Program Director, Countering Terrorist Recruitment Online, Washington, D.C.

Position Description

Position Overview

PADF, through its Peace, Justice & Security thematic area, is pursuing an opportunity to implement a program funded by the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Counterterrorism (CT Bureau) to counter the online recruitment efforts of U.S.-designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs). This program is expected to strengthen partner-country law enforcement and justice-sector institutions' ability to detect, investigate, and prosecute online FTO recruitment, while building digital literacy among youth in vulnerable communities and engaging relevant industry and civil-society stakeholders.

The Program Director will provide overall leadership, strategic direction, and management of the program, and will serve as PADF's primary liaison with the U.S. Department of State CT Bureau. This role requires a leader who combines traditional CT program management experience with genuine fluency in the digital and technical dimensions of online recruitment - content and platform dynamics, prevention/counter-messaging campaign design, and digital literacy education - alongside the diplomatic and institutional skills needed to manage a multi-country, multi-partner cooperative agreement. This is a distinct profile from a traditional law-enforcement-liaison or rule-of-law Program Director: PADF is specifically seeking someone who can speak credibly to both the technical/digital side of the problem and the program-management/CT Bureau-liaison side.

This position is ideally based in Washington, D.C., and involves frequent international travel to program countries. PADF will also consider exceptional candidates based outside the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area.

This position is contingent upon successful award.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

Strategic Leadership and Program Vision:

• Provide overall leadership and strategic direction for program implementation across participating countries.
• Ensure the program is aligned with U.S. Department of State CT Bureau priorities, including detection of AI-generated and platform-based terrorist content, youth digital literacy, and citizen reporting in coordination with law enforcement.
• Guide program strategy to remain responsive to evolving online recruitment tactics, partner-country needs, and U.S. Government policy priorities.

Program Management and Operations:

• Lead development and execution of workplans, the program's logic model and theory of change, the performance monitoring plan, and implementation strategies across all participating countries.
• Ensure timely, efficient, and compliant delivery of all program activities, deliverables, and reporting requirements, consistent with cooperative agreement substantial-involvement provisions.
• Oversee program budget and operations, ensuring effective use of resources and alignment with program objectives.

Technical Oversight and Quality Assurance:

• Provide high-level technical oversight of activities spanning detection of online recruitment content, youth-facing digital literacy and prevention education, law enforcement investigative training, and citizen reporting mechanisms.
• Guide the design and delivery of prevention and counter-messaging content and campaigns appropriate to youth and vulnerable-community audiences across participating countries.
• Maintain working knowledge of the major digital and social media platforms, gaming-adjacent environments, and encrypted channels relevant to FTO recruitment, and translate that knowledge into program design.
• Ensure program implementation reflects Do No Harm principles, participant safety, and politically sensitive engagement.

Donor, Government, Platform, and Regional Engagement:

• Serve as PADF's primary liaison with the U.S. Department of State CT Bureau throughout the period of performance, including monthly meetings and written progress updates.
• Coordinate with U.S. Government agencies, U.S. Embassy country teams, partner governments, and implementing and technology-sector partners to ensure complementarity and avoid duplication.
• Build and maintain relationships with law enforcement agencies, ministries responsible for youth and education, civil society organizations, and relevant technology platforms.

Team Leadership and Learning:

• Supervise senior program staff, including technical, digital/content, and country-level implementation personnel.
• Promote a collaborative, accountable, high-performing team environment with clear roles and decision-making processes.
• Ensure performance data and implementation experience are used to inform adaptive management and strengthen program results.

Competencies

• Nurture knowledge - Models continuous learning, builds systems that institutionalize knowledge, and uses insights to drive strategic decisions.
• Be creative and promote creativity- Drives a culture of innovation and aligns creative initiatives with organizational strategy.
• Lead & inspire - Inspires at organizational scale through values-driven leadership.
• Adapt- Leads strategic adaptation, anticipating change and ensuring organizational agility.
• Optimize resources- Drives organizational excellence through strategic resource allocation and systems that support continuous improvement.
• Communicate effectively - Communicates vision, strategy, and priorities with clarity and inspiration to diverse internal and external audiences.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Communications, Digital Media, International Relations, Criminology, Public Policy, Security Studies, or related field. Postgraduate degree in any of these or a related discipline desired.
• Minimum of twelve (12) years of progressively responsible experience managing U.S. Government-funded programs, grants, cooperative agreements, or other international donor-funded initiatives.
• Experience working with or within technology/social media platforms on trust and safety, content moderation, or platform policy.
• Experience as Chief of Party, Program Director, Deputy Chief of Party, or equivalent senior leadership role on a U.S. Government-funded program.
• Demonstrated experience working in one or more areas related to online safety, trust and safety, digital communications, content moderation, countering violent extremism (CVE) online, public policy, or digital literacy/prevention education.
• Demonstrated understanding of youth and vulnerable populations' engagement with digital platforms, social media, and gaming-adjacent environments, and of how these spaces are exploited for radicalization and recruitment.
• Experience designing or overseeing prevention, digital literacy, or counter-messaging content or campaigns.
• Experience working with government counterparts, such as law enforcement, ministries of education/youth, or digital regulatory bodies.
• Proven ability to lead multidisciplinary teams, including technical/digital specialists and country-level program staff, in complex or high-risk environments.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills in English and Spanish.
• Candidates must be legally authorized to work in the United States.
• Experience with U.S. Department of State CT Bureau programs or cooperative agreements.
• Experience designing or implementing digital literacy or online safety curricula for youth in vulnerable communities.
• Familiarity with the current FTO and online recruitment threat landscape in one or more regions of interest to the CT Bureau.
• Experience living or working internationally in regions affected by FTO-related recruitment activity.

Salary Range: $125,000 - $144,000

A candidate's salary is determined by multiple factors including, but not limited to, relevant work experience, job-related knowledge, skills, abilities, and internal organizational equity.