize inputs into unified external-facing resources.
Multi-stakeholder juggling: Proven ability to manage multiple concurrent partnerships or projects with competing deadlines, without close supervision.
Public-facing writing samples: Portfolio or writing samples demonstrating ability to produce polished playbooks, toolkits, or reports for external, non-academic audiences.
Passion for Strada’s mission of connecting education with opportunity, especially for those who face the greatest challenges.
Comfort and alignment with Strada’s values.
Friendly, collaborative, and inclusive approach.
Comfort juggling and executing a diverse variety of projects, often with tight time constraints.
Grace and kindness even under pressure – maintaining composure, steadiness, and empathy in moments of urgency or conflict.
Strong sense of curiosity, as well as commitment to read broadly to stay on top of important developments in our space.

Responsibilities

Take ownership of the day-to-day management of relationships with business intermediaries, including state chambers of commerce, economic development organizations, and trade associations.
Serve as the primary point of contact for ongoing partner needs, ensuring relationships are nurtured, responsive, and aligned with Strada’s mission.
Work independently to identify opportunities to improve the efficiency and impact of our partner interactions.
Transform high-level strategies and data insights into tangible, actionable tools for the field.
Draft, edit, and project-manage the creation of playbooks, toolkits, and best-practice guides for scaling data work across states and regions.
Ensure all resources are highly accessible and tailored to the needs of state and regional talent-focused organizations.
Own the administrative lifecycle of strategic partnerships, including managing contracts, tracking deliverables, and processing grants to partner states and organizations.
Build and maintain organized systems to track project progress, ensuring nothing falls through the cracks.
Provide regular, straightforward, and real-time updates on project statuses, escalating roadblocks before they become larger issues.