Project Director, Policy Design and Implementation

New America’s New Practice Lab works at the intersection of ideas and on-the-ground experimentation to improve the design and delivery of policies focused on family economic security and wellbeing. We believe policymaking should be people-centered, experimental, data-enabled, and designed to scale. By beginning and ending with the people we aim to serve, we aim to build policy that is responsive to people’s needs. Through our “discovery sprints”, we work with governments and nonprofit organizations to ensure users are at the forefront of policy design and implementation.  We leverage our learning from these sprints to improve  policy and outdated narratives, and shift our systems in the direction of people-centered policy design and delivery.

The Project Director (policy design and implementation) will be a key leadership role within New America’s New Practice lab, which is focused on improving the design and implementation of key policies that serve families. This role straddles the worlds of digital services, policy implementation, and policy development. In collaboration with the Lab’s senior leadership team, the director will contribute to scoping and managing discovery and delivery sprints and key engagements with public sector and non-profit partners, which requires prior experience in technical and non-technical service delivery. This person will be a key member of the Lab’s new and nimble team working inside a larger, established think-tank and join the Lab team in building out the vision and strategy for this work.

Responsibilities: 

• Collaborate with the Lab’s senior leadership team on the strategic vision and selected project management, scoping and oversight for sprints to advance family economic security (including overseeing teams of researchers, designers, technologists).
• Oversee the short-term and quarterly goals and key performance indicators for ongoing projects and partnerships.
• Identify and pursue opportunities to productize, publish and disseminate findings from sprints.
• Research, write, and analyze best practices in re-thinking policy making, delivery and advancing mobility.
• Identify, propose, and close on new funding opportunities to support further expansion of this work.
• Support oversight of grants work and project budgets.

Qualifications and Skills:

• A kind and self-directed leader and team player with excellent analytical, writing, and research and project management capacity.
• Demonstrated experience in government technology efforts and applying modern approaches to data science, service delivery, design, and rapid iteration in the policy context.
• Strong project management and execution skills with a passion for how policies and programs reach those they are designed for.
• Superior policy research and writing.
• Proven ability to effectively  communicate with internal/external stakeholders.
• Proven ability to coordinate and inspire the work of others.
• A commitment to a workplace and team atmosphere that centers the values of care, equity, and well-being.

New America is an equal opportunity employer committed to hiring a diverse workforce at all levels of the organization thereby creating a culture that allows us to better serve our mission, our employees, and our communities. We value and encourage the contributions of our employees and strive to create an environment where everyone can reach their full potential and drive outstanding results. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, national origin, age, sex, religion, disability, sexual orientation, marital status, veteran status, gender identity or expression, or any other basis protected by local, state, or federal law. This policy applies with regard to all aspects of one’s employment, including hiring, transfer, promotion, compensation, eligibility for benefits, and termination.