Senior Director, Business Development

Reports to: Executive Director or COO

FLSA Status:  Full-time, exempt (Remote; US-based)

Department: Partnerships & Communications 

Pay Range: $142,800 - $163,200 

Supervisory Responsibilities: Management of ELSF staff and consultants

Travel Requirements: up to 50% travel

Position Summary

ELSF’s work is driven by our commitment to improve the supply of high-quality instructional materials for multilingual learners. We do that by delivering high-impact professional services to curriculum publishers, states and districts. Our services ensure curricular materials are more inclusive of multilingual best practices, and we work with states and districts to strengthen their adoption and implementation policies and initiatives. Critical to our success and growth are the relationships we have within the field - from curriculum publishers, states and districts to research and advocacy organizations. Similarly, our approach to sales and partnerships reflects the importance of strong relationships in the field. 

The Sr. Director, Business Development will be responsible for setting and executing a multi-year sales and partnership strategy to grow ELSF’s reach, meet revenue targets, and build a sustainable revenue pipeline. While the Sr. Director will work across ELSF’s service portfolios, there will be a heavier emphasis on the publisher side of our work in the initial years. Given the connection between communications, marketing and sales, this  role will also manage our communications and marketing efforts. Supported by a team of communications consultants, this role will help grow the organization’s brand and promote ELSF as a thought leader on instructional materials supportive of multilingual learners.  This role also has the charge of creating a positive, feedback-oriented, and productive team culture, along with providing coaching and professional learning to their team. 

Responsibilities and Tasks 

The Sr. Director, Business Development will execute on the following areas of work. This is not meant to be an exhaustive list but outlines the major responsibilities of the role.

Sales Strategy & Execution (55%): Develop and execute ELSF’s sales strategy by working collaboratively across the organization to:

• Set a collaborative sales strategy that incorporates target audiences, market factors, and current services; set and achieve annual targets as part of the sales strategy.
• Identify and execute on strategic business development opportunities to get in front of new audiences and potential client partners.
• Provide leadership and guidance across the organization to ensure ELSF meets its revenue targets, celebrating wins and escalating risks, and offering business development coaching and support to the ELSF team. 
• Create and manage a pipeline of fee-for-service partnerships, pursuing leads and cultivating relationships with key decision-makers throughout the process, from lead generation to close.
• Manage potential client opportunities, sharing ELSF’s mission, service offerings, and value proposition in compelling ways; approach sales with a solutions mindset and identify ways our services can solve client challenges. 
• Build upon current sales operations to improve processes and infrastructure, recommending improvements, creating sales collateral, and building buy-in across the organization around shared revenue goals.
• Develop, track, and report on key performance indicators to measure the effectiveness of ELSF’s business development strategies to support continuous improvement. 
• Strategically identify RFP opportunities and coordinate their submission across different teams in the organization, including leveraging strategic partnership to strengthen likelihood of success
• Leverage existing network to connect potential clients to ELSF services; build and maintain strong relationships with key stakeholders at curriculum publishers, states, and districts. 
• Attend and/or present at key conferences and events to build ELSF’s presence in the field, generate leads, and glean learnings to make strategic connections to further our work.
• Share learnings about the market and target audiences with the services team to improve service offerings and address client needs.

Strategic Communications and Marketing (25%): Manage ELSF’s communications and events staff and external communications consultants. This role will serve as a liaison between the sales team, the leadership team, and ELSF’s communications staff and consultants to provide guidance, strategy oversight, and management on communications, marketing, and thought leadership to increase ELSF’s reach and impact and build strong brand awareness.

• Manage ESLF staff and consultants to create and implement an annual communications and marketing strategy that best represents ELSF externally and builds its brand. Ensure alignment across all departments.
• Lead strategic initiatives aimed at building ELSF’s brand awareness in new markets, particularly ones that are high leverage.
• Oversee ELSF’s communications staff and consultants to manage content creation, including social media, press releases, blog posts, whitepapers, and thought leadership articles, ensuring all materials represent ELSF’s mission, voice, and strategic objectives.
• Collaborate across the organization to manage ELSF’s conference and event strategy–including ELSF’s Annual Convening–identifying strategic conference attendance and webinars that best promote ELSF’s work, thought leadership goals, and mission; ensure events deliver value to internal and external stakeholders. 
• Ensure that ELSF is effectively sharing experiences and learning from the field in ways that are compelling, target key audiences, support sales goals, and build momentum for change.
• Collaborate with the services team to align marketing and communications efforts in support of sales, services, and partnership development.  
• Develop, track, and report on key performance indicators to measure the effectiveness of ELSF’s communications and marketing strategy.

Management (20%): Build and grow a team of ELSF staff and consultants by providing coaching, mentoring, and professional learning. 

• Create and cultivate a team culture that exemplifies ELSF’s Core Values.
• Promote effective coordination across functions, teams, and roles, identifying opportunities for continuous improvement and taking decisive action to address issues.
• Manage the hiring and development of staff and contractors, building their skills to further ELSF’s partnership and communications goals and advance ELSF’s mission. 

Education, Experience, Knowledge, Skills, and Ability   

• Leadership experience in direct sales or business development required; experience closing 6-7 figure deals required; working at or selling to one of ELSF’s target audience (curriculum publishers, states, or districts) also required.
• Strong understanding of the role high quality instructional materials play in achieving results for multilingual learners required; working knowledge of the education publishing industry preferred
• Superior ability to build relationships across multiple stakeholders.
• Proven ability to bring a solutions-oriented and learning mindset to partnerships and communications.  
• Experience building sales systems and operations, including experience with CRMs and marketing software (ELSF uses Zoho as its CRM).
• Understanding of the national education landscape and the key trends that drive decisions around instructional materials.
• Ability to bring together varied stakeholders to care about important educational issues deeply affecting underserved student populations.
• Proven ability to think analytically and strategically, and with agility to translate ideas and insights into action through coherent and viable project work.
• Experience building positive, collaborative relationships with and managing diverse team members and stakeholders. 
• Demonstrated organizational skills and the ability to manage multiple complex projects while simultaneously meeting deadlines.
• Experience organizing and managing sales and communications events.
• Commitment to ELSF’s mission, vision, core values, theory of change, and unique positioning in the field.