Senior Director, State Policy & Strategy - Western Region

Senior Director, State Policy & Strategy - Western Region

College Board - Global Policy & External Relations 

Location: This is a fully remote role. Candidates who live near CB offices have the option of being fully remote or hybrid (Tuesday and Wednesday in office). All CB employees are required to occasionally travel to meet in person for business purposes. 

Type: This is a full-time position

About the Team  

The Global Policy & External Relations Policy and Advocacy team shapes the policy, partnership, and external conditions that allow College Board programs to reach more students and retain public trust. The team sits at the intersection of program strategy, state policy, government relations, higher education, state and district partnerships, engagement, research, and external influence.  

The State Policy and Strategy function is a new state growth strategy vertical within Policy and Advocacy. It is designed to move College Board from reactive state work to a disciplined, proactive model that names the few state moves that matter most, aligns leaders on tradeoffs, and turns enterprise priorities into sequenced state plans.   

About the Opportunity   

States are making consequential decisions about course access, assessment, career-connected learning, credit recognition, teacher credentialing, and the future meaning of college and career readiness. These decisions shape whether AP, SAT Suite, BigFuture, and career-connected initiatives can reach students at scale — and how College Board grows its programs in an increasingly complex state policy environment.

The Senior Director, State Policy and Strategy — Western Region will own a portfolio of state strategies that translates College Board’s policy priorities into sequenced, actionable state plans. This means building the fact base for Western Region states, identifying where state conditions create opportunity or risk, making the case for where to invest and where to hold, and aligning internal partners around the plays that matter most.

This is a senior strategy role with real influence over where College Board places its bets at the state level. Success requires the ability to synthesize complex political and policy landscapes quickly, work fluently across multiple policy domains without needing to own any single one, and lead cross-functional teams toward clear decisions in an organization where expertise, relationships, and execution are distributed across many strong partners.

In this role, you will:  

Build and Own Regional State Strategy

Develop and maintain a current fact base for every Western Region state — including policy conditions, political and governance dynamics, coalition strength, program opportunities, implementation barriers, and risk. Translate that intelligence into concise state plans that show the complete picture: goals, current and pursued policies, external actors, internal owners, available levers, sequencing, and implementation needs.

Recommend priority states and plays to the Executive Director based on policy opportunity, student reach, adoption potential, feasibility, and College Board priorities. Connect regional strategy to AP, SAT Suite, BigFuture, and career-connected education priorities — including 0-to-1 AP growth, SAT School Day, AP Career Kickstart, and BigFuture opportunity pathways. Align regional planning to College Board planning cycles, legislative sessions, and sales cycles so state work moves from episodic response to deliberate sequencing.

Translate Policy Priorities into State Strategy and Rapid Response

Translate policy priorities, analysis, and issue guidance developed by subject-matter experts into regional state strategies. Identify where state conditions create the strongest opportunities for AP, SAT Suite, BigFuture, and career-connected priorities. Assess state-specific timing, political feasibility, governance pathways, coalition strength, opposition dynamics, and student-reach potential.

During legislative sessions, triage bills, regulations, budget proposals, and policy signals; determine when subject-matter expertise is needed; and synthesize implications for state strategy, escalation, and execution. Adapt arguments, policy options, and model language to state context in close partnership with subject-matter experts. Distinguish must-have priorities from opportunistic plays so College Board can pursue a limited number of high-upside state bets while keeping core programs on track.

Drive Cross-Functional Alignment and Execution

Serve as the regional strategy lead for state plays that require coordination across Policy, Government Relations, State and District Partnerships, Higher Education, AP, College Readiness Assessments, BigFuture, Engagement and Reach, Legal, Research, and the Office of the CEO. Clarify what College Board should pursue, sequence, or pause in regional states when resources or strategic priorities require tradeoffs.

Create clean handoffs to execution partners — including State and District Partnerships, Government Relations, State Innovation & Acceleration, and program teams — and maintain the trackers, dashboards, state briefs, decision memos, and executive updates that make priorities, risks, owners, and progress visible. Capture lessons from legislative sessions, state plays, and implementation handoffs and translate them into repeatable practices, playbooks, and recommendations for the next cycle. Engage externally in high-leverage moments with legislators, executive branch officials, coalitions, higher education actors, and partners when the strategy requires a clear and coordinated College Board voice.   

About You  

 To qualify for this role, you must have:  

• 8+ years of progressively responsible experience in education policy, state strategy, public affairs, government, advocacy, management consulting, or a related field, with significant and direct exposure to state policy and implementation across multiple states.

• Established presence, networks, and familiarity with the political and policy landscape of the Western Region, which includes California, Oregon, Washington, Alaska, Hawaii, Arizona, Colorado, Utah, Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming.

• Working fluency across K-12, higher education, workforce, assessment, CTE, credentialing, and state legislative and regulatory environments — broad enough to engage credibly across issue areas and to know when and how to bring in subject-matter experts.

• A strong record leading complex, multi-state policy work and influencing senior partners and external stakeholders without direct authority.

• Exceptional strategic judgment: the ability to identify the few moves that matter, make tradeoffs explicit, and distinguish a prioritized strategy from an inventory of activity.

• Excellent writing and synthesis skills, including the ability to turn complex state landscapes and expert input into concise briefs, decision memos, state plans, and executive-ready recommendations.

• Experience with legislative session rapid response, coalition and stakeholder mapping, implementation planning, and external advocacy in complex political environments.

• Proven ability to drive alignment and clear decision-making across organizations where subject-matter expertise, government relations, field execution, program ownership, and senior leadership sit in different places.

• Bachelor’s degree required; advanced degree in public policy, education, law, public administration, or a related field preferred.

• Ability to travel approximately 6–10 times per year.

• Authorization to work in the United States.

All roles at College Board require:  

• A passion for expanding educational and career opportunities and mission-driven work 

• Authorization to work in the United States for any employer 

• Curiosity and enthusiasm for emerging technologies, with a willingness to experiment with and adopt new AI-driven solutions and a comfort learning and applying new digital tools independently and proactively.  

• Clear and concise communication skills, written and verbal 

• A learner's mindset and a commitment to growth: welcoming diverse perspectives, giving and receiving timely, respectful feedback, and continuously improving through iterative learning and user input. 

• A drive for impact and excellence: solving complex problems, making data-informed decisions, prioritizing what matters most, and continuously improving through learning, user input, and external benchmarking. 

• A collaborative and empathetic approach: working across differences, fostering trust, and contributing to a culture of shared success. 

About Our Process   

• Application review will begin immediately and will continue until the position is filled. This role is expected to accept applications for a minimum of 5 business days. 

• While the hiring process may vary, it generally includes: resume and application submission, recruiter phone/video screen, hiring manager interview, performance exercise such as live coding, a panel interview, a conversation with leadership and reference checks.    

What We Offer 

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. We’re a self-sustaining nonprofit that believes in fair and competitive compensation, grounded in your qualifications, experience, impact, and the market. 

A Thoughtful Approach to Compensation 

• The hiring range for this role is $108,000–$175,000. 

• Your exact salary will depend on your location, experience, and how your background compares to others in similar roles at the College Board. 

• We aim to make our best offer upfront—rooted in fairness, transparency, and market data. 

• We adjust salaries by location to ensure fairness, no matter where you live. 

You’ll have open, transparent conversations about compensation, benefits, and what it’s like to work at College Board throughout your hiring process. Check out our careers page for more. 

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