Senior Program Officer
Employment Type: Full-time
Status: Contingent upon funding
Reports to: Senior Director
Location: Staff must reside in one of the following jurisdictions: Arkansas, District of Columbia, Idaho, Illinois, Kentucky, Maryland, New York, or Virginia.
Deadline: September 6, 2026
Position Summary
Eurasia Foundation (EF) seeks a Senior Program Officer to support the anticipated FY 2026 Strengthening Talent, Research, Innovation and Vital Engagement (STRIVE) Program, a 30-month initiative funded by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. STRIVE will strengthen U.S. global leadership by helping U.S. higher education institutions develop strategic international partnerships and credit-bearing study, internship, apprenticeship, and research abroad pathways aligned with U.S. workforce, commercial, security, trade, and innovation priorities.
The Senior Program Officer will serve as the day-to-day lead for program implementation and will manage both STRIVE components: the national small grants competition for U.S. higher education institutions and the Higher Education Partnerships Initiative.
Key Responsibilities
- Lead day-to-day implementation of STRIVE in coordination with the Senior Director and EF program, finance, and operations staff.
- Manage the annual workplan, implementation calendar, deliverables, concurrence items, and reporting deadlines.
- Oversee grant-making program and liaison with grant recipients.
- Coordinate regularly with ECA on program design, outreach, subaward selection, forum planning, communications, monitoring, and adaptive management.
- Prepare internal and external program updates, briefing materials, meeting notes, and required reports.
Component 1: Small Grants Competition and Oversight
- Lead development of the national Request for Proposals, applicant guidance, eligibility criteria, review rubric, FAQs, templates, and outreach materials.
- Manage applicant support activities, including webinars, office hours, proposal clinics, and targeted support for institutions with limited federal grants or international programming experience.
- Coordinate eligibility screening, reviewer recruitment, reviewer orientation, conflict-of-interest documentation, scoring, panel deliberations, and ECA concurrence packages.
- Support negotiation and execution of subawards to accredited U.S. higher education institutions.
- Provide technical assistance to subrecipients on workplans, partnership development, credit-bearing program design, domestic labor-market alignment, sustainability planning, risk management, and reporting.
- Monitor subrecipient progress through check-ins, quarterly reports, documentation reviews, technical assistance tracking, and selected monitoring visits.
Component 2: Higher Education Partnerships Initiative
- Lead planning and implementation of public seminars, resource products, and the STRIVE Partnership Toolkit.
- Manage recruitment and selection processes for U.S. higher education participants and coordinate with ECA and U.S. Missions regarding foreign participant nominations for the in-person forum.
- Serve as lead coordinator for the STRIVE Higher Education Partnerships Forum, including agenda development, speaker coordination, participant communications, logistics, conference alignment, and follow-on planning.
- Manage the follow-on microgrant process, including guidance, application review, award documentation, monitoring, deliverable tracking, and closeout.
- Coordinate short-term consultants, speakers, reviewers, and subject-matter experts as needed.
Monitoring, Evaluation, Learning, and Reporting
- Work with EF staff to implement the STRIVE Performance Monitoring Plan and collect data aligned with ECA MODE indicators and EF custom indicators.
- Track subrecipient outputs and outcomes, including new or advanced partnerships, program models, strategic plans, student mobility pathways, microgrant deliverables, and resource dissemination.
- Support data collection through surveys, subrecipient reports, forum evaluations, technical assistance records, and follow-up surveys.
- Use findings to inform adaptive management, technical assistance, peer learning, and ECA reporting.
Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree required; master’s degree in international education, higher education administration, international relations, public policy, workforce development, nonprofit management, or a related field preferred.
- At least five years of relevant professional experience managing U.S. Government-funded programs.
- Demonstrated experience with subaward or small grants management, including RFP development, application review, compliance tracking, reporting, and subrecipient support.
- Familiarity with U.S. higher education systems, study abroad, international partnerships, workforce-aligned academic programming, or applied international education preferred.
- Experience supporting institutions with varying levels of administrative capacity, including community colleges, regional public universities, MSIs, rural-serving institutions, technical colleges, or smaller private institutions preferred.
- Knowledge of U.S. Department of State/ECA programs, 2 CFR 200, federal grants compliance, or MODE performance monitoring strongly preferred.
- Strong writing, facilitation, organizational, and communication skills.
- Ability to manage multiple workflows, deadlines, stakeholders, and deliverables in a cooperative agreement environment.
- Excellent judgment, attention to detail, and ability to work collaboratively across program, finance, operations, and MEL teams.
Compensation and Benefits
- Salary will be commensurate with experience and EF’s compensation structure. EF offers a competitive benefits package.
Work Location Eligibility - This position is fully remote; however, employment is limited to states and jurisdictions where Eurasia Foundation is currently registered to employ staff. At this time, eligible locations are Arkansas, District of Columbia, Idaho, Illinois, Kentucky, Maryland, New York, and Virginia. Candidates who do not currently reside in one of these jurisdictions may apply if they intend to establish residency in an eligible jurisdiction before their employment start date. Any relocation or moving expenses are the responsibility of the candidate, as Eurasia Foundation does not provide relocation assistance. Employment remains contingent upon the candidate being able to legally work and perform their duties from an approved jurisdiction by their first day of employment.
Equal Opportunity Employer - Eurasia Foundation is an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to providing equal employment opportunities to all qualified applicants and employees and do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, genetic information, veteran status, or any other status protected by applicable federal, state, or local law.
