The Week That Will Be

Event Announcements (More details on the Events Calendar)

Monday, September 18 at 3:30 pm: The Brookings Institution will host Pierre Moscovici, the European Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs for an event titled Europe’s Window of Opportunity: Seizing the Moment to Strengthen the Eurozone. Register here.

Tuesday, September 19 at 9:30 am: The Senate Armed Services Committee will have a hearing on Recent United States Navy Incidents at Sea. Richard Spencer, Secretary of the Navy, Admiral John Richardson, Chief of Naval Operations, and John Pendleton, Director for Defense Structure and Readiness Issues at the Government Accountability Office will testify. Location: SD-G50, Dirksen Senate Office Building. Find more information here.

Thursday, September 21 at 10:00 am: The Center for Strategic and International Studies will host the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) for a discussion titled SIGAR: Lessons from Developing Afghanistan’s Security Forces. Register or watch the live webcast.

Friday, September 22 at 11:30 am: The Brookings Institution will hold a panel discussion with the authors of a Brookings report on the Trump administration's nuclear posture review, titled Meeting U.S. Deterrence Requirements. The panel will feature Robert Einhorn, James Acton, Madelyn Creedon, and Walter Slocombe. Steven Pifer will moderate. Register.

Friday, September 22 at 5:30 pm: The Institute of World Politics will host Dr. Long Nguyen for a lecture on the topic The Chinese Threat to the World and the Chinese Invasion of Southeast Asia. Register here.

Employment Announcements (More details on the Job Board)

Markle Director for Policy (Rework America Task Force)

Background

A defining challenge of our time is ensuring that all Americans are included in the benefits of the digital economy as automation and technology transform the workforce in unprecedented fashion. After more than a decade of work in health and national security, the Markle Foundation created Skillful, an initiative with LinkedIn, the state of Colorado and others to create a skills-based labor market. Launched in 2016, Skillful is centered on the skills job seekers have, not the degrees. Skillful is enabling Americans, including the nearly seven out of 10 American adults who do not have a college degree, to learn the skills needed for today’s rapidly changing jobs. To learn more see www.Skillful.com.

Building on Skillful’s progress, Markle’s Rework America Task Force will be a national-level, non-partisan and multi-stakeholder effort to drive clear policy objectives and initiatives to support a skills-based labor market. It will serve as an incubator for fresh ideas, new collaborations, shovel-ready proposals and proliferation of best practices including leveraging data to bring transparency to the labor market. Ideas from the task force will be offered to help inform the actions of federal and state policymakers, employers, technology providers and other influential labor market players. We intend for the Task Force to engage in and support the much-needed broad-based, long-term national conversation about how the technological revolution can serve all Americans in the new economy.

Job Summary and Responsibilities

The Director for Policy will be responsible for providing the Rework America Task Force chair, Task Force members and associated Working Groups with substantive guidance and policy advice surrounding U.S. labor market trends, related impacts of automation and technological advancements, workforce management, worker education and upskilling, and employer matching with needed skilled labor. The incumbent will drive deliverables from the Task Force that will support the Task Force mission of enabling all Americans continued access to the American Dream. The principal responsibilities include:

• Participate in developing the substantive underpinnings for Task Force objectives. Prepare materials, engage experts, supervise work product development and deliverables.
• Provide advice and assistance to the RATF Chair, in the form of written products, research, articles for publication and RATF meeting materials, as directed.
• Provide policy expertise and substantive direction to RATF Working Groups, guiding their outputs consistent with the goals of the RATF generally and the RATF Chair, specifically.
• Conduct outreach to experts, policymakers, and other relevant actors to inform RATF objectives and outcomes.
• Support preparation for the Task Force meetings and those of its associated Advisory Board.
• Collaborate with Task Force staff and contractors as necessary to ensure appropriate subject matter expertise is available to Task Force members and Working Groups.
• Support the development of materials and deliverables for multiple convenings both in person and virtually in terms of timeliness milestones, interdependencies and other elements.
• Identify opportunities for the Task Force to engage in the national debate surrounding the future of work and ways to incentivize change in the U.S. labor market.

Required Competencies

• Substantive knowledge of workforce, labor market and related national-level policy issues
• Possesses strong organization skills, with ability to multitask and manage several work streams, partners / vendors, and projects at any one time
• Writing: Demonstrated ability to write clearly and concisely for a variety of audiences.
• Active learner: Positive attitude with an openness and willingness to learn. Demonstrates ability to receive and apply feedback and continues to improve.
• Excellent interpersonal skills: Emanates a collaborative demeanor that builds rapport and establishes credibility with partners. Applies critical interpersonal and judgment skills to affect outcomes. Has complete comfort and confidence in offering helpful advice and counsel to colleagues at all levels. Is a team player.
• Communication skills: Demonstrated ability to clearly convey summary data from multiple sources as a set of findings. Comfortable speaking in public settings.

Preferred Competencies:

• General professional experience: 10-20 years of working experience
• Experience in leading multi-sector collaborative processes including development of specific, actionable recommendations, such as policy proposal, pilot projects, impact assessments, etc.
• Displays an intellectual curiosity and passion for the mission at hand.
• Analytics experience: Ability to summarize detailed data, identify trends, and draw insights from the data. Able to make recommendations based on conclusions.
• Demonstrated ability to thrive and lead in a small, analytically rigorous organization that values direct, honest, and respectful transfer of ideas.
• Entrepreneurial mindset: Possesses a natural instinct to seek out the next challenge and think outside constraints and get things done. Operates with a clear sense of purpose while being comfortable with ambiguity and change.

Job Details

• Location: New York, NY or Washington, D.C.
• Title: Director
• Report: Senior Principal
• Status: Full-time
• Salary: Competitive
• Travel: Moderate
• Degree or credential Requirements: None.
• Markle is committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment and is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. All applicants receive consideration for employment without regard to race, creed, color, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender expression age, physical or mental ability, veteran status, military obligations and marital status.
• Applying: Please submit cover letter and resume to: DirPolicy-RATF@markle.org

Markle

The Rework America Task Force and Skillful are projects of the Markle Foundation (www.markle.org), whose mission is to identify intractable problems, invest seed capital to incubate and test solutions, harness the power of technology and innovation, and build strategic partnerships to achieve scale and generate broad social impact. While Markle’s work has evolved through the years, its mission to meet the needs of the American people has endured. Currently, Markle is engaged in a nationwide initiative aimed at driving innovations that expand opportunities for employment and broaden ways for all Americans to learn and train for the work of the future.