Vice President of Policy and Programs

Title Vice President of Policy and Programs

Location (Hybrid) Washington DC preferred / Open to candidates located within the United States who are willing to travel 25 percent to participate in DC-based work

Salary $175000$210000 benefits

Timeline The position is open until filled. Expected start date: Q1 2026.

The Washington Center for Equitable Growth seeks a Vice President of Policy and Programs-a strategic and creative leader who is energized by our work of promoting evidence-based economic policies that reduce inequality and lead to economic growth. In this role you will develop strategies and drive the programming for the organization be a key thought partner to the President and CEO and represent the organization with other advocates academic researchers policymakers media and philanthropy. As a member of the Executive Team you will serve a critical management function overseeing three organizational departments liaising with the Board of Directors and helping foster an efficient productive and inclusive workplace culture.

This is an opportunity to shape and evaluate the kinds of policies that create meaningful and positive change for working people and families. Join us! Learn more about our open positions here.

About Us

The Washington Center for Equitable Growth (Equitable Growth) is a nonprofit nonpartisan economic policy organization that connects economic evidence and policy to promote shared prosperity and growth in the United States. We do this by seeding policy-relevant research agendas and funding research elevating scholars and their work within the policy world and translating evidence for policymakers. Our vision is a dynamic U.S. economy in which prosperity is broadly shared economic policy is driven by evidence and workers and families are thriving.

Located in Washington DC Equitable Growth has an annual budget of $7.5 million a staff of 25 people and hundreds of partners with whom we collaborate across an ecosystem of academics policymakers and advocates. We work in a wide variety of issue areas that affect equitable economic growth such as inequality and mobility labor and organizing macroeconomic policy antitrust and competition tax and fiscal policy and family economic security. Founded in 2013 Equitable Growth has seeded more than $12.6 million to more than 400 scholars in the United States through its competitive grants program. Learn more about our work here.

About the position

The Vice President of Policy and Programs is a key organizational leader who furthers Equitable Growths vision by shaping and driving the overall strategy for our programmatic work including policy communications and our academic grantmaking and academic network engagement. Reporting directly to the President and CEO and serving as a critical thought partner to her and other leaders across the organization this position is part of the Executive Team. The VP manages the Senior Director of Communications and Marketing the Director of Academic Programs the Deputy Director of Policy and the Chief Economist. The VP works closely with the directors of each of the programs and with other Equitable Growth leadership including the Board of Directors to ensure that our programs are strategically connected grounded in organizational values and working toward common goals. Responsibilities include:

Programmatic strategy direction and management

• As a member of the Executive Team set the organizational strategy and organizational goals
• Work with the rest of the Executive and Senior Leadership Teams to develop implement and assess progress toward our organizational and program strategies while reflecting our commitment to approaching our work with integrity transparency and rigor
• Provide direct supervision for the leaders of three program teams (Academic Programs Communications and Marketing Policy and Advocacy) as well as the Chief Economist ensuring cohesion across teams for strategic objectives and mutual accountability
• Foster innovation by creating a generative and creative space for team members to bring new ideas and assess their feasibility and alignment with strategy and resources
• Be responsive to ongoing needs across the national ecosystem building longer-term initiatives as well as looking for moments of opportunity in the world to seize for critical impact
• Work with staff to develop systems to ensure consistent high-quality project management
• Collaborate with stakeholders building alignment and energy to drive shared policy priorities
• Model an organizational culture that creates community and welcomes dialogue and learning

Upcoming organizational projects to include:

• Design and develop Equitable Growths policy agenda for the next federal governing moment drawing on the organizations academic network as well as its talented staff
• Pilot and assess new state-level strategies in partnership with local and state-based advocacy organizations
• Develop and disseminate toolkits for policymakers utilizing and synthesizing existing research on various topics (e.g. AI the care economy recessionary policy and debt/deficits)
• Continue building a program to develop a subset of Equitable Growths scholars in our academic network as public intellectuals
• Ensure that economic growth is part of the national conversation on the state of the economy by responding nimbly to government actions

Organizational leadership

• Serve as a key strategic leader member of the Executive Team and advocate for the mission of the organization
• In close partnership with our President and CEO Vice President for Impact and Strategic Initiatives and Director of Development work to support the expansion of fundraising activities to fund existing programs and the growth of the organization cultivate existing relationships and develop new funder relationships in partnership with the Development Team
• Speak on behalf of the organization with members of the media as well as partner organizations and government
• Cultivate and maintain high-level relationships with external advocacy groups members of the media philanthropic partners and federal and state governments with the goal of advancing organizational goals and priorities
• In collaboration with other members of the Executive Team the leaders of the three program teams and the Senior Director of Finance HR & Operations ensure that the organizational budget and the program budgets each year coherently reflect the overall organizational priorities and needs

Qualifications

• 15 years of relevant experience including team management experience in a nonprofit or government setting and experience moving a policy agenda related to economic inequality and/or economic growth. We are open to drawing candidates from a broad range of issue backgrounds that intersect with our work such as mobility labor and union organizing macroeconomic policy antitrust and competition tax and fiscal policy racial wealth gap care economy equal pay paid leave consumer protection housing etc.
• Enthusiasm for Equitable Growths mission and a demonstrated commitment to our values.
• Strong leadership skills and management experience including the ability to develop team performance drive impact and a genuine desire to coach and mentor.
• Strategic acumen and strong connection to larger national conversations across this ecosystem.
• Ability to build incrementally toward a longer-term vision while also holding day-to-day management and implementation of project plans.
• Ability to maintain momentum and move initiatives forward despite ambiguity or obstacles.
• Creativity and nimbleness with an orientation toward action; keen awareness of how to identify and seize moments in the national conversation where we are ideally situated to make immediate critical impact.
• Familiarity with the economic policy ecosystem and the ways in which academic research policy advocacy organizations media and policymakers intersect within this
• Politically savvy with a sense of what drives and influences decision-makers.
• Demonstrated experience setting organizational or programmatic goals and managing progress toward goals.
• Experience working collaboratively with complex initiatives while building cohesion effectively across different areas with people of diverse backgrounds perspectives and roles.
• Strong facilitation public speaking and written communication skills and experience with the use of communications as a tool to support advocacy work.

Bonus qualifications: We are open to drawing candidates from a wide range of professional and educational backgrounds. Other not required but welcomed experiences are: work experience in federal local or state government experience as an academic or working with academics experience as an organizer or campaigner experience managing multiple kinds of program teams.

Start date location compensation and benefits

This is a hybrid position based out of our Washington DC office. It is preferred that candidates reside in the Washington area but we are open to candidates who reside elsewhere in the United States as long as they can commit to being available during Eastern Time business hours (our meetings are typically conducted between 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. ET); regular travel to Washington DC (estimated at 25 percent).

Our goal is to have the VP begin their role during the first quarter of 2026.

The annual compensation for this position is $175000$210000 depending on experience.

Additionally employees receive a comprehensive benefits package including the following items and more:

• Health insurance (including medical dental vision and prescription drug coverage) covered at 90 percent for employee and 75 percent for dependents
• Flexible Fridays with half-day closures year-round (work dependent) and annual PTO for vacation sick time and holidays: 17 vacation days 12 sick days 13 organization-wide holiday day-long closures and week-long organization-wide closure at the end of December
• 401(k) plan with 5.5 percent of salary employer contribution
• Paid family and medical leave
• Commuter benefits ($130/month for parking Metrorail or Metrobus)
• Flexible spending accounts for health care and dependent care eligible expenses
• Short-term and long-term disability insurance and term life insurance
• Professional development funds

Staff at Equitable Growth are members of a union NPEU-IFPTE Local 70 excluding management and certain other categories. This position is in management.

Application instructions and hiring process

This position is open until filled and applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis.

APPLY AT THIS LINK by uploading these items *as a single pdf*:

1. A resume
2. A cover letter that thoughtfully addresses your alignment with the position
3. A work sample of any kind or length that demonstrates related skills

Nonprofit talent agency People Power is the search partner for this hire. We appreciate your time and interest in contributing your talents to Equitable Growths mission. Thank you! You will receive an email auto-reply to your application. We wish we could respond personally to all applicants but only those chosen to interview will be contacted. Please do not contact Equitable Growth directly to inquire about the status of your application.

Note: We will not be responding to inquiries from December 22 2025 to January 5 2026 but will respond to any messages received during that time when we return to office after winter break.

Selected applicants will be invited to an initial 30-minute screening interview with People Power via phone. Those who continue in the process will have an opportunity to meet with a variety of Equitable Growth team members and will be invited to a 30-minute introductory conversation with Equitable Growth leadership and two longer-form interviews with leadership and staff teams.

We welcome your interest and feedback. If you meet the minimum requirements for this position and would like to make a *confidential* inquiry and/or have questions regarding this position compensation or benefits our process or internal timeline for hiring or suggestions for how to improve this announcement or the opportunity itself please email Kate B. at People Power:

The Washington Center for Equitable Growth is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization and an equal opportunity employer. We strive to model an organizational culture of belonging and inclusion creating community in ways that value and respect each others humanity and the diversity of lived experience while welcoming dialogue across viewpoints and positions to ensure that all can contribute authentically. All qualified applicants will be considered for employment without regard to race color creed national origin sex age disability marital status sexual orientation military status or disability.

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Required Experience:

Exec