Director of Government Workforce Reform

Democracy Forward

Director of Government Workforce Reform at Democracy Forward focusing on a large-scale redesign of federal workforce policy. Leading national coalitions and integrating insights into actionable reform strategies.

Posted 4/16/2026full-timeWashington • District of Columbia, Washington • 🇺🇸 United StatesLead💰 $150,000 - $170,000 per yearWebsite

About the role

Key responsibilities & impact

Drive a transformational process to reimagine how government recruits, supports, and empowers its workforce.
Lead a national reform coalition and run high-impact working groups.
Translate insights from public servants and cross-sector experts into a reform options library.
Architect the Federal Capacity Solutions Lab to modernize government personnel management.
Build out proposals across key domains like hiring, pay, performance, and AI integration.
Serve as lead strategist and convener of a national table of civil service experts and innovators.
Supervise fellows and oversee policy tracks tackling urgent workforce challenges.
Integrate outputs into a dynamic policy architecture that builds towards the options library.

Requirements

What you’ll need

10+ years of professional experience in workforce policy, HR systems, reform design, or cross-sector coalition work.
Deep working knowledge of federal personnel systems (OPM, Title 5, SES, hiring/classification, etc.).
Demonstrated leadership in large-scale policy initiatives, reform campaigns, or systems design.
Exceptional writing, synthesis, and facilitation skills.
Comfort working across legal, narrative, operational, and movement-building dimensions.
Well-developed collaborative and interpersonal skills including demonstrated self-awareness, commitment to diversity and inclusivity, and ability to work with colleagues and stakeholders across diverse cultures and backgrounds.

Benefits

Comp & perks

Excellent benefits

ATS Keywords

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Applicant Tracking System Keywords

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Hard Skills & Tools

workforce policyHR systemsreform designfederal personnel systemsOPMTitle 5SEShiringclassificationpolicy architecture

Soft Skills

leadershipwritingsynthesisfacilitationcollaborationinterpersonal skillsself-awarenesscommitment to diversityinclusivityability to work across cultures