Senior Director, User Readiness

Senior Director, User Readiness

College Board - Operations

Location: This is a 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.

Role Type: This is a full-time position

About the Team

College Board’s Operations division is a best-in-class digital assessment delivery and customer engagement function that supports millions of students and thousands of test centers, annually. The Operations team is also leading exciting work to advance user experience using innovative solutions, products, and technology to enhance the end-to-end delivery of digital assessments and all aspects of customer support. Within Operations, the Assessment Delivery Operations (ADO) team is responsible for the successful execution of digital assessments like the SAT and Advanced Placement (AP) examinations, working closely with partners across College Board, the education sector, and beyond to improve testing technologies, customer experience, and outcomes. ADO’s User Readiness team ensures every coordinator, staff member and student has what they need, and takes the critical actions required, to succeed on test day, through community engagement, digital communications, technical readiness, and risk-based support.

About the Opportunity

College Board’s assessment delivery operates as a user-centered ecosystem, one where logistical and digital preparedness aren’t two separate disciplines, but a single, unified standard. As the Senior Director of User Readiness, you will sit at the intersection of traditional assessment delivery and digital transformation, helping write the roadmap for how College Board prepares every district-level, school-level, and student-level user, across every program, to succeed on test day.

This is a role that shapes strategy, not just executes it. You will define the shared framework that determines what “ready” means ahead of test day, and you will own the strategy, team coherence, and outcomes that flow from it. You will lead a portfolio of digital and technical work, across community management, digital engagement, technical readiness, and risk monitoring and intervention, each of whom owns hands-on, external execution within their function. You will shape and evolve the model they operate inside, the milestones that keep it moving in sync, and the relationships with College Board program, product, and technology leaders that keep it current as the platforms and technology it depends on continue to evolve.

In this role, you will:

Lead and Manage the User Readiness Team (30%)

• Lead a portfolio spanning community management, digital engagement, technical readiness, and risk monitoring and intervention. This includes theoversight of network, digitla, and analytics talent within those functions and approximately 30 contract community support staff.

• Set vision and priorities for the team, track and manage progress to goals, and provide coaching and support to ensure team members meet and exceed goals, remain engaged, and contribute meaningfully to our mission.

• Cultivate an inclusive and high achieving culture that enables all team members to live out College Board’s Operating Principles.

• Bring proven leadership experience and consistently embody College Board’s Manager Expectations in your work.

• Identify and close talent and skill gaps, such as analytical ability, process design, and experience mindset, required to sustain a scalable, program-agnostic model.

• Build growth and succession pathways for your Directors and their teams as the function matures and scales beyond its current programs.

• Coach Directors to own outcomes within their function, not just administer requirements, so the User Readiness roadmap’s thinking runs through every level of the team.

User Readiness Framework & Cross-Program Alignment (25%)

• Interpret data and analysis across the portfolio to build business cases and drive changes to process, technology, and resourcing based on what the evidence shows

• Own the shared definition of user readiness and the operating standards every College Board program uses to ensure support is consistent regardless of assessment or delivery model

• Set the standards for how readiness risk is defined and acted on across programs, ensuring the risk signals and thresholds your team maintains are consistent, defensible and applied the same way everywhere

• Anticipate emerging business needs and requirements, and set direction for the resulting changes to process, case management, and technology requirements

Roadmap & Readiness Outcomes (25%)

• Set the vision and priorities for Directors across community management, digital engagement, technical readiness, and risk monitoring and intervention, empowering each to own hands-on execution within a shared strategic direction

• Own the master planning calendar and milestone cadence spanning every function, so the roadmap moves as one coordinated system rather than separate efforts

• Own readiness outcomes for coordinators and testing staff, including the share who complete readiness without needing intervention, and use results to reallocate focus across functions

• Lead a cross-portfolio retrospective each season that shapes next year’s strategy, turning lessons from one program into direction for every program

Stakeholder Alignment & Platform Readiness (20%)

• Own user readiness for the next generation of College Board’s digital testing platform, shaping requirements with product and technology leaders

• Represent User Readiness’ roadmap directly to strategic partners across College Board, shaping how their platform and program decisions account for pre-test-day readiness

• Own how the User Readiness model evolves alongside digital modernization efforts, ensuring the roadmap scales to new programs and platforms ahead of need

• Architect how new programs enter the shared model, building their onboarding path and facilitating change management onto the universal User Readiness roadmap

• Serve as the technology integrator and primary spokesperson to key stakeholders on product and technical requirements, translating between technology teams and Operations’ leadership

About You

• Expertise leading complex, multi-program operations, community, or customer-success functions, with a combination of education and experience equal to 10+ years, including experience managing other people-leaders

• Experience leading people leaders and a technical workforce, including network, digital, and analytics staff, alongside program or product management experts

• A strategic and inclusive leadership style: you set clear priorities, build effective team structures, plan for future needs, and foster a culture of belonging.

• A proven ability to drive performance and growth: you set high expectations, deliver real-time, evidence-based feedback, and coach team members to take smart risks, stretch their skills, and achieve meaningful impact.

• A strong data and analytics background: comfortable interpreting complex analysis, building a business case from it, and driving organizational change based on what the data shows

• A proven track record designing and operationalizing a shared, cross-program operating model; replacing duplicative or program-specific structures with a scalable, unified one

• Experience running digital email or marketing campaigns, or activation-focused programs, building and scaling outreach that turns awareness into action

• Experience managing up and across, representing a function’s strategy and needs to strategic partners overseeing policy, technology, data and/or marketing

• A demonstrated ability to lead teams through organizational change, including transitioning a team from a legacy operating model to a new one

• Executive-level written and verbal communication skills, including presenting strategy and outcomes to senior leadership

• Experience communicating product and technical requirements directly to technology teams, with credibility to act as a technology integrator and spokesperson to senior stakeholders

• Comfort with ambiguity and building new capability from scratch, particularly for less mature functions still taking shape

• The ability to travel occasionally (3-5 times a year) to College Board offices or on behalf of College Board business

• Preferred: Experience in assessment, education technology, or another high-stakes service-delivery environment

• Preferred: Direct experience building or scaling a community engagement, customer success, or user-success function

All roles at College Board require:

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

• Curiosity and enthusiasm for emerging technologies, with a willingness to experiment with and adopt new AI-driven solutions and comfort with 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

• Authorization to work in the United States

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, a performance exercise relevant to the role, a panel interview, a conversation with leadership and reference checks.

What We Offer

At College Board, we offer more than 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 $104,000–$160,000.

• 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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About College Board

College Board reaches more than 7 million students a year, helping them navigate the path from high school to college and career. We’re a mission-driven, not-for-profit membership organization dedicated to excellence in education. Founded 125 years ago, we are committed to clearing a path for all students to own their future. We pioneered programs like the SAT® and AP® to expand opportunities for students and help them develop the skills they need. Our BigFuture® program helps students plan for college, pay for college, and explore careers. Learn more at cb.org.

Mission

Clearing a path for all students to own their future.

What Guides Us

At College Board, our work is guided by four Operating Principles, and we seek team members who not only align with these principles but actively live them out in their day-to-day work​.

• Prioritize and Simplify – We focus on what matters most, reduce complexity, and move quickly when needed.

• Say and Receive – We give and receive feedback candidly and kindly, welcoming growth and healthy debate.

• Go for Greatness – We pursue excellence using data, iteration, and bold thinking to raise the bar.

• Lead as One College Board – We build a culture of trust, inclusion, and shared responsibility for long-term impact.

We Value and Provide Growth, Recognition, and Purpose

In addition to a competitive salary and benefits, we offer:

• Annual bonuses and opportunities for merit-based raises and promotions

• A mission-driven workplace where your impact matters

• A team that invests in your development and success

EEOC statement

College Board is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We’re committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity, or Veteran status.