Program Manager

Role Overview

• Serve as the Day One Project’s in-region anchor for engagement with governments, multilateral institutions, civil society, faith and community leaders, the private sector, and research organizations across the Western Hemisphere—cultivating, deepening, and sustaining the relationships on which the regional dimension of the work depends.
• Connect regional intelligence to broader strategy—ensuring that lessons learned from migration policy and programs across sending, transit, and receiving countries inform the Day One Project’s wider thinking, and that the Project’s policy architecture reflects a coherent hemispheric perspective rather than country-by-country thinking.
• Coordinate across a complex partner ecosystem, working closely with grantees, partner organizations, and consultants engaged in regional work on behalf of the Day One Project and ensuring that contributions from across the ecosystem are sequenced, aligned, and additive.
• Support the design and implementation of strategic initiatives in partnership with the Director and Day One Project leadership, including identifying small-scale programs and policies ripe for scaling and surfacing pilot opportunities; making proposals, suggesting alternatives, and driving complex initiatives forward.
• Lead day-to-day grant management for the regional portfolio, including proposal review, processing, payments, reporting, and compliance with OSF standards and regulations; manage consultant contracts; and provide regular status updates on implementation, risks, and opportunities to the Director.
• Represent the Day One Project in regional forums and convenings, articulating its goals and approach to public and private interlocutors, and managing political sensitivities with discretion in environments where confidentiality and the trust of policymakers and operational partners are paramount.
• Contribute to written products—briefing notes, memos, lessons-learned documents, and analytical pieces—that translate regional dynamics for U.S. and other audiences engaged with the Day One Project, and that bring the Project’s wider work to audiences in the region.
• Exercise considerable discretion and intellectual independence, working with a high tolerance for ambiguity in a fast-moving political and operational environment.
• Work with leadership to maintain grant-making practice aligned with OSF’s approach and in compliance with organizational and external standards and regulations.

Requirements

• Educated to a degree-level (or equivalent).
• Substantial expertise in migration in the Western Hemisphere, including a sophisticated understanding of the political, policy, and operational dynamics across sending, transit, and receiving countries, and a track record of work on legal pathways, the protection of vulnerable migrants, and/or coalition-building for inclusive immigration systems.
• Established relationships with relevant counterparts across the region—within governments, multilateral and regional institutions, civil society, faith and community organizations, the private sector, and the research community—and the ability to navigate them with discretion.
• Proven track record leading complex, multi-year social and political change initiatives, including strategic planning and cross-functional team coordination.
• Background in managing multi-stakeholder partnerships and in building novel coalitions that go beyond traditional civil society, including with faith groups, the private sector, unions, and community organizations.
• Experience using diverse tools—including grant making, stakeholder engagement, communications, and litigation—to execute strategies.
• Demonstrated ability to translate regional dynamics for U.S. and international audiences, and to bring U.S. and international perspectives into regional conversations.
• Strong relationship management skills, particularly in navigating complex and politically sensitive topics, and in maintaining the trust of policymakers and operational partners.
• Ability to maintain high performance while adapting to change.
• Desirable: Prior experience working in or with national governments in the Western Hemisphere on migration or related policy areas.
• Familiarity with cutting-edge applications of technology to immigration challenges.
• Experience working across philanthropic, governmental, and NGO settings.

Benefits

• Generous time off and flexible work arrangements.
• Employer-paid health insurance and dental plans for individuals and families (no employee contribution required).
• Exceptional retirement savings plan (non-contributory for employees) and life insurance.
• Progressive paid parental leave, reproductive and family planning support, and much more.