Priority Initiative Leader, Uniting Americans Around Our Founding Principles

Stand Together; Arlington (VA); On-site; USD 200,000 - 250,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

401(k) match

Health and dental plans

Wellness and mental health support

Bonus opportunities

Job summary

Stand Together in Arlington, VA, seeks a Priority Initiative Leader to craft and refine a national strategy for building a shared American identity rooted in founding principles. You will coordinate a coalition of sports, entertainment, philanthropy, civics and education partners to deliver a unified movement across narrative, action, and civics pillars.

You will lead strategic vision, manage a high-impact portfolio, and develop leaders while applying PBM principles to drive measurable progress

Qualifications

• Proven ability to lead complex, national-scale strategy initiatives.
• Experience aligning diverse coalition partners across sectors.
• Strong external presence in media, culture, or philanthropy.

Responsibilities

• Set and steward overarching portfolio strategy and theory of change.
• Represent Stand Together to a broad coalition of partners.
• Integrate capabilities into a cohesive portfolio with measured priorities.
• Run disciplined portfolio experiments and scale what works.
• Structure complex, nine-figure opportunities with partners.
• Turn strategy into accountable systems with clear ownership.
• Establish knowledge-sharing structures across teams.
• Develop talent and mentor leaders within the portfolio.
• Lead with Principle Based Management and direct feedback.

Skills

Leadership experience

National strategy

Stakeholder engagement

Communications

PBM understanding

Job description

Stand Together is a philanthropic community that helps America’s boldest changemakers tackle the root causes of our country’sbiggest problems, from education to the economy, broken communities, and toxic division, among dozens of other pressing issues. We provide our partners with access to resources including funding, thought leadership, a network of peers, and a playbook for applying proven principles to transform lives and society.

As the Priority Initiative Leader for Uniting Americans Around Our Founding Principles (UAFP), you will serve as the key strategic leader accountable for developing and refining the strategy and theory of change for how Stand Together and its network of partners build a shared American identity grounded in the country’s founding principles, replacing a narrative of division with one of shared purpose and bottom-up contribution.

This role sits at the intersection of narrative and movement strategy, high-profile coalition leadership, and civics-market building. You'll bring together a distinctive set of stakeholders - professional sports leagues and franchises, musicians and entertainment partners, philanthropic partners across the ideological spectrum, civics education organizations, and community leaders - around a shared campaign to make founding-principles-based citizenship culturally resonant at national scale. You'll integrate the full breadth of Stand Together’s capabilities, from national brand campaigns and content production to fundraising and partner development, so the movement’s narrative, action, and civics pillars compound rather than run independently.

We are looking for someone who operates as the chief executive of a portfolio: reading a fast-moving cultural landscape quickly, prioritizing the opportunities that will drive the most impact, making the trade-offs that follow, and building the leaders who'll implement the strategies.

The ideal candidate has shaped national-scale brand, cultural, or narrative campaigns, and has a track record of building coalitions with high-profile partners across business, entertainment, sports, and philanthropy. Done well, this role makes founding-principles-based citizenship a living part of American culture rather than a civics-class abstraction.

How You Will Contribute

• Set and steward the overarching strategy and theory of change for the portfolio, ensuring that the National Narrative, Action, and Civics pillars operate as one integrated movement rather than three parallel efforts, with clear and well-reasoned points of view on how paradigm-level change in American identity is achieved
• Represent Stand Together externally by aligning a high-profile coalition of philanthropic partners, sports leagues and franchises, entertainment and music partners, and civics education organizations around a shared, ambitious agenda for a unified American identity
• Integrate Stand Together’s full range of capabilities, including content production, marketing and communications, activations, and fundraising, into a cohesive portfolio strategy, with attention to sequencing brand and narrative work ahead of platform, measurement, and civics investments
• Run a disciplined portfolio of experiments and new builds: test where the strategy has gaps, learn quickly from what the audience responds to, scale what works, and cut what doesn't
• Partner with internal investment specialists to structure complex, nine-figure-and-above opportunities with philanthropic partners across the ideological spectrum, bringing sound judgment to deal design without owning execution
• Turn strategy into accountable systems, establishing clear owners, measures, reporting cadence, and decision rights
• Establish and steward the structures that keep knowledge moving across Priority Initiatives, capability, and business teams, redesigning working groups to function as knowledge and decision-support engines rather than coordination forums, and applying technology, including artificial-intelligence-enabled synthesis so insight and decisions travel as fast as the campaigns do
• Develop talent beyond your own direct reporting lines, treating the portfolio as a bench that produces leaders and operators the broader organization can deploy
• Lead through Principle Based Management® day to day: giving and receiving direct challenge, running consistent feedback loops, and holding partners and teams accountable through influence rather than formal authority

What You Will Bring

• Enthusiasm to contribute to Stand Together's vision and principled approach to solving problems, and a commitment to stewarding our culture, which champions values including transformation and innovation, entrepreneurialism, humility, and respect.
• Significant leadership experience within a large, complex philanthropic organization, foundation, or corporate social impact function—with a track record of driving strategy at national scale
• Demonstrated ability to develop and execute audience identification and engagement strategies
• Demonstrated ability to convene and align diverse, high-profile stakeholders—including funders, nonprofit leaders, and policy advocates—around a shared, ambitious agenda
• Experience developing and executing complex theories of change across multiple sub-issues or portfolios simultaneously
• Strong external presence and communication skills, with comfort operating in media, cultural, and entertainment-adjacent spaces alongside policy and philanthropic audiences
• Genuine grounding in the country’s founding principles, including individual liberty, civic virtue, and classical constitutional values, and the ability to make that case resonate with partners and audiences across the ideological spectrum

Standout Candidates Will Bring

• Working knowledge of issue sets and markets relevant to this portfolio, including national narrative or movement-marketing campaigns, civics education, and cultural or entertainment-industry partnership building
• Demonstrated strength in management and strategic thinking, with the ability to build teams, set clear goals, rally others around a shared vision, and drive measurable progress as a leader of leaders
• Direct experience building or scaling a brand or cultural campaign with celebrity, sports-league, or entertainment-industry partners at national scale
• Fluency with modern knowledge and synthesis tools, including artificial-intelligence-enabled research, measurement, and communication workflows
• Existing subject matter expertise in one or more of the specific areas this portfolio works in, such as civics education, national identity or founding-principles-based movements, or cultural and entertainment partnerships, is an added plus, though not required

What We Offer

• Competitive benefits: Enjoy a 6% 401(k) match with immediate vesting, flexible time off, comprehensive health and dental plans, plus wellness and mental health support through Peloton and Talkspace.
• A meaningful career: Join a passionate community of over 1,300 employees dedicated to improving lives and driving innovative solutions to complex social challenges.
• Commitment to growth: Thrive in a non-hierarchical environment that empowers employees to discover, develop, and apply their unique talents.
• Competitive compensation: Our approach rewards the value you create through competitive salaries and bonus opportunities, allowing you to share in the success you help drive.

Our Values:

Working for an organization within the Stand Together philanthropic community is different from many other places. The culture is deeply rooted in Principle Based Management® (PBM®), a framework guided by the principles that drive human progress, such as dignity, openness, and bottom-up empowerment. PBM® empowers employees to be entrepreneurial, to innovate, and to continually drive transformation.

We believe diversity fuels creativity, broadens knowledge, and helps drive success. That is why we’re proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer and strive to treat all employees and applicants with honesty, dignity, and respect.

$200,000 - $250,000 a year

For this role, the anticipated base salary range is $200,000 – $250,000 per year. In addition to base salary, additional bonus earnings may represent a meaningful portion of total compensation. Total compensation will align with an employee’s overall contribution and the value created for the organization.

Our Principles-Based Management™ (PBM) compensation philosophy is grounded in an individualized approach that rewards the long-term value each person creates for the organization. Compensation decisions are informed by a variety of factors, including relevant experience, capabilities, demonstrated skills, role responsibilities, and expected contribution. Consistent with this approach, base salary may vary within or outside of the anticipated range based on these considerations.