Hybrid Policy Director

at Digital Promise

• Job title: Policy Director
• Job type: Full Time
• Experience level: Lead
• Salary: $119,160 - $163,845 per year
• Degree requirement: Postgraduate Degree
• Location requirements: Hybrid, United States

About the role

• Policy Director at Digital Promise driving education initiatives and partnerships for Powerful Learning. Focused on building sustainable education systems and advancing policy strategies across agencies and coalitions.

Responsibilities

• Help align strategy, priorities, and execution across multiple Digital Promise teams in support of Powerful Learning and related system-change initiatives.
• Work across research, practice, partnerships, product, and policy, to develop coordinated approaches that connect learning science, implementation, and system adoption.
• Help define, support, and/or manage cross-functional bodies of work, including shared scopes, milestones, risks, and decision points, ensuring initiatives remain aligned to organizational impact goals and the Powerful Learning vision.
• Support senior leadership in translating emerging opportunities into actionable collaborations and implementation strategies.
• Coordinate with external consultants, contractors, and strategic partners as needed to advance initiative design and execution.
• Ensure organizational health and cultivate a positive and inclusive and highly collaborative workplace culture across diverse departmental groups and consultant partnerships, ensuring strong cross-organizational alignment.
• Identify, cultivate, and manage high-value partnerships with State Education Agencies, Local Education Agencies, intermediaries, technical assistance providers, higher education institutions, philanthropy, and other field leaders whose work can advance Powerful Learning and the broader learning agenda.
• Help design partnership strategies that link Digital Promise’s expertise in research, learning, educational technologies, and innovation with external partners’ strengths in policy, implementation and systems transformation.
• Build and sustain coalitions that can support durable field adoption, shared learning, and long-term systems change.
• Conduct landscape analysis to identify strategic opportunities, emerging initiatives, and partnership gaps across the education ecosystem.
• Develop partnership concepts and collaboration models that position Digital Promise to play a connective role across research, policy, practice, and innovation.
• Develop and advance strategies for engaging State Education Agencies, Local Education Agencies, and other system-level actors in the adoption and implementation of Powerful Learning and powerful technology approaches.
• Help design state- and district-facing implementation models that support coherent change across policy, instructional practice, talent development, data use, edtech procurement, and innovation adoption.
• Advise on how Digital Promise’s work can support states and districts as they build the enabling conditions for future-ready systems, including instructional coherence, interoperability, responsible AI adoption, and stronger R&D-to-practice connections.
• Support the development of scalable approaches for state and district implementation, including playbooks, partnership structures, readiness criteria, and implementation supports.
• Work with partners to identify problems worth solving, define measurable outcomes, and ensure that implementation efforts are grounded in real system needs and practical pathways to scale.
• Help shape and advance a cross-team learning agenda focused on what it takes to create the conditions for Powerful Learning at scale.
• Ensure that partnership and implementation strategies generate actionable learning for Digital Promise and the field, particularly around how powerful learning models are adopted, supported, and sustained in diverse contexts.
• Partner with internal and external research collaborators to connect practice-based insights to broader questions about instructional transformation, system redesign, and future-ready learning environments.
• Monitor and interpret key state and national developments related to education policy, implementation conditions, emerging technologies (and AI in particular) in education, instructional change, and system transformation.
• Translate policy trends, system constraints, and field signals into recommendations that inform Digital Promise strategy and partner engagement.
• Support the design of partnership and implementation strategies that reflect the realities of governance, local control, public trust, procurement, sustainability, and long-term adoption in SEA and LEA settings.
• Help develop strategies that move initiatives from pilot to durable system adoption, including sustainability planning, transition pathways, and long-term partnership structures.
• Support states, districts, and partner organizations in building the internal capacity, routines, and strategic alignment needed to sustain powerful learning and future-ready system design over time.

Requirements

• Advanced degree preferred in education policy, education leadership, public policy, learning sciences, educational technology, or a related field
• Overall 10+ years of experience in education strategy, partnerships, policy, implementation, systems change, or related leadership roles
• Significant experience working with or within SEAs, LEAs, intermediary organizations, or cross-sector partnerships in education
• Experience working with state advocacy organizations and/or state policymakers (legislators, governor’s office agenda staff) to advance policy goals
• Experience translating research, policy, and field learning into practical implementation approaches for school systems
• Familiarity with state and district conditions that shape implementation, including governance, funding, procurement, accountability, and capacity constraints
• Proven ability to conduct market/landscape analysis and build a "Partner Prospectus" or business case for collaboration
• Experience in legislative tracking, drafting testimony, and navigating federal/state funding streams
• Demonstrated success working across multiple teams and functions to move complex initiatives from concept to implementation
• Experience building and managing strategic partnerships that advance system-level change, instructional transformation, or innovation adoption
• Ability to work as part of a team in a fast-paced, high-energy environment
• A thorough understanding of the Digital Promise frameworks, competencies and the ability to apply this knowledge to support of schools and districts
• Experience supporting initiatives related to instructional improvement, innovation, future-ready learning, AI in education, competency-based learning, or related areas is strongly preferred.

Benefits

• coverage of 85% of health insurance premiums for employee coverage
• 75% of health insurance premiums for dependent and family coverage
• 15 vacation days
• 12 sick days
• 3% 401k employer contribution
• 3% employer 401k match
• flexible work environment