Director, Innovation Policy
INTERNATIONAL RESCUE COMMITTEE
full-time
Posted on:
Location Type: Hybrid
Location: Silver Spring • Maryland • New York • United States
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Salary
💰 $120,000 - $155,000 per year
Job Level
About the role
- For priority innovations, develop strategy for policy change and financing to enable adoption and scale by governments, multilaterals, and large implementing systems.
- Conduct power and stakeholder mapping for priority innovations to identify decision-makers, veto points, allies, and blockers.
- Leverage an existing senior-level network across governments, multilaterals, donors, and policy influencers to accelerate adoption of new approaches and drive execution.
- Proactively broker relationships, partnerships, and coalitions that would not otherwise form, with the explicit goal of enabling scale.
- Shape agendas, participant lists, and follow-through strategies that result in concrete outcomes (e.g., policy shifts, pooled funding, joint adoption).
- Define and track signals of progress toward policy adoption and sustainable financing (e.g., inclusion in guidelines, procurement pilots, budget lines).
Requirements
- Significant professional experience (10+ years) in policy, financing, systems change, or institutional reform within global development, humanitarian action, public sector, or closely related fields.
- Demonstrated track record of driving policy or financing change, including securing institutional commitments, influencing adoption decisions, or enabling new approaches to scale within large systems.
- Deep understanding of how governments, multilaterals, and large funders operate, including policy processes, procurement dynamics, and financing mechanisms - at a country level and on the global stage.
- Proven ability to engage and influence senior stakeholders, with experience working with decision-makers at the director, deputy, or ministerial level, or their equivalents.
- Strong people management and leadership skills, with experience building, developing, and leading high-performing, cross-functional teams, including coaching, performance management, and fostering an inclusive and accountable team culture.
- Strong strategic and analytical skills, including experience with stakeholder mapping, political economy analysis, and identifying high-leverage intervention points.
- Experience working cross-functionally, partnering with technical, operational, and country teams to translate strategy into execution.
- Excellent communication and relationship-building skills, with the ability to clearly articulate complex ideas and move partners toward action.
- Comfort operating in ambiguity, with the judgment and initiative to advance work where pathways are not yet fully defined.
Benefits
- 10 sick days
- 10 US holidays
- 20-25 paid time off days depending on role and tenure
- medical insurance starting at $163 per month
- dental starting at $6.50 per month
- vision starting at $5 per month
- FSA for healthcare and commuter costs
- a 403b retirement savings plans with immediately vested matching
- disability & life insurance
- an Employee Assistance Program which is available to our staff and their families to support counseling and care in times of crisis and mental health struggles
Applicant Tracking System Keywords
Tip: use these terms in your resume and cover letter to boost ATS matches.
Hard Skills & Tools
policy changefinancingsystems changeinstitutional reformstakeholder mappingpolitical economy analysisstrategic planningperformance managementcross-functional collaborationexecution strategy
Soft Skills
people managementleadershiprelationship buildingcommunicationstrategic thinkinganalytical skillsinfluencecoachinginitiativeadaptability