Business Development Specialist, Assessment Unit

FLSA STATUS: Exempt

Salary Range: $58,000–$80,000 salary/year

POSITION SUMMARY

The Business Development Specialist (BDS) in the Assessment Unit leads planning and implementation of revenue-generating initiatives for American Councils’ assessment products and services. The BDS builds and sustains relationships with funders, institutional clients, and end users of assessment products, including students, parents, teachers, schools, districts, universities, and government agencies. The BDS represents American Councils assessment products at public events; delivers presentations, webinars, and Q&A sessions; and supports other outreach activities that increase product visibility, customer engagement, and revenue growth. The BDS works closely with the assessment and standards team and with other teams delivering fee-based programs to strengthen market positioning, support sales outreach, and promote assessment products effectively. The position is based in Washington, DC, requires in-office presence, and reports to the Director of Assessment and Education Services.

SPECIFIC POSITION RESPONSIBILITIES

The Business Development Specialist works in three primary areas:

Business Planning, Revenue Generation, and Market Growth

• Develops and implements an annual growth plan to expand market reach, increase qualified leads, and support revenue targets.
• Manages sales pipeline including prospect identification, lead generation, qualification, follow-up, and conversion.
• Manages budgets for fee-based assessment products, services, and related revenue-generating activities.
• Develops competitive positioning, “win” themes, and strategic messaging for funding opportunities and partnerships.
• Develops and executes integrated marketing campaigns that increase awareness, adoption, and qualified leads for assessment products among schools, districts, universities, government agencies, and other key customer segments.
• Supports customer acquisition, retention, and other strategies that increase testing volume, and repeat business.
• Conducts market research, competitor analysis, and AI-assisted analysis to identify emerging opportunities, customer needs, and industry trends.
• Analyzes and reports on customer, testing, and revenue data to support growth strategies and identify high-potential markets.

Marketing, Communications, and Customer Engagement

• Manages digital initiatives, including email outreach, webinars, social media content, chatbot performance, and customer, partner and sponsor engagement activities to grow the market for assessment products.
• Develops impact stories and success narratives that demonstrate the value and outcomes of assessment programs and services.
• Develops and distributes product marketing materials, and other audience-specific materials that support customer outreach and partner engagement.
• Leads coordinated public-facing communications for assessment products, including website content, institutional messaging, partnership materials, fundraising language, and other strategic communications.
• Secures recognition of American Councils assessments on relevant institutional websites and pursues endorsements from appropriate education and assessment partners.
• Manages and updates the Assessment Unit website to keep product information, messaging, and customer-facing resources current.

Partnerships, Customer Engagement, and Relationship Development

• Builds and maintains strategic partnerships with educational institutions, professional associations, heritage-language and diasporan community organizations, and state- and district-level stakeholders.
• Represents American Councils assessment products and programming at conferences, professional association meetings, and sector events to expand customer visibility and strengthen relationships with education stakeholders.
• Maintains strong relationships with educators, students, heritage speakers, diasporan communities, and foreign language education stakeholders through participation in relevant professional activities.

Federal, Institutional, and Donor Business Development

• Conducts opportunity research and capture planning for federal, institutional, and foundation funding opportunities.
• Develops proposals including budgets and budget narratives and coordinates proposal inputs and development efforts with programmatic, technical, and administrative teams.
• Develops funder-facing materials, presentations, and strategic communications for government, institutional, foundation, sponsor, and donor stakeholders.
• Represents the Assessment Department in meetings and events with federal, institutional, foundation, and donor stakeholders to generate new business opportunities and support capture efforts.

Operations and Assessment Delivery

• Manages payment processing, consultant invoicing, PayPal account administration, and income tracking.
• Supports assessment administration for approximately three weeks each spring.
• Collaborates with assessment team members to maintain current product knowledge and align business-development activities with assessment operations.
• Maintains a feedback loop to identify priority needs, common concerns, and product-improvement opportunities that inform assessment product development and service delivery.