Senior Director, Terrain Lead, Research Advisory Services (Higher Ed Advancement & Strategy)

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.

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Senior Director, Research Advisory Services Terrain Lead (Higher Ed Advancement & Strategy)

EAB is the leading global provider of research and advice to higher education and K-12 institutions. Our research programs help executives at client organizations educate stakeholders, make research-informed decisions, and speed implementation of industry best practices.

EAB Research Advisory Services (RAS) is a division within our research business, providing consultative support and expert advice to our education clients. RAS staff work directly with boards, presidents, and other senior academic and business leaders to help them make meaningful and strategic process toward their most pressing financial and mission-consequential issues. Through strong communication and storytelling, RAS provides high-impact, outcome-focused presentations, workshops, and unscripted conversations to help partners understand and implement EAB’s advice.

We deliver our advice to clients through virtual meetings, onsite at client institutions, expert phone consultations, and peer conferences. In addition to working with current clients, our advisors also support sales efforts in new client development.

This position will spend about 80% of time in the market, working with partners both in-person and virtually.

This hire may be based in Washington, DC and is also open to remote employment within the continental United States. The position requires 40-50% travel.

This role is listed as “Senior Director, Research Advisory Services Terrain Lead (Higher Ed Advancement & Strategy)” for posting purposes; the official and internal title of this hire is expected to be “Senior Director, Research Advisory Services” to align with business norms. Research Advisory Services terrain leads and team members bring specific subject matter expertise as well as an understanding of the broader higher education landscape to extend meaningful support to EAB’s partners and prospective partners both within and across terrains.

Position Responsibilities:

Terrain Mastery: Build and maintain issue expertise in the Advancement terrain and across research terrains, with a special focus on those most important to members across the university executive cabinet at educational institutions and the teams they lead across the university each day: including the delivery of dynamic strategy to guide transformation; advancement and fundraising strategy; campaign readiness and execution; and donor and alumni engagement. Store & curate EAB’s perspective across the breadth of research terrains to give partners the most direct access to EAB’s advice.

The ideal candidate will bring experience working with senior institutional leaders and advancement organizations through practitioner, consulting, or advisory experience. Successful candidates will be able to engage effectively with advancement and cabinet leaders while maintaining the broad strategic and operational fluency required of the RAS model.

The candidate will leverage EAB’s insights, best practices, tools, and data to help partners make decisions and implement best practices and develop a deep understanding of assigned terrain, market trends, and evolving client needs.

Content Delivery and Facilitation:

Work directly with Partners to diagnose their problems, challenge their assumptions, guide decisions, and suggest solutions. Deliver EAB’s point of view and advice through phone consultations, virtual meetings, conferences, and on campus presentations to:

• Make EAB insights and data accessible and impactful for our partners, bringing clarity and context to their understanding of their challenges;

• Present partners with new ideas and potential solutions to those challenges and advocate for adoption;

• Act as an expert outside voice, building consensus and educating committees and staff.

Combine functional knowledge with an understanding of higher ed’s unique organizational dynamics, enabling partners to set strategy, lead their institutions, and manage their operations more effectively:

•  By diagnosing and giving voice to dynamics that are often felt, but not addressed;

• By supporting leaders as they align effort and teams around institutional priorities;

• By pathing partners through ranges of viable solutions and their pros and cons;

• By recommending paths for improvement and serving as their guides and accountability partners as they progress;

• By connecting partner institutions and creating learning experiences.

Customer Success and Commercial Support: Collaborate with the Research Customer Success team to execute on a scalable and impactful client delivery model and deliver high-impact client interactions. Partner with Success on effective prep work and partner follow-up. Support sales in new client development and account management on key renewal decisions

Research Collaboration: Leverage terrain expertise to generate original insight and content in assigned areas (e.g., blog posts, social media posts, briefings, presentations, etc.). Actively participate in ongoing research processes and share market insights with Research colleagues to inform future EAB insights and deliverables. Help to inform opportunities for collaboration, partnering with Research early in the research process and at the point of hand-off from Research to RAS.

Team and Talent Management: Manage and motivate a team of RAS staff. Onboard and upskill new staff in assigned terrains. Assess performance and provide real-time feedback across the year. Coach tenured staff to improve current capabilities, develop new skillsets, and stay fresh in the market and EAB research. Build a team culture to retain and engage staff. 

Basic Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree.
• Minimum 8-10 years of post-graduate professional experience in higher education, research, or management consulting.
• Experience working with Chief Advancement Officers, Corporate Foundation Relations leaders, or Strategy leads at a college, university, or similarly positioned enterprise.
• In-depth understanding of education industry and the specific role that senior institution leadership has in setting strategy and decision making in areas such as transformation; advancement and fundraising strategy; campaign readiness and execution; and donor and alumni engagement.
• Superior verbal, written, facilitation, and presentation skills.
• Ability to create a compelling narrative through data visualization, graphics, and slides.
• Excellent relationship building and collaboration skills: ability to build relationships with, engage and challenge senior-level executives.

Ideal Qualifications:

• Advanced degree.
• Demonstrated ability to distill market and terrain insights, drawing on client interactions.
• Experience producing written content and deliverables for an executive-level audience (e.g., blogs, social media feeds, reports, briefings).
• Commitment to embracing a continual learning environment and contributing to a dynamic and welcoming culture of fairness, authenticity, and belonging in support of EAB’s mission, values, and aspiration

If you’ve reached this section of the job description and are unsure of whether to apply, please do! At EAB, we welcome new perspectives and learn from each other’s unique experiences. 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 $95,000 - $140,000 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 discretionary bonus or incentive compensation. Variable compensation may depend on various factors, such as individual and organizational performance.

Benefits:

• Consistent with our belief that our employees are our most valuable resource, EAB offers a competitive and inclusive benefits package.
• Medical, dental, and vision insurance; dependents and domestic partners eligible
• 401(k) retirement plan with company match
• 20+ days of PTO annually, in addition to paid firm holidays
• Daytime leave policy for community service or fitness activities (up to 10 hours a month each)
• Paid parental leave for birthing and non-birthing parents
• Phase Back to Work program for employees returning from parental leave
• Infertility treatment coverage and adoption or surrogacy assistance
• Wellness programs including gym discounts and incentives to promote healthy living
• Dynamic growth opportunities with merit-based promotion philosophy

Benefits kick in day one, see the full details here.

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.