Vice President and Executive Director - CFR West

Position Summary

CFR seeks a founding leader to build and lead CFR West — a new initiative to bridge the technology and foreign policy communities. Reporting to CFR’s president and working closely with CFR’s senior leadership, board of directors, and a newly formed CFR West Advisory Board, the head of CFR West will shape what the initiative becomes and lead its launch. The role blends entrepreneur, convener, expert, and ambassador. It suits a leader with deep roots and credibility in the technology community, genuine curiosity about foreign policy, and the appetite to build something new and innovative within a storied institution.

The head of CFR West will be supported by a West Coast Regional Engagement Director. That role handles day-to-day member relationship management and coordinates with CFR’s Executive Office and National Program and Outreach team on programming. The head of CFR West will work with CFR leadership to build an on-the-ground team around their own strengths.

Essential Functions/Responsibilities

Vision and strategy 

• Develop and recommend to CFR’s President and executive leadership a strategy and operating model for CFR West, including which activities to prioritize and how to phase them. The options range from expanded programming and convening to original research and new AI-native products and platforms. 

• Set measurable goals for the initiative and report regularly to CFR’s executive leadership and the Board on progress. 

• Serve as an internal voice for how CFR can adapt its products, formats, and use of technology, applying lessons from CFR West across the institution. 

Community and relationships 

• Build CFR’s relationships across the technology community, including founders, CEO’s,  heads of policy, research leads, engineering executives, investors, venture capitalists, and rising leaders. 

• Identify future leaders early and bring them into the CFR ecosystem, working with the Membership department on recruitment and engagement of technology sector prospects. 

• Help further build and develop CFR’s nascent young technologist cohort, a group of globally-minded engineers and entrepreneurs.  

• Partner with West Coast Board members and chair the CFR West Advisory Board, drawing on its members for strategic advice, introductions, and access. 

Convening and experiences 

• Shape a distinctive West Coast convening agenda, building on CFR’s National Symposium in Menlo Park and existing Bay Area programming. Ground it in the questions technologists face, such as what export controls mean for chips or what supply chain policy means for a product roadmap, the impact of autonomy on war, the evolution of space and communications, as well as key country-specific issues, such as China. 

• Create experiences that go beyond panels, such as tabletop exercises and war games, foreign policy bootcamps, and fact-finding missions to national labs, military site visits, New York, Washington, and abroad. 

• Choose venues across the area to make convenings accessible and attractive to key audiences.  

Research and products 

• Work with the Studies department to bring technology community perspectives into CFR’s research agenda, Task Forces, and study groups, including holding sessions on the West Coast. 

• Help develop new formats suited to technical audiences, such as simulations, scenario exercises, and interactive tools. 

• Help design and launch a technologist-in-residence program. 

Representation and resources 

• Serve as CFR’s senior representative on the West Coast and a visible voice for the initiative in the technology community. 

• Work with CFR’s Development and Corporate teams to identify and cultivate philanthropic and corporate support for CFR West. 

• Provide oversight and strategic direction to the Regional Engagement Director and any future CFR West staff. 

• Perform any other duties or tasks as assigned or required. 

Minimum Qualifications

Experience 

• Senior leadership experience in the technology sector, such as operating executive, founder, investor, or research leader, with extensive relationships across the West Coast technology community and the respect of its leaders. 

• Meaningful exposure to the policy world, whether through government service, policy roles at technology companies, advisory work, or sustained engagement with national security or foreign policy issues. 

• A track record of building something from the ground up: launching a company, product, program, or organization, and bringing others along. 

• Familiarity with CFR, or with comparable institutions at the intersection of policy and industry, preferred. 

Attributes 

• An entrepreneurial builder comfortable with ambiguity, able to move from vision to execution inside an established institution. 

• A natural convener and translator, able to make policy relevant to technologists and technology legible to policymakers. 

• Nonpartisan judgment, discretion, and credibility with leaders across sectors and perspectives and an ability to work across partisan, industry, and geographic boundaries.  

• Intellectual range across AI, defense technology, economic security, and U.S.–Asia relations. 

• A collaborative leader who works well with a Board, advisors, and colleagues across departments. 

• Willingness to travel frequently across the West Coast and periodically to New York, Washington, and other technology hubs. 

Required Application Materials

Please submit a CV and cover letter describing your interest in the role and your perspective on what CFR West could become.

Compensation and Benefits

• The full-time annual compensation range for this position is $300,000 – $350,000, depending on experience.
• In addition to competitive salaries, the Council on Foreign Relations offers a benefits package that is among the best offered by nonprofit institutions today, including an award-winning health and wellness program, an on-site fitness center, and generous leave policies and health insurance programs.

About CFR

The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is committed to fostering a foreign policy community in the United States that is more representative of American society, recognizing that diverse backgrounds and perspectives contribute to broader, more informed participation in the foreign policy debate and lead to an enhanced understanding of the world and the United States’ role therein. To that end, CFR is dedicated to continuing to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion throughout its work and workplace by building a more diverse membership and staff, producing and dispensing thoughtful analysis on a broad range of foreign policy issues, and developing relevant, wide-reaching programming that also serves to expand the foreign policy talent pipeline to underrepresented populations. 

Compensation: 300000 to 350000 (USD)