Senior Program Director

Summary

Join New Left Accelerator (NLA) as their Empower and Protect (E&P) Senior Program Director, a key leadership role driving strategic growth and scalability of the E&P program. This position involves fostering strong relationships with state stakeholders, leading a team in executing capacity-building projects, and contributing to program strategy development. The ideal candidate will have significant experience in program leadership within a multi-entity organization and a proven ability to build and scale programs. The E&P program focuses on providing operational support, training, and technical assistance to emerging multi-entity organizations. This role requires strong leadership, project management, and partnership skills, along with experience in the progressive ecosystem. The position is remote (US-based) and offers a competitive benefits package.

Requirements

• 5+ years in a Senior Program Director role working in the capacity-building sphere
• 5 years of direct experience managing supervisors, leading teams
• Personal alignment with NLA’s organizational values and experience implementing equity, justice, and liberation values into your work
• Strong understanding of multi-entity organizations, including political campaigns, independent political organizations, 501(c)(4)s, and/or other movement-building organizations
• Ability to coordinate a team of subject matter leads (attorneys, accountants, compliance advisors, etc.) to execute each organization’s body of work
• Experience with program oversight, evaluation, and process-improvement
• Experience building trust and collaboration within a team, including fostering feedback loops and implementing feedback
• Experience with state-based partnership management and engagement
• Strong project management and process design skills, preferably with direct experience using collaborative tools such as Asana, Airtable, and Google Suite
• Experience working in the progressive ecosystem with power-building organizations working to win elections, hold elected officials accountable, and shape how policy is created and implemented
• Experience engaging partners in programmatic evaluation and improvements

Responsibilities

• Lead the program redesign to scale into 6-8 new states serving 50 groups, including standardizing curriculum on core finance, compliance, HR, and risk management elements, which is designed in deep partnership with values-aligned state-based partners
• Drive innovation in capacity-building methodologies by challenging and refining conventional nonprofit consultancy practices, ensuring greater recognition and integration of the diverse experiences, expertise, and knowledge of community leaders
• Prioritize the integration of leadership insights into program strategies, internal procedures, and collaborative partnerships, fostering a culture of continuous learning and developing innovative solutions to evolving challenges
• Collaborate with program staff, the leadership team, and program partners to establish strategic direction and implement program redesign initiatives for 2026 and beyond
• Assist the Managing Director in formulating and executing strategic plans for the Empower & Protect (E&P) program, particularly as it expands into additional states, while leading the implementation process with staff
• Direct the delivery of the E&P program, ensuring that participating groups receive comprehensive support to enhance their organizational capacity and conduct impactful work securely and compliantly
• Monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of the E&P program by participating groups, proactively addressing challenges, and ensuring alignment with the values of New Left Accelerator (NLA) and The Capacity Shop (TCS) in service delivery
• Oversee the program budget and resource allocation for each participating group
• Responsible for building the team to support the state-based work and expansion into new states
• Provide direct supervision to project managers and support the Empower & Protect (E&P) program team, including Lead Coaches and consultants, who collectively manage multiple concurrent capacity-building projects
• Offer coaching, mentorship, and guidance to program staff to ensure the delivery of high-quality services that effectively address the needs of participating groups
• Supervise program staff in onboarding new groups, conducting comprehensive needs assessments, developing detailed scopes of work, and strategically matching groups with subject matter experts and consultants to facilitate their capacity-building objectives
• Oversee staff in the collection, analysis, and application of data to evaluate program impact against the established learning framework, generate reports for key state partners, and drive continuous program improvement
• Collaborate with the new state partners and stakeholders to develop the redesign and curriculum
• Ensure continuous alignment of program activities, partnership initiatives, operational processes, and organizational systems with New Left Accelerator's (NLA) core values
• Collaborate with partners to establish clear, measurable objectives and goals for program participants
• Cultivate and maintain strong, ongoing relationships with partner organizations
• Develop and implement strategic engagement plans for partner collaboration
• Work with the Senior Coaching Director to identify and build a team of Lead Coaches and Subject Matter Leads to support the programmatic work with groups

Benefits

• Medical, Dental, Vision, Life, Short-term Disability, and Health FSA
• Flexible paid time off including vacation and sick time, 11 paid holidays, 1-week Summer Break, and 1-week Winter Break
• Parental Leave
• Professional Development Opportunities
• Working from home stipend
• 401k plan with matching