Program Director; Infrastructure

TITLE:
Program Director (Infrastructure)

ORGANIZATION:
National Governors Association

LOCATION:
Washington, DC (onsite)

DURATION:
Full Time

POSITION STATUS:
Exempt

COMPENSATION: A competitive compensation package will be made to the qualified candidate

REPORTS TO:
Director, Center for Best Practices

ORGANIZATION BACKGROUND
Founded in 1908, the National Governors Association is the bipartisan organization of Governors from the 55 states, territories and commonwealths. NGA’s mission is to share best practices, address issues of national and state interest, and drive innovative solutions that improve state government and support the principles of federalism.

NGA’s Center for Best Practices is the policy and research arm that helps Governors develop and implement solutions to public policy challenges. NGA’s Government Relations group assists in ensuring the voice of Governors are heard in Congress, and the Executive Branch and NGA’s Communications team collaborates with Governors’ offices to amplify bipartisan messaging and strategy.

Throughout the year, NGA convenes Governors and senior advisors for meaningful discourse, problem-solving and thought leadership.

The NGA Center of Best Practices Program Director’s primary responsibilities will be to lead a team that provides support to Governors and other state executive branch leaders on a range of issues related to infrastructure development and project delivery.

Key issue areas the Program Director will focus on include ongoing efforts to build, maintain, and upgrade infrastructure across the United States. This includes but is not limited to, transportation and broadband infrastructure. This position requires a deep understanding of project financing, federal grantmaking, project delivery, and public-private partnerships.

This position requires the Program Director to manage a small staff of policy experts, lead policy engagements with states, facilitate cross-agency and cross-sector collaboration, execute regular briefings for Governors’ staff, quickly develop a working knowledge on new issues, and respond to technical questions from Governors’ offices on a wide range of infrastructure policy topics. This member of the team will be expected to be full-time in Washington, DC.

Other important responsibilities of the Program Director include:

• Overseeing multiple projects and project managers simultaneously, including consultants and sub-contracts with states and external partners;
• Overseeing and analyzing project budgets, projecting future spending, and developing financial proposals for potential new efforts;
• Communicating effectively in verbal and written forms, with an ability to communicate clearly with policy making audiences such as state and federal officials, national experts, and others;
• Designing project concepts and identifying funding for these concepts to enable this team to provide relevant and timely expertise and assistance to Governors, their staff and other executive branch leaders, including by writing project concept papers and proposals, building and maintaining relationships with philanthropic, public, corporate, and federal funders, and working with NGA’s Office of Development to support fundraising efforts;
• Demonstrating strong interpersonal skills to effectively work with colleagues, partner organizations, and a variety of high-ranking state and federal officials;
• Managing wide-scale projects with multiple staff and tasks simultaneously, in coordination with a diverse group of stakeholders;
• Organizing and facilitating workshops, conferences, seminars, panel discussions, state strategy sessions and other events;
• Identifying and tracking key issues of concern to Governors, develop promising initiatives to address these concerns, and connecting Governors’ key staff with other states and national experts who can assist them in addressing these issues;
• Demonstrating a commitment to NGA’s mission and goals to constructively serve the needs of all Governors; and
• Other duties as assigned by Director or Deputy Director, Center for Best Practices.

• Oversees…