Strategic Engagement Lead

We have an exciting opportunity for a Strategic Engagement Lead based in our Evanston office. This is a hybrid opportunity.

The Strategic Engagement Lead will provide strategic and operational support to the President & CEO and senior leadership, leading coordination and execution of the external engagement portfolio to advance the mission of UL Standards & Engagement (ULSE) to make the world safer, more secure, and sustainable. The Strategic Engagement Lead will manage executive facing engagement planning, coordination of centralized external events and engagement calendar, and logistics to ensure the right leaders are effectively represented across high-impact external forums, partnerships, and events. As a partner to senior leadership, the Strategic Engagement Lead will support preparation and follow-through for executive interactions, translating outcomes into coordinated action across teams. The Strategic Engagement Lead will leverage strong stakeholder coordination, executive support, and operational expertise to enable effective, well-orchestrated external engagement across a diverse partner ecosystem

UL Standards & Engagement:

At UL Standards & Engagement (ULSE), we expand the boundaries of safety science to create a more secure and sustainable world. For more than a century, we have created new safety standards and shared our findings with academia, scientists, manufacturers, and policymakers across industries. We identify critical safety and sustainability issues, asking tough questions because we believe a safer world begins with knowledge.

Build a safer, more secure, and sustainable future with us. Join us and work with our Standards teams who develop the standards required to put that knowledge into practice.

What you'll learn and achieve:

As the Strategic Engagement Lead you will play a key role in the rapid growth of UL as you:

• Serve as a primary operational point of support for the President & CEO, executive and senior leadership external engagements, including high-level meetings, events, conferences, and stakeholder interactions.

• Manage centralized strategic events and engagements calendars, ensuring visibility of leadership participation across external meetings, conferences and convenings.

• Coordinate organizational representation at external events, aligning event participation with strategic priorities and ensuring the appropriate leaders are scheduled and represented.

• Lead advance preparation for executive engagements, coordinate background research, stakeholder context, briefing materials, messaging alignment, logistics and post engagement follow up for medium to large scale events.

• Exercise independent judgment to anticipate executive needs, identify risks, gaps, or conflicts, and ensure leaders are positioned for success in external interactions.

• Draft, refine, and manage high-quality briefing documents, talking points, presentations, summaries and reports for leadership, Board and external use.

• Coordinate across departments to ensure external commitments are clearly communicated, assigned, and tracked to completion. Serve as a reliable connector between internal teams and senior leadership, ensuring clarity, alignment, and accountability.

• Support execution of cross-functional initiatives tied to executive engagement by managing timelines, dependencies, deliverables, and follow-up actions.

• Represent ULSE with external stakeholders and strategic partners, develop trust and credibility through effective communication, and maintain strong relationships with partners and coalitions.

• Anticipate future organizational opportunities and ensure executive engagement initiatives evolve in alignment with external trends, stakeholder expectations, and emerging challenges.

• Maintain continued awareness of industry trends and external context related to safety standards, offering insight to inform strategic decisions.

• Contribute to other organizational and department initiatives as needed.

What you'll experience working at UL Standards & Engagement: We have pursued our mission of working for a safer, more secure, and sustainable world for nearly 130 years, embedding conscientious stewardship into everything we do.

• People: Our people make us special. You'll work with a diverse team of experts respected for their independence and transparency and build a network, because our approach is collaborative. We collaborate across disciplines, organizations, and geographies to build the global scientific response that today's global challenges require.

• Interesting work: Every day is different for us here. We see what's on the horizon and use our expertise to build the foundations of a safer future. You'll have the opportunity to push the boundaries of human understanding as part of a team working to advance the public good.

• Grow and achieve: We learn, work, and grow together through targeted development, reward, and recognition programs.

• Values. Four core values guide our work: collaboration, respect, integrity, and beneficence. By living our values, we inspire the trust essential to fulfilling our mission and foster partnerships that enable us to pursue a beneficent future in which we all can thrive.

• Total Rewards: All employees at UL Standards & Engagement are eligible for bonus compensation. We offer comprehensive medical, dental, vision, and life insurance plans and a generous 401k matching structure of up to 5% of eligible pay. Moreover, we invest an additional 4% into your retirement saving fund after your first year of continuous employment. Depending on your role, you may be able to discuss flexible working arrangements with your manager. We also provide employees with paid time off, including vacation, holiday, sick, and volunteer days.

What makes you a great fit:

While no one candidate will embody every quality, the successful candidate will bring many of the following professional competencies and personal attributes:

• Demonstrated experience supporting and staffing senior executives in high-stakes, external-facing environments.

• Strong judgment, discretion, and professionalism when working with senior leaders and external stakeholders.

• Proven ability to manage complex workflows, competing priorities, and sensitive information with minimal oversight.

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to produce polished, executive-level materials.

• Strong relationship-building skills and ability to collaborate effectively across functions and with external partners.

• Analytical and proactive problem solver with attention to detail and strong follow-through.

• Comfortable operating in dynamic, fast-paced environments with evolving priorities.

Professional education and experience requirements for the role include:

• Bachelor's degree required in business, public policy, communications, management, or related field. Advanced degree preferred.

• Minimum 8 years of experience in business operations, project leadership, strategic planning and implementation or related work experience.

• Demonstrated experience supporting senior leaders and managing complex external engagements.

• Experience coordinating across multiple teams or functions in a complex organization

About UL Research Institutes and UL Standards & Engagement

UL Research Institutes and UL Standards & Engagement are nonprofit organizations dedicated to advancing safety science research through the discovery and application of scientific knowledge. We conduct rigorous independent research and analyze safety data, convene experts worldwide to address risks, share knowledge through safety education and public outreach initiatives, and develop standards to guide safe commercialization of evolving technologies. We foster communities of safety, from grassroots initiatives for neighborhoods to summit of world leaders. Our organization employs collaborative and scientific approaches with partners and stakeholders to drive innovation and progress toward improving safety, security, and sustainability, ultimately enhancing societal well-being.

Our affiliate, UL Solutions, stands alongside us in working for a safer and more sustainable world. UL Solutions conducts testing, verification and certification, and provides training and advisory services, along with data-driven reporting and decision-making tools, for customers around the world.

To learn more, visit our websites UL.org and ULSE.org.