Executive Director, Business Development

College Board – College Readiness Assessments

100% Remote (anticipated 40-50% travel, usually 1-2 days at a time)

About the Team 

The College Readiness Assessments ("CRA") division is a team of mission-driven people who deliver the SAT Suite of Assessments (SAT, PSAT/NMSQT, PSAT10, and PSAT 8/9) to millions of students across the world each year to help open their paths to life after high school. The SAT Suite connects students to a wide range of post-high school opportunities, including scholarships, careers, and colleges and universities. In 2023, we retired the use of paper/pencil testing and are now a fully digital SAT Suite offering an assessment that is easier to give, easier to take, more secure, and more relevant.

The Executive Director, Business Development will lead and build out the SAT Suite Market Development and Engagement team responsible for our market and sales strategy, stakeholder engagement, and SAT Suite messaging. With the transition of the SAT Suite to digital assessments now complete, we have established this team to lead how we present the SAT Suite and its mission and benefits to stakeholders (K-12, Higher ED, students and families, media, etc.), with the goal of driving its continued growth as we seek to deliver on our mission for as many students and schools as possible.

About the Opportunity  

As the Executive Director, Business Development, you are a strong business and/or sales strategist who is highly driven to win new business. You are relentless in your pursuit, with a unique ability to assess the specific needs of prospective customers and use that information to develop and implement successful multi-month and year market and sales strategies. You are a strong people influencer and motivator, able to influence external prospects while effectively working internally across divisions and titles to rally others on the importance of the work. You are excited to apply these skills to develop and implement strategies that enable our team to achieve and exceed volume, revenue, and retention goals for districts and states who bring the SAT Suite and its benefits to students. You will develop and leverage your deep understanding of the customers and stakeholders we serve, the programs we deliver, and the other organizations in our market to refine our market and sales strategy, including leading our RFP processes. Through extensive engagement with current and prospective customers and analysis of the assessment and ed tech space, you will identify new products and features to better meet the needs of the K-12 market. You are driven by the chance to help a diverse set of students access college, scholarship, and career opportunities, thus opening doors to access and opportunity. You believe in our triple bottom line, creating mission, member, and margin value, the last of which enables College Board to reinvest in providing best in class services to our K-12 partners. Your experience, strong strategic and business acumen, and belief in the power of the SAT Suite enable you to communicate effectively with professionals across the education industry and build new relationships with institutional decision makers and thought leaders within this space. 

You will report to the SVP, College Readiness Assessments, as a member of our division’s senior leadership team. You will manage a small team (3-4) to start as you work to identify the additional roles you need and will work with teams and leaders across the organization as you craft and lead our sales pursuits (teams including Government Relations & Public Policy; State and District Partnerships; Communications & Marketing; Finance; Legal and Strategy).

In this role, you will: 

Sales Strategy and Implementation (75%)

• Continuously refine our market and sales strategy and SAT Suite value propositions for all the assessments in the SAT Suite

• Design and implement our strategy to secure new K-12 state and district partners to achieve and surpass sales goals

• Lead our RFP process to secure new contracts and renew current contracts using your deep knowledge of what makes the digital SAT Suite a best-in-class suite of assessments

• Serve as the CRA lead for the State and District Partnerships (“SDP”) division as we execute on and refine our market and sales strategy, ensuring the SDP team has the resources, training, and collateral needed to execute our sales strategy

• Provide strategic direction and, when necessary, support in key sales opportunities to secure new business and retain existing partners 

• Manage a prioritized list of program and product enhancements that would win and retain contracts and increase business

• Provide key input to a lon