College Board

College Board

Executive Director, EaR Strategy & Alignment, Public Affairs

Remote - USA · Director · Full-time

Sponsorship not specified$152k-$230kDetected 20 days ago
Project ManagementStrategic CommunicationsResearchLeadershipCommunicationWriting

About the role

  • 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.
  • 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 bring the range to move between these groups and spot connections they may not see in each other's work.

Responsibilities

  • Own coordinated strategy and measurable outcomes across Public Affairs disciplines, while discipline leaders retain execution ownership within their respective domains
  • Operate as a senior embedded partner within divisional leadership teams
  • Develop structured campaign plans that align messaging, media strategy, executive positioning, stakeholder sequencing, and risk mitigation
  • Align communications strategy in support of priority partnerships, endorsements, and sponsorships that advance policy, research, or stakeholder objectives
  • Lead special initiatives ranging from program launches to enterprise pilots
  • At College Board, we offer more than just a paycheck-we provide a meaningful career, a supportive team, and a comprehensive package designed to help you thrive.

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
  • 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
  • Executive presence, including the ability to represent EaR credibly with senior program leaders, navigate complex conversations, influence decision-making, and communicate clearly and confidently
  • All CB employees are required to occasionally travel to meet in person for business purposes.

Skills

  • Reduced time-to-impact for priority initiatives by clarifying ownership, sequencing work, and proactively surfacing risks and dependencies.
  • Authorization to work in the United States for any employer
  • A passion for expanding educational and career opportunities and mission-driven work
  • Clear and concise communication skills, written and verbal

Compensation

  • Led the development and execution of an integrated annual EaR plan aligned to policy agendas, research release calendars, stakeholder priorities, and defined business outcomes.

Benefits

  • You'll have open, transparent conversations about compensation, benefits, and what it's like to work at College Board throughout your hiring process.

Company info

  • We are 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.
  • We partner 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.
  • About the Opportunity
  • 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 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.
  • 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.
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This listing is sourced directly from College Board's careers page and normalized into a canonical job model.