Senior Program Associate - Great Lakes Receiving Network

About the Future of Land and Housing Program: Housing instability in the U.S. has reached historic levels. Across most metropolitan regions, housing costs have risen far faster than incomes, leaving millions of families cost-burdened and economically precarious. The country faces an estimated shortage of more than four million homes, while homelessness continues to rise and more than 10 million Americans face eviction each year.

The U.S. does not lack ideas for addressing these challenges. It lacks a coordinated capacity to identify the most promising solutions, refine them through implementation and public debate, and drive their adoption at scale. Without stronger connections between research, implementation, and policy, even the most promising housing solutions will struggle to achieve meaningful national impact.

The Future of Land and Housing program (FLH) at New America is helping to close this gap. FLH is a team of housing policy entrepreneurs focused on advancing high-leverage opportunities to improve housing stability. We surface overlooked ideas, pressure-test them in public view, and then help the best ones move from concept to implementation and scale. We operate at the intersection of research, policy, and implementation-clarifying ideas through research and convening power, supporting local leaders to test and refine them on the ground, and translating field-based lessons into broader systems and policy change.

About the Position: FLH is seeking a candidate to help advance its work at the intersection of housing security and climate change, in particular the Great Lakes Receiving Network (GLRN), a peer learning network to help Midwest cities prepare their housing for climate-driven population inflows through policy, planning, and community engagement. The network is currently engaged with stakeholders in Chicago, Minneapolis, and Cincinnati, with additional cities under consideration. The ideal candidate is passionate about the implementation of large-scale initiatives, with experience in project management, facilitation, and coordinating learning networks. Familiarity with housing policy, community engagement, and climate adaptation is a plus. The candidate should be a self-starter and a strong multi-tasker, capable of working in a fast-paced environment on a small, agile team. The candidate should also thrive on collaboration, as partnerships with local governments, community-based organizations, and other practitioners are central to this work. This role will begin with an emphasis on project and knowledge management and will progress towards deeper technical assistance and thought leadership as the candidate acquires technical knowledge and experience.


Responsibilities:

• Approximately 75 percent of the position's time will focus on supporting the Great Lakes Receiving Network (GLRN), including but not limited to:
  • Project management, to coordinate a learning network of multiple Midwest cities to prepare for climate migration. Duties will include helping to structure and implement community scenario planning sessions and other partner convenings; coordinating and assisting in one-on-one support to partners; and developing learning, policy, and storytelling products based on GLRN experiences;
  • Co-write scenario planning tools, policy briefs, and other practitioner-facing resources that help partners and other stakeholders plan and adopt housing investments ahead of climate migration;
  • Conduct research and develop reports, policy briefs, and other finds related to critical issues at the intersection of climate migration and housing, in support of GLRN;
  • Support GLRN events end-to-end, including agenda design, speaker outreach and coordination, facilitation preparation, logistics, and post-event synthesis. Serve as a co-facilitator when appropriate;
  • Interface with city partners, community-based organizations, and subject-matter experts to ensure GLRN activities are grounded in local context and reflect community priorities;
  • Support grant-seeking processes, including contributing to proposals and funder communications, and grant reporting;
  • Evaluation and capture of learnings, ensuring that the initiative generates evidence of impact and insights that can scale to additional U.S. receiving cities;

• The remaining 25 percent of time will focus on supporting the FLH team more generally, including but not limited to:
  • Contribute to the design and implementation of FLH's broader housing work, ranging from policy and communication projects to mixed-methods research;
  • Support external communications and events for FLH, including the monthly newsletter, web page, social media, webinars, and in-person events, and other engagements;
  • Communicate our work with teams internal and external to New America, including housing policymakers, advocates, academics, funders, and practitioners working on climate mobility;
  • Additional responsibilities and duties may be dictated by events and circumstances.

Qualifications:

• A bachelor's degree or higher;
• Minimum 3-5 years relevant experience, preferably in U.S. housing, urban planning, public policy, climate adaptation, community development, or a related field;
• Proven project management skills. In particular, the ability to multi-task, strong organizational skills, time management, and attention to detail, including familiarity with project management software and frameworks;
• Strong facilitation and convening skills, or demonstrated interest in developing them; comfort designing and running participatory events with mixed audiences (residents, practitioners, city staff);
• Excellent research, writing, presentation, and communication skills, with a preference for plain-language, practitioner-focused writing;
• Entrepreneurial spirit and enthusiasm for finding creative and unique approaches and opportunities;
• Competence working across structured networks and multi-stakeholder partnerships;
• Demonstrated interest in or dedication to fostering equitable outcomes across society, and especially for lower-income communities, communities of color, and other historically-marginalized communities;
• Strong interpersonal skills and ability to work as part of collaborative teams including both internal and external partners;
• Curiosity, eagerness, and ability to develop new knowledge and skills, including on climate migration and housing planning topics;
• Ability to travel up to 20 percent of time, including to GLRN cohort cities in the Midwest.

Compensation and Benefits: This position is a full-time role with benefits. The annual salary will be between $56,302 - 70,377 , depending on experience and demonstrated competencies.

New America offers a highly competitive benefits package that includes health care, dental, and vision coverage; a generous retirement plan; paid time off; observes all federal holidays; and an office-wide closure between Christmas and New Year's Day.

Location: Washington DC Office, with a possibility of remote work

Application Process:

Please submit a resume and a professionally written one-page cover letter. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis. The application deadline is EOD Friday, June 26, 2026.

No Phone Calls or emails will be answered.

Physical Requirement:

• This position is hybrid, working from home and in an office environment, and sits at a desk for extended periods of time and requires dexterity to operate general office equipment.
• The person in this position will frequently communicate with peers, management, company partners/vendors, and the general public and must be able to exchange accurate and timely information verbally and in writing.
• This position may require walking, bending, kneeling, and standing, and will require sitting for extended periods of time.
• Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions of the role.

Work Environment:

• The work environment is generally an indoor office or a remote work environment. This role routinely uses standard office equipment, including computers, phones, video conferencing tools, and shared digital platforms.

Originality and Transparency: At New America, we value authentic voices and intellectual property rights. All application materials, including cover letters, writing samples, and any other submissions, must be solely your own original work. The use of AI text generation tools like ChatGPT, language models, or other artificial intelligence writing assistants is strictly prohibited for any part of your job application. Submissions found to contain AI-generated content will be immediately disqualified from consideration. Applicants have a responsibility to be fully transparent about authorship and any tools or resources utilized. We celebrate human ingenuity and want to hear your genuine thoughts and experiences.

Equal Opportunity Employer: 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 clientele, 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. This is a bargaining unit position.