Opportunity@Work is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to unlocking career opportunities for the more than 70 million workers in the United States who are Skilled Through Alternative Routes (STARs) rather than a bachelor’s degree.

Through research, employer engagement, technology innovation, and narrative change, we work to eliminate the “paper ceiling” — the invisible barrier limiting economic mobility for talented workers without four-year degrees. Through the Tear the Paper Ceiling campaign and our work with federal, state and local governments across the country, we are driving a national shift toward skills-based hiring and advancement. We move institutions from awareness to action, from public commitments to real behavior change, and from short-term wins to sustainable outcomes for all workers, especially STARs.

With an annual operating budget of approximately $20 million and a distributed, remote workforce headquartered in Washington, DC, Opportunity@Work partners with leading employers, policymakers, and ecosystem leaders to create a labor market where skills — not pedigree — determine opportunity.

The Opportunity

We are seeking a strategic, execution-focused leader to serve as Senior Director, Public Sector & Policy.

This is a new role that will function as a senior strategic operator for Opportunity@Work’s Public Sector & Policy portfolio—serving as a key partner to the SVP of Public Sector & Policy and helping drive the execution of our policy and public sector strategy. In many ways, this role operates similarly to a Chief of Staff for the team, ensuring that our vision, goals, policy agenda, and external partnerships translate into coordinated action and measurable impact.

This is not a traditional policy role that is focused only on advocacy or legislation. While policy change is essential, our work is ultimately about ensuring that public systems—workforce agencies, civil service commissions, state HR offices, and city departments—change how they operate so that skills-based talent practices become the norm.

Two areas of immediate impact for this person include:

1.Refine and bring to life the team’s strategy by distilling and enacting a clear, compelling operational vision—ensuring it is visible, inspiring, and easily understood by both internal and external stakeholders.

2. Lead the design and delivery of policy and public sector initiatives on the STARs Public Sector Hub, building scalable, replicable models that equip members with timely resources and high-impact, hands-on technical support.

The Senior Director will directly manage three individuals and will help ensure that they and other cross org stakeholders stay focused on the highest-impact opportunities, translate strategy into clear workstreams, and drive disciplined execution across our portfolio of work.

Why This Role Matters

State and local governments are among the largest employers in the country. When they adopt skills based talent practices, they don’t just change their own workforce—they model behavior for the broader labor market.

In this role, you will directly, and through your leadership of the team, design policy and redesign public systems so that millions of STARs are seen, valued, and able to advance. If you are ready to lead change that outlasts headlines and transforms how institutions operate, we would love to meet you.

What you'll do

Driving Strategy Execution Across Portfolio (40%)

●Partner with SVP, Public Sector & Policy to translate team strategy into clear priorities, workstreams, and implementation plans.

●Serve as the central driver of execution across the team, ensuring alignment, coordination, and progress across multiple workstreams.

●Lead internal strategy refinement and problem-solving processes that help the team to navigate complex decisions and emerging opportunities.

●Identify risks, remove barriers and help the team operate with clarity and focus in a dynamic policy environment.

Strengthening Team Effectiveness (20%)

●Manage, empower, and develop staff while stewarding a culture of accountability, collaboration and continuous improvement.

●Ensure workstreams are well-defined, resourced and delivered with excellence.

●Foster clear communication, constructive feedback and shared ownership of outcomes across the team.

●Provide matrix leadership, partnering across teams to leverage the full capabilities of Opportunity@Work–including research, data, platforms and engagement–to ensure cohesive delivery for public sector and policy strategies.

Turning Policy into Practice (30%)

●Design and drive multi-state and local strategies that operationalize skills-based hiring reforms.

●Translate legislative wins, executive orders, and public commitments into actionable implementation roadmaps, leveraging internal delivery capabilities, and partner capabilities, including technical assistance models.

●Diagnose structural barriers inside public systems and craft pragmatic, resource-aware solutions.

●Ensure that policy and partnership efforts lead to measurable changes in public and private sector hiring and talent systems.

Advancing Systems-Level Change (10%)

●Support the development and execution of policy and advocacy strategies aligned with Opportunity@Works’ agenda.

●Build trusted relationships with key government stakeholders, including governors’ offices, legislators, mayors, agency heads, and workforce boards.

●Communicate Opportunity@Work’s theory of change clearly and persuasively, helping to mobilize partners to move from commitments to action.

Who You Are

●Seasoned public sector leader (10+ years) with deep experience in public policy, government operations, legislative strategy, or systems reform.

●Well-versed in how state and local government actually works—particularly within the workforce systems (e.g., WIOA, state workforce agencies) and/or public sector HR and civil service systems.

●Strategic operator who excels at turning vision into plans and plans into results across complex initiatives.

●Structured problem-solver who can break down complex challenges and move teams toward action–even with incomplete information.

●Persuasive communicator who can align internal teams and influence external stakeholders.

●Collaborative and inclusive people leader who motivates high-performing teams and maintains a high bar for quality and accountability. You bring a commitment to equity, transparency, and mission-aligned leadership.

●Passionate about economic mobility and committed to dismantling unnecessary barriers to opportunity.

●Lived experience as a STAR is highly valued and preferred for this role.

Travel Requirements: Up to 20%, including quarterly and bi-annual team retreats.

Location: Full-time, remote and must be within commuting distance to DC in order to attend in-person, external meetings.

The pay range for this role is: 152,000 - 160,000 USD per year