Managing Director (Principal, Consulting Partner Development)

About EAB

At EAB, our mission is to make education smarter and our communities stronger. We work with more than 2,800 institutions to drive transformative change through data-driven insights and best-in-class capabilities. From kindergarten to college to career, EAB partners with leaders and practitioners to accelerate progress and drive results across enrollment, student success, institutional strategy, data analytics, and advancement. We work with each partner differently, tailoring our portfolio of research, technology, and marketing and enrollment solutions to meet the unique needs of every leadership team, as well as the students and employees they serve.

At EAB, we serve not only our partner institutions but each other—that's why we are always working to make sure our employees love their jobs and are invested in their communities. See how we've been recognized for this dedication to our employees by checking out our recent awards.

For more information, visit our Careers page.  

The Role in Brief:

Principal, Consulting Partner Development

EAB is seeking a talented, entrepreneurial and multi-faceted senior individual to serve as a Principal dedicated to growing EAB’s consulting business for higher education institutions, generating between ~$3-$5M in consulting revenue annually.

This individual must be skilled commercially, and capable of managing strategic consulting engagements rooted in EAB’s core terrains of expertise.  This individual must also be willing and able to deliver these engagements, except for the portions residing in Enroll360’s strategic enrollment management offering.  This position will have a high level of executive visibility externally and require significant, skilled collaboration across and within EAB’s lines of business internally to enable excellent project management and ensure the greatest partner impact and experience. 

Note that the consulting business will draw upon existing EAB capabilities only and be delivered by the Principal, as well as by individuals embedded in our lines of business.  The business is intended to monetize existing assets, thought leadership and expertise (rather than to find bespoke consulting projects or require the hiring of outside staff) and whenever possible, to do so across multi-year engagements.  Additionally, this effort should establish our position as the provider of choice for follow on work that aligns to our E360, Navigate, Edify and Strategic Advisory Services businesses.

The Principal will be responsible for business development and sales activities, project management and successful, timely and impactful delivery. The Principal will report to EAB’s Chief Partner Officer.

This position is listed as Managing Director (Principal, Consulting Partner Development) for posting purposes; the official title of this hire is expected to be Principal, Consulting Partner Development to align with EAB business norms. This Principal, Consulting Partner Development hire is open to hire at Senior Director or Managing Director level.

This Principal may be based in any EAB office (e.g., Washington, DC; Richmond, VA; Bloomington, MN) or may be based remotely within the continental United States.

Primary Responsibilities:

The Principal’s primary responsibility is growing EAB’s consulting business. To fulfil this responsibility, they will need to lead the entire commercial process, including: 

• Elevating EAB’s profile as a potential consulting partner to education institutions
• With the help of EAB’s partner and prospect-facing staff, identifying prospective partners or expansion opportunities for existing partners
• Developing collateral and publishing blogs to drive opportunities
• Partnering with the RFP team to respond to opportunities
• Using deep knowledge of education and EAB’s areas of expertise to create compelling consulting solutions designed to support prospective partners’ goals
  • The Principal will need to act as a “solutions architect” pulling from EAB’s broad set of capabilities to design solutions for each partner and each project
  • The Principal will partner with subject matter experts at EAB during the design process
  • The Principal will also help deliver the consulting solutions to the partner
• Successfully negotiating and contracting to closure in a way that tees up additional business opportunity

After the sale, the Principal will manage and execute delivery of the project, serve as a senior engagement partner and report results to the partner and EAB executive stakeholders.  They will also work to facilitate add-on sales of our core products whenever appropriate.  This will require:

• Using data and research to draw insights, develop recommendations and inform strategic conclusions to address partner needs
• Managing all partner-facing conversations, addressing partner concerns and trouble-shooting obstacles to successful completion

Basic Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree
• Broad familiarity with EAB and its capabilities
• Excellent writing skills and ideally, visualization/graphical skills
• Strong organizational and project management abilities
• Willingness to travel at least 30%
• 10-12+ years’ of relevant professional experience, including at least one of the following:
  • Sales experience with a track record of success
  • Experience in, or knowledge of, the education industry (K-12 and higher education) sufficient to be viewed as a strategic thought partner by both organizations and senior leadership at schools

Ideal Qualifications:

• Exceptional relationship-building and communication skills
• Demonstrated success in partner-facing roles
• Entrepreneurial instincts, with creative strengths, an interest in building something new, and a willingness to ideate and design solutions
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills
• Deep knowledge of EAB’s product offering
• Comfort with collaboration and management through influence
• Facility with the sales and contracting process
• Experience successfully managing complex projects to timely completion
• Commitment to valuing diversity, practicing inclusive behaviors, and contributing to an equitable working and continual learning environment in support of EAB’s DE&I Promise

If you’ve reached this section of the job description and are unsure of whether to apply, please do! At EAB, we welcome diversity of background and experience. We would encourage you to submit an application if this is a role you would be passionate about doing every day.

Compensation:

The anticipated starting salary (base) range for this role is $117,500 - 170,000 per year. Actual salary varies due to factors that may include but not be limited to relevant experience, skills, and location. At EAB, it is not typical for an individual to be hired at or near the top of the starting salary range for their role.

This hire will additionally be eligible for lucrative uncapped incentive compensation. Variable compensation may depend on various factors, including, without limitation, individual and organizational performance.

Benefits:

This opening is not eligible for visa sponsorship at this time; EAB will thus consider candidates who possess U.S. work authorization that does not require employment-based visa sponsorship now or in the future.

At EAB, we believe that to fulfill our mission to “make education smarter and our communities stronger” we need team members who bring a diversity of perspectives to the table and are committed to fostering a workplace where each team member is valued, respected and heard.

To that end, EAB is an Equal Opportunity Employer, and we make employment decisions on the basis of qualifications, merit and business need. We don’t discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, sex, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, age, non-disqualifying physical or mental disability, national origin, veteran status or any other basis covered by appropriate law.

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Last updated on Sep 13, 2024