Director of Policy

About Pursuit

Our mission is to create economic transformation. By training low-income adults to launch and advance careers as software engineers,we help our Fellows earn from eighteen thousand dollars a year to over ninety thousand starting salary on average, adding an estimated $2M in lifetime earnings. Pursuit partners with leading companies like Blackstone, USV, Citi, Peloton, and Uber to employ Fellows in career-defining engineering roles and supports them with on-the-job training to ensure potential translates to performance. Since 2013, Pursuit has created ~$1B in total lifetime wage gains, creating lasting economic mobility that spans generations. 

Pursuit’s proven solution is built on two interconnected components: training (which includes community development, Core pre-job training, and Commit on-the-job training) and a financial product (known as Bond). However, growing training alone will not meet the magnitude of need nor solve new societal challenges ahead. The typical expectation is to expand our training to other cities, but this will not come anywhere close to creating good jobs for millions of low-income Americans. Instead, our strategy for scaled impact is to evolve Pursuit Bond into a financial product and tools for other organizations, jobs, and places. We believe that this will not only create good jobs for millions of low-income Americans but will also generate a new trillion-dollar market directly tied to results in the long term.

We are One Big Team

The passionate and collaborative team at Pursuit gives its all to achieve our mission. And it’s not just staff. We work with employer partners that love hiring our Fellows because they are so well prepared, ranging from big financial firms to scrappy startups, and everything in between. We also activate and engage hundreds of volunteers that come from all areas of the tech industry. These experts and professionals help keep our curriculum fresh and our standards for achievement high by participating in our admissions process, as well as program-specific activities such as interview training, DemoDays, Hackathons, and Capstone projects. 

About the Role

As Pursuit’s first Director of Policy, you’ll play a pivotal role within our newly established External Affairs team, spearheading Pursuit’s policy and legislative goals. Your primary responsibility will be to drive the entire policy development process reporting directly to the  SVP, Policy and External Affairs, from comprehensive research, to policy recommendations, white papers, memos and other collateral, and stakeholder engagement. Working closely with a small team based in Long Island City, your mission will be to elevate Pursuit’s workforce development and financing model as a national standard, advocating for it at all levels of government.

As Pursuit’s Director of Policy you will: 

• Conduct in-depth policy research to advance Pursuit’s mission and bolster legislative proposals at the federal, state, and local levels, focusing on areas such as workforce development, outcome-based financing models, apprenticeships, the tech sector, and bond financing.
• Generate research and craft compelling content such as white papers, policy reports, memos, one pagers, legislative drafts, and presentations for external stakeholders; Monitor ongoing regulatory and legislative efforts around relevant issues, such as bond financing, workforce development, outcome based financing models, career pathways, and apprenticeships to ensure Pursuit stays at the forefront of industry developments.
• Elevate Pursuit’s profile as a leader in the workforce development policy field.
• Cultivate strategic relationships and serve as the point of contact to external policy stakeholders.
• Represent Pursuit at key policy conference, events and coalition meetings;
• Serve as project manager for major policy research topics
• Support external affairs team with advocacy to advance policy priorities

What you need to be considered for Director of Policy role: 

• A minimum of 8 years of experience in government specializing in policy research, along with a Master’s degree in Public Policy or a related field.
• Strong skillset in data analysis, statistical research
• Proficiency in data analysis and statistical research techniques.
• Proven expertise in crafting policy memos, briefs, and proposals aimed at government stakeholders on multiple levels.
• Demonstrated ability to work autonomously, taking initiative and driving results with minimal supervision.
• A genuine passion for Pursuit’s mission of economic transformation, particularly in establishing the Pursuit Bond as a national workforce development standard.
• Preference for candidates with prior experience within government or workforce development sector.

Where you’ll work: 

• Hybrid
• At least 3 days per week in our Long Island City office

Compensation: The salary for this role is $160,000-$185,000 annually with additional performance-based incentive compensation. 

The compensation range above is for the expectations as laid out in the job description, however, we are often open to a wide variety of profiles and recognize that the person we hire may be less experienced (or more senior) than this job description as posted.  If that ends up being the case, the updated salary range will be communicated to you as a candidate.

Pursuit offers: 

• Great culture where transparency, respect, teamwork, and kindness are valued
• Competitive compensation in base, plus bonus and a full benefits package
• Unlimited PTO and an all-Pursuit week-long holiday the last week of December

Pursuit values diversity: 

Our team has a wide range of backgrounds and experiences, and we value the richness that diversity brings to our organization. We welcome new perspectives and affirm that all employment decisions are made without regard to race, color, ancestry, religion, national origin, age, familial or marital status, sex, sexual orientation, pregnancy, gender identity or expression, disability, genetic information, veteran status, or any other classification protected by federal, state, or local law. Pursuit is an equal opportunity employer.