Washington, DC (in-person)
Full-time
The Foundation for American Innovation champions the technology, talent, and ideas essential to American prosperity, security, and flourishing. We are builders, hackers, and scholars advancing an optimistic vision of the future—aligning technology with human ends to forge a more perfect union between innovation and the American republic.
To support this mission, FAI’s American Governance Program is seeking a Program Manager to join our team. The Program Manager will help the governance team turn grant commitments and policy priorities into a realistic set of projects that are completed according to schedule.
Accomplishing this requires both operational discipline and policy judgment because fellows on the American Governance team own their work from end to end. They manage relationships with funders, journalists, and government officials, and produce work ranging from white papers to magazine articles to microsites. The Program Manager will ensure that these individually owned projects add up to a coherent program by running the team’s prioritization process and tracking execution. This is a hands-on operational role for someone who wants to shape the team’s work rather than merely administer it.
Responsibilities
The Program Manager will report to the Director of the American Governance team. Alongside the Governance team, the Program Manager will work closely with FAI’s existing editorial, events, operations, and outreach teams. Responsibilities include:
- Running team prioritization: Track grant commitments and projects in the CRM. Run the weekly prioritization meeting to align the team on a realistic production schedule. Keep the team focused on the work that best advances its vision.
- Driving execution for FAI’s network of conservative public managers: Conduct outreach, track contacts, and coordinate the content and convenings that turn that network into a real pipeline for conservative governance.
- Keep collaborations moving: Prepare meeting materials, track action items, and drive joint projects toward concrete outputs. Our collaborators include New America, university programs, and officials in the Trump administration and state governments.
- Manage external contributions: Secure commitments for outside writing, such as symposium essays and event-related op-eds, and make sure those pieces come in on schedule. Help build a strong bench of non-resident fellows by turning relationships into concrete projects.
- Cross-functional projects (as needed): Project-manage work that requires coordination across editorial, design, events, or operations. Examples include websites and convenings.
Qualifications
Successful candidates will demonstrate:
- Significant experience (likely 4+ years) managing intellectually substantive projects in policy, government, think tanks, government affairs, or a similar environment.
- Facility with using CRM systems to track relationships, commitments, and projects.
- Alignment with FAI’s conservative approach to governance and ability to represent it accurately and persuasively in external settings.
- Demonstrated ability to prioritize projects in line with broader goals, scope them tightly, and keep them on schedule. This includes pushing back when proposed work is poorly defined or low priority.
- Ability to work effectively with people from varied institutional backgrounds, such as think tanks, Congress, executive branch agencies, and philanthropy.
- Ability to move collaborative projects forward through influence rather than formal authority.
Benefits and Perks
- Health, dental, and vision insurance
- 401(k) match up to 6%
- Annual performance bonus
- $1,000 annual book credit
- Monthly commuter benefit
- Unlimited vacation policy
- Annual salary range of $80–110K (negotiable based on experience)
To apply, please complete this form.
FAI is an equal-opportunity employer. We review applications for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, age, uniformed services, genetic information, physical or mental disability, medical condition, marital status, or any other basis prohibited by law.
