Regional Principal, AI Economic Preparedness

Windfall Trust • ,

7d • $160,000 - $205,000 • Remote

About The Position

Windfall Trust is hiring a full-time Principal to lead a portfolio of national-government AI economic preparedness engagements within one region. Windfall’s programs examine how advanced AI could affect a country’s development model—including job automation exposure, labor-intensive manufacturing, traded services, remittances or commodity exports, and public finances—and help governments determine what to monitor and how to respond.

The Principal will serve as Windfall’s senior counterpart for governments and partners in the region, set the direction of each engagement, lead scenario workshops, convene working groups, and guide governments from diagnosis toward monitoring, policy development, and institutional change. The role will also help shape Windfall’s country preparedness approach in collaboration with international and local partners. A Senior Researcher provides analytical and content support, with Windfall senior management available for high-level direction as needed.

The position is remote, with regular overlap with European and US working hours. It involves approximately 20–30% travel, including international travel. The stated start date is January 2027, and compensation is $160,000–$205,000.

Requirements

• At least 8 years of experience in economic policy, international development, government advisory, or strategy consulting, including leading multi-stakeholder programs.
• A track record of leading government engagements, ideally with ministries of ICT, finance, education, economy, or planning in developing countries or countries in the relevant region.
• Grounding in development economics and public policy, such as labor markets, informality, structural transformation, trade, or public finance, and judgment to turn analysis into a clear argument for a minister.
• Experience designing and facilitating workshops or convenings with senior officials.
• Experience building and running expert networks, working groups, or coalitions.
• Experience managing teams, consultants, or partners and managing budgets and timelines across several workstreams.
• Clear, persuasive writing and speaking for senior government, multilateral, and funder audiences.
• Serious interest in how advanced AI could reshape economies, jobs, and public finances.
• Collaborative and reliable working style suited to a small team spread across time zones.

Nice To Haves

• Experience with a multilateral or development organization, such as the World Bank, IMF, or OECD, or in strategy consulting.
• Background in foresight or scenario planning.
• Existing network of economists and policymakers in the region.
• A working language or experience in the region.
• Experience writing funding proposals or managing funder relationships.

Responsibilities

• Own country engagements from scoping to close, agree objectives and measures of success with government counterparts, set scope with delivery partners, lead collaboration, and manage milestones.
• Set country-specific starting hypotheses and research questions, direct analysis and research tools, and review outputs before they are shared with governments and partners.
• Adapt Windfall’s reference scenarios to country contexts and lead workshops with ministers, senior officials, local experts, and international partners; translate workshop outcomes into agreed next steps.
• Identify and convene economists, think tanks, and officials in each country and across the region; establish standing working groups with local counterpart institutions and maintain their activity between workshops.
• Guide governments and local partners in establishing early-warning indicators, selecting policy options from Windfall’s Policy Atlas, and developing national preparedness plans and research agendas.
• Represent Windfall in the region, participate in conferences and workshops, build relationships with multilateral country offices, regional institutions, knowledge partners, and funders, and contribute to proposals funding new country work.
• Track what governments monitor, decide, and fund; share regional lessons with Windfall’s country preparedness approach and help shape the organization’s regional strategy.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: No Education Listed