Managing Director

About the Alliance for American Leadership

The Alliance for American Leadership is a coalition of 70,000 development professionals, students, diplomats, veterans, and engaged citizens spanning all 50 states and 100+ college campuses. In our first year, we have driven 750+ congressional staff meetings, advocated alongside the coalition that secured $50 billion in foreign assistance funding through the State and Foreign Operations Appropriations Bill, and endorsed a bipartisan slate of Members of Congress including Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), James Walkinshaw (D-VA), and Christian Menefee (D-TX).

The role

The Managing Director is the senior operational leader of A4AL, partnering directly with the Executive Director to run the organization. This is a serious role with significant authority. The Managing Director will run day-to-day operations, manage the senior team, oversee fundraising execution, and serve as a credible second public voice for the organization. The Executive Director will retain primary responsibility for strategy, external partnerships, and the public-facing identity of the organization, but the Managing Director will be a real partner in those decisions and will increasingly take on external responsibilities as the role matures.

This is a volunteer (unpaid) position. We are upfront about this because it shapes who the right candidate is. A4AL is a one-year-old organization operating on a lean budget, and the right Managing Director is someone whose career stage allows them to take on a significant unpaid commitment because the mission justifies it - typically a recently retired or semi-retired senior professional, someone in a flexible private-sector role with bandwidth for serious mission work, or someone between major roles who wants to make this their primary project for the next six to twelve months.

Responsibilities

Operations and team management

• Run the weekly operating cadence of the organization --- leadership meetings, team check-ins, project tracking
• Manage and develop the senior staff team (Chief Strategy Officer, Policy Director, Legislative Director, Communications Director)
• Set quarterly priorities and ensure the team executes against them
• Build the operational systems --- performance management, project management, internal communications --- that let A4AL function without depending on the Executive Director's daily involvement

Fundraising support

• Partner with the Executive Director on donor cultivation and stewardship for the Advisory Board, the Endorsements Committee, and major individual donors
• Run the operational side of fundraising --- donor pipeline tracking, follow-up cadence, event execution, quarterly intelligence briefings for major donors
• Help close gifts in the senior donor tiers, taking on principal-level conversations as the relationship allows

Personnel and team building

• Lead recruitment for senior staff and key volunteer roles
• Build the alumni network of former interns and team leads as a long-term organizational asset
• Identify and develop the next layer of leadership inside the organization

Public-facing voice

• Serve as a credible second public voice for A4AL --- co-signing communications, attending donor calls, representing the organization at events when the Executive Director is not available
• Build relationships with peer organizations, congressional offices, and members of the foreign aid community in your own right
• Take on external speaking, media, and partnership conversations as the role matures

What we're looking for

Required

• A career stage and personal situation that makes a substantial volunteer commitment realistic
• A track record of running organizations or major divisions - managing people, setting priorities, building systems, and delivering against goals
• Strong fundraising instincts, even if direct fundraising hasn't been your primary role
• The judgment and credibility to be a real second voice in donor and external conversations
• Approximately 15 hours per week of consistent, reliable availability over a six-month minimum commitment

Strongly preferred

• Existing relationships in the foreign policy, development, congressional, or donor communities
• Experience working in or alongside federal political action committees
• A bipartisan disposition --- comfortable working with Republicans and Democrats and committed to the coalitional nature of the foreign aid fight

What you'll get

• Real operational authority on a fast-moving organization at the center of one of the most consequential policy fights of this decade
• A genuine partnership with the Executive Director --- this is not an advisory or figurehead role
• Direct relationships with senior donors, Members of Congress, foreign policy leaders, and a national community of advocates
• A defined, finite commitment --- six months minimum, with the option to renew or step down
• The opportunity to build something durable. A4AL is past the founding phase but well before the institutional phase. The Managing Director is the role that bridges the two, and the person who takes this on will shape what the organization becomes for years to come.

**Volunteer, remote role

Location: Washington, DC** Time commitment: ~15 hours per week Reports to: Asher Moss, Executive Director

Note: Even if this job post closes, we are still accepting applications. Email [email protected] to apply.