Director, Policy Lab

Pay range: $150,000-$210,000 (depending on location and candidate experience)

Reports to: Executive Director, Policy Lab

About RAISE US

RAISE US is a national nonprofit collaborating with governors, employers, and training partners to help the American workforce make a successful transition to an AI economy. As AI reshapes the labor market, millions of workers will need to train for or move into new roles, often multiple times over their careers. Today’s workforce and training infrastructure wasn’t built for that. RAISE US designs and funds practical solutions that not only address the labor-market disruption caused by AI, but harness the technology itself to make our workforce system better and connect people to good jobs.

RAISE US is co-chaired by CEO Gina Raimondo, the 40th U.S. Secretary of Commerce and the 75th Governor of Rhode Island, and Eric Holcomb, the 51st Governor of Indiana. Our growing team of 35 experts across government, business, and policy is led by Presidents Eric Beane, former Deputy Under Secretary of the U.S. Bureau of Industry and Security, and Janet Foutty, former CEO of Deloitte Consulting. We are a nonpartisan organization funded by a mix of companies, foundations, and individual philanthropists.

Position Overview

The Policy Lab is where RAISE US develops and tests new ideas. We find the most promising policy responses to AI-driven labor market change, design them into pilots that states and employers can run, and partner with leading economists to rigorously evaluate what works.

We are hiring a Director to lead a portfolio of Policy Lab projects and serve as one of the Lab’s senior policy experts. This person will drive projects from start to finish: developing ideas into concrete pilot designs, securing state and research partners, overseeing launch and evaluation, and turning results into policy recommendations.

The role works directly with governors’ offices, state agency leaders, federal officials, and leading economists, and represents RAISE US in expert and policymaker settings. We are looking for someone with policy depth, ideally with a background in federal or state government, who can hold their own with the best experts in the field.

Key Responsibilities

• Policy Development: Identify and pressure-test the strongest ideas from academic research, practitioners, and government, and develop them into concrete proposals that states and employers can implement. Translate pilot results and the broader evidence base into recommendations for state and federal policymakers.
• Expert Engagement: Build and manage relationships with leading economists and research partners, lead discussions on research design, and convene expert working groups that produce real outputs.
• Project Leadership: Own a portfolio of Policy Lab pilots and initiatives from concept and design through partner agreements, launch, evaluation, and dissemination of results.
• Government and Partner Engagement: Lead engagement with governors’ offices, state agency leaders, and federal officials, and work with RAISE US state and employer teams to secure agreements and hand off execution. Represent RAISE US in briefings, convenings, and with funders.
• Team Development: Supervise and mentor Associates and Senior Associates, and help build the Lab’s team as it grows.

Qualifications

• Experience: 5+ years across policy development, government, research institutions, or advocacy. Candidates with more extensive experience, including senior government leadership, may be considered at the Senior Director level.
• Government experience: Experience in federal government (the White House, a federal agency, or Congress) or state government (a governor’s office or state agency) strongly preferred.
• Policy depth: Substantive expertise in one or more of labor and workforce policy, unemployment insurance and the safety net, education and training, tax, or economic policy, with the range to engage credibly across the rest.
• Execution: A track record of taking policy ideas from concept to implementation.
• Expert and stakeholder relations: Experience working closely with economists and researchers, and the credibility to engage policymakers across the ideological spectrum. Familiarity with program evaluation is a plus.
• Communication: Excellent writing and speaking for policymaker, expert, and funder audiences.
• Startup friendly: Adaptable, resourceful, and mission driven.

Benefits

We offer a competitive benefits package that includes medical, dental, and vision insurance; paid vacation and holidays; HSA options; 401(k) option; life and disability insurance; other care and wellness benefits (including online mental health therapy and telehealth services); a home-office stipend for all new employees; and a generous professional development stipend. Benefit eligibility may vary based on employment status and applicable waiting periods and is subject to the terms and conditions of the benefit plan documents. The organization reserves the right to modify or terminate any benefit plan at any time.

Employment type: Full-time, exempt, at-will

RAISE US is committed to providing equal employment opportunities without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, age, marital status, gender identity, national origin, disability, or military or veteran status or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.