Government Works Weekly #35
Jobs, Events, and the Important Stuff
Welcome to your weekly roundup of opportunities, events, and information about how government works—and how government can work better—to improve the lives of individuals, families, and communities.
If you find this newsletter useful, please consider sharing with a friend or colleague that would also benefit.
APPLY YOURSELF – jobs, internships, and other ways to get involved
JOBS
Data Analyst, California Policy Lab [UC Berkeley]
Director, Elections and Redistricting, NCSL [Hybrid Denver]
Communications Coordinator, Apolitical Foundation [Hybrid Berlin]
Director of Development, The Center for Economic and Policy Research [D.C. preferred]
Program Manager, North Carolina, Common Cause [Hybrid]
Open Roles on Innovation Teams, Bloomberg Center for Public Innovation [Various]
Associate Director, Finance & Compliance, Run for Something [Remote U.S.]
Special Assistant to the President, Freedom Together Foundation [NYC]
Communications Officer – EU System for an Enabling Environment for Civil Society (EU SEE), Hivos [deadline 15 May]
Graphic Designer (and more), Democracy Forward [D.C.]
Policy Analyst, K-12 Education (and more), Center for American Progress [D.C.]
Director, Strategic Planning and Operations, Stanford Accelerator for Learning [CA]
Assistant Director, Qualitative Research, Belk Center for Community College Leadership and Research [North Carolina]
Data Manager, Kansas Legislative Research Department [deadline 25 May]
Senior Manager Data and Research, All Voting is Local [Remote]
Deputy Director, Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Advancement [City of Boston]
Executive Director or Co-Executive Directors, Highlander Research and Education Center [Flexible Location / Semi-Remote / New Market, TN / deadline 20 June]
Mobilizing Manager, Democracy Campaign, Public Citizen [D.C.]
Program Director, Political Coalitions for 2076, Democracy 2076 [Remote]
Senior Strategist - Legislative Affairs, American Economic Liberties Project [D.C.]
Academic Program Coordinator, Department of Politics, Governance & Economics, American University [D.C.]
Director of Programming, Education Rights Institute, University of Virginia [Charlottesville]
Chief Economist, Groundwork Collaborative [D.C.]
Civic Engagement and Voter Protection Director, DNC [D.C.]
National Advisor, Common Ground USA, Search for Common Ground [D.C.]
Director of Policy and Research, ACLU of Kansas [Overland Park or Wichita]
Helena and Great Falls Community Organizer, Northern Plains [Montana]
Virginia Housing Advocacy Specialist, Coalition for Smarter Growth [DMV]
Senior Manager for Asia, Open Contracting Partnership [based in Asia]
Senior Strategist, Public Finance, The Sunrise Project [Europe / deadline 25 May]
Director of Global Programs, Movement Law Lab [Remote U.S.]
State Campaign Strategist, Protect Democracy [Remote]
Associate Director of Programs, Partners for Rural Impact Appalachia [Remote]
Research Director, Good Jobs First [Remote]
Research Manager, Impact, Solutions Journalism Network [Remote / deadline 19 May]
Deputy Director, Public Sector AI Delivery, Government Digital Service [UK / deadline 17 May]
Senior Research Analyst - Emerging Biotechnology Policy, RAND Europe [Netherlands]
Portfolio Manager, Office of Data and Innovation, State of California [deadline 14 May]
INTERNSHIPS + FELLOWSHIPS
Undergraduate Student Trainee (Management and Program Analysis), Government Accountability Office [deadline 19 May]
Graduate Student Trainee (Management and Program Analysis), Government Accountability Office [deadline 19 May]
2025 Legislative Affairs Intern, About the State Innovation Exchange [priority deadline 23 May]
Tech & Public Policy Visiting Fellows Program, McCourt School of Public Policy, Georgetown University [deadline 6 June]
Moral Ambition Fellowships, The School for Moral Ambition [Various]
Climate Change and Methane Policy Fellow, Center for Law, Energy & the Environment, UC Berkeley Law [deadline 19 May]
Analyst - LLM/Prompt Evaluation (3 Month Fellowship), Blue Rose Research [Remote]
Pre-Doctoral Research Fellow Opportunity, Reimagining the Economy Project, Harvard Kennedy School [deadline 23 May]
David Burnham-TRAC Data Reporting Fellowship, ProPublica [Remote]
The Connecticut Governor’s Fellowship Program, Tobin Center for Economic Policy at Yale University [deadline 23 May]
CONSULTANCIES + OTHER OPPORTUNITIES
Consultancy: Innovation and Sustainability (and more), CIVICUS [deadline 14 May]
Terms of reference: Short-term legal consultancy in Bhutan, Open Ownership [deadline 15 May]
Terms of reference for researcher: Methodology for measuring the impact of beneficial ownership transparency on public procurement, Open Ownership [deadline 18 May]
Vacancy: Head of Programme – Protection of Human Rights Defenders (temporary sick leave replacement), Global Unit For Democracy and Human Rights, Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung [Brussels]
Open Call for Innovation Coaches, Centre for Public Impact [rolling recruitment]
Rising Civic AI Leaders Program, Aspen Policy Academy, Aspen Institute [deadline 23 June]
Requests for Proposals: Strengthening Evidence and Building Evidence, Arnold Ventures [deadline 13 June]
And lots more opportunities in the last newsletter: Government Works Weekly #34.
UPCOMING EVENTS – webinars, conferences, and other human things
WEEK OF 12-16 MAY
12 MAY: Policy Analysis as Problem Solving: A Framework for Thorny Public Problems [Bloomberg Center for Cities]
12 MAY: Rewiring the state [Institute for Government]
12 MAY: Critical Conversations: Tariffs and Taxes [National Academy of Public Administration]
12 MAY: The Fiscal Impact of DOGE’s IRS Layoffs [CAP]
13 MAY: How Americans Feel About AI—and Why It Matters for Policy [Center for Data Innovation]
13 MAY: Global Censorship Trends: Insights from Network Measurement, Circumvention, and Advocacy [Berkman Klein Center]
13 MAY: How to Talk to Your Son About Fascism: A Book Talk with Craig Johnson [GW Program on Extremism]
14 MAY: Restoring Economic Democracy: Progressive Ideas for Stability & Prosperity [Roosevelt Institute]
14 MAY: Behind the Curtain: A Digital Delivery Story Slam for Former Federal Employees [Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation]
14 MAY: Co-Opting AI: Debt [NYU’s Institute for Public Knowledge, UVA’s Digital Technology for Democracy Lab, and Sloane Lab]
14 MAY: Community First: The Future of Public Broadband Conference and Hill Day
14 MAY: IZA & J-PAL Policy Roundtable on Harnessing Rigorous Research to Shape Climate Policy and Inform the Public Debate [J-PAL + IZA]
14-16 MAY: American Democracy Summit [RepresentUs]
15 MAY: Find Your Next Calling: State and Local Opportunities for Former Feds [Partnership for Public Service]
15 MAY: The Rise of the Tech Oligarchy: Power, Wealth, and the Future of Democracy [Ash Center + Allen Lab for Democracy Renovation]
15 MAY: Cutting Waste, Enhancing Care: Finding Healthcare Policy Win-Wins [Niskanen]
15 MAY: The MIMBY Majority: How do we engage the public to unlock housebuilding? [Demos]
15 MAY: Who Pays for Choice? The Threat Privatization Poses to Public Education [CAP]
15 MAY: Evidence + Evaluation RFP [Arnold Ventures]
16 MAY: Surveillance Ascendant, Democracy in Free Fall [Knight Institute]
EYES & EARS – reading, podcasts, and other good stuff
It was my kid’s birthday this week, so I didn’t read much. Mostly just listened to some podcasts while party prepping. Here are a handful of recs:
[READ] Nathan Gardels, “A Quantum Theory Of History,” Noema, 2 May 2025.
In short, history is open in all directions. There is no through line you can draw that will tell us where it will all go and where it will end up. There are a multitude of possibilities and arrays of conditions everywhere, all at once, that will only have looked inevitable in retrospect.
[LISTEN] Interview with Steven Levitsky, America's Path To 'Competitive Authoritarianism', Fresh Air, 22 April 2025.
[READ] Steven Levitsky, Lucan Way, and Daniel Ziblatt, “How Will We Know When We Have Lost Our Democracy?” New York Times Guest Essay, 8 May 2025.
[LISTEN] Podcast on Authoritarian Waves Crashing: Dan Slater Reinterprets the Third Wave of Democratization, RevDem, 5 May 2025.
[LISTEN / READ] The Interview, “Isabel Allende Understands How Fear Changes a Society,” New York Times, 26 April 2025.
[LISTEN] Podcast on Protests, political violence and its alternatives with Erica Chenoweth, Why is this Happening?, 9 May 2025.
[LISTEN] Podcast We Must Return to the Radical Roots of Liberalism (w/Matt McManus), Current Affairs, 29 April 2025.
[LISTEN] Podcast on How Government Can Get Sh*t Done: Jennifer Pahlka on Modernizing Technology and Reforming Civil Service, An Honorable Profession, 20 March 2025. First in a “Get Sh*t Done” series.
[LISTEN] Podcast on Why Democracy Needs a New Operating System (with K. Sabeel Rahman), Pitchfork Economics, 6 May 2025.
…we’re going to have to reinvent the way we actually do the work of governing and policymaking. And here, I think, back to where we started, our premise should be that government needs to work a lot faster, needs to be able to operate at scale, so being able to actually deal with the root causes of economic inequality, economic insecurity, and that means we’re going to have to get away from some of the ways, the standard ways, that policy was designed…