Director, Educational Development

The France Foundation is a progressive medical education company looking for a Director, Educational Development to join the team and help drive growth and the future of the company. The team at TFF are change agents continuously on the search for a better way to help healthcare professionals improve their practice and the patients they manage. At the end of the day, we know our efforts have the promising result of helping another person or their loved one… this is the driver for what we do.

We are looking for a strategic, forward-thinking educational development leader who can grow a portfolio of independent medical education by connecting clinical learning needs, strong partnerships, and thoughtfully designed educational experiences. The goal of which is to advance improvements in healthcare and patient outcomes.

This role combines business development with educational solution development. As a Director of Educational Development, you will identify opportunities in established and new therapeutic areas, creating and securing educational grants to support programs that are compelling, evidence-informed, measurable, and feasible to deliver.

We are looking for someone to join our current dedicated team who can explain why an idea is different, how it should improve learning, and how it can be funded and executed. You should be equally comfortable developing relationships, shaping a proposal, discussing project economics, and refining an idea with colleagues who bring different expertise.

What you will do:

• Build a growth portfolio: Develop and maintain a prioritized therapeutic-area and opportunity strategy informed by clinical need, educational gaps, supporter funding interests, relevant partnerships, and TFF capabilities.
• Develop relationships: Establish and strengthen appropriate relationships with supporters, professional societies, faculty, academic centers, and other educational collaborators while preserving independent educational judgment.
• Secure support: Lead opportunity development and grant strategy; coordinate proposal contributions; maintain accurate forecasts; and meet agreed fee-production and outcomes performance expectations.
• Define the educational concept: Translate a learning need into an explicit learner experience, educational approach, deliverables, outcomes plan, and rationale before submission.
• Use technology purposefully: Identify where hardware or software can enable a learning or measurement capability that a simpler approach cannot reasonably provide. Explain the value, feasibility, cost, and trade-offs rather than selecting technology for novelty.
• Strengthen live experiences: Design in-person activities that support active learning, useful faculty participation, and evidence of educational value.
• Build credible evaluation into proposals: Partner with Outcomes to scope appropriate measurement. Set realistic expectations about what the evaluation can establish.
• Collaborate upstream: Work with the Needs Assessment writer, Chief Medical Officer and or Medical content colleagues early to align the needs, evidence, objectives, educational tactics, and content approach.
• Protect execution and economics: Develop proposals with approved pricing, realistic scope, and cross-functional feasibility review. Make material changes through the agreed decision process.
• Support continuity after funding: Participate in structured internal handoffs, supporter communications, outcomes interpretation, and appropriate renewal or expansion opportunities.
• Continuous improvement: Contribute reusable concepts, lessons, and relationship insights; learn from colleagues; and use feedback and results to improve future proposals.

Experience and capabilities:

• 3-6 years experience within CME / Medical Education, with demonstrated success securing independent medical education grant support or closely relevant educational business development, with clear evidence of your personal contribution.
• Experience developing opportunities and relationships across therapeutic areas, including evidence of entering a new area or building a new partnership.
• Ability to translate clinical and educational needs into a coherent proposal with a practical budget and a credible delivery approach.
• Strong writing, presentation, relationship-development, and forecasting skills.
• Evidence of constructive cross-functional collaboration, particularly the ability to define intent, accept expert challenge, and distinguish essential requirements from preferences.
• Sound commercial judgment: ability to discuss fees, scope, delivery cost, and profitability without compromising educational quality or independence.
• Ability to assess technology-enabled education critically, including when a simpler solution is preferable.
• Appropriate understanding of requirements governing independent accredited education and a commitment to working within TFF's review and compliance processes.
• Willingness to travel as required for the role, including occasional weekends; specific expectations to be confirmed.

Experience with learner-experience design, outcomes evaluation, adult learning, and the use of structured AI-assisted workflows is valuable. We do not expect one candidate to be the technical expert in every area; we do expect them to know when to engage specialist expertise and how to incorporate it into a fundable plan.

What success looks like:

• A prioritized, credible therapeutic-area and opportunity portfolio.
• Qualified proposals and grant support that contribute to TFF's agreed fees.
• Clearly defined educational concepts and reliable handoffs to internal team.
• Appropriate integration of educational innovation, with explicit value and viable economics.
• Strong relationships and effective collaboration with internal and external stakeholders.
• Accurate forecasts and a repeatable learning loop from results to future proposals.

About The France Foundation

Since its founding in 1999, TFF has been at the forefront of planning, developing, and implementing multidisciplinary accredited medical education Now, a wholly owned subsidiary of Smithbucklin TFF specializes in innovative education that continually combines the latest in the understanding of adult learning principles with creative program designs that improve providers’ knowledge, competence, and practical performance, with the objective of ultimately improving the care that clinicians provide. TFF is an award-winning organization jointly accredited with commendation by the ACCME, ANCC, ACPE, and AAPA to provide continuing education for physicians, nurses, pharmacists, and PAs respectively. In addition to receiving multiple awards from the Alliance for Continuing Education in the Health Professions (ACEhp), including the 2021 Alliance Award for Excellence in Educational Design, TFF has presented and published outcomes in both educational and clinical settings. TFF staff have led sessions at ACEhp Conferences, CBI IME and Grants Summits, the ACCME Conference, and CMEPalooza webcasts.  

About Smithbucklin

Smithbucklin is the association management and services company more organizations turn to than any other. Founded in 1949, our mission is to achieve the missions of the client organizations we serve and provide uncompromised stewardship for their long-term prosperity. Smithbucklin offers full-service management and outsourced services to trade associations, professional societies, technology user communities, industry consortia, charitable organizations, corporations and government institutes. Smithbucklin’s offices are located in Chicago, Washington, D.C., Old Lyme, Conn., St. Louis and San Ramon, Calif., and delivers seamless association and event management services worldwide. Smithbucklin is 100 percent employee-owned.

Smithbucklin considers several factors when determining compensation, including a candidate's recent coursework, training, experience, and certifications, among other considerations. The expected pay for this role is $135,000-$155,000 plus commission.

Equal Employment Opportunity
At Smithbucklin, Equal Employment Opportunity is our commitment and goal. All qualified candidates will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, national origin, gender, age, religion, disability, sexual orientation, veteran status, marital status or any other protected status designated by federal, state or local law. Applicants are encouraged to confidentially self-identify when applying. Employment is contingent upon successful completion of a reference and background investigation based on position.

Smithbucklin will not sponsor applicants for work visas and as a precondition of employment. You must be authorized to work in the United States permanently.