Associate Executive Director Jobs
Associate Executive Director jobs are open across nonprofits, healthcare systems, education, and social services, from program management and operations to fundraising and community development, at every level from deputy director to senior executive leadership. Scan the live roles below and apply to whichever ones fit.
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Showing 5 of 30+ Associate Executive Director jobs
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.
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.
See All 30 Associate Executive Director Jobs
Find roles that match your experience and apply in just a few clicks.
Find JobsAssociate Executive Director Job Market
Who's Hiring
- EY15
- The Arc Lexington3
- Legend Biotech1
- Abeona Therapeutics1
- Stanford University1
Top Industries Hiring
- Education
- Accounting & Auditing
- Banking & Financial Services
What Employers Look For
The qualifications that appear most often in associate executive director jobs.
- Minimum seven years of progressive leadership experience in a relevant sector
- Demonstrated success managing organizational budgets and financial reporting
- Experience supervising and developing professional staff teams
- Strong stakeholder engagement and board relations background
- Strategic planning and program development expertise
- Master's degree in public administration, business, healthcare, or a related field
Tips for Your Associate Executive Director Job Search
Tailor your resume for mission-driven sectors
Associate executive director roles in nonprofits and healthcare weigh program outcomes and stakeholder impact heavily. Reframe your experience around measurable results like budget growth, program expansion, or community reach rather than internal processes or titles held.
Highlight board and leadership experience early
Many hiring committees scan for direct board engagement, executive team collaboration, or cross-functional oversight before reading further. Put those details in your summary and first bullet points, not buried in older roles.
Apply early to roles that fit
Migrate Mate lists associate executive director openings from across the United States in one place, so you can find roles that match and apply directly to each listing.
Target organizations in transition or growth phases
Associations, regional nonprofits, and healthcare systems actively growing programs or replacing retiring executives post these roles most urgently. Search for organizations that recently expanded funding, launched new divisions, or are approaching a leadership succession.
Prepare a leadership philosophy statement for interviews
Panels for associate executive director roles almost always ask how you develop staff, navigate competing priorities, or model organizational values. Draft a concise, specific statement before interviews rather than improvising it under pressure.
Negotiate scope alongside compensation
At this level, your direct reports, budget authority, and decision-making autonomy define the role as much as pay. Clarify these before accepting any offer, since they vary widely between organizations even for identical titles.
Associate Executive Director Jobs: Frequently Asked Questions
Which companies are hiring the most associate executive directors?
EY, The Arc Lexington, and Legend Biotech are hiring the most associate executive directors right now, with openings concentrated in New York, California, and Florida, based on current listings on Migrate Mate as of November 2026. Demand is especially active in nonprofit networks, regional health systems, and educational institutions.
How many associate executive director jobs are remote?
About 82% of associate executive director openings are fully remote or hybrid as of November 2026, reflecting broader flexibility at the senior leadership level. Roles focused on policy, development, and communications tend to offer the most remote flexibility, while operations and direct-service oversight positions are more likely to require in-person presence.
How do you become an associate executive director?
Start by building deep experience in a specific sector, whether nonprofit management, healthcare administration, or education, and take on roles that give you direct responsibility for staff, budgets, and programs. Seek out deputy director or senior manager positions that sit one level below executive leadership, demonstrate results through measurable outcomes, and build relationships with executive directors and board members who can advocate for your advancement.
Can you get hired as an associate executive director with limited senior leadership experience?
It's possible if you've led a significant program, department, or team and can show concrete outcomes, even without a prior director title. Organizations in growth mode or undergoing leadership transitions sometimes hire candidates from strong program director or senior manager backgrounds who demonstrate strategic thinking, staff development skills, and mission alignment that match what an associate executive director role demands.
What does the associate executive director interview process look like?
Expect a multi-stage process that typically starts with a phone or video screen by HR or a search committee member, followed by a panel interview with senior leadership and sometimes board members. Final rounds often include a presentation or case exercise on a strategic challenge the organization faces. The full process usually unfolds over several weeks and emphasizes leadership philosophy, stakeholder management, and cultural fit.
Where can I find and apply to associate executive director jobs?
You can find and apply to associate executive director jobs on Migrate Mate, which lists current openings from across the United States. Search for roles that match your sector experience and background, then apply directly to each listing that fits your goals and qualifications.
See All 30 Associate Executive Director Jobs
Find roles that match your experience and apply in just a few clicks.
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