Director of Programs

Director of Programs

The New Foreign Assistance · Washington, D.C. · Full-time

The New Foreign Assistance is a conservative aid reform advocacy group. We believe that the end of USAID creates a unique opportunity to build a better approach to American aid. Stripped of the bureaucratic barnacles that inhibited USAID, the system being created at the State Department can draw on principles of private sector-led development, cost-effectiveness, flexible procurement, and government accountability. 

We believe development happens organically by supporting those making change on the ground; not by parachuting in programs designed from behind embassy walls and implemented by outsiders. We support the Trump Administration’s direction of travel on foreign assistance to simplify program design and procurement and use commercial diplomacy to unlock productive bilateral relationships. Our work centers on supporting authorizing and appropriating committees, foreign assistance leadership and staff at the State Department, and relevant White House officials as they work to establish this new approach.

To learn more see: thenewforeignassistance.org 

About the role

We seek someone to help build out our initiatives. The incumbent will turn leads into white papers, programs to take to the State Department, and draft bills to take to Congress. You will work closely with the Executive Director and Chief of Staff as well as manage consultants working alongside you. The candidate will be able to work quickly, form consortia and get into the weeds on program design. The candidate should be tenacious and firmly dedicated to America having an excellent foreign assistance system. That system will take the best of the old approach and jettison the rest.

The ideal candidate has the ability to thrive in a startup environment and take on a wide variety of policy work. They will cover a variety of technical sectors and geographies. The right person could come from a think tank, the private sector, the aid world, or the advocacy world. We care more about whether you can build, write, organize, and follow through than whether you have a conventional résumé.

In practice, that means you will:

Develop our policy agenda and products

• Research and design flagship initiatives, for example: on trade and investment, health moonshots, procurement reform, etc.

• Write white papers, briefing memos, and analyses to take to the State Department and Congress
• Find the right outside partners in the private sector, nonprofit, and advocacy world to turn ideas into high-impact programs 

Bring ideas to policymakers

• Prepare and support briefings for the State Department, White House, and congressional staff
• Represent The New Foreign Assistance in consultations and coalition working groups
• Work with other advocacy organizations to build bipartisan support where possible

Conduct and manage research and research presentation

• Conduct research and analysis in support of The New Foreign Assistance mission
• Socialize that research through social media, presentations, and op-eds
• Manage research support contractors

Requirements

You are allergic to buzzword development-speak. You can turn ideas into ambitious, credible, thoughtful programs. You place a high emphasis on clarity, specificity, analytical honesty, and implementation feasibility. 

You write well and think clearly. AI use is expected and encouraged. Human judgment and polish required. 

You know foreign assistance and development policy but are reform-minded. You are not wedded to the old system of smallball programs designed top-down. You are excited to build our agenda, not to substitute it with your own. 

You move quickly. The role requires balancing moving fast with moving strategically and appropriately. 

You are at home in the conservative and Republican policy world. We enthusiastically work with reform-minded Democrats but don’t hide our core conservative values. 

You are comfortable with ambiguity, a small team. The New Foreign Assistance exists to exploit a tight window for policy impact. We plan to staff up over the next 6 months. Comfort with strategic pivots, opportunistic flexibility and rapid decision-making required.

Benefits

$130,000–$150,000 commensurate with experience as well as a full benefits package. 

The role is based in Washington, D.C., with in-person work expected several times per week, generally along the Orange Line. Candidates must be able to get to D.C. on short notice. There will not be fixed in-person and work from home days. We are not covering relocation. Regional and international travel is expected to be 10% or less.