Horizon Institute For Public Service
Senior Program Associate (Events)
Horizon Institute For Public Service, Washington, District of Columbia, us, 20022
The Horizon Institute for Public Service is seeking a
full-time Senior Program Associate (Events) to help manage our rapidly growing events portfolio and maximize the productivity of our team.
As Senior Program Associate (Events), you will help us significantly expand our workshops portfolio and run several happy hours, retreats, and webinars in 2026. These programs involve many hundreds of attendees and dozens of senior policy speakers and government officials. You will also help us pilot a new events-heavy program for mid-career AI policy leaders, which will become a flagship Horizon program if successful. Finally, you will manage our office to foster a positive and productive working environment for our growing team.
Competitive applicants will likely have completed at least a bachelor's degree and have some relevant experience with organizing in-person and virtual events, implementing complex programs, and organizational operations. 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 or past experience. Previous experience in US policy or emerging technology is helpful, but not required.
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 two years ago, Horizon has helped hundreds of experts explore and launch critically needed careers in public service focused on emerging tech areas such as AI and bio. Through our fellowship program, we've helped 75+ subject-matter experts fill vital roles at top think tanks, congressional offices, and federal agencies. Our online emergingtechpolicy.org career resource has reached 70,000+ users. We've also helped more than 1,000 individuals through our online seminar series, workshops, and 1-1 advising calls, and participated in the first-ever government AI hiring fair. You can read more about our work here.
About the role
The Senior Program Associate (Events) will be a key member of a tight-knit, high-performing team at a fast-paced, growing organization. The role will be managed by Mikaela Saccoccio, Director of Programs and Events. It offers a significant opportunity for impact and personal growth, combining project management and systems design with community organizing and relationship management to supercharge our ability to help talented individuals transition into impactful policy careers. It's an excellent platform for advancing to project and program management, chief of staff, or senior events and operations positions at other high-impact nonprofits, government offices, or industry.
Responsibilities Events Management (70%) Project manage our webinar series and happy hours, including developing detailed timelines, creating and maintaining task lists, leading project coordination meetings with stakeholders, delegating tasks, and managing competing priorities to ensure seamless execution of multiple concurrent events in order to help educate our broader network about tech policy and strengthen connections within our fellowship community. Manage event logistics and provide comprehensive on-site workshop support, including hiring and overseeing vendors, researching and recommending accommodation, transportation, and catering, and creating user-friendly run-of-show documents that outline event flow and contingency plans. During events-which typically happen in the evenings and on weekends and may involve occasional travel-arrive early, execute setup and cleanup, and troubleshoot issues and own the solutions to ensure a positive participant experience and a light lift for others on staff. Your role supporting workshops will help enable dozens of career transitions per year. Support attendee and speaker communications throughout the event lifecycle, including helping develop and execute targeted outreach, admitting and declining would-be attendees, inviting and interacting with senior government and policy officials, coordinating speaker logistics, and maintaining organized attendee information. With your support, we'll strengthen our network of senior event attendees and help ensure that individuals looking to transition have the right connections to enable a successful career transition. Help design and execute off-site staff and fellowship retreats that foster camaraderie and learning, and align attendees on goals and strategy. Research and recommend venues, lead attendee outreach and track their preferences and needs, and create materials to facilitate smooth logistics, including transportation, slides, and more. Your support will help us build a tight-knit fellowship community and set up Horizon staff to productively collaborate in pursuit of impactful work. Help measure our events' impact and inform program strategy, including creating and sending post-event feedback surveys, running retrospectives with other team members about their experience preparing for and attending our events, and tracking long-term impact metrics to understand how events contribute to participants' career transitions into policy work. As a fast-growing organization, there is considerable scope to inform the strategic direction of events and other programming for entrepreneurial staff members.
Office Management (10-20%)
As of summer 2025, 15+ Horizon staff will work out of the office daily; oversee office design to foster productivity and community, including managing office equipment, supplies, deliveries, and groceries to help make Horizon a desirable workplace. Serve as the main point of contact for building management and vendors, and hire and oversee new vendors and contractors to facilitate productivity and collaboration.
Other (10-20%) This time can be spent flexibly by staff contributing to other programs at Horizon (e.g., the Horizon Fellowship, advising, web content) or pursuing personal and professional development goals (e.g., skills courses, part-time graduate school).
You may be a good fit if you: Take pride in creating welcoming workspaces and events that build community and foster ambition; you welcome hands-on work like organizing, setting up, cleaning up, and arranging spaces Enjoy interacting with and supporting people, including at in-person and multi-day events Excel at organization, project management, and executing complex projects with interdependent deadlines across multiple stakeholders; you love spreadsheets and enjoy juggling numerous balls Naturally spot what needs to be done and have an instinct to address issues as situations evolve Communicate professionally in writing with diverse stakeholders, including event attendees and speakers, teammates, vendors, and external partners Are comfortable managing budgets and doing basic financial planning Are entrepreneurial and a team player, adapting to new responsibilities as our growing organization's needs may change over time Don't mind evening and weekend work 1-2 times per month (with time off in lieu), and occasional travel Are motivated by Horizon's mission and excited to join a public service-oriented, tight-knit, and collaborative team that's always learning Can work in person in Washington, DC Have a demonstrated interest in emerging technology policy (prior experience not required as long as you are excited to learn on the job) Salary and benefits
The
Senior Program Associate (Events)
will receive a salary of $85,000-$110,000+ based on experience and seniority. Horizon does not provide a fixed benefits package, such as health insurance or a retirement plan. Instead, we offer a competitive salary (as a W-2 employee), inclusive of a benefits-equivalent stipend for health insurance and retirement, to empower our employees to tailor their benefits according to their individual needs.
Horizon additionally offers:
Up to $3,000 for one-time relocation expenses 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, employees with subject-matter expertise in emerging technology have 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 pending leadership approval.
Applications are open until 11:59 pm (your local time) on Sunday, August 3, 2025.
full-time Senior Program Associate (Events) to help manage our rapidly growing events portfolio and maximize the productivity of our team.
As Senior Program Associate (Events), you will help us significantly expand our workshops portfolio and run several happy hours, retreats, and webinars in 2026. These programs involve many hundreds of attendees and dozens of senior policy speakers and government officials. You will also help us pilot a new events-heavy program for mid-career AI policy leaders, which will become a flagship Horizon program if successful. Finally, you will manage our office to foster a positive and productive working environment for our growing team.
Competitive applicants will likely have completed at least a bachelor's degree and have some relevant experience with organizing in-person and virtual events, implementing complex programs, and organizational operations. 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 or past experience. Previous experience in US policy or emerging technology is helpful, but not required.
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 two years ago, Horizon has helped hundreds of experts explore and launch critically needed careers in public service focused on emerging tech areas such as AI and bio. Through our fellowship program, we've helped 75+ subject-matter experts fill vital roles at top think tanks, congressional offices, and federal agencies. Our online emergingtechpolicy.org career resource has reached 70,000+ users. We've also helped more than 1,000 individuals through our online seminar series, workshops, and 1-1 advising calls, and participated in the first-ever government AI hiring fair. You can read more about our work here.
About the role
The Senior Program Associate (Events) will be a key member of a tight-knit, high-performing team at a fast-paced, growing organization. The role will be managed by Mikaela Saccoccio, Director of Programs and Events. It offers a significant opportunity for impact and personal growth, combining project management and systems design with community organizing and relationship management to supercharge our ability to help talented individuals transition into impactful policy careers. It's an excellent platform for advancing to project and program management, chief of staff, or senior events and operations positions at other high-impact nonprofits, government offices, or industry.
Responsibilities Events Management (70%) Project manage our webinar series and happy hours, including developing detailed timelines, creating and maintaining task lists, leading project coordination meetings with stakeholders, delegating tasks, and managing competing priorities to ensure seamless execution of multiple concurrent events in order to help educate our broader network about tech policy and strengthen connections within our fellowship community. Manage event logistics and provide comprehensive on-site workshop support, including hiring and overseeing vendors, researching and recommending accommodation, transportation, and catering, and creating user-friendly run-of-show documents that outline event flow and contingency plans. During events-which typically happen in the evenings and on weekends and may involve occasional travel-arrive early, execute setup and cleanup, and troubleshoot issues and own the solutions to ensure a positive participant experience and a light lift for others on staff. Your role supporting workshops will help enable dozens of career transitions per year. Support attendee and speaker communications throughout the event lifecycle, including helping develop and execute targeted outreach, admitting and declining would-be attendees, inviting and interacting with senior government and policy officials, coordinating speaker logistics, and maintaining organized attendee information. With your support, we'll strengthen our network of senior event attendees and help ensure that individuals looking to transition have the right connections to enable a successful career transition. Help design and execute off-site staff and fellowship retreats that foster camaraderie and learning, and align attendees on goals and strategy. Research and recommend venues, lead attendee outreach and track their preferences and needs, and create materials to facilitate smooth logistics, including transportation, slides, and more. Your support will help us build a tight-knit fellowship community and set up Horizon staff to productively collaborate in pursuit of impactful work. Help measure our events' impact and inform program strategy, including creating and sending post-event feedback surveys, running retrospectives with other team members about their experience preparing for and attending our events, and tracking long-term impact metrics to understand how events contribute to participants' career transitions into policy work. As a fast-growing organization, there is considerable scope to inform the strategic direction of events and other programming for entrepreneurial staff members.
Office Management (10-20%)
As of summer 2025, 15+ Horizon staff will work out of the office daily; oversee office design to foster productivity and community, including managing office equipment, supplies, deliveries, and groceries to help make Horizon a desirable workplace. Serve as the main point of contact for building management and vendors, and hire and oversee new vendors and contractors to facilitate productivity and collaboration.
Other (10-20%) This time can be spent flexibly by staff contributing to other programs at Horizon (e.g., the Horizon Fellowship, advising, web content) or pursuing personal and professional development goals (e.g., skills courses, part-time graduate school).
You may be a good fit if you: Take pride in creating welcoming workspaces and events that build community and foster ambition; you welcome hands-on work like organizing, setting up, cleaning up, and arranging spaces Enjoy interacting with and supporting people, including at in-person and multi-day events Excel at organization, project management, and executing complex projects with interdependent deadlines across multiple stakeholders; you love spreadsheets and enjoy juggling numerous balls Naturally spot what needs to be done and have an instinct to address issues as situations evolve Communicate professionally in writing with diverse stakeholders, including event attendees and speakers, teammates, vendors, and external partners Are comfortable managing budgets and doing basic financial planning Are entrepreneurial and a team player, adapting to new responsibilities as our growing organization's needs may change over time Don't mind evening and weekend work 1-2 times per month (with time off in lieu), and occasional travel Are motivated by Horizon's mission and excited to join a public service-oriented, tight-knit, and collaborative team that's always learning Can work in person in Washington, DC Have a demonstrated interest in emerging technology policy (prior experience not required as long as you are excited to learn on the job) Salary and benefits
The
Senior Program Associate (Events)
will receive a salary of $85,000-$110,000+ based on experience and seniority. Horizon does not provide a fixed benefits package, such as health insurance or a retirement plan. Instead, we offer a competitive salary (as a W-2 employee), inclusive of a benefits-equivalent stipend for health insurance and retirement, to empower our employees to tailor their benefits according to their individual needs.
Horizon additionally offers:
Up to $3,000 for one-time relocation expenses 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, employees with subject-matter expertise in emerging technology have 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 pending leadership approval.
Applications are open until 11:59 pm (your local time) on Sunday, August 3, 2025.