Managing Director, Policy, Breakwater

RF Catalytic Capital, Breakwater; Washington (District of Columbia); Hybrid; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Breakwater Initiative seeks a Managing Director, Policy to lead its policy function and advance Breakwater's agenda on AI and the economy. Reporting to the CEO, you will shape policy positions, synthesize inputs, and ensure rigorous, well-grounded analysis that informs policy and public conversation.

The role requires deep policy expertise, leadership, and the ability to engage across government, academia, and industry in a fast-paced, evolving environment.

Qualifications

• 15+ years of relevant experience across policy development, government, research institutions, or advocacy.
• At least 5 years in leadership roles; direct government/nonprofit experience preferred.
• Deep substantive depth in AI economics and policy (labor, tax, safety net, ownership) and credible engagement with policymakers.

Responsibilities

• Lead Breakwater's policy function as the senior-most expert and trusted authority on agenda, analysis, and positions.
• Set direction and priorities for the policy team; translate vision into executable plans.
• Build, manage, and develop a high-impact policy team including directors and associates.
• Represent Breakwater externally and translate policy into clear narratives for policy makers, funders, and partners.

Skills

Policy leadership

Policy development

Strategy and prioritization

External communications

Education

Bachelor's degree

Advanced degree preferred

Job description

About Breakwater Initiative

AI will upend work as we know it. Breakwater Initiative is a new, action-oriented policy shop with a single north star: finding the very best ideas to support workers through AI's economic transformation and laying the groundwork for an economy that enables people to have purpose, agency, and the ability to thrive. We do not study the problem from a distance. We conceptualize, test, and scale the ideas, institutions, and models that will shape the future of work and our social contract.

Our work spans three pillars: building the big ideas, policy agenda, and public infrastructure to support a response commensurate with the moment; testing new approaches and scaling what works; and engaging ordinary people in building an affirmative vision for what comes next. We are fiercely independent and nonpartisan: responsible to the public interest, not beholden to any lab, party, or private interest. That independence is the basis for the broad public trust this work demands.

Breakwater is in its founding phase, currently operating as a fiscally sponsored project of RF Catalytic Capital, Inc. This is a rare opportunity to build an institution from the ground up at a moment when the questions it tackles are among the most consequential in American economic and civic life.

The Opportunity

Breakwater Initiative seeks a Managing Director, Policy to lead its policy function, whichseeksto turn the best policy ideas intopopular,widely supportedpositions. Reporting to the CEO, the Managing Directorwill buildthe policy team andserve as Breakwater's senior-most policy expert,developing ourhigh-impact positionsand ensuring that they are rigorous andwell-groundedinbest practiceand experience.

The remit isexpansive. Breakwater's agenda spans the full economic footprint of AI: labor, tax, economic and industrial policy, the safety net, and questions of ownership. The right person need not be a deep expert in all of these but brings real depth in several and the range to engage credibly across the rest — and can hold their own with the bestexpertsand officials in the field, synthesize competing inputsinto a clear point of view, and rigorously develop the strongest ideas intoconcreteproposalstoadvance prosperity and agency for workers in an AI world.

The org chart is flat, the strategy is evolving, and some days the most important work will not appear on any job description. The right person is energized by thatand iscomfortable exercising discretion and judgmentin uncertain situations, collaborating with others as needed.

Work Schedule

This role follows a hybrid schedule and is required to be in the office Monday through Thursday.

Key Responsibilities

Leading The Policy Function

• Serve as the senior-most expert running Breakwater's policy function and a trusted authority on its agenda, positions, and analysis.
• Set the direction,strategy,and priorities of the policy team, translating a shared vision into an executableagendaand holding the team to it.
• Anticipate risk, develop contingency plans, and make sound judgments about where to invest the team's time and resources for the highest impact.
• Own the quality, coherence, and timeliness of everything the policy team produces, ensuring Breakwater speaks with rigor and a single, credible voice.

Developing the Agenda

• Lead the development of Breakwater's policy agendas, documents, and positions, from framing the questions through to finishedproductsbuilt to movethe conversation and public opinion.
• Identifyand synthesize the strongest thinking from across the field — academic research, practitioner input, and ideas from everywhere — into clear, defensible positions,distinguishing genuinely novel approaches fromthestatus quo.
• Lead the tracking and synthesis of the federal and state policy landscape relevant to AI and theeconomy andtranslate developments into implications for Breakwater's agenda.
• Ensure the team's monitoring and rapid response capacity keeps Breakwater ahead of, not behind, the debate.
• Bring depth, rigor, and sound judgment to selecting, pressure-testing, and developing policy ideas; original ideas of your own are a welcome plus, but the core is disciplined development of the best ideas, wherever they originate.
• Ensure Breakwater's agenda is built to be enacted — substantively sound, ready to travel, and tightly aligned withthemostsalient issues in the public discourse—setting the direction that connects thepolicy workto real-world adoption.

Building and Managing the Team and Expert Bench

• Build, lead, and develop a high-performing and high-impact policy team,including theDirector, Policyand Advocacy,and Associates.
• Recruit, manage, and mobilize Breakwater's network of nonresident Policy Fellows, deepening the organization's bench of experts and channeling their work into the agenda.
• Set goals and priorities, manage performance, and develop leadership capability as the function scales.
• Direct the outputs of the policyteamend to end — assigning work,editingand elevating written products, and ensuring expert time and staff effort are well used.

Communications and External Representation

• Partner with the communications team to translate policy into clear, compelling narrative forpolicymaker,advocacy, and funder audiences.
• Represent Breakwater's substance in expert convenings, briefings, and select external settings.

Qualifications and Characteristics

An ideal candidate will bring many of the following:

• Generally expected to have 15+ years of relevant experience across policy development, government, research institutions, or advocacy, including at least 5 years in leadership roles. Direct government and/or nonprofit experience preferred.
• Real substantive depth in several areas of the economics and policy of AI — which may include labor, tax, economic and industrial policy, the safety net, or questions of ownership — with the range and confidence to engage credibly across the rest and get up to speed fast where needed.
• A strong network across the policy, research, and practitioner communities relevant to AI and the economy — or theevidentability to build one fast — and the credibility to engage policymakers across the ideological spectrum on substance.
• Strong facilitation andconveningjudgment: the ability to lead expert working groups and mobilize a bench of outside experts to produce real outputs rather thanjust goodconversation.
• Strongpeopleleadership: experience building, managing, and developing teams.
• Experience setting strategy independently and making resourcing decisions with significant organizational impact; ability toanticipaterisk and plan for contingencies.
• Excellent written and verbal communication, with the range to move between a policy,public, and funder audience without losing rigor or voice, and ability torepresentsubstantive work externally
• Experience and comfort working closely with operational and compliance personnelto ensure alignment of programmatic goals and compliance requirements.
• A high tolerance for ambiguity and a builder's instinct: comfortablewithafast-paced environment, flexing across roles,exercising discretion and judgmentin uncertain situations, collaborating with others as needed, and knowing when to escape.
• High integrity, intellectual curiosity, and a deep commitment to economic fairness, worker dignity, and the responsible development of AI.
• Bachelor's degreerequired; advanced degree preferred.

BreakwaterInitiative is committed to equal employmentopportunityand to building a team that reflects the diversity of the workers and communities it serves. Candidates from all backgrounds are encouraged to apply.