Sr. Director for Programs; GovEx

The Bloomberg Center for Government Excellence (Gov Ex, the Center) at Johns Hopkins University (JHU) works to unlock the power of data for public good and to empower mayors and their teams to use data & AI to improve outcomes for their residents. The Center is housed within the JHU School of Government and Policy (SoGP) alongside the Bloomberg Center for Public Innovation and the Black Wealth Data Center.

The Center seeks an inaugural Sr. Director for Programs as a senior member of the Center leadership team.

Working closely with and under the supervision of the Gov Ex Executive Director and in collaboration with other senior leaders within the Center, the Senior Director drives programmatic excellence by ensuring that all center initiatives and programs are designed in alignment with the center’s mission and strategic goals, and that they are implemented with fidelity to recognized best practices and approved work plans and budgets.

The Senior Director leads productive engagements and planning with a variety of stakeholders and partners including city leaders, collaborating partners, contracted subject matter experts and consultants, funder representatives, and school faculty in support of Gov Ex programming focused on data practices, data and AI governance, data analytics, and applied AI within local government settings.

Gov Ex is strengthening and expanding its service delivery model using a matrix organizational structure in which functional teams (e.g., analytics, coaching, research) support multiple large-scale programs and project portfolios. The Senior Director will be responsible for designing, operationalizing, and stewarding this matrix-based model to ensure coordinated deployment of staff and contractors across programs, consistent standards of practice, and high-quality implementation across a diverse array of city-facing engagements.

The Senior Director for Programs must have a forward-thinking mindset, exceptional emotional intelligence, the vision to develop and lead core center programming, and the capacity to manage multi-disciplinary, high-performing staff, to cultivate strong and productive networks and collaborations, and to deliver measurable results and impact.

As a member of the senior leadership team of Gov Ex, the Senior Director for Programs embraces a strategic mindset, centering on City outcomes, facilitating collaboration within Gov Ex and the wider City data and innovation ecosystem, and support staff to do the best work of their careers.

This is a Baltimore-based position with the expectation that some onsite days will be spent working at the JHU Washington DC location (555 Pennsylvania Ave NW)/Hybrid

• Serve as a core member of Gov Ex’s executive leadership team, contribute to center-wide priority setting and strategic planning, and work collaboratively with senior leaders to advance coordinated decisions on strategy, resource allocation, program development, operational planning, and organizational management.

• Design, implement, and refine Gov Ex’s matrix-based service delivery model, ensuring that functional teams (analytics, coaching, training, research, policy) are aligned, well-coordinated, and consistently deployed across multiple programs and city engagements.

• Serve as Gov Ex’s lead on new program design and development; effectively convene funders and stakeholders on shared vision, goals, and objectives; accurately define program resource requirements to inform budget.

• Oversee the launch and implementation of programs while ensuring alignment to funder priorities, the center’s mission and strategic goals, approved work plans, and budgets.

• Effectively lead, mentor, and manage multi-disciplinary teams operating in a matrix environment, ensuring that staff and contractors are deployed flexibly across multiple programs, that functional standards are upheld, and that project teams receive the right mix of expertise for successful delivery.

• Ensure strong coordination mechanisms between functional leads and program leads, including resource planning, workload balancing, quality assurance standards, and performance monitoring within…