Senior Expert - Tech & Innovation Thought Leadership

Location: Washington

Who we are

We are an organisation that exists to drive progress. That's the "red thread" that connects everyone at The Economist Group (TEG). Our businesses share a devotion to innovation, independence and rigour in their fields of expertise. We empower people to understand and tackle the critical challenges and changes facing the world. Our analytical rigour, global expertise and evidence-based insights enable individuals and organisations to make sense of these shifts and chart a course through them.

We deliver analysis and insights in many formats to subscribers and clients in 170 countries through our four businesses, The Economist, Economist Impact, Economist Intelligence and Economist Education, which uphold our global reputation for excellence and integrity.

Role overview

Economist Impact combines the rigour of a think-tank with the creativity of a media brand to engage a globally influential audience. We believe that evidence-based insights can open debate, broaden perspectives and catalyse progress.

Economist Impact's Policy & Insights team combines qualitative and quantitative research techniques to generate new insights to support the marketing and communications objectives of businesses, governments and international organisations.

The role of Senior Expert, Tech & Innovation plays a key role in the delivery of Economist Impact's independent thought leadership research programmes, ensuring the highest standards of editorial quality. Senior Experts typically oversee multiple research projects and serve as key points of contact with our funders and clients. They lead and direct content leads and analysts to undertake research tasks and content production, providing critical direction, oversight and challenge to research, analysis and outputs.

Based in New York, with London also considered, this role will sit within the Global Head, Tech & Innovation team, reporting to the Global Head, Tech & Innovation, and will have a strong global mandate. The Senior Expert will play an important role in shaping and delivering Economist Impact's Tech & Innovation research and thought leadership across regions, while also contributing to selected projects in other expertise areas where relevant.

The Senior Expert will help shape and deliver high-quality research and thought leadership on the technologies and innovation systems that are transforming economies, industries and societies. The role is primarily one of content and intellectual leadership: designing distinctive research programmes, ensuring analytical rigour, sharpening editorial quality and helping to develop compelling, policy-relevant insight for business, government and other senior audiences. The role will also support proposal development and broader business development efforts, though it does not carry direct commercial targets.

A successful Senior Expert will have demonstrated expertise in Tech & Innovation, strong editorial sensibilities, analytical and critical thinking skills, and superior written and oral communication skills. They will ensure that Economist Impact thought leadership research and content reflects The Economist Group's core values of independence and integrity while delivering value to clients by appealing to key target audiences.

How you will contribute

Project execution

* Serve as the Senior Expert for sponsored thought leadership programmes aligned with Tech & Innovation, with a particular focus on global themes in artificial intelligence, frontier technologies and innovation policy, while also contributing to selected regional and cross-practice projects as needed.

* Contribute to programmes across other expertise areas, including trade and geopolitics, sustainability, health and economic competitiveness, as needed.

* Be responsible for designing and developing programmes, in addition to overseeing the production of thought leadership content outputs, including reports, briefing papers, articles and infographics, ensuring they reflect the latest trends and context and offer genuinely new insight.

* Design, direct and leverage Economist Impact research teams to produce original insight and analysis.

* Provide strong content leadership across projects, setting the intellectual direction of programmes and ensuring outputs are analytically rigorous, editorially sharp and relevant to target audiences.

* Write and communicate in clear, Economist-style, jargon-free prose.

* Direct external contributors and edit content outputs to ensure they meet quality standards and deliver value to clients and target audiences.

* Manage multiple research projects and client relationships simultaneously.

* Leverage both qualitative and quantitative methodologies to deliver high-quality content.

* Undertake qualitative interviews with experts in order to inform and support the production of high-quality insight and content.

* Take initial responsibility for final results, quality of content outputs and overall client satisfaction, working closely with Impact…