[Hiring] Director, Early Learning Market Development @4a8a08f1-ff6c-4d60-8308-4b09a199dd38

Role Description

The Director, Early Learning Market Development & Partnerships builds strategic partnerships that expand Highlights' reach, reflect our mission and strengths, and generate sustainable revenue that enables continued growth and impact. This is a player coach role for an experienced market builder who learns from the field, earns trust, identifies meaningful opportunities, and turns market insights into practical paths for growth.

• Expand Highlights' presence in priority early learning markets, building on the momentum and lessons learned from Florida.
• Develop and maintain relationships with Early Learning Coalitions, public agencies, regional networks, and other organizations that influence purchasing decisions and access to providers, educators, families, and children.
• Identify promising opportunities through market discovery, customer engagement, and a deep understanding of local funding, procurement, and decision-making processes.
• Develop market-specific strategies that connect customer needs with Highlights solutions, including semi-custom approaches when they create stronger customer value.
• Lead opportunities from initial engagement through proposal development, procurement, implementation, renewal, and expansion.
• Represent Highlights' mission, brand, content, and expertise while building trusted long-term partnerships.

Qualifications

• Significant experience developing markets and generating revenue in early childhood education or a closely related field.
• Demonstrated success entering new markets, building customer relationships, and creating sustainable growth opportunities.
• Experience working with collective purchasing organizations, Early Learning Coalitions, public agencies, workforce or regional networks, or similar stakeholder groups.
• Strong understanding of early learning funding, procurement, decision-making processes, and the broader provider landscape.
• Proven ability to identify opportunities, navigate ambiguity, move quickly, and convert relationships into meaningful business outcomes.
• Experience leading, coaching, or coordinating distributed market-facing teams and flexible coverage models.
• Strong commercial judgment, relationship building skills, communication abilities, organization, and follow-through.
• Ability to balance strategic thinking with direct execution and adapt quickly based on market feedback and emerging opportunities.

Requirements

• Remote within the United States.
• This role requires regular travel to customer sites, industry events, and target markets.
• The Early Learning team primarily operates on Eastern Time.

Company Description

Highlights for Children is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We are committed to providing equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, genetic information, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, or local law.