Project Leader, Children & Families

Summary: This Project Leader’s primary portfolio will be supporting the Government Performance Lab’s (GPL) Children and Families team’s work with the Maryland Governor’s Office and agency leaders to advance the State’s priority goal of ending child poverty and other Governor’s Office priorities. This will include intensive technical assistance to (1) build capacity around strengthening effective performance management systems across the state, including designing new supports for senior government leaders in performance management strategies (e.g., coaching, executive education offerings); and (2) collaborate with individual agencies to design, implement, and test new strategies that increase public benefits access and strengthen economic mobility. This Project Leader’s responsibilities will include management of a suite of projects to drive meaningful, measurable impacts for families, people management of up to three GPL fellows, and support for broader organizational initiatives as a member of GPL’s management team.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree and a minimum of 3 years of professional experience.
• Track record of independently structuring work, managing multiple work streams with a close attention to detail, and driving progress toward performance targets.
• Ability to navigate complex organizations, develop trust and credibility with senior leaders, and build strong relationships among diverse stakeholders.
• Sound analytical skills, with experience analyzing and using both quantitative and qualitative data to generate and communicate insights that drive impact.
• Ability to communicate ideas clearly, efficiently, and with humility both verbally and in writing, including through slide decks, meeting facilitation, memos, delivery of trainings, and public speaking.
• Familiarity with state or local government or public policy.

Preferred Qualifications

• Graduate-level training in public policy, business, law, economics, social work, or related fields.
• Direct knowledge of government processes, especially the administration of public sector social services or benefits, through previous experience working in or with state or local government, non-profit organizations, or organizations focused on addressing government performance.
• Experience managing direct reports, including successful development of direct reports’ skills.
• Experience leading projects in a learning-oriented, entrepreneurial organization or team; self-motivated approach with a learning mindset and an orientation towards results.

Compensation: This role is funded by a multi-year grant at an annual salary of $102,000 plus benefits. This position is a term appointment ending one year from date of hire, with the strong possibility of renewal. The role will receive a Harvard appointment as a Fellow.

Location: Must be based in DMV area (District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia) for on-site work in Baltimore and Annapolis, MD, with regular travel across Maryland as needed for the project.

Start date: Candidates must be able to start no later than July 1, 2025; earlier start date in May or June 2025 preferred.

To apply: Please submit your application using the GPL Online Application Form by Sunday, March 30, 2025, at 11:59pm ET. Applications will be considered on a rolling basis. If selected for interviews, candidates may be asked to participate in

case interviews and submit examples of previous work product.

Key responsibilities of this role may include:

Project leadership and stakeholder management: Lead projects that produce meaningful, measurable impacts on outcomes for children, families, and residents in close collaboration with government.

• Advance project scopes of work so that individual projects have a high chance of producing desired impact, especially identifying activities and deliverables that advance impact goals.
• Closely collaborate with senior government leaders – including in the Governor’s Office and within agencies – to advance project decisions and resource allocation, build government commitment and ownership, and ensure satisfaction with GPL technical assistance.
• Drive project progress across multiple complex workstreams, independently structuring and executing work, identifying risks to project success, and navigating challenges within complex organizational structures.
• Design and execute “right-sized” quantitative or qualitative analyses that drive project impact.
• Support funder relationship management and reporting requirements.

People management: Manage team of GPL Fellows to execute high-impact work and develop skills.

• Train and advise team members in core GPL capabilities (analytical thinking, project management, stakeholder management, communications, people management) and policy area knowledge.
• Support skill development of team members in a growth-oriented, experiential learning culture, including through both ongoing coaching and periodic formal performance assessments and discussions.
• Create management relationships in which team members feel supported, included, and valued, including responses to mistakes, risk-taking, and creativity that build psychological safety and enhance learning.

Organizational contributions and thought leadership: Support a positive organizational culture and contribute to organizational priorities as a member of GPL’s management team.

• Identify and elevate project insights that support internal learning and sharing ideas with external audiences.
• Support the development of compelling external deliverables that share insights with a broader audience, e.g., publications, webinars, or conference presentations.
• Contribute to a positive organizational culture by demonstrating GPL norms such as humility, persistence, rigorous thinking, orientation towards action, pursuit of learning and growth, and professionalism.
• Contribute to GPL operations (e.g., hiring, training) as needed.

About the Government Performance Lab

The mission of the Harvard Kennedy School Government Performance Lab is to accelerate progress on difficult social problems by improving how state and local governments across the country function. Our team collaborates closely with government innovators in developing and testing ways to create more just and effective service systems in areas

including child and family wellbeing, public safety and justice, and homelessness and housing. To date, the GPL has engaged with 100 jurisdictions across 38 states and has conducted more than 278 projects shifting more than $6.2B in government spending towards results.

The GPL’s Children & Families policy area supports jurisdictions strengthening supports for children and families, shrinking and reducing the harm of punitive government responses such as child protection investigations and removals. We do this by working with agencies such as public health, human or social service, child welfare, and early childhood.

For example, our team has supported jurisdictions to support substance-using caregivers, place more children with relatives when they enter out-of-home care, connect families to home visiting services, and invest in culturally responsive services to improve outcomes for Black and Native children.

Harvard University is an equal opportunity employer, and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, gender identity, sexual orientation, pregnancy and pregnancy-related conditions, or any other characteristic protected by law.