Managing Director, Custom Consulting Services

Responsibilities

• Steers the portfolio of custom consulting engagements, ensuring quality, partner outcomes, and alignment with organizational learning priorities while navigating ambiguity
• Led the design, delivery, and scaling of new service lines that respond to emerging partner needs and market trends outside of core service offerings
• Translates vision from senior leadership into sustainable, financially viable service models aligned with organizational frameworks
• Establishes systems for data-driven iterative design that continuously refine and strengthen the impact of custom and early-stage offerings at scale
• Codifies project learnings and best practices to inform broader service development and integrate emerging insights into core offerings
• Provides senior-level decision-making and problem-solving on ambiguous or highly nuanced consulting contracts, ensuring strategy remains tightly connected to implementation
• Champions sustainable change by positioning innovative service lines for long-term growth and integration
• Synthesizes complex organizational factors to ensure execution of initiatives that advance the mission and deliver sustainable results
• Owns custom consulting business development with accountability for an annual revenue target
• Cultivates and sustains high-trust relationships with current and prospective partner senior leaders to build a robust pipeline for new service identification
• Leads the end-to-end engagement process for custom opportunities from initial diagnosis of needs through solution design and final contracting
• Represents the organization as a thought leader in external networks to build awareness of and demand for custom consulting services
• Communicates division-level priorities with influence, clarity, and strategic alignment to senior audiences, including school system leaders and state agencies
• Contributes design expertise to grant proposals and reporting in support of fundraising efforts
• Manages senior leaders, providing strategic direction, coaching, and senior-level guidance on complex engagements
• Coaches leaders to coach others, building leadership capacity and developing the next generation of senior consulting leaders across the division
• Translates vision from senior leadership into strategy, ensuring aligned goals, resourcing, and actionable workflows for the custom consulting team
• Cultivates a clear and compelling vision of success that inspires team alignment, effectiveness, and excellence
• Embolizes and elevates organizational values while fostering a culture of accountability, and continuous learning
• Collaborates across functions to align custom consulting work with broader divisional and organizational priorities
• Ensures consistent use of organizational systems and tools to support effective communication, project management, and quality assurance

Qualifications and Traits

• 12+ years of professional experience in K-12 consulting, instructional improvement, or organizational leadership, including substantial experience leading and developing senior-level teams
• Custom Service Design and Innovation: Mastery of product and service design, including the ability to steer the codification and scaling of new service lines in highly ambiguous and undefined environments
• Business Development and Revenue Generation: Proven track record of building consulting pipelines, securing long-term partnerships, and meeting or exceeding annual revenue targets within the education sector
• Instructional System Leadership: Deep expertise in K-12 instructional improvement and the leadership levers, data systems, and frameworks required to improve outcomes for priority student groups
• Senior Leadership Coaching: Extensive experience managing and developing senior-level leaders, including building leadership pipelines and supporting Directors and above through complex technical and adaptive challenges
• Strategic Advisory and Influence: Advanced ability to build strategic relationships with senior partner leaders, synthesize complex organizational factors, and influence system-level decision-making across complex education systems