Associate Director, Executive Learning Design

ABOUT US

The Aspen Institute is a global nonprofit organization whose purpose is to ignite human potential to build understanding and create new possibilities for a better world. Founded in 1949, the Institute drives change through dialogue, leadership, and action to help solve society’s greatest challenges. It is headquartered in Washington, D.C., with a campus in Aspen, Colorado, as well as an international network of partners.

EDUCATION & SOCIETY

The Aspen Institute Education & Society Program (ESP) informs, inspires, and catalyzes action among education leaders and policymakers to advance equity and excellence for all students. Through both public and off-the-record convenings, national networks, and targeted policy initiatives, ESP creates candid, nonpartisan environments where senior system leaders, cabinet members, state officials, and national researchers turn complex policy issues into actionable systemic transformation.

ABOUT THIS ROLE

The Associate Director, Executive Learning Design is a senior leadership role within the Education & Society Program. As ESP expands its impact as a premier think-and-do tank for national education redesign, this leader will serve as our chief architect of executive-level adult learning - bridging high-level organizational strategy, policy insight, and transformative cohort experiences.

This leader will design and anchor multi-year arcs of learning and individual convening sessions for executive networks and cohorts comprising large-district superintendents, state education chiefs, senior cabinet leaders, board chairs, philanthropic partners, and national policymakers. Working as a core member of the ESP leadership team and a strategic partner to the Director, the Associate Director will codify the unique Aspen methodology: combining rigorous empirical evidence, candid off-the-record dialogue, values-based leadership inquiry, and peer-to-peer accountability to shift leadership practice and field-level policy.

Our ideal candidate brings deep executive presence, seasoned pedagogical mastery, and sophisticated command of the political, operational, and adaptive realities facing public education systems. They understand how to place senior leaders in productive tension - moving beyond transactional workshops or performative presentations into high-impact, action-oriented executive deliberation.

The salary range for this position is $125,000 - $142,000. This position reports directly to the Managing Director.

WHAT YOU WILL DO

Senior Executive Leadership & Program Strategy

• Executive Leadership Team Membership: Serve as an active, core member of the ESP Executive Leadership Team, collaborating closely with the Executive Director, Managing Director, Director of Policy and Leadership, and senior colleagues to define institutional priorities, drive strategic alignment, and steward organizational health.
• Enterprise Strategy & Innovation: Directly contribute to program-wide strategy, portfolio expansion, and new initiative incubation, ensuring learning design is central to ESP’s broader mission and policy impact across the education sector.
• Cross-Program Collaboration: Serve as a senior liaison and strategic thought partner across Aspen Institute divisions, including the Center for Rising Generations, fostering cross-pollination of ideas, network models, and institutional best practices.

Strategic Learning Architecture & Curricular Arcs

• Multi-Year Cohort Design: Translate complex organizational priorities, legislative dynamics, academic research, and systemic equity frameworks into coherent, multi-year learning arcs across flagship ESP networks (e.g., Social Mobility Leadership Network, Cross-Partisan Network, other and emerging executive cohorts).
• High-Leverage Session Design: Develop comprehensive session designs, detailed facilitator run-of-shows, protocol-driven discussion questions, and actionable case studies that respect the cognitive demands and time constraints of sitting executives.
• Dialogue-Centered Executive Pedagogy: Construct learning environments that favor seminar-style inquiry, clinical problem-solving, strategic simulations, peer learning, co-creation, and Chatham House Rule deliberations over passive lecture or standard presentations.

Faculty, Expert, & Content Curation

• Intellectual Curation: Partner with the senior leadership team in identifying, recruiting, and briefing world-class faculty, policy leaders, academic researchers, and exemplary peer practitioners to seed critical debates with cutting-edge evidence.
• Executive Speaker Alignment & Coaching: Partner directly with invited experts, panelists, and keynote contributors to align their interventions with the cohort’s strategic trajectory, steering presenters away from conventional slide decks toward rigorous dialogue, case analysis, and candid fireside exchanges.
• Briefing Materials & Pre-Reads: Oversee the curation and authored development of high-touch executive pre-reads, policy background memos, session portfolios, and post-convening application frameworks that support executive implementation in districts and agencies.

Convening Moderation & Adaptive Facilitation

• Session Leadership & Facilitator Coaching: Steer live session flow during convenings, guiding lead moderators and small-group facilitators to sustain intellectual depth, navigate sensitive political dynamics, and surface productive tensions.
• Real-Time Pedagogical Adaptation: Actively read the room, evaluate real-time cohort dynamics, and execute agile adjustments to session structures, prompts, and timelines to meet emerging executive needs without sacrificing core learning goals.
• Action Synthesis: Design protocols that reliably synthesize dialogue into clear policy takeaways, commitments to action, and strategic leadership practices.

Institutional Codification & Programmatic Quality

• Aspen Methodology Codification: Partner across the ESP leadership team to formalize, standardize, coach, train, and institutionalize our learning design frameworks, tools, and convening standards.
• Team Capacity Building: Support team members in building their capacity on adult learning principles, best practices, and design.
• Continuous Improvement & Impact Evaluation: Establish robust evaluation mechanisms to assess session effectiveness, measure long-term changes in executive practice, and iteratively elevate program delivery across the ESP portfolio.

WHAT YOU WILL NEED TO THRIVE

• Executive Learning Architecture: 8–10+ years of progressive leadership designing experiential, action-oriented learning arcs, executive seminars, or leadership networks specifically tailored for cabinet-level leaders, superintendents, board members, or senior public-sector policymakers.
• Advanced Dialogue & Facilitation Design: Proven expertise in dialogic pedagogy, executive inquiry, case-method learning, and structured debate techniques that foster vulnerability, candor, and problem-solving among high-profile peers.
• Deep Systems & Policy Acumen: Sophisticated familiarity with K–12 public education governance, systemic equity barriers, state/federal policy dynamics, and the operational demands borne by senior school-system and/or government leaders.
• Executive Communication & Editorial Polish: Exceptional written communication skills, with an established record of producing crisp, high-level briefing memos, narrative arcs, and convening collateral under firm deadlines.
• Strategic Influence & Thought Partnership: Demonstrated capacity to serve as an indispensable advisor to senior organizational leadership, external institutional partners, and prominent national figures.
• Team & Deliverable Leadership: Demonstrated track record leading complex, multi-stakeholder initiatives, managing contributing writers and subject-matter experts, and driving projects to flawless execution with meticulous detail.
• Ability to travel and be present on-site during convenings and major program events.

TO APPLY

In lieu of a conventional cover letter, candidates are asked to submit a curated portfolio illustrating a recent executive or senior professional learning experience they designed:

• Executive Context Overview (1–2 pages): The strategic premise, target audience (roles and seniority), learning objectives, adaptive tensions addressed, and measures of success.
• Facilitator Guide / Run of Show: A complete, detailed instructional plan illustrating timing, questioning protocols, transition notes, and participant activities.
• Executive Materials Sample: A briefing memo, case study, scenario prompt, or discussion deck utilized during the session.
• Impact or Adaptation Note (Optional): A brief reflection on how real-time feedback or participant dynamics influenced adjustments made during or following the experience.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

The Aspen Institute offers a generous benefits package including health, dental, vision, and prescription benefits, retirement benefits, and paid leave.

The Aspen Institute is an Equal Opportunity Employer and complies with all District and federal laws. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, or protected veteran or disabled status and will not be discriminated against.

The Aspen Institute welcomes individuals with disabilities to participate in its programs, including the interview process. If you would like to request accommodations or have questions about accessibility, please email hrsupport@aspeninstitute.org or call 202-736-2127 in advance of your visit. Requests for ASL or CART services should be made at least two weeks in advance when possible. We will make every effort to fulfill requests, subject to availability.