Policy Lead - J-PAL Global

Position overview

The Policy Lead is based at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology campus in Cambridge, MA
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• Sector leadership and strategy: Lead and/or advise multiple J-PAL sector teams, working under the guidance of J-PAL’s Academic Sector Co-Chairs to effectively generate, synthesize, disseminate, communicate, and catalyze the use of evidence from randomized evaluations in real-world policy.
• Policy partnerships: Anchor high level J-PAL partnerships with external funders, bilateral and multilateral development institutions, governments, and large international INGOs within and beyond their sector to advance evidence generation and use in policy. Build new partnerships with policymakers and funders to expand J-PAL’s network, generating extensions and new funding opportunities for J-PAL initiatives.
• Fundraising and donor stewardship: Raise funds for their sector and J-PAL as a whole with guidance from the Director of Policy and Communications. Successfully steward J-PAL funders to expand funding opportunities for J-PAL and oversee junior staff to complete high quality donor proposals and reporting.
• Policy and Communications Group Strategy: Work with the Director of Policy to create and execute the strategy to increase the effectiveness and impact of policy work at J-PAL including shaping group wide objectives and priorities, supporting the Director in team innovation, growth, change management.
• Organizational: Manage and directly oversee 4-6 staff members who will support on both strategy and execution. Coach and mentor senior managers, managers, and junior staff, perform performance reviews of subordinates, carry out recruitment duties including representing J-PAL at job fairs and making presentations at conferences and universities.
• Regional support: Provide senior level advising and policy outreach support to J-PAL regional offices on special projects as requested.
• Functional team advising and management: Provide leadership and advising to one or more functional teams (for example, policy writing and evidence synthesis, strategic planning, OKRs, onboarding, or recruitment)
• J-PAL Leadership support: work with J-PAL Directors, Executive Director, Deputy Executive Director, and Policy and Communications Director on partnerships, policy outreach, speaking engagements, and fundraising as requested.
• External Communication: Help donors and the broader research and policy community understand J-PAL evidence and use it in policy decisions through writing, presentations, meetings with senior policy partners, and representing J-PAL at major policy events.
• Miscellaneous: Any other tasks assigned by supervisor.

The Policy Lead reports to the Director of Policy and Communications. He/she takes ownership of tasks and exercises good judgement in knowing when to seek feedback from the supervisor, and shows initiative in adding value to processes. The Policy Lead is expected to work independently or in groups, but be able to take initiative and grow into further leadership roles.

Supervision of Senior Managers, Managers, Associates and/or Policy Associates.

• Education: This position is for people with at least a master’s degree in economics, public policy or international development, including significant training in economics, as a strong technical understanding of economics is necessary to ensure that J-PAL’s findings are translated into general policy conclusions in a way that is both simple to follow but also accurate and undistorted.
• Experience: 8 years minimum work experience including prior experience working in randomized evaluations, economics research, and international development policy. Experience with overseeing research and policy grant funding competitions is strongly preferred.
• Self-motivated and able to work collaboratively with the supervisor (Director of Policy and Communications) to create goals and work towards them while leveraging key staff across various offices. Ability to exercise good judgment on when to secure approval from the supervisor and when to keep him…