Center for Economic Democracy Director of Policy and Research Washington, DC · Full time

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Research Management

As an organization, CED has diverse and ongoing research needs. The Director of Research will manage CED’s research processes across different campaigns and projects to ensure that appropriate capacity is being allocated to key priorities. They will also support program staff in research project design and management. 

The Director of Research will also contribute to CED’s educational and training work. This will include efforts to co-design new curriculum, create learning tools and resources, and lead educational opportunities for our partners.

Multi-stakeholder Research and Policy Design

CED is involved in several key national social movement formations, providing strategic support and education capacity on economic democracy analysis and strategy. This role will lead the exploration of new innovative alternative models for economic democracy in coalition with relevant stakeholders, including leaders from grassroots, movement, labor, academic, and capital sectors. The Director of Research will help shape and lead CED’s formal efforts to synthesize and co-create a more comprehensive vision for economic democracy as an alternative to capitalism. Refining our vision for economic democracy will inform CED’s strategies, while helping to galvanize progressive forces across siloed “issue areas” towards a shared North Star. 

• Strategic program development: Convene multi-stakeholder coalitions, engage in landscape analysis, and support strategic planning to help design new interventions that advance economic democracy 
• Study Groups & Co-Design - help facilitate study groups with CED staff and partners and other learning processes to build shared vision and momentum for long term policy objectives  
• Develop new policy initiatives or legislation through collective research and study in coalition with key stakeholders

Policy Research and Writing

The Director of Research will ensure that CED produces quality research to inform and support our policy objectives in collaboration with our movement partners. Current campaigns and projects include: Municipal Democracy in MA, worker co-op policy advocacy in Massachusetts, federal funding for community ownership, bioregional supply chain development, and community controlled finance. 

• Policy Research & Design - lead efforts to research and draft legislation and regulations that will be advanced through CED’s campaigns and coalition efforts 
• Policy Advocacy - lead efforts to promote CED’s policy positions using quantitative and qualitative research, resulting in policy briefs, reports, fact sheets, infographics and other public facing collateral
• Strategic Advising - provide thought partnership and research capacity for key program partners and national coalitions, integrating CED’s findings, strategies and insights into that advising

CED Staff Participation

The Director of Research will participate in regular CED staff meetings and responsibilities.  CED has a strong and growing culture of internal participatory governance, inspired by the Worker Self-Directed Nonprofit model.

• Team Meetings - participate in all-staff meetings, retreats, Program Circle meetings, and Organizational Development Circle (time bound), including rotating facilitation and notetaking roles
• Team Responsibilities - fulfill general CED staff responsibilities, such as participating in Accountability Processes, annual budgeting, team goal setting, supporting in fundraising etc. 
• Peer Advising: provide ad hoc strategic advising and thought partnership on policy and research to other CED staff, not directly involved in national programs.
• Internal Learning - support CED staff and partners’ ability to engage in the field of political economy and long term alternatives to capitalism

DESIRED QUALIFICATIONS AND/OR ATTRIBUTES

Required Skills

• A minimum of 7 years relevant experience, in one or more of the following arenas:
• Labor organizing and unions.
• Cooperative economic development and ownership
• Participatory economics and democracy
• Legislative advocacy, public policy or research for social/climate justice movements. 
• Progressive, multi-racial networks and coalition organizing
• Economic Democracy content: understanding of innovative models or policy strategy for collective governance and ownership. . 
• Research: experience with designing and conducting research using a variety of methodologies appropriate to the project. 
• Multi-stakeholder coalition: experience building coalitions or convening stakeholders from different fields in service of a shared research or policy agenda.
• Policy development: Ability to draft new policy based on coalitions’ strategic goals. Ability to strategically navigate legislative processes and effectively engage with policy makers.
• Written and oral communication: ability to express complex ideas in compelling ways, both written and verbally, with the ability to adapt to various audiences, including funders investors and people with no prior exposure to concepts of economic democracy

Preferred Skills

• Political analysis: highly developed political and economic analysis, with points of view on a vision for economic democracy and how to get there
• Trusted national networks: holds relationships across the country in various movement spaces, and has a positive reputation as a committed partner in the US social movement landscape.
• Financial analysis: ability to analyze financial data in public sector or corporate contexts

Desired qualities of all CED employees:

• Excellent organizational skills; ability to prioritize and lead multiple projects with competing levels of urgency; ability to balance short and long-term objectives, details with the big picture
• Demonstrated commitment to economic/racial/environmental justice and systemic change; support reparations for Black and Indigenous communities, has a healthy critique of capitalism
• Work well independently and across teams, bringing camaraderie, humor 
• Experience with and/or excitement to step into an increasingly horizontal, collaborative and self-managed leadership structure
• Experience with Google suite, Slack, Microsoft suite, and Canva/Adobe Suite; general tech competence
• High emotional intelligence and strong interpersonal communicator with a collaborative orientation towards teams
• Can align with CED’s guiding team principles: 

1. Practice trust (i.e. choosing to trust, earning it, and bolstering it by practice) through rigorous communication, collective reflection and input, and democratic work planning.
2. Create a community of collective care through support and accountability to our own lives, each other, our organizational partners, and the movement.
3. Find joyful abundance through collective problem solving.

• Embodies the venn diagram below:

Salary & Benefits

• Salary: $75,000-$105,000
• The position offers competitive benefits, including generous health and retirement contributions
• CED subscribes to a “Responsible Time Off” policy, allowing employees to elect the times and duration of paid vacation and personal time.

EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER

Center of Economic Democracy is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, religion, age, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, veteran status, height, weight, or marital status in employment or the provision of services.