Vice President, States Initiatives

Recoding America Fund • Washington, DC

7d • Remote

About The Position

The Recoding America Fund (RAF) is a new, bipartisan hybrid 501(c)(3)/501(c)(4) initiative focused on strengthening American governments at federal and state levels to compete globally and serve citizens effectively. RAF aims to restore core government capabilities by adopting a new operating model with the right people, doing the right work, supported by purpose-fit systems and test-and-learn frameworks. The Fund seeks to accelerate the growth of state capacity organizations, foster connections among them, identify gaps, and help them set ambitious common goals for transformational change across all levels of government. This role is crucial for shaping this change in the public interest, recognizing that it requires a bipartisan effort. The Vice President, States Initiatives will lead RAF's entire portfolio dedicated to ambitious reform of state governments, working with a growing field of partners. The current leader will transition to a Senior Advisor role to focus on specific state capacity issues. Success requires a field-building orientation, aiming to spur durable reform at scale by building capacity beyond any single state. This role encompasses both strategy and operations for RAF's state-level work. The ideal candidate will have a clear vision for high-leverage reform opportunities, design scalable mechanisms to identify state partners, and engage in co-creation with ecosystem organizations. Emphasis will be placed on investing in connective tissue such as shared knowledge, language, peer networks, and identity to transform a collection of actors into a coherent field that can sustain the work beyond RAF's six-year initiative. Thinking 'federally' is critical, as federal rules impact state possibilities, state successes can inform federal action, and the federal government can connect state reformers. This role will partner closely with the Federal Policy Director to ensure this dynamic, described as 'federalism as a flywheel,' is leveraged effectively.

Requirements

• Substantial experience in government reform, public sector innovation, or related fields (likely spanning 10-20 years).
• Experience working in or closely with state government, understanding its rhythms, constraints, and politics.
• A desire for transformational change and a willingness to tackle the challenge of catalyzing structural change in government's operating model.
• Field-building experience: ability to create conditions for an ecosystem to deliver wins at scale.
• Experience investing in infrastructure and shared resources that enhance the effectiveness of other organizations.
• Thinking in terms of scale and sustainability: designing programs, partnerships, or initiatives with a focus on scalability and longevity beyond the organization.
• Ability to build trust-based relationships and act as a connector and convener, including across ideological divides.
• Experience enabling people and groups to work productively together toward shared goals.
• Comfort representing work to funders and building the philanthropic case for state capacity investment.
• Ability to articulate a compelling story about the work's importance and impact.
• Self-directed strategic leadership: ability to articulate theories of change, identify assumptions, and update thinking based on learning.
• Effective upward management: ability to bring others along as thinking and plans evolve.
• Strong management and team-building experience, including building and leading high-performing teams.
• AI-forward mindset: actively experimenting with AI in day-to-day and strategic work.
• Thrives in a startup environment where roles and priorities may evolve.
• Low-ego builder who invests in building the organization as a whole.

Nice To Haves

• Ideological diversity to the team and ecosystem.

Responsibilities

• Developing and executing a scalable, field-oriented state strategy grounded in clear criteria for investment.
• Building a portfolio of state-focused initiatives that prioritizes investment (time, relational capital, political capital, dollars) in high-potential opportunities, balancing politics across red, purple, and blue states.
• Designing and implementing creative, scalable mechanisms for identifying, assessing, and pursuing high-potential state-focused opportunities, potentially leveraging organizational convening power, open calls, and AI-enabled intelligence.
• Experimenting with various approaches to support reform in states, rapidly learning from experiences and integrating that learning back into the work.
• Developing structured approaches to pressure-test and respond to high-potential inbound interest from states.
• Activating the ecosystem by identifying partners with relevant expertise and co-creating engagement strategies.
• Ensuring field-building is a core component of states work by strengthening connective tissue and infrastructure, and supporting partners in aligned opportunities.
• Cultivating and co-creating partnerships with aligned ecosystem organizations, using strategic grantmaking as a tool.
• Creating forums and infrastructure for ecosystem organizations across the ideological spectrum to collaborate, generate ideas, and develop shared priorities.
• Identifying and facilitating the creation of needed capabilities, tools, and knowledge resources as public goods for the field.
• Creating the political conditions for reform success through narrative, policymaker education, coalition-building, and lobbying via Recoding America Action.
• Expanding the ecosystem's advocacy muscle and infrastructure, identifying organizations to fund, leveraging government affairs capacity, and deploying 501(c)(4) resources.
• Investing in demand-building for reform to ensure state leaders perceive reform as politically viable.
• Shaping narrative, educating policymakers, connecting officials with proof points, and assembling cross-ideological coalitions for reform durability.
• Assessing political conditions in states and engaging appropriate partners, strategists, and lobbyists to navigate them.
• Capturing, codifying, and sharing lessons learned from the states team's work within the organization and with the field.
• Identifying and investing in 'knowledge public goods' and learning infrastructure for the field.
• Partnering with the Chief Digital and AI Officer to leverage AI and technology for strengthening the field's knowledge infrastructure.
• Collaborating with the Federal Policy Director to integrate state and federal conversations.
• Contributing to building RAF as a high-performing, field-oriented organization as a member of the leadership team.
• Bringing the perspective of the states work to organizational decisions and vice versa.
• Building and managing a high-performing, geographically distributed states team, setting clear expectations, investing in professional development, and providing feedback.
• Contributing to field resource mobilization, including owning donor relationships where the states work is the primary draw.
• Developing a strategy for identifying and cultivating place-based donors aligned with high-potential states.
• Representing the states work to existing and prospective donors and building connections between funders and ecosystem partners.

Benefits

• Automatic 3% employer contribution to a 401k, fully vested immediately
• Flexible Time Off
• Time off for federal holidays plus an end-of-year office closure from Dec 24 through Jan 1st
• 100% contribution to employee premiums for medical, dental, and vision
• 50% contribution to premiums for dependents
• Access to pre-tax accounts (Healthcare FSA, Dependent Care FSA, and Commuter Benefits)

What This Job Offers

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