Director of Government Workforce Reform, Democracy Works 250

Democracy Forward•Washington, DC

2d•$150,000 - $170,000•Hybrid

About The Position

Are you a mission-driven leader with expertise in federal government personnel management? If so, Democracy Forward Foundation (“Democracy Forward”) is hiring a Director of Government Workforce Reform to join our team. Democracy Works 250 is a new initiative from Democracy Forward’s Civil Service Strong that is building the personnel systems and structures our democracy needs for the next 250 years, and we’re looking for a bold, strategic, and future-focused Director of Government Workforce Reform to help lead the critical workforce policy aspect of that work. This is not a policy role for tinkering at the edges. It’s an opportunity to lead the most ambitious redesign of federal workforce policy in a generation—one that meets the scale of the moment and shapes how federal government institutions function for decades to come. As Director of Government Workforce Reform, you will drive a transformational process to reimagine how government recruits, supports, and empowers the people who make it work. You will lead a national reform coalition and run high-impact working groups, and translate insights from public servants and cross-sector experts into a future-ready, field-informed reform options library. This position is full-time. Democracy Forward’s office is located in Washington, DC. While this position offers flexibility to work remotely, it requires regular in-office presence eight (8) times per month (averaging 2 times per week) to effectively support the nature of the role. Remote candidates within the United States will also be considered. If a candidate is outside of the DC area, travel to DC is expected 1-2 times per quarter. The Director of Government Workforce Reform will report to the Director of Democracy Works 250 and work closely with staff and fellows on the Civil Service Strong team. Our North Star: Democracy Works 250 is working to deliver a coalition-backed options library for how government hires, manages, and empowers people in a modern democracy. This options library will serve as a roadmap for workforce transformation—defining the systems, protections, and incentives needed to build a federal workforce that is effective, fair, and prepared for what’s ahead.

Requirements

10+ years of professional experience in workforce policy, HR systems, reform design, or cross-sector coalition work.
Deep working knowledge of federal personnel systems (OPM, Title 5, SES, hiring/classification, etc.).
Demonstrated leadership in large-scale policy initiatives, reform campaigns, or systems design.
Exceptional writing, synthesis, and facilitation skills.
Comfort working across legal, narrative, operational, and movement-building dimensions.
Well-developed collaborative and interpersonal skills including demonstrated self-awareness, commitment to diversity and inclusivity, and ability to work with colleagues and stakeholders across diverse cultures and backgrounds.

Responsibilities

Lead the development of the Federal Capacity Solutions Lab—a comprehensive set of policy, operational, and structural reforms to modernize how the U.S. government manages its people.
Build out bold, concrete proposals across key domains—hiring, pay, performance, flexibility, classification, talent mobility, AI integration, and more.
Ensure all outputs are visionary but implementable—grounded in law, informed by federal experience, and ready for adoption.
Serve as lead strategist and convener of a national table of civil service experts, labor leaders, civic organizations, technologists, and policy innovators.
Facilitate shared alignment around key reform priorities, manage regular convenings, and turn consensus into coordinated action.
Build and steward relationships with ecosystem partners to amplify and scale impact.
Oversee policy tracks tackling the most urgent and structural challenges in the federal workforce.
Supervise fellows leading policy track working groups across priority areas (e.g., hiring, performance, surge capacity).
Support organizational leadership in cultivating a culture of accountability, inclusivity, and excellence, including through providing real-time support and skills-development for your team.
Integrate outputs into a dynamic and evolving policy architecture that builds toward the options library.
Align the policy track with insights and infrastructure from the other projects in Democracy Works 250: federal oral history project, talent program, and agency redesigning efforts.
Collaborate with legal, research, and communications partners to test, refine, and package reform outputs.
Contribute to and collaborate across other DW250 projects.