Executive Director, Assessment

Executive Director, Assessment  

College Board – AP&I 

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  

The New Course Design (NCD) department leads the research, design, development, and launch of new courses and their associated exams, instructional resources, and teacher professional learning programs, ensuring consistency across these inter-related AP Program components and that they are engaging, feasible, and grounded in evidence. After launching a new course, the NCD department focuses on continuous improvement of new courses, exams, instructional interventions, and teacher professional learning programs. NCD partners closely with the Learning and Assessment division to design and validate new item types for use in new, career-focused AP exams, and then integrates with AP Program Enablement to produce the annual exam versions within the Bluebook digital testing platform (copyright, editorial, layout, design), and to develop annual rubrics and training materials necessary to conduct the annual AP Reading of student responses.  

About the Opportunity  

As Executive Director, New AP Course Assessments, you will own the exploration and identification of assessment design options for 6-8 new career-focused AP courses currently in focus, and then every new course the department builds. You will then be responsible for ongoing assessment development for new courses, from initial test blueprints through pilot exam versions and into ongoing, year-over-year assessment item and version development. You will partner closely with assessment innovation leaders within the Learning and Assessment department to identify, select, refine, and implement innovative item types for the AP Exams for the new career-focused AP courses, , selecting the right blend of formats and modalities for each course (e.g., traditional, skills-based, project-based, or performance-based) based on what most validly measures the target skills, and prioritizing formats that support employer recognition or industry credential status where relevant. You'll partner closely with the College Board’s Psychometric department and curriculum experts to keep course design and assessment design moving together, and you'll build the internal case, and the stakeholder buy-in, for new assessment approaches alongside the traditional formats that remain part of our portfolio. 

You are someone who can hold both rigor and reinvention at once: in addition to your core expertise in design of authentic, relevant assessments, you are fluent enough in psychometric fundamentals to have credible technical conversations, and skilled enough in stakeholder management to bring skeptical partners along on new approaches to assessment. 

In this role, you will: 

Assessment Design & Development (40%) 

• Partner with Learning and Assessment innovation leaders to identify, select, refine, and incorporate promising and innovative item types within the New Course AP Exams and that clearly and distinctly measure the skills identified as the targets of measurement for the new course, thereby inspiring productive and relevant classroom focus and student practice.  

• Lead design and development of test blueprints and pilot exam versions for new courses, partnering with AP Program Enablement to select the assessment format, traditional, performance-based, or project-based, and scoring models that will enable on-time, accurate, and efficient scoring of free-response questions. 

• Define and own assessment models that generate, store, and enable student utilization of workforce credentials, not just an exam score. 

• Partner with AP Program Enablement to identify annual version development and usage braiding plans and then take responsibility for managing and delivering ongoing, year-over-year assessment item and version development beyond initial pilot versions. 

• Partner with Learning and Assessment to recommend and set the vision for new AP assessment models, working with measurement partners to establish validity and defensibility for each format introduced; ensure this vision cascades across their direct reports and the NCD team. 

Cross-Functional Partnership & Change Leadership (20%) 

• Partner with the measurement/psychometrics team on exam version assembly, equating, and standard settings, including for novel formats that don't fit legacy models. 

• Win buy-in from stakeholders attached to traditional assessment models; build trust and shared ownership of new approaches. 

• Represent assessment considerations in cross-functional project reviews with curriculum, design, and program management partners. 

Leadership & Team Management (40%) 

• Build and hire a team of assessment design staff who have subject matter expertise in the new course domains and will enact the annual cycle of item and version development and administration responsibilities for the new course exams. 

• Oversee calibration and training of subject matter expert panels on writing and reviewing all assessment types, new and existing. 

• Sign off on assessment deliverables at each project decision point, i.e., the milestones where a course's assessment work must be approved before design can proceed to the next stage. 

About You 

You have: 

• 10-15+ years in assessment design, test development, or curriculum leadership roles with direct, hands-on exposure to how assessment and measurement work, even if the role sat on the curriculum side rather than the psychometrics side. 

• A demonstrated track record of innovation in assessment design, ideally in skills-based, project-based, or credential-connected models. 

• Working fluency in assessment data and psychometric output (item statistics, score distributions, equating concepts) sufficient to partner credibly with measurement specialists. 

• Experience running complex, multi-stakeholder timelines against fixed external deadlines, such as field-testing windows and item-review cycles. 

• A track record of driving change and building buy-in across stakeholders with differing perspectives to advance new approaches. 

• Experience building and leading teams in a matrixed organization. 

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, 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 $144,000–$210,000. 

• 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.