Chief of Staff

I. POSITION SUMMARY

The Chief of Staff is a senior operational role responsible for extending the Executive Director's capacity across the organization. As AIPN scales, the Chief of Staff will absorb context across all functions, make decisions on behalf of the Executive Director, and build the operating systems that allow the organization to grow without routing every decision through the Executive Director.

The ideal candidate brings experience supporting senior leaders in fast-paced, high-stakes environments, strong communication and management skills, and the judgment to act decisively with imperfect information.

II. RESPONSIBILITIES

A. Decision Support & Delegation

• Develop sufficient fluency in AIPN's priorities, constraints, and reasoning to handle a large fraction of decisions that currently require the Executive Director's direct involvement.
• Triage incoming requests and issues, routing only genuinely ED-level decisions to the Executive Director.

B. Organizational Operations

• Drive AIPN's operating cadence, including weekly staff meetings, monthly reviews, and quarterly planning cycles.
• Identify operational gaps and build solutions, including interim ownership of functions during hiring.
• Track organizational commitments and hold teams accountable to deadlines and deliverables.

C. Stakeholder & External Management

• Prepare briefings and materials for board meetings, donor engagements, and external partnerships.
• Represent the Executive Director in meetings with partners, funders, and policy stakeholders as appropriate.
• Coordinate with external firms (lobbying, communications, legal) on behalf of the Executive Director.
• Comfort operating across the political spectrum, including in Republican congressional and executive branch environments.

D. Information Synthesis & Strategic Support

• Connect signals across teams -- identifying when hiring delays, product questions, and stakeholder concerns reflect a common underlying issue -- and surface insights clearly.
• Draft decision memos, strategy documents, and internal communications.
• Support preparation for high-level engagements, including Hill meetings, donor events, and media appearances.

III. QUALIFICATIONS

A. Required

• 5+ years of experience in decision-support or operational leadership roles, such as chief of staff, legislative director, campaign manager, agency chief of staff, or management consultant.
• Strong project management skillset and comfort driving performance across a large team.
• Exceptional written communication skills, including the ability to produce clear decision memos, briefing materials, and strategy documents under time pressure.
• Comfort operating with ambiguity and making judgment calls with incomplete information.
• Experience managing sensitive information with complete discretion (board materials, personnel decisions, financial data).
• Bachelor's degree.

B. Preferred

• Familiarity with technology policy, AI, or national security policy environments.
• Experience in political organizations, advocacy groups, or think tanks.
• Sufficient technical literacy to triage decisions related to engineering, infrastructure, or product development.
• Background in nonprofit or 501(c)(4) organizational operations.

The AI Policy Network (AIPN) Role Details

• Location: Washington, D.C. (in-person)

• Compensation: $165,000 - $235,000

• Reports to: Executive Director

• Benefits: Benefits include a technology budget, a stipend for health insurance, and unlimited PTO.