Director, Policy and Advocacy

AI will upend work as we know it. Breakwater Initiative is a new, action-oriented policy shop with a single north star: finding the very best ideas to support workers through AI's economic transformation and laying the groundwork for an economy that enables people to have purpose, agency, and the ability to thrive. We do not study the problem from a distance.

We conceptualize, test, and scale the ideas, institutions, and models that will shape the future of work and our social contract.

Our work spans three pillars: building the big ideas, policy agenda, and public infrastructure to support a response commensurate with the moment; testing new approaches and scaling what works; and engaging ordinary people in building an affirmative vision for what comes next. We are fiercely independent and nonpartisan: responsible to the public interest, not beholden to any lab, party, or private interest.

That independence is the basis for the broad public trust this work demands.

Breakwater is in its founding phase, currently operating as a fiscally sponsored project of RF Catalytic Capital, Inc. This is a rare opportunity to build an institution from the ground up at a moment when the questions it tackles are among the most consequential in American economic and civic life.

Breakwater Initiative seeks a Director, Policy & Advocacy to lead the engagement strategy behind the organization's flagship policy agenda, built to shape the national debate on AI and work. This role reports to the Policy Managing Director and is responsible for moving Breakwater's ideas into the mainstream of American policy making: identifying who needs to be reached, building the relationships and materials to reach them, and making sure the agenda is not just intellectually sound but viable in the real world of Congress, statehouses, governors' offices, thought leaders, and the public.

This is a role for someone who has worked inside government, campaigns, or advocacy and knows whom to call, which rooms matter, and how decision-makers and advocates actually think. The Director will own Breakwater's engagement with decision makers at the federal and state levels, build a network of champions and validators across the political spectrum, and bring hard, practical judgment to the policy development process.

The Director will lead this work, drawing on consultants and advisors as required.

This is a startup. The org chart is flat, the strategy is evolving, and some days the most important work will not appear on any job description. The right person is energized by that rather than unsettled by it, exercises discretion in uncertain situations, collaborates, and makes sound decisions with incomplete information.

This role follows a hybrid schedule and is required to be in the office Monday through Thursday.

Key Responsibilities

Advocacy and Engagement

• Set and own Breakwater's engagement strategy: identify the public figures and decision makers of all parties most likely to shape the debate on AI and work, and build the relationships and materials to reach them
• Serve as Breakwater's primary point of contact policymakers and thought leaders seeking to understand AI's impact on workers
• Lead Breakwater's outreach to policymakers and senior staff in Congress, the executive branch, governors' offices, and state legislatures, serving as a trusted, credible presence in those rooms
• Build and manage a network of champions and validators across the political spectrum whose buy-in helps the agenda land with the right audiences
• Design and execute immersive agenda buy-in moments: policy workshops, boot camps, retreats, and scenario-planning sessions that bring together policymakers and advisors from across the political spectrum and are built to generate genuine ownership of the agenda before it launches

Strategy, Risk, and Organizational Stewardship

• Execute the engagement strategy, anticipating risks, developing contingency plans, and ensuring alignment with Breakwater's values, nonpartisan commitments, and priorities
• Manage Breakwater's lobbying and engagement compliance in coordination with the fiscal sponsor's compliance team
• Make sound judgments about where to invest Breakwater's relationship capital and its staff and consultant resources for the highest impact, including the effective use of a consultant bench
• As the organization grows, build out the government affairs and engagement function and infrastructure

Cross-Cutting Contributions

• Support the policy…