Program Co-Director, Head of Research, Sovereign Debt Forum

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Requirements

Job Overview

The Institute of International Economic Law ( IIEL ) at Georgetown Law is seeking a Co-Director, Head of Research, to lead the research, training, strategy, and program content functions of the Sovereign Debt Forum ( SDF ) and its leading initiative, #PublicDebtIsPublic (# PDIP ). SDF was established in 2019 as a hub for interdisciplinary research in government debt, supporting capacity building, policy development, and research dissemination. It is a collaboration between IIEL and the Centre for Commercial Law Studies at Queen Mary University of London ( QMUL or Queen Mary ), co-directed by Prof. Anna Gelpern at Georgetown Law and Prof. Rosa M. Lastra at Queen Mary, with affiliated scholars at universities around the world. Since 2019, SDF and its research affiliates have organized academic and capacity building programs with universities, multilateral institutions, governments, and civil society organizations, including its flagship Sovereign Debt Research and Management Conference ( DebtCon) , now in its ninth cycle.

#PDIP began in 2025 as a cross-campus project to build a platform that collects and displays searchable full-text government debt documentation for countries around the world, working with Georgetown’s Computer Science Department and the Massive Data Institute ( MDI ) at the McCourt School of Public Policy, supported by a $382,000 pilot grant from the Gates foundation for the Law Center. It has grown rapidly into a multi-institutional, multi-funder program. The prototype was launched at DebtCon8 in October 2025. With proof of concept, SDF secured approximately $350 in additional interim funding from the Netherlands and UK governments in Q42025 and Q12026, and has since secured an additional grant of approximately $600,000 from the Gates foundation. By invitation, SDF has applied for an additional $400,000 from the Rockefeller Foundation, expected in the current fiscal year, and is actively pursuing new funding opportunities with existing and new donors.

The #PublicDebtIsPublic platform now hosts more than 1000 documents for more than 60 borrowing countries, together with a growing bank of analytical and capacity building resources. A major new grant-funded component of the platform, the Legal Framework Hub, is under development, scheduled for launch at DebtCon9 in May of 2027. #PDIP has been featured in official and academic programs with African, Asian, European, and Latin American governments, multilateral and civil society institutions. The #PDIP team has trained more than a dozen Georgetown Law researchers in public debt and advanced financial contract analysis. A new practicum on public debt accountability has been approved and is open for enrollment at Georgetown Law for the Fall term of 2026, co-taught by Georgetown and grant-funded outside faculty.

The rapid growth trajectory, from a proof-of-concept experiment to a globally recognized public debt accountability resource, gives rise to the need for dedicated senior research leadership capable of driving the platform’s expansion and maximizing its policy impact, while maintaining and bolstering the forum’s position at the forefront of interdisciplinary research in government debt.

Reporting to the SDF Academic Co-Director at Georgetown Law, Prof. Anna Gelpern, the Program Co-Director, Head of Research, provides the intellectual vision and research direction for SDF and #PDIP. This is a senior leadership role that sits at the intersection of law, data science, and international policy, overseeing the development of research methodologies, the expansion of the #PDIP Documentation Bank and the new Legal Framework Hub, and the cultivation of the project’s global network of academic affiliates, government partners, and civil society stakeholders. Working alongside the Head of Operations and in close collaboration with MDI, the SDF Fellow(s), and a team student research assistants, the Head of Research ensures that the #PDIP platform’s legal and analytical outputs—spanning AI-assisted document labeling, contract analysis, capacity-building curricula and materials, and multi-stakeholder policy convenings—meet the highest standards of rigor and are positioned for real-world impact in public debt policy and international financial architecture reform.

The Head of Research leads the design and oversees the implementation of the SDF research and writing programs: developing the research agenda, producing and guiding the production of articles, commentaries, and policy briefs on the relevant topics, and translating the growing collection of #PDIP legal materials into original scholarship. Among other tasks, this entails directing the collection, coding, and analysis of public debt documentation for #PDIP; recruiting, training, and supervising the research team for #PDIP and other SDF research programming; collaborating with academic and policy partners on joint research and publications; serving as a principal research and policy liaison with key stakeholders, relevant foundation officers, SDF affiliates, and members of the Advisory and Official Consultative Groups; and developing the #PDIP work program in coordination with the SDF Academic Co-Directors. The Head of Research contributes to other research and teaching activities at the Law Center, including the debt accountability practicum. The Head of Research supports SDF programming, including DebtCon, and backs up the Head of Operations on administrative and logistical matters. At Georgetown Law, the Head of Research also shares responsibility with the Head of Operations for creating and managing the growing SDF multi-media resource library, and for coordinating public outreach and engagement.

Work Interactions

This position reports directly to the SDF Academic Co-Director and Principal Investigator at the Law Center, Professor Anna Gelpern, and works in close coordination with the MDI technical team, the SDF Academic Co-Director at QMUL, the Advisory and Official Consultative Groups, and other SDF stakeholders and associates. The Head of Research leads a team of 2-15 researchers, including SDF Fellow(s) and student research assistants, and coordinates across affiliated workstreams, including the Framework Hub and capacity-building programming. The Head of Research collaborates on research and publications with SDF affiliated scholars and scholars at peer institutions and think tanks, currently including the University of Michigan Law School, the Finance for Development Lab at the Paris School of Economics, and the Peterson Institute for International Economics, among others. In coordination with the Head of Operations, the Head of Research is the principal point of contact for SDF with academic and policy partners and outside stakeholders, including sovereign debt experts and practitioners, academics, government officials, civil society organizations, funders, and market participants, and helps manage partnerships with the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA), the African Legal Support Facility, the Asian Development Bank, the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund, among others.

Requirements and Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree required
• JD and/or other graduate training, with demonstrated experience in legal and policy research and writing, strongly preferred.
• Must have outstanding analytical, research, and written and verbal communication skills
• Must have the ability to produce original, publication-quality scholarship and to translate complex legal and financial material for academic, policy, and technical audiences
• Must have strong organizational and project-management skills
• Must have a collaborative attitude
• Must have an ability to adapt to the challenges of an ambitious start-up.
• Must have an exceptional judgment and discretion suited to working with law students, academic collaborators, external funders, civil society activists, market participants, and senior international officials alike

Expected Qualifications

• Strong organizational skills and ability to adapt quickly to changing priorities
• Interest and background in international economic law, development, and/or sovereign debt preferred
• 2-4 years of work experience in analytical, research, and written and verbal communication with the ability to produce original, publication-quality scholarship and to translate complex legal and financial material for academic, policy, and technical audiences
• Excellent written and oral communication skills (working English proficiency, other languages a plus), including the ability to create thoughtful and engaging content related to sovereign debt and other focus areas for media and other publication efforts
• Experience corresponding with multiple stakeholders from nongovernment, corporate, and international organizations; some experience in international or multicultural settings preferred
• Knowledge and familiarity with Georgetown University/higher education policies and procedures a plus

Work Mode Designation

This position has been designated as Hybrid 2 Days. Please note that work mode designations are regularly reviewed in order to meet the evolving needs of the University. Such review may necessitate a change to a position’s mode of work designation. Complete details about Georgetown University’s mode of work designations for staff and AAP positions can be found on the Department of Human Resources website:

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