Senior Fellow

(EDO) Entertainment Data Oracle, Inc.; Lansdowne (VA); On-site; USD 141,000 - 233,000; Full time

Job summary

Alliance Defending Freedom seeks a Senior Fellow to join the Research & Innovation team in Lansdowne, VA. The role focuses on anticipating threats to religious liberty and free speech, producing scholarly and popular writings, and translating ideas for litigation, legislation, and public engagement.

You will report to the Senior Counsel and Vice President for Strategic Research & Policy Innovation, managing a dedicated research portfolio and collaborating across legal, legislative, and

Qualifications

• A terminal degree — J.D., Ph.D., M.D., D.Min., or equivalent — is strongly preferred.
• A minimum of 10 years of ascending experience in law, policy, academia, journalism, theology, ministry, or a closely related field.
• Demonstrated range: the strongest candidates will have experience across more than one of these fields and a record of work that has advanced solutions, not merely documented problems.

Responsibilities

• Identify and analyze emerging threats to religious liberty, freedom of speech, parental rights, life, and related freedoms — including threats from disruptive technologies and government action at the local, state, federal, and international levels — using AI-assisted horizon-scanning tools and traditional research methods.
• Produce original written work in popular and academic formats, including long-form essays, policy papers, white papers, op-eds, and articles for Christian and general audiences, with the goal of placement in leading legal, Christian, and conservative journals and publications.
• Build a recognized public voice in your strategic focus area, developing the platform and external relationships that establish you and ADF as an indispensable source on those issues.

Education

Terminal degree (J.D., Ph.D., M.D., D.Min., or equivalent)

Job description

Lansdowne, VA, Scottsdale, AZ, Washington D.C

Make a difference with us! At Alliance Defending Freedom, we believe God has brought you here for His purpose—to stand for truth and defend the God-given right to live and speak it. Together, we protect religious freedom, free speech, the sanctity of life, marriage and family, and parental rights. Review our Statement of Faith to ensure we’re a fit for you.

Location:

Lansdowne, VA, Scottsdale, AZ, Washington D.C

Team Overview

As a Senior Fellow, you are a vital part of ADF’s Research & Innovation team. The R&I team exists to meet our civilizational moment — anticipating legal and cultural threats, generating consequential scholarship, and translating ideas across the full spectrum of ADF’s work: litigation, legislation, communications, and movement-building. ADF wins at the Supreme Court, in legislatures, and in the public square. Fellows here develop ideas and strategies that shape law and culture.

In this role, you will report to the Senior Counsel and Vice President for Strategic Research & Policy Innovation and, through that office, to the Senior Vice President. You will carry a dedicated research portfolio within one or more of the team’s strategic focus areas, producing original work and carrying it into the public square through writing, speaking, testimony, and media.

Key Responsibilities

Thought Leadership & Scholarship

• Identify and analyze emerging threats to religious liberty, freedom of speech, parental rights, life, and related freedoms — including threats from disruptive technologies and government action at the local, state, federal, and international levels — using AI-assisted horizon-scanning tools and traditional research methods.
• Produce original written work in popular and academic formats, including long-form essays, policy papers, white papers, op-eds, and articles for Christian and general audiences, with the goal of placement in leading legal, Christian, and conservative journals and publications.
• Build a recognized public voice in your strategic focus area, developing the platform and external relationships that establish you and ADF as an indispensable source on those issues.

Policy, Litigation & Movement Support

• Working with ADF’s internal teams, develop practical, action-oriented proposals for litigation strategy, model legislation, regulatory comments, and executive policy that advance ADF’s strategic goals and objectives.
• Collaborate with ADF’s Legal, Legislative and Policy, and Communications teams on case strategy, amicus briefs, model bills, testimony, and public messaging.
• Contribute to ADF’s internal position papers and knowledge management project.
• Represent ADF before policymakers, regulatory agencies, and allied organizations.

External Engagement & Alliance Building

• Represent ADF through speaking engagements, media appearances, podcasts, and symposia, communicating complex ideas with clarity and conviction to diverse audiences.
• Build and maintain strategic relationships with leaders in the conservative movement, the Church, academia, and policy institutions — bringing existing networks to the role and expanding them in service of ADF’s mission.
• Organize and lead colloquia, symposia, pop-up salons, and strategic gatherings that generate high-quality intelligence, publishable thought leadership, and movement-building opportunities.

Team & Organizational Contribution

• Contribute to ADF’s broader programmatic events, including conferences, panel discussions, and public lectures.
• Support the professional development of Research Specialists and early-career attorneys through substantive feedback, mentorship, and intellectual formation.
• Assist in developing materials — including testimony, position papers, and public commentary — that advance ADF’s mission across all issue areas.

Minimum Qualifications

• A terminal degree — J.D., Ph.D., M.D., D.Min., or equivalent — is strongly preferred.
• A minimum of 10 years of ascending experience in law, policy, academia, journalism, theology, ministry, or a closely related field.
• Demonstrated range: the strongest candidates will have experience across more than one of these fields and a record of work that has advanced solutions, not merely documented problems.

Want to Know More About ADF?

This salary range is reflective of a position based in Lansdowne, VA. This range is a good-faith estimate, and the actual salary may vary based on the candidate’s experience, skills, qualifications, and office location.

Virginia Salary Range

$140,600 - $232,500 USD

Statement of Faith

Based on our adherence to the inspired, infallible, inerrant, and authoritative Word of God in Scripture, we profess with the Christian Church throughout time and around the world the faith expressed in the Apostles’ Creed:

I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried;
On the third day he rose again; he ascended into heaven,
he is seated at the right hand of the Father,
and he will come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic Church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting.
Amen.

Doctrinal Distinctives

Also, based on this confession, we are committed to honoring God by obeying the two Greatest Commandments, loving God and loving neighbor, and based on that commitment and derived from the inspired, infallible, inerrant, and authoritative Word of God in Scripture, we profess the following as necessary for living the gospel:

• We believe in the spiritual unity and equality of believers in our Lord Jesus Christ.
• We believe that the Lordship of Christ requires us as disciples to seek to conform our actions, thoughts, and desires in obedience to Him.
• We believe God creates each person with an immutable biological sex — male or female — that reflects the image and likeness of God.
• We believe God designed marriage as a unique conjugal relationship joining one man and one woman in a single, exclusive, life-long union, and God intends sexual intimacy only to occur within that relationship.
• We believe God endows all human life with inherent dignity, and it must be respected and protected from conception to natural death.
• We believe that God has endowed all humans with the natural, and inalienable right of religious freedom to believe, pursue truth, and live within ordered liberty such that no civil government may justly infringe upon it.
• We believe that God, through His Son, Jesus Christ, calls all of us to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Him, knowing that He promises us abundant and eternal life.