Senior Program Associate (Accelerator & Fellowship)

Title: Senior Program Associate (Accelerator & Fellowship)

Salary: $90,000-$110,000+ (incl. healthcare and retirement contributions)

Location: In-person, Washington, DC; visa sponsorship available

Job Type: Full-time

Application Deadline: Sunday, February 8, 2026

The Horizon Institute for Public Service is seeking a full-time Senior Program Associate to support our Horizon Fellowship and Career Accelerator programs. This is a high-leverage opportunity to help shape the next generation of leaders in AI policy by helping us expand programs that urgently help talent transition into the field.

The Horizon Fellowship is our flagship program for placing subject-matter experts in government offices and leading think tanks. Since 2022, more than 80 Horizon fellows—primarily in AI and biotech policy—have received full-time placements to work at top think tanks, in Congress, and across the Executive Branch including in the White House and multiple federal agencies. In 2026, we are training and placing an additional 35 fellows, our largest cohort yet. Our fellows have a 100% placement rate, and a large majority of alumni stay in policy and public service careers after the program. We’ve more than doubled the size of our fellowship cohorts since launch, and the biggest bottleneck to further program expansion is staff capacity.

The Career Accelerator is a part-time, remote program that provides mentorship, training, application support, and career development grants of up to $100,000 per participant to help people at all career stages pursue AI policy opportunities. Since launching in 2025, we’ve piloted two initial cohorts serving 60+ participants and committing about $400,000 in career grants. We’re now scaling further: expanding to 100-150+ participants annually across multiple cohorts, testing new program improvements, building scalable systems, and rapidly growing our career grantmaking program to $1+ million annually.

Competitive applicants will likely have at least 1-2 years of relevant post-bachelor’s work experience. However, if you think the role is a great fit for your skills and interests, we encourage you to apply even if you don’t have previous experience in this exact field. Our hiring process is designed to test for aptitudes and skills, not specific resume markers.

Our mission

The Horizon Institute for Public Service is a non-profit that supports the next generation of public servants with expertise in emerging technologies.

Emerging technologies, like biotechnology and artificial intelligence, are rapidly reshaping our world. The US government plays an essential role in developing and governing new technologies, crafting policies to take advantage of their benefits and avert the risks they pose. But policymakers' ability to stay ahead of the curve depends on access to the requisite expertise—and right now, that expertise is sorely lacking.

Since our launch three years ago, we've helped hundreds of professionals explore and launch critically needed careers in public service. For example, through our fellowship program, we’ve helped 100+ subject-matter experts fill vital roles at top think tanks, in Congress, and in agencies across government. Our online emergingtechpolicy.org career resource has reached 150,000+ users. We’ve also supported over 1,000 individuals through events and advising and headhunting services, leading to many dozens of job transitions. We participated in the first-ever government AI hiring fair and recently launched the AI Policy Leadership Network. We plan to both scale these existing programs and have several exciting new projects slated for launch in 2026. You can read more about our programs and impact in our 2025 year in review.

About the role

As the Senior Program Associate, you will serve as a key implementation and thought partner supporting both the Fellowship and Career Accelerator programs, helping grow and optimize the programs through continuous feedback and iteration cycles. You will be responsible for much of the day-to-day program impact, letting you develop specialized expertise in emerging technology policy talent development; hone your skills in tech policy applicant assessment; build and run program operations (including participant coordination, training, and mentorship programs); support impact assessments; and identify improvements that could be applied across both programs. You will also be a key member of a tight-knit, high-performing team at a fast-paced, growing organization that emphasizes growth for its staff. This work is an excellent platform for sharpening your skills in program implementation and design, thereby setting you up for senior programmatic positions at high-impact nonprofits or in government and industry.

Responsibilities

The core goal of both programs is to maximize the number of career transitions into technology policy work. As Senior Program Associate, you will drive program implementation across shared workstreams for both the Career Accelerator and Fellowship, making use of common resources and program infrastructure and applying lessons learned from one program to improve the other. Detailed program responsibilities include:

• Application process: Make sure application processes run smoothly and are maximally efficient as our top talent intake and vetting mechanisms (e.g., managing application tracking systems to identify top talent; supporting applicant review; communicating with candidates).

• Training and infrastructure: Build the program infrastructure and training components that enable participant and fellow success, including building program resources/knowledge management for participants, and helping execute high-quality policy training modules (e.g., developing essential program and training materials; cultivating relationships with external speakers; coordinating with participants; getting feedback to improve training).

• Mentorship systems and tailored support: Coordinate our mentorship and external career coaching programs as scalable ways for participants and fellows to get career advice from experienced policy practitioners and professional coaches (e.g., coordinate with mentors and coaches; match participants 1-1 with experts; streamline matching processes).

• Placement and matching support: Support the matching of fellows and participants with host organizations (e.g., helping identify good matches between our candidates and opportunities, coordinating with hiring managers, administer operations support related to matching and payment).

• Program strategy, evaluation, and iteration: Drive continuous program improvements by measuring outcomes to create actionable insights, contributing to program strategy, and helping iterate on program design (e.g., run surveys for participants, fellows, mentors, and hiring managers; provide input on program strategy; pilot new support services).

• Alumni engagement and partnership work: Maximize the program’s lasting value by nurturing our growing alumni community and building relationships with critical external stakeholders like hiring managers, mentors, and policy experts.

We expect the primary focus of this role to be split between the Fellowship and Career Accelerator programs. Horizon has a strong culture of internal growth and supporting staff to take on additional responsibilities as needed. Depending on employee interest and organizational needs, you may over time also gain visibility into and contribute to other programmatic work (e.g. events, advising and headhunting). Your manager will also support you to pursue professional development opportunities based on your professional development goals.

You may be a good fit if you

• Are solid at project management and can juggle multiple tasks and deadlines at the same time

• Enjoy variety in your work and bring the same conscientiousness to small operational tasks as to larger projects

• Are excited to grow in product and program development, supporting the full product lifecycle from design and implementation through program evaluation and strategy

• Are motivated by enabling others' success; you find satisfaction in behind-the-scenes work that keeps programs running smoothly and helps participants launch impactful policy careers

• Enjoy user-centered design, conducting user research, prototyping, and iterating to build highly effective products and programs

• Are able to communicate professionally in writing with diverse stakeholders

• Navigate digital platforms (WordPress, Airtable, Notion, Slack, etc.) confidently and are open to leveraging AI tools to enhance all aspects of your work (e.g., writing, visual design, data analysis)

• Have a demonstrated interest in policy/government and/or AI or other emerging technology areas (prior experience not required as long as you are excited to learn rapidly on the job)

Additionally, Horizon has a strong team culture, and we expect you would fit well if you:

• Are entrepreneurial and a team player, adapting to new responsibilities as our fast-growing organization’s needs may change over time

• Are growth-minded and excited to give and receive regular feedback in order to maximize performance and impact across our team

• Are motivated by Horizon’s mission and excited to be part of a public service-oriented, user-focused, low-ego, and collaborative team

• Can work in-person in Washington, DC

Salary and benefits

The Senior Program Associate (Accelerator & Fellowship) will receive a salary of $90,000 - $110,000+ based on experience and seniority. As a small non-profit Horizon has arranged its benefit structure to maximize flexibility for staff. Staff are not required to enroll in a fixed health insurance or retirement plan. Instead, staff have access to a benefits-equivalent cash stipend, which they can use to purchase any of the two dozen health insurance plans on the DC public market (or just keep as an additional salary top-up if they already have health insurance coverage through a parent or spouse) and contribute to a retirement account of their choosing.

Horizon additionally offers:

• Unlimited vacation

• 12 weeks of paid parental leave

• Up to $3,000+ per year in professional development funding

• Flexible working hours

• A productive, collaborative office

We can provide visa sponsorship for qualified candidates.

As an additional benefit in select cases, employees with subject-matter expertise in emerging technology can get the unique opportunity to utilize Horizon’s placement expertise to do a public interest rotation for up to 12 months after working at Horizon for 2 years. At least 6 months notice must be given to redeem this benefit.

Application process

Interested candidates should express initial interest by filling out an application (The application process will involve paid work tests, a structured interview, reference checks, and a paid in-person work trial. We will acknowledge receipt of all applications and aim to get back to candidates within 10 business days of the application deadline. Our ideal start date is April 2026, though flexibility is offered for exceptional candidates.

We welcome candidates from diverse backgrounds and experiences to apply. Strong candidates may not always fulfill all our required or desired criteria. Studies show that individuals from underrepresented groups may underestimate their qualifications. Therefore, we urge you not to self-disqualify prematurely. If you are excited about this work, we strongly encourage you to apply.