Senior Associate, K-12

Education Strategy Group; Washington (District of Columbia); Remote; USD 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Comprehensive health insurance

Retirement plan with company match

Generous time off

Job summary

Education Strategy Group is seeking a Senior Associate to design and lead K-12‑focused projects, aligning education, workforce, and postsecondary systems with labor market needs. You will manage work plans, oversee timelines, and ensure high-quality implementation for client-ready solutions.

The ideal candidate has 5+ years in education policy, strong quantitative and qualitative skills, and experience coordinating with districts, higher education, and state agencies, with a track record of

Qualifications

• Minimum of five years’ professional experience in education policy in a relevant organization.
• Knowledge of readiness initiatives and demand-driven postsecondary pathways.
• Understanding of legislative and policy-making processes for local implementation.
• Master’s degree or equivalent experience in policy/education.
• Strong qualitative research, data analysis, writing, and project management.

Responsibilities

• Lead the execution of K-12 projects with strong implementation oversight.
• Use AI tools for research, drafting, and analysis with verification against primary sources.
• Design and lead quantitative and qualitative policy research and analysis.
• Develop tools to assess client needs and replicate best practices.
• Deliver high-quality technical assistance and facilitation to multi-agency teams.
• Plan and organize state and cross-state convenings for policymakers and practitioners.
• Publish blogs, briefs, and reports for diverse stakeholders.
• Build relationships with partners and identify opportunities for new projects.
• Draft proposals to secure new ESG projects and represent ESG externally.

Skills

Project management

Policy analysis

Data analysis

Writing

Facilitation

Team collaboration

Education

Master's degree in public policy or education policy

Tools

Tableau

Job description

About ESG

At Education strategy Group (ESG), we aim to open doors to economic opportunity for all individuals. We support local, state, and national organizations, and foundations committed to dramatically improving the capacity and performance of the U.S. education system to prepare students for career success. Our staff bring deep experience leading policy development, advocacy, and implementation in the K-12, postsecondary, and workforce sectors. We offer a flexible work environment to stay engaged with education leaders nationally and to enable our staff to work where they have built their lives.

Position

The Senior Associate will play an integral role in designing and executing projects across the firm with a primary focus on K-12-related work. Project work will largely focus on strengthening middle and high school systems' capacity to prepare students for a range of high-value postsecondary pathways—including college, career training, and the workforce— and to better align education, workforce, and economic development systems with labor market needs. This position requires a proven track record of success in developing and leading ambitious college and career readiness work as well as designing and providing related technical assistance to K-12 systems, higher education institutions, and/or community organizations. The Senior Associate will have strong analytic, writing, and facilitation skills, the judgment to direct AI tools effectively and verify their output, and the ability to collaborate with a wide range of national, state, and local stakeholders, including leaders from school districts, state education agencies, workforce and economic development agencies, industry associations, advocacy groups, national education organizations, and foundations.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Lead the execution of K-12 projects, which includes developing and overseeing work plans, managing project timelines, and leading high-quality implementation to ensure delivery of innovative and effective solutions to our clients’ career readiness challenges
• Use approved AI tools to accelerate research, drafting, and analysis, while owning the accuracy, framing, and verification of all AI-augmented work against primary sources;
• Design and lead quantitative and qualitative research and policy analysis on key impact issues related to student readiness, including advising and navigation systems, market-driven pathways, work-based learning, early postsecondary coursework, social capital, and credential attainment, as well as the state funding and data-system infrastructure that supports this work ;Capture and share project insights for clients using visualization software like Tableau
• Develop tools and strategies to assess client needs and replicate national best practices
• Design and deploy delivery of high-quality technical assistance and facilitation to clients, including multi-agency state and local teams spanning K-12, higher education, workforce, and economic development;
• Help plan and organize in-state and cross-state convenings of policymakers and practitioners to strengthen their policies and practices and enable them to strategize together
• Author and assist in publishing blogs, briefs, reports, and other documents for the general public, policymakers, media, and other stakeholders.
• Develop and grow relationships with partners, clients, and national experts to identify opportunities for new projects
• Draft concept papers and proposals to help ESG secure new projects
• Represent ESG at external events and meetings.
• Serve as a thought partner and engage in team problem solving across ESG.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

Qualifications

While ESG recognizes the important relationship between policy and practice, at this time, we will not consider candidates whose experience consists exclusively of practitioner-level work, such as classroom teaching, school counseling, school leadership, or other similar roles.

The ideal candidate will have:

• A minimum of five years’ professional experience in education policy within a state education agency, intermediary organization, postsecondary institution, school district, or national nonprofit organization developing and leading work to build or expand career preparation opportunities for students
• Knowledge of educational efforts to increase students’ readiness for a range of high-value postsecondary opportunities, with emphasis on building demand-driven pathways with early college experiences, supporting work-based learning and industry credentialing, and aligning pathways between K-12, higher education, and the workforce.
• Understanding of the legislative and policy-making processes that lead to strong local implementation of education-to-workforce practices.
• A master’s degree in public policy, education policy, or related fields, or an equivalent level of knowledge and experience.
• Strong qualitative research, data analysis, writing, and project management skills.
• Strong facilitation skills and experience leading workgroups consisting of policymakers and/or practitioners in K-12 or postsecondary education.
• Excellent organizational skills and a keen attention to detail—candidates should have the ability to prioritize work and manage time on multiple projects and tasks to meet deadlines.
• Demonstrated ability to work both independently and collaboratively—candidates should be self-motivated, but also enthusiastic team players open to feedback and collaboration.
• Well-rounded interpersonal skill set, with the presence and capacity to build relationships, work effectively in teams, and facilitate joint problem-solving with clients and within ESG.
• Curiosity, eagerness, and ability to develop new knowledge and skills.

• Comfort using AI tools for research, drafting, and analysis, paired with the judgment to verify outputs, flag uncertainty, and recognize when a task requires human method instead.

• Maturity, flexibility and comfort working in a small, virtual organization.
• Ability to travel to support projects as needed, projected to be around

Compensation and Benefits

• Comprehensive health insurance, flex spending, short/long-term disability, parental leave, and retirement plan with company match.
• Generous time off benefits; vacation, sick, company holidays, and volunteer days.

Location

Education Strategy Group is a virtual firm with a home base in Washington, DC. We have staff located in cities across the country. Our flexible work environment enables our professionals to live and work in locations where they can be most productive—both professionally and personally.

ESG is committed to creating a diverse environment and is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, disability, age, or veteran.