Director, AP Grant Programs

College Board - AP&I (Advanced Placement & Instruction)

Location:

• This is a remote role. Candidates who live near CB offices have the option of being fully remote or hybrid (Tuesday and Wednesday in office). All CB employees are required to occasionally travel to meet in person for business purposes.

Role Type:

• This is a full-time position

About the Team

This role sits within the AP Program Access department-the operating engine that turns AP growth into durable student participation and completion at scale-on the School Success team. School Success ensures that institutional adoption results in strong, sustainable implementation and completion across AP, Pre-AP, and SpringBoard. The team works hand in hand with instructional, Outreach, data, and finance partners, as well as school and district leaders, to remove the financial and structural barriers that keep eligible students from enrolling in and completing AP.

About the Opportunity

The Director, AP Grant Programs establishes and leads Advanced Placement's grant function. This is a newly created, foundational role: rather than executing within an existing grants structure, you will design and build the strategy, processes, governance, and external-funding capability that allow AP to pursue and steward grant funding at scale. AP currently has limited consolidated infrastructure for leveraging grants, so this is greenfield work-carrying the ambiguity, judgment, and organizational-influence demands of building a new function within a large, complex organization. The role directly advances AP&I's priorities to expand course availability and enrollment and to enhance teaching and learning-using grant funding as a primary lever to remove the financial and structural barriers that keep eligible students from enrolling in and completing AP, with particular focus on underrepresented and underserved populations.

In this role, you will:

Build & Lead the AP Grant Function (30%)

• Establish and lead AP's grant function from the ground up, defining the strategy, operating model, and infrastructure needed to pursue and manage grant funding at scale.

• Design the policies, processes, and documentation standards that govern AP grant activity, creating a repeatable framework where none currently exists.

• Develop a multi-year grant strategy and funding roadmap aligned to AP's availability, enrollment, and teaching-and-learning priorities, sequencing which funding sources to pursue and when.

• Build the systems for opportunity tracking, proposal development, compliance, and reporting that form the foundation of AP's long-term grant capacity, and define the success metrics used to evaluate funding impact against access and completion goals.

Grant Development & Acquisition (30%)

• Identify, research, and prioritize federal, state, and private funding opportunities aligned with AP programs and AP&I strategic priorities.

• Lead the development and submission of competitive proposals, setting the standards, templates, and quality bar that will guide future grant pursuits.

• Partner with instructional leaders, AP coordinators, and data teams to design grant-funded initiatives and budgets that are fundable and operationally sound.

• Direct the design of grant-funded AP initiatives-including course and lab start-up support, teacher professional development, exam-fee assistance, and student enrichment-in collaboration with instructional, Outreach, and School Success colleagues.

Grant Management, Compliance, Reporting & Sustainability (25%)

• Own the full grant lifecycle from award through closeout, and define the compliance and financial-tracking framework in partnership with finance, establishing controls where none exist today.

• Ensure adherence to grant requirements, timelines, budgets, and reporting obligations across a growing grant portfolio, with accurate documentation and financial-tracking practices that scale.

• Oversee interim and final grant reporting for funders-including narratives, budgets, and performance metrics-and analyze AP participation, performance, and completion data to demonstrate impact and inform strategy.

• Monitor program progress against departmental and grant goals, diagnose implementation challenges, and develop sustainability and transition plans that institutionalize funded initiatives beyond individual funding periods.

Lead, Build & Engage Stakeholders (15%)

• Lead and grow the grant function's team as the capability scales, and coordinate the cross-functional partners across the access lifecycle who are responsible for grant strategy, development, management, and compliance for AP.

• Ensure you:

• Set vision and priorities for the team, track and mange progress to goals, and provide coaching and support to ensure team members meet and exceed goals, remain engaged, and contribute meaningfully to our mission.

• Cultivate an inclusive and high-achieving culture that enables all team members to live out College Board's Operating Principles effectively.

• Bring proven leadership experience and consistently embody College Board's Manager Expectations in your work.

• Serve as AP's internal authority on grant best practices, secure executive and cross-functional buy-in to integrate grant-funded initiatives into AP's broader strategy, and represent AP in strategic relationships with funders and federal and state agencies.

About You

• Expertise in grant strategy, development, and management with 7+ years in grant writing, grant management, or educational program administration, including managing multiple grants simultaneously under strict compliance requirements.

• A strategic and inclusive leadership style: you set clear priorities, build effective team structures, plan for future needs, and foster a culture of belonging.

• A proven ability to drive performance and growth: you set high expectations, deliver real-time, evidence-based feedback, and coach team members to take smart risks, stretch their skills, and achieve meaningful impact.

• Strong grant writing, budgeting, and project management skills, with demonstrated success leading competitive proposals from concept through submission.

• Knowledge of Advanced Placement programs, secondary education, or college-readiness initiatives, and the ability to operate without an existing playbook to build a new function.

• Data analysis and program-evaluation skills to measure funding impact against access and completion goals.

• Preferred: experience with federal and state education grants (e.g., Title programs, AP expansion grants), familiarity with College Board AP policies and data reporting, and a track record advancing equity-focused educational initiatives.

• A Bachelor's degree in Education, Public Administration, Nonprofit Management, or a related field is required; a Master's degree in Education, Educational Leadership, Public Policy, or a related field is preferred.

• The ability to travel 4-6 times a year to College Board offices or on behalf of College Board business.

All roles at College Board require:

• A passion for expanding educational and career opportunities and mission-driven work

• Curiosity and enthusiasm for emerging technologies, with a willingness to experiment with and adopt new AI-driven solutions and comfort with learning and applying new digital tools independently and proactively.

• Clear and concise communication skills, written and verbal

• A learner's mindset and a commitment to growth: welcoming diverse perspectives, giving and receiving timely, respectful feedback, and continuously improving through iterative learning and user input.

• A drive for impact and excellence: solving complex problems, making data-informed decisions, prioritizing what matters most, and continuously improving through learning, user input, and external benchmarking.

• A collaborative and empathetic approach: working across differences, fostering trust, and contributing to a culture of shared success

• Authorization to work in the United States

About Our Process

• Application review will begin immediately and will continue until the position is filled. This role is expected to accept applications for a minimum of 5 business days.

• While the hiring process may vary, it generally includes: resume and application submission, recruiter phone/video screen, hiring manager interview, performance exercise such as live coding, a panel interview, a conversation with leadership and reference checks.

What We Offer

At College Board, we offer more than a paycheck- we provide a meaningful career, a supportive team, and a comprehensive package designed to help you thrive. We're a self-sustaining nonprofit that believes in fair and competitive compensation grounded in your qualifications, experience, impact, and the market.

A Thoughtful Approach to Compensation

• The hiring range for this role is $80,000- $130,000

• Your exact salary will depend on your location, experience, and how your background compares to others in similar roles at the College Board.

• We aim to make our best offer upfront, rooted in fairness, transparency, and market data.

• We adjust salaries by location to ensure fairness, no matter where you live.

You'll have open, transparent conversations about compensation, benefits, and what it's like to work at College Board throughout your hiring process. Check out our careers page for more.

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