Senior Director, CEO Initiatives

Senior Director of CEO Initiatives

College Board - Office of the CEO

Location:

This is a hybrid role and requires the candidate to be on-site at our New York office at a minimum of every Tuesday and Wednesday with other in-person work across New York City as needed.

Type:
This is a full-time position

About the Team

The Office of the CEO is a small, high leverage enterprise team that operates at the center of College Board, working directly with the CEO, President, and senior leaders to strengthen and accelerate mission impact. The Office brings together executive leadership support and enterprise execution to ensure the organization moves in a coherent, disciplined, and aligned way.

We work with urgency, integrity, and a focus on high-quality output, collaborating daily with colleagues across the 1,900-person organization. Our team is committed to providing clarity and meaning for all College Board colleagues to drive organizational priorities and thrive within the organization.

About the Opportunity

As the Senior Director, CEO Initiatives, you serve as a leader within the Office of the CEO, owning complex, high-impact strategic initiatives from conception through execution. This role is designed for a seasoned operator who brings strong judgment, enterprise perspective, and the ability to independently drive work that shapes CEO priorities, leadership effectiveness, and organizational outcomes.

Reporting to the Executive Director, CEO Initiatives, you act as a primary source of capacity for enterprise-level projects that require sustained focus, cross-functional influence, and senior-level problem solving. You are expected to operate with significant autonomy, translate broad direction into clear plans, and drive results with minimal oversight. You work closely with the Chief of Staff, Executive Director and other senior leaders across the organization, but your core priority is staffing the CEO in the day-to-day and exhibiting strong work product that frees up the CEO's time and advances College Board's strategic priorities.

You thrive in ambiguity, anticipate issues before they surface, and are comfortable making decisions, setting direction, and holding others accountable. You bring clarity where there is complexity and momentum where there is inertia.

In this role, you will:

Independently own and deliver enterprise-level strategic initiatives for the Office of the CEO (35%)

* Independently lead complex, multi-month, cross-enterprise initiatives on behalf of the Office of the CEO, from problem definition and strategic design through execution, measurement, and course correction, including work tied to organizational launches, restructures, leadership transitions, and externally driven deadlines

* Working closely with our Strategic Execution and Enablement (SEE) team, translate CEO and Executive Director priorities into clear strategic plans, success metrics, and decision pathways that enable progress in ambiguous, high-stakes environments

* Continuously assess evolving conditions, proactively identifying risks, dependencies, and tradeoffs, and advancing clear recommendations that drive timely decision-making and execution

* Partner with senior leaders across divisions to align priorities, resolve tension, and deliver results against enterprise objectives, particularly during moments of heightened urgency, visibility, or complexity

* Use data, dashboards, and qualitative insight to inform decisions, monitor progress, and recalibrate strategy in real time, serving as a steady source of judgment and momentum when stakes are high

Advance CEO effectiveness through targeted, high-leverage work (35%)

* Own preparation for daily meetings and select high-stakes CEO engagements, initiatives, or decisions requiring deep strategic context and sustained execution

* Develop decision memos, strategic framing, and synthesis that support high-quality CEO and ELT decision-making

* Ensure commitments made through CEO-led initiatives are translated into action, monitored for progress, and driven through completion

* Partner with communications colleagues to shape messaging, narratives, or materials tied to major enterprise initiatives or inflection points

Serve as a senior partner to the Executive Director, CEO Initiatives and Chief of Staff (20%)

* Act as a senior thought partner and extension of the Executive Director, assuming full ownership of delegated strategic work streams with minimal oversight

* Bring enterprise-level perspective and pattern recognition to help shape prioritization, sequencing, and focus across the Office of the CEO's portfolio of work

* Represent the Office of the CEO in senior-level forums and working sessions as appropriate, driving clarity, alignment, and sustained follow-through

External engagement strategy and CEO leverage (10%)

* Own the strategic planning, preparation, and follow-through for a defined portfolio of the CEO's external engagements, ensuring time and attention are focused where they most advance…