VP, Social Impact

at  American Student Assistance

American Student Assistance (ASA), a non-profit organization on a mission changing the way kids learn about careers and plan for the future, has an immediate opening on our Social Impact Team. The Vice President, Social Impact will report directly to SVP of Advocacy and Corporate Responsibility and be responsible for overseeing the teams responsible for ASA’s policy, advocacy, research, and philanthropy functions.

EXPERIENCE:

• 10-15 years in progressive roles
• Demonstrated leadership ability
• Experience driving organizational strategy
• Understanding, experience, and expertise in k-12 education and/or youth workforce issues; preferably with a deep understanding of the state and federal policy driving these systems
• A proven record of delivering against goals
• Experience managing relationships with senior executive stakeholders, including business leaders and policymakers, and an ability to navigate political landscapes
• Proven ability to lead and influence others in a constructive manner and to build and sustain collaborative relationships
• Proven ability to present publicly in meetings, defend different strategies, approaches or points of view
• Proven ability to present ideas to internal audiences and articulate vision/goals and desired outcomes to all levels of leadership
• Experience developing, running and implementing projects, including working with partners on the definition of objectives and deliverables and monitoring and evaluation of results
• Experience working with partners to achieve advocacy goals and policy change
• Proven experience with public speaking
• Experience managing consultants to supplement internal resource and staffing
• Proven ability to analyze and translate complex and voluminous information into clear, concise summaries and recommendations suitable for internal and external audiences
• Experience with establishing meaningful, strategic goals and KPIs to ensure continuous improvement, growth, and impact
• Experience with strategic planning and budgeting
• Proven ability to multi‐task and work flexibly and creatively within a fast‐moving, changing, and complex environment
• Experience managing a team, evaluating skill sets, and fostering their professional development

SKILLS:

• Must possess a strong business acumen with the ability to quickly understand the company’s diverse landscape of people, systems, and processes.
• Must be able to evaluate risks and opportunities and make the best decisions to achieve the company’s goals.
• Must demonstrate a strong ability to analyze problems, showing logical reasoning skills, and an ability to communicate solutions.
• Superior communication skills are mandatory. Must be able to communicate both verbally and in writing with all levels of management including senior leaders including outstanding presentation skills. Superior writing skills; including synthesizing multiple business priorities into coherent, relevant and impactful communications/presentations. Must be able to distill large amounts of information into easily digestible pieces for consumption and have a keen ability to adapt messages for audience relevance.
• Strong interpersonal skills including the ability to quickly establish a good rapport with all contacts. Ability to motivate others in order to accomplish objectives and build consensus. Must be able to work with all levels of the organization as well as with content contributors and organizational partners. Must be able to fluently and confidently converse with all levels of the business. Having great facilitation skills and experience leading teams is a must.
• Excellent organizational ability. Must be detail-oriented, process-driven, able to prioritize own work, set and meet deadlines, and manage multiple projects simultaneously. Must have the ability to handle a high volume of work in a short period of time and be able to organize and assimilate information across multiple business units in a succinct manner. Ability to effectively prioritize and execute tasks in a high-pressure environment is crucial.
• Ability to manage and motivate teams. This includes the development of teams and direct reports including professional development, performance reporting, goal setting and tracking, etc.
• Strong understanding of the career readiness and youth workforce environment.

This position is responsible for the strategic direction and daily management of ASA’s Social Impact team. The position must be able to build and deepen strategic alliances and expand relationships with policymakers, coalitions, industry leaders, the philanthropic community and other influencers or stakeholders to ensure the creation and execution of high-impact projects of interest to further ASA’s mission. The position will be required to speak on behalf of ASA at meetings, conferences, and events to amplify ASA’s impact and further ASA’s thought leadership objectives. Up to 25% travel may be required.

In addition, this position must be able to provide direction and strategic guidance for teams to execute ASA’s policy, advocacy, research, and philanthropy priorities and works with Directors to set priorities, annual KPIs, team goals, and manage the annual budget.

• Oversees Policy and Advocacy Functions: Provides strategic guidance on policy and advocacy initiatives by regularly reviewing our policy pillars and working with Directors to set a strategy to meet them. Builds relationships with policymakers and legislative influencers to help ASA influence policy. Manages high impact projects to drive policy forward. Speaks at conferences and events to help change mindsets about ASA’s policy and advocacy positions.
• Oversees Research Functions: Provides guidance into our research agenda to ensure a pipeline of content that supports our thought leadership platform, and aligns outcomes and insights coming from our policy, advocacy, research, and philanthropy work. Able to continuously articulate the impact of ASA”s multiple workstreams. Works with a team to create and distribute compelling content that increases ASA impact and influence.
• Oversees Philanthropy Functions: Provides guidance on ASA’s philanthropy strategy and the annual execution of a grant process to stay on time, on budget and reach maximum impact.