• Job Description

  Req#: WEOytGuMit

  Policy Director, Technology and Innovation

  R Street Institute

  Washington, D.C.

  The R Street Institute—a free-market think tank headquartered in Washington, D.C., and with regional offices across the country—seeks a Technology and Innovation Policy Director to lead and manage our Technology and Innovation Policy program. If you are the right fit, you will report to the Policy Department Director. If you want to join a hardworking organization and do something outstanding, this may be just the opportunity you need!

  Your typical day at R Street may include working with your team to manage deliverables; writing talking points for a speaking engagement; reviewing and editing policy products; discussing policy strategy and brand alignment with your team; developing an approach to a potential donor; or consulting with a congressional staffer about the technology elements of a proposed bill. Your work may also include finishing an op-ed on artificial intelligence or helping an analyst scope out a research project on online content moderation. Other elements may include meeting with members of the communications, editorial, or government affairs teams to determine audience and strategize best products to ensure impact. Overall, your leadership and management will be key to helping the organization solve challenges that arise. Almost every day, you will find yourself working cross-collaboratively across the organization.

  Other Aspects of Your Role

  • Build, manage and coach a team of research fellows, analysts, and associates.
  • Conceive and oversee the program’s overarching research agenda, as well as help manage individual research projects and programming that are novel, rigorous, and relevant.
  • Contribute research and thought leadership that aligns with the program’s mission, including writing a mix of op-eds, regulatory comments, and policy papers, as well as participating in conferences, media, and other speaking engagements to help solve difficult problems and translate complex ideas in technology policy.
  • Edit the team’s written products to ensure they are high quality, highly credible, and timely.
  • Work in close partnership with business development portfolio managers and the business development team to contribute to fundraising efforts and ensure financial sustainability.
  • Cross-collaborate with the federal and state government affairs, communications, and editorial teams to identify and consistently engage with target audiences to maximize impact.
  • Collaborate and coordinate with both internal and external partners to move the policy conversation forward.
  • Keep up-to-date with the latest research and legislation in technology policy.
  • Attend and speak at events and convenings.
  • Remain vigilant against ninja infiltrations.

  Skills and Qualifications

  • No particular educational background is required: A proven track record to achieve results is far more meaningful than credentials
  • Experience managing people and teams; at least five years of management experience at director level involving oversight of multiple full-time employees
  • Experience collaborating across teams, with an appreciation of others’ expertise and experience
  • Passion for free markets and limited, effective government
  • Top-notch writing, editing, and public speaking skills
  • Expertise in the technology field
  • Experience working for a public policy institution
  • Fundraising experience
  • Demonstrated ability to oversee and deliver sophisticated, multi-part projects
  • Demonstrated experience facilitating impactful research
  • Ability to synthesize complex academic/technical literature for various audiences
  • Ability to work productively with a wide variety of groups and individuals including those with whom you may disagree
  • Experience collaborating across teams, with an appreciation of others’ expertise and experience
  • Entrepreneurial attitude and willingness to be a self-starter
  • A sense of humor and a desire to grow with a multifaceted organization

  R Street works to bolster American innovation, increase consumer choice, and protect individual liberty by supporting a smaller, smarter government. We focus on deep scholarship and pragmatic policy solutions that many groups tend to neglect. Our goal is to publish timely, relevant research and analysis that advances a market-oriented society and limited, effective government. To that end, our motto is: “Free Markets. Real Solutions.”

  Workplace

  We offer a flexible working arrangement. This is a full-time position that can either work the majority of the week in our D.C. office or be fully remote.

  Travel may be involved for engagement with donors, policymakers, and other stakeholders, many of whom may be located in Washington D.C., which may be especially relevant for the Technology and Innovation team.

  Compensation, Benefits, and Perks

  R Street strives to provide a compensation package superior to those at other think tanks and nonprofits. In addition to a competitive salary, we provide the following:

  • Unlimited paid time off policy, including all federal holidays, the day after Thanksgiving, and two weeks holiday closure in December
  • Alternating Fridays off
  • A health insurance option entirely paid by the employer (even for families)
  • Dental and vision insurance
  • 401(k) contributions with up to a 4 percent match
  • HSA employer contribution match
  • Quarterly wellness reimbursement
  • Mobile equipment/mobile plan reimbursement
  • Internet subsidy
  • Annual educational and professional development reimbursement
  • An option among child care assistance, pet care assistance, or student loan repayment assistance reimbursement

  R Street is committed to a workplace that values diversity, equity, and inclusion. We believe having a more diverse workforce will strengthen R Street’s ability to innovate, achieve our mission, and support long-term systemic change. As people dedicated to limited, effective government and free markets, we understand that a free society achieves its greatest triumphs by allowing and facilitating a wide variety of approaches to public policy problems. The concept of “broad coalitions,” one of our core operating principles, stems from that insight. People of all races, religions, ethnicities, gender identities, sexual orientations, life experiences, and socioeconomic backgrounds perform at the highest levels in every type of work that we do and have shaped the principles to which we subscribe. We believe that searching for talent everywhere is an integral part of living up to our principles.

  We currently plan to accept applications for this job until filled. We will contact qualified individuals for telephone interviews and conduct them on a rolling basis. Interviews will be held virtually, via Zoom.

  To apply, you must upload a cover letter and resume in Microsoft Word or PDF.

  
  

  The R Street Institute stands for free markets, limited, effective government and pragmatic solutions to difficult problems. We envision:

  A free society, where public policy begins with freedom as its initial premise and governments exist primarily as guardians of inherent, inalienable rights.

  An inclusive society that provides a place, a voice, and equal opportunity for all.

  A just society that holds everyone accountable to the same laws.

  Our Values

  The following values are the principles that guide how R Street fulfills its mission and operates. Our organization believes in these values and we live them:

  Always be better

  We want to achieve preeminence in every area where we work. We encourage a bias for action, innovation, creativity, and courage in everything that we do. We measure ourselves by the quality, credibility and impact we achieve as a result.

  Different is good.

  We believe that great minds think differently and building broad coalitions has made us who we are. Making progress on policy requires that we operate outside of the echo chamber and take non-traditional approaches to policy making. We apply this same principle to the way we operate and how we build our teams: with a focus on diversity and inclusion. We are all unique but belong to the same team.

  Serious(ly)

  We’re serious about our work, but don’t take ourselves too seriously. We believe in the intellectual rigor, free inquiry and honesty, that is required to achieve our mission, but having fun doing it is equally as important.

  One Team

  We all work together and work with humility. We strive to cultivate trust and transparency at all levels, between ourselves as individuals and as an organization, with our stakeholders, and in our work. We demonstrate respect and openness in our actions at all times. We are all unique but belong to the same team.

• About the company

  " R Street was established in 2012 when its founders split from the Heartland Institute out of disagreement with Heartland's public denial of the scientific consensus on climate change.

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