ABOUT US

The Aspen Institute is a global nonprofit organization whose purpose is to ignite human potential to build understanding and create new possibilities for a better world. Founded in 1949, the Institute drives change through dialogue, leadership, and action to help solve society’s greatest challenges. It is headquartered in Washington, DC, and has a campus in Aspen, Colorado, as well as an international network of partners.

CENTER FOR LEADERSHIP

The Center for Leadership exists to ignite and nurture leadership potential in its constituents, building meaningful connections that generate lasting impact. Its work is to inspire, challenge and support leaders with different perspectives to understand how and where they can make a difference and live lives of deeper meaning and greater individual and collective impact. By supporting, connecting, and incubating leadership programs across the Aspen Institute, it fosters a global community of courageous and well-connected leaders in real relation with one another working across their differences in service of a better world.

The Aspen Global Leadership Network (AGLN) is a growing, worldwide community of high-integrity leaders who share a commitment to use their creativity, energy, and resources to tackle the foremost societal challenges of our times. Through a rare community of support, transformative convenings, and catalytic capital, we ignite 4,000+ Fellows across 62 countries to turn moral courage into lasting change.

ABOUT THIS ROLE

The Chief of Staff is the operational and organizational backbone of the AGLN and a leadership role with team-wide scope and authority. While the VP sets the vision and senior leaders run their respective programs, the Chief of Staff ensures that the entire AGLN operates as a coherent, high-performing team.

The Chief of Staff designs and leads the infrastructure that makes excellence possible: the planning systems, reporting structures, accountability rhythms, and portfolio-wide visibility that allow every team to do its best work. They empower leaders across the AGLN — both internal and external stakeholders — with the tools, templates, and project frameworks they need to operate with rigor and consistency. The Chief of Staff looks across the full portfolio of AGLN fellowships to ensure teams are built right, resourced well, and moving with purpose.

As a thought partner to the VP, the Chief of Staff keeps the pulse of the AGLN’s health- on its operations, team management and finances surfacing what needs attention, making sure nothing important falls through the cracks and keeping the whole organization running aligned with the AGLN’s strategy and goals. The salary for this position is $190,000 - $215,000. In accordance with our Reimagining Work policy, the Chief of Staff should be willing to be in-person with colleagues a minimum of 40% of the time while having the flexibility to work remotely for the balance.

WHAT YOU’LL DO

Organizational Accountability & Performance Management

• Maintain a real-time, organization-wide view of priorities, progress, and risks across all AGLN teams and workstreams.
• Build and steward a goal progress tracker/KPI dashboard that translates activity across the full AGLN portfolio into clear, actionable performance intelligence.
• Proactively identify when teams are lagging, projects are at risk, or decisions have stalled and bring the right issues to the VP's attention with enough lead time to act.
• Assess team composition and capacity across the portfolio; flag structural gaps and surge staff or resources where needed and make actionable recommendations to address the gaps.
• Ensure every major initiative, across all teams, has a strong project plan, clear ownership, and the infrastructure to succeed.

Systems, Legal & Operational Infrastructure

• Design and implement the planning and reporting systems that govern how the entire AGLN operates from annual goal setting to weekly check-ins.
• Build and hold the standard for the tools we use to ensure the team is running with consistency and rigor, in collaboration with AD of Fellowship Incubation.
• Partner with senior leaders including SMT, the leaders of fellowships via the Executive Director of the fellowship ecosystem to ensure they have the tools, structures, and cadences they need to run their programs at the highest level.
• Build and own the AGLN's operational rhythm: planning cycles, staff meetings, cross-team coordination, and organizational reviews.
• Be the key focal point with Legal and the team to develop, improve, and maintain core agreement templates (e.g., MOUs, partnership agreements), ensuring they reflect AGLN’s evolving partnership models and reduce friction in execution.
• Establish reporting structures that create accountability without bureaucracy — practical systems that teams use and that surface the right information at the right time.
• Serve as the team leader for the Institute wide CRM integration and work closely with the centralized systems team.

Team Leadership & Direct Management

• Be the senior-most Washington, DC representative for the AGLN Team, building trusting relationships across the Institute.
• Lead, develop, and hold accountable a direct team of four or more staff, setting clear expectations and building individual capacity.
• Lead AGLN’s human resources management including hiring processes, performance conversations, and the overall health of the AGLN team in close collaboration and thought partnership with the VP.
• Model the operational standards and values you ask of others — rigor, warmth, follow-through, and care for people.
• Hold teams accountable not just to goals but to the values the AGLN holds for its fellows: curiosity, integrity, cross-ideological respect, and the courage to do hard things well.
• Serve as a steward of the AGLN's organizational culture, attending not just to what gets done, but how.

Financial Stewardship

• Overseeing budget development, allocation, and ongoing tracking across the portfolio in close partnership with the VP, as a close advisor on sound financial management.
• Ensure resources are deployed in alignment with strategic priorities and that tradeoffs are made with clarity and discipline.
• Partner with Aspen Institute finance to maintain compliance and accuracy across all financial reporting.
• Strengthen and roll out AGLN’s business and affiliation model to live into the strategy and plan in partnership with the SMT.
• Bring a clear, independent point of view to resource decisions and model disciplined stewardship for the broader team.

VP Partnership & Decision Support

• Serve as the VP's key operational partner providing organization-wide visibility, flagging risks, and ensuring the VP's attention flows to the highest-leverage decisions.
• Assess the decision landscape across the AGLN: what is ready to move, what needs more work, and what requires VP involvement versus what can be resolved at the operational level.
• Deliver structured, concise briefings that allow the VP to move quickly and with confidence.
• Offer independent, candid counsel. This partnership is built on genuine transparency and mutual accountability.
• Proactively surface concerns about team dynamics, morale, or organizational health before they escalate.

Stakeholder Engagement

• Represent the AGLN in Washington, DC — be a terrific teammate around the Aspen Institute’s DC office, at institutional convenings, and with key partners.
• Cultivate and steward relationships with fellows, funders, and peer organizations with credibility and warmth.

WHAT YOU’LL NEED TO THRIVE

• 15+ years of experience in complex, mission-driven organizations building operational infrastructure and leading teams through it.
• A BA in business, management or another relevant field required, advanced degree a plus.
• Significant experience with budget ownership and financial decision-making. Political acumen and experience in navigating complex organizations, multiple stakeholders, and competing priorities with skill and grace, and you know how to build trust across differences.
• Exceptional written and verbal communication, with the ability to adapt to different audiences.
• Proven ability to design reporting and accountability structures that teams use: You produce measurable results.
• Experience representing an organization externally — in Washington, DC, in political settings, or with funders and partners: You embody the credibility and warmth to do so effectively.
• Fluency in nonprofit operations: You own budget cycles, board governance, funder relations, and institutional compliance.
• Deep emotional intelligence and discretion: You earn the trust of senior leaders and peers through consistency and follow-through.
• A genuine orientation towards people: You are energized by relationships, you remember what matters to individuals, and you bring warmth into every room.
• Comfort with ambiguity and a strong bias toward action: You create clarity rather than waiting for it.
• Genuine curiosity about the AGLN's work and the leaders it serves: You align with our mission.
• Willingness and ability to travel 20–25%, including domestic and international AGLN convenings and select donor and partner engagements.

TO APPLY

We will accept applications through May 5th, 2026.

Please do not use ai to generate your cover letter - we seek to understand your true voice, since communication is such a core competency for this role.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

The Aspen Institute offers a generous benefits package including health, dental, vision, and prescription benefits, retirement benefits, and paid leave.

The Aspen Institute is an Equal Opportunity Employer and complies with all District and federal laws. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, or protected veteran or disabled status and will not be discriminated against.

The Aspen Institute welcomes individuals with disabilities to participate in its programs, including the interview process. If you would like to request accommodations or have questions about accessibility, please email hrsupport@aspeninstitute.org or call 202-736-2127 in advance of your visit. Requests for ASL or CART services should be made at least two weeks in advance when possible. We will make every effort to fulfill requests, subject to availability.