Fast Facts
The Constructive Dialogue Institute is seeking a Chief Growth Officer to lead strategic growth initiatives in higher education, focusing on partnership development, account management, and marketing communications.
Responsibilities: Key responsibilities include strategic visioning and planning for growth, overseeing marketing and communications strategies, enhancing partnership development, and ensuring effective implementation and account management processes.
Skills: Required skills include extensive leadership experience in go-to-market functions, exceptional team management, strong stakeholder management, adaptability, problem-solving capabilities, and executive-level communication skills.
Qualifications: Preferred qualifications include at least 8 years of leadership experience in sales within the B2B sector, particularly in higher education or non-profit, and a strong alignment with CDI's mission.
Location: The position is remote-first with an office located in New York, NY, US.
Compensation: $220000 - $250000 / Annually
About the Constructive Dialogue Institute
The Constructive Dialogue Institute (CDI) is a non-profit dedicated to equipping the next generation of Americans with the skills to communicate and collaborate across lines of difference. We work with U.S. colleges and universities by providing curricular programming for students, professional development for faculty and staff, and strategic guidance to leadership. Our goal is to foster constructive dialogue at every level of the institution and to create the conditions for lasting organizational change. CDI was co-founded by psychologist Jonathan Haidt, the bestselling author of The Righteous Mind and The Anxious Generation.
CDI is at a pivotal moment of growth. In 2024, we more than doubled the number of partners we worked with, and we plan to double our reach again in 2025.
About the role
We are seeking a Chief Growth Officer to oversee CDI’s growth in higher education. This role will report to CDI’s Executive Director, be part of the leadership team, and oversee Partnership Development (Sales), Implementation (Account Management), and Marketing & Communications, with an emphasis on supporting and building up the latter two functions. The role will lead go-to-market strategic visioning and planning to help CDI achieve its earned revenue and strategic goals.
Your primary focus will be utilizing your deep expertise in go-to-market functions to establish strategy, guide and support the teams as they execute ongoing growth initiatives, and ensure they have the resources and direction needed to succeed. Additionally, you will collaborate closely with other department leads to maintain strategic alignment.
Key Responsibilities
Strategic Visioning & Planning:
- In collaboration with the Growth team and other functions, lead the development of a strategic vision and plan for how CDI will grow its impact, influence, and earned revenues
- Translate the strategic plan into direct initiatives to pursue or test the growth opportunities, ensuring buy-in within the organization
- Establish and monitor OKRs to align with the strategic plan, and ensure communication and enablement of those objectives
Marketing & Communications Strategy and Oversight:
- Establish our Marketing & Communications function, partnering with a new marketing leader and PR firm, setting high-level goals and key metrics
- Determine how to best elevate CDI’s brand and reputation within higher education
- Collaboratively develop a high-level marketing strategy, including inbound and outbound marketing campaigns, conference and webinar strategies, website, press/social media, collateral, sales enablement, and thought leadership
Partnership Development:
- Support the VP of this group to grow a Partnerships function that will be doubling the size of its partnerships within 12 months
- Help develop workflows related to lead and deal flows in HubSpot and other tools, to optimize pipeline processes
- Help create high-level metrics, benchmarks, and processes for establishing targeting, tactics, and messaging
Implementation and Account Management:
- Work with the Director of Implementation to establish high-level strategies and objectives to enable successful implementations, maintain high retention, and drive up-selling opportunities for existing partners
- Establish structured feedback mechanisms between the Implementation, Product, and Content teams, so that product priorities are being channeled appropriately
Thought Leadership & External Engagement:
- Represent CDI externally, speaking at conferences, webinars, and industry events to elevate our presence and impact
- Engage in exploratory conversations with new markets, identifying opportunities and synergies for growth
- Stay attuned to trends in higher education and the dialogue space, bringing key insights back to CDI to inform strategy
Cross-Functional Collaboration:
- Work closely with the Executive Director to develop and refine a growth strategy aligned with CDI’s broader organizational goals
- Lead cross-functional initiatives to test new growth opportunities and improve alignment between teams
- Ensure strong internal communication between Growth, Marketing, Partnerships, and Implementation to maximize strategic cohesion
Qualifications
- Growth Leadership Experience
- 8+ years of leadership experience in the go-to-market functions of an organization, with a proven track record of leading and executing strategies across the entire customer/partner lifecycle, from lead generation and partnership development to implementation and renewals
- Direct Experience leading sales teams in a B2B selling environment, ideally in the higher education or nonprofit sector
- Exceptional Team Management
- Demonstrated success hiring, leading, and mentoring high-performing teams
- Cross-Functional Leadership
- Proven ability to proactively collaborate across departments and foster strong, cooperative relationships with colleagues
- Stakeholder Management
- Extensive experience building and maintaining strong relationships with a diverse range of stakeholders in higher education institutions and other organizations
- Adaptability and Problem-Solving
- Ability to navigate challenges with creativity and resilience
- Executive level Communication skills
- Strong written and verbal communication skills, with experience presenting to executives and large audiences (e.g conferences) in a variety of situations
- Mission Alignment
- Passion for CDI's mission of reducing polarization and promoting dialogue across differences
Benefits
- Compensation — $220,000-$250,000
- A Mission-Driven Culture — we practice what we preach, so our work culture is characterized by intellectual humility, continuous improvement, and open-mindedness
- Remote-First — CDI was founded as a remote-first organization, and we work hard to maintain a strong team culture across vast distances
- Unlimited PTO — as well as 13 company holidays
- Other Benefits — employer-supported health, vision and dental plans, subsidized parental leave, 3% 401k match, short- and long-term disability insurance, life and AD&D insurance, $1,000 annual professional development budget.
