Executive Director, Custom Consulting Services

This is a full-time, remote position anywhere in the contiguous United States, with national travel expected up to 50%

What You’ll Do

The Executive Director of Custom Consulting Services provides strategic vision and leadership for custom consulting partnerships, driving initiatives that help school systems solve complex instructional challenges. This leader guides early-stage service innovation, evaluating market demand and student impact to pilot responsive consulting models before scaling them across the organization. As a senior leader, the Executive Director expands national reach, cultivates high-trust partnerships with school and state leaders, and mentors senior consulting talent to ensure custom engagements deliver sustainable outcomes for educators and priority student groups.

Responsibilities:

Custom Consulting Strategy & Service Line Innovation

• Sets division-wide vision and strategic priorities for custom consulting, ensuring service quality, partner impact, and alignment with organizational learning goals
• Leads early-stage discovery for prospective service lines by evaluating market demand, student outcomes, and mission fit to capture emerging opportunities
• Launches early-stage pilot offerings outside core services to address emerging partner needs, using real-time insights to inform long-term scaling strategies
• Translates successful pilot programs into sustainable, financially viable service models aligned with organizational strategy
• Establishes systems and routines for data-driven iterative design that continuously refine custom and early-stage consulting offerings
• Champions the codification of project learnings across the division, integrating emerging insights into broader organizational offerings
• Evaluates complex, multi-faceted challenges with a systems lens as the primary decision-maker on custom contracts, balancing risk and opportunity to deliver sustainable impact
• Navigates organizational change with resilience while modeling curiosity and innovation, positioning new service lines for long-term growth

Business Development & Revenue Generation

• Owns custom consulting business development strategy, maintaining accountability for achieving annual multi-million dollar revenue goals
• Nurtures high-trust relationships with current and prospective partner leaders, building a strong pipeline for new service identification
• Guides the end-to-end partner engagement process from initial diagnostic needs discovery through custom solution design and final contracting
• Builds external partnerships that expand design and delivery capabilities, collaborating across teams to extend organizational reach
• Communicates strategic vision and priorities across broad audiences, serving as a thought leader to build national awareness and buy-in across school systems and state agencies
• Contributes design and instructional expertise to grant proposals and reporting in support of broader organizational fundraising efforts

• Guides and coaches senior leaders across the division, providing strategic direction and senior-level support on complex partner engagements
• Actively mentors and develops senior talent, building technical and adaptive competencies to prepare leaders for expanding responsibilities
• Translates organizational strategy into clear, compelling priorities and aligned resourcing for the team
• Inspires alignment and guides teams toward a shared vision by modeling strong organizational leadership and sound judgment
• Embodies and elevates organizational values, building a team culture grounded in accountability and continuous learning
• Partners across divisions to align custom consulting strategy with organization-wide priorities and initiatives
• Establishes operational routines to support project management and quality assurance while planning for downline staffing and succession needs

Candidate Qualifications and Traits:

• ​​​​​​12+ years of professional experience in K-12 consulting, instructional improvement, or organizational leadership, including extensive senior leadership experience managing complex, cross-functional teams
• Custom Service Design & Innovation: Mastery in evaluating market demand and student impact to conceptualize, pilot, and scale new service offerings in highly ambiguous environments
• Business Development & Revenue Generation: Deep skill in cultivating partner relationships, building consulting pipelines, and consistently achieving multi-million dollar revenue targets in the education sector
• Instructional System Leadership: Expertise in K-12 instructional improvement at the system level, including leadership levers that accelerate outcomes for priority student groups
• Senior Leadership Development: Mastery in coaching, mentoring, and developing senior leaders, building talent pipelines, and guiding teams through organizational change and innovation
• Strategic Advisory & Influence: Exceptional ability to build strategic, high-trust relationships with senior school system and state leaders to influence system-level decision-making
• Complex Portfolio Management: Deep skill in overseeing multi-faceted consulting portfolios, balancing iterative design, revenue targets, and high-stakes partner delivery