Global Executive Director

Innovative Human Rights NGO Seeks Global Executive Director

Close date:
September 30, 2026

We are human rights advocates who support forcibly displaced individuals and communities as they reclaim their rights, agency and power.

Our unique combination of legal empowerment, policy advocacy and global systems change creates conditions in which refugees can live safely, move freely, work on fair terms and go to school in supportive environments.

Our work transforms the traditional approach of endless humanitarian handouts to a sustainable solution that honors refugees’ freedom, dignity and autonomy, and empowers them to make choices about their own lives.

Asylum Access’ global team and family of local civil society organizations advocate to make human rights a reality for refugees around the world. Our national organizations are led and staffed primarily by community members in those countries, and there is strong mutual trust and respect between us and our clients. On the international stage, we work with established institutions to shift the global system to better uphold and promote refugees’ human rights.

We can help catalyze and lead systemic transformation because, uniquely among NGOs in the refugee response sector, we focus exclusively on rights and governance.

The global Executive Director is responsible for ensuring the Asylum Access family of organizations fulfills and advances Asylum Access’ mission around the world. This includes leading the organization’s global systems change portfolio; positioning the global organization to support strategic and effective national-level legal empowerment and policy advocacy by Asylum Access national organizations; and guiding the organization in creating and pursuing a bold, cohesive vision toward a world where all displaced people enjoy all of their human rights.

Asylum Access values a collaborative approach to leadership. The global Executive Director is expected to work in close partnership with the national Executive Directors, who lead strategy and implementation of the mission at Asylum Access national organizations, to shape global organizational strategy, priorities, and performance. All four Executive Directors are responsible for stewarding Asylum Access’ vision and role within the global refugee response ecosystem;

setting and executing organizational strategy within their particular remits and collaboratively across the global family of organizations; overseeing budgets and resource allocation; and ensuring strong programs, operations, and teams.

The successful candidate for global Executive Director will be visionary in outlook, with a broad understanding of displacement dynamics and political trends around the world – particularly in and affecting Africa, Asia and Latin America, where most refugees remain. They will be deeply collaborative in approach. They understand the importance of shared enthusiasm as a driving force, and the necessity of a cohesive leadership team to achieve meaningful impact in challenging circumstances.

They are committed to understanding and supporting the contexts in which Asylum Access organizations currently work, and to identifying and advancing efforts in other contexts if/as this has the potential to magnify Asylum Access’ impact in creating the world we envision.

The global Executive Director is hired by, reports to, and serves at the pleasure of the Board of Directors, in accordance with the organization’s bylaws, and may serve as a nonvoting, ex officio member of the Board.

Key components of the global Executive Director role include, without limitation:

• With a consistent eye on the future,…