Strategic Engagement Lead

UL Standards & Engagement • Evanston, IL

1d • $108,418 - $149,075 • Hybrid

About The Position

We have an exciting opportunity for a Strategic Engagement Lead based in our Evanston office. This is a hybrid opportunity. The Strategic Engagement Lead will provide strategic and operational support to the President & CEO and senior leadership, leading coordination and execution of the external engagement portfolio to advance the mission of UL Standards & Engagement (ULSE) to make the world safer, more secure, and sustainable. The Strategic Engagement Lead will manage executive facing engagement planning, coordination of centralized external events and engagement calendar, and logistics to ensure the right leaders are effectively represented across high-impact external forums, partnerships, and events. As a partner to senior leadership, the Strategic Engagement Lead will support preparation and follow-through for executive interactions, translating outcomes into coordinated action across teams. The Strategic Engagement Lead will leverage strong stakeholder coordination, executive support, and operational expertise to enable effective, well-orchestrated external engagement across a diverse partner ecosystem UL Standards & Engagement: At UL Standards & Engagement (ULSE), we expand the boundaries of safety science to create a more secure and sustainable world. For more than a century, we have created new safety standards and shared our findings with academia, scientists, manufacturers, and policymakers across industries. We identify critical safety and sustainability issues, asking tough questions because we believe a safer world begins with knowledge. Build a safer, more secure, and sustainable future with us. Join us and work with our Standards teams who develop the standards required to put that knowledge into practice.

Requirements

• Demonstrated experience supporting and staffing senior executives in high-stakes, external-facing environments.
• Strong judgment, discretion, and professionalism when working with senior leaders and external stakeholders.
• Proven ability to manage complex workflows, competing priorities, and sensitive information with minimal oversight.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to produce polished, executive-level materials.
• Strong relationship-building skills and ability to collaborate effectively across functions and with external partners.
• Analytical and proactive problem solver with attention to detail and strong follow-through.
• Comfortable operating in dynamic, fast-paced environments with evolving priorities.
• Bachelor’s degree required in business, public policy, communications, management, or related field.
• Minimum 8 years of experience in business operations, project leadership, strategic planning and implementation or related work experience.
• Demonstrated experience supporting senior leaders and managing complex external engagements.
• Experience coordinating across multiple teams or functions in a complex organization

Nice To Haves

• Advanced degree preferred.

Responsibilities

• Serve as a primary operational point of support for the President & CEO, executive and senior leadership external engagements, including high-level meetings, events, conferences, and stakeholder interactions.
• Manage centralized strategic events and engagements calendars, ensuring visibility of leadership participation across external meetings, conferences and convenings.
• Coordinate organizational representation at external events, aligning event participation with strategic priorities and ensuring the appropriate leaders are scheduled and represented.
• Lead advance preparation for executive engagements, coordinate background research, stakeholder context, briefing materials, messaging alignment, logistics and post engagement follow up for medium to large scale events.
• Exercise independent judgment to anticipate executive needs, identify risks, gaps, or conflicts, and ensure leaders are positioned for success in external interactions.
• Draft, refine, and manage high-quality briefing documents, talking points, presentations, summaries and reports for leadership, Board and external use.
• Coordinate across departments to ensure external commitments are clearly communicated, assigned, and tracked to completion.
• Serve as a reliable connector between internal teams and senior leadership, ensuring clarity, alignment, and accountability.
• Support execution of cross-functional initiatives tied to executive engagement by managing timelines, dependencies, deliverables, and follow-up actions.
• Represent ULSE with external stakeholders and strategic partners, develop trust and credibility through effective communication, and maintain strong relationships with partners and coalitions.
• Anticipate future organizational opportunities and ensure executive engagement initiatives evolve in alignment with external trends, stakeholder expectations, and emerging challenges.
• Maintain continued awareness of industry trends and external context related to safety standards, offering insight to inform strategic decisions.
• Contribute to other organizational and department initiatives as needed.

Benefits

• All employees at UL Standards & Engagement are eligible for bonus compensation.
• We offer comprehensive medical, dental, vision, and life insurance plans and a generous 401k matching structure of up to 5% of eligible pay.
• Moreover, we invest an additional 4% into your retirement saving fund after your first year of continuous employment.
• Depending on your role, you may be able to discuss flexible working arrangements with your manager.
• We also provide employees with paid time off, including vacation, holiday, sick, and volunteer days.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level
• Number of Employees: 101-250 employees