Policy Director, Energy and Environment

Policy Director, Energy and Environment

R Street Institute

Washington, D.C.

The R Street Institute—a free-market think tank headquartered in Washington, D.C. with staff across the country and beyond—seeks a Policy Director to help lead and manage our Energy and Environment policy program. If you are the right fit, you will report to the Vice President of Organizational Performance and Advancement. If you want to join a mission-driven organization and work toward pragmatic policy solutions, this may be the opportunity for you!

Your typical day at R Street may include working with colleagues to shape an op-ed on electricity reliability, reviewing an analyst’s memo on transmission planning and interconnection reform, drafting public comments on a regulatory proposal, speaking with coalition partners about permitting modernization, coordinating with Communications on message alignment, and consulting with state or federal staff on policy tradeoffs. You’ll find yourself working collaboratively across the organization almost every day.

Other aspects of your role

• Support program leadership and execution across the Energy and Environment portfolio, including project planning, timelines, and quality control.
• Manage and coach staff (i.e., fellows, analysts, or associates, as applicable), helping them scope work, strengthen analysis, and deliver polished products.
• Drive the program’s financial growth and long-term sustainability by securing funding, stewarding donor relationships, leading technical proposal development, and closely collaborating with the Business Development team on strategy. 
• Contribute thought leadership aligned with the program’s mission by writing policy analysis, op-eds, and regulatory comments and participating in conferences, media, and other engagements to translate complex issues for varied audiences.
• Edit and elevate written products to ensure they are rigorous, credible, timely, and aligned with R Street’s research standards and methodologies.
• Help advance the program’s research agenda across three pillars, with a critical focus on the future of electric systems.
  • Electricity: Driving critical research in transmission planning, interconnection, and grid resilience; leading engagement on wholesale market design (RTO governance); and shaping pragmatic policy for retail choice, rate design, and distribution system performance.
  • Environment and Innovation: Advancing market-enabling climate mitigation/adaptation, climate risk management, permitting and siting, energy innovation policy, and efficient environmental regulation.
  • Transportation: Exploring competition and innovation in heavy-duty modes (i.e., rail, shipping, trucking) and market-enabling approaches for light-duty vehicles (e.g., barriers to EV/AV adoption, congestion and infrastructure usage/funding mechanisms).
• Collaborate with Government Affairs, Communications, Business Development, and Editorial to identify target audiences and ensure products land where they can have the greatest impact.
• Stay current on key research, legislation, and regulatory developments in energy and environmental policy.
• Remain vigilant against ninja infiltrations!

Skills and qualifications

• No particular educational background is required; a proven record of achieving results is more meaningful than credentials.
• Strong policy fluency in energy and environmental public policy.
• People and project leadership experience, including managing projects with multiple stakeholders; management experience is a plus.
• Top-notch writing and editing skills; comfort translating complex analysis for policymakers and the public.
• Ability to synthesize research using methods common to the program’s work (e.g., literature review, secondary analysis, descriptive statistics, case studies; familiarity with econometric approaches is a plus).
• Demonstrated ability to work productively with a wide variety of groups and individuals, including those with whom you may disagree.
• Support for R Street’s passion for free markets and limited, effective government.
• Entrepreneurial attitude, strong judgment, and a sense of humor.

The R Street Institute consistently offers pragmatic, real solutions that foster American innovation, bolster competition, and safeguard individual liberty—all with the understanding that life in a democratic society sometimes requires compromises that don’t necessarily represent first, best solutions. We focus on deep scholarship and pragmatic policy solutions that many groups tend to neglect. Our goal is to publish timely, relevant research and analysis that advances a market-oriented society and limited, effective government. To that end, our motto is “Free Markets. Real Solutions.” Read more about our mission and impact. 

Workplace

We offer a flexible working arrangement. This is a full-time position that can either work the majority of the week in our D.C. office or be fully remote. 

Occasional travel may be required for events and conferences.

Compensation, Benefits, and Perks

R Street strives to offer a compensation and benefits package that is competitive, transparent, and supportive of employee well-being. The salary range for this position is $185,000–$200,000 annually, commensurate with experience. In addition to this competitive salary, we provide the following:

• Unlimited paid time off, including all federal holidays, the day after Thanksgiving, and two weeks holiday closure in December
• Alternating Fridays off
• A health insurance option entirely paid by the employer (even for families)
• Dental and vision insurance
• 401(k) contributions with up to a 4 percent match
• HSA employer contribution match
• Quarterly wellness reimbursement
• Mobile equipment/mobile plan reimbursement
• Home internet subsidy
• Annual educational and professional development reimbursement
• A choice between child care assistance, pet care assistance, and student loan repayment assistance

At R Street Institute, we strive for preeminence in every area where we engage, driven by our commitment to excellence and innovation. Our culture thrives on action, creativity, and courage, with an unwavering focus on quality, credibility, and impact. We believe progress requires diverse experience and expertise, which is why we champion non-traditional yet prudent approaches to public policy. This principle guides how we build our programs, recognizing that each team member’s uniqueness strengthens our collective identity.

We approach our mission with intellectual rigor, embracing free inquiry and honesty to ensure our work is grounded in solid research and thoughtful analysis. While serious about our purpose, we value the joy of collaboration and the fun that comes from working together. Our collaborative spirit fosters trust and transparency, with respect and openness guiding our actions. We celebrate our individual contributions while recognizing that we are stronger as one team, united in our work and relationships.

Thus, R Street does not discriminate on the basis of age, sex, race, creed, color, national origin, sexual orientation, era of military service, gender identity or expression, relationship structure, or anything else that’s illegal, immoral, or stupid to use as a basis for hiring.

We plan to accept applications for this job until filled. We will contact qualified individuals for telephone screenings and conduct them on a rolling basis. Interviews take place virtually via Zoom. 

To apply, please copy and paste your cover letter into the text box and upload your resume as a Microsoft Word document or PDF. We encourage thoughtful use of AI tools—if you use them, please describe how they contributed to your work.

The R Street Institute stands for free markets, limited, effective government and pragmatic solutions to difficult problems. We envision:

A free society, where public policy begins with freedom as its initial premise and governments exist primarily as guardians of inherent, inalienable rights.

An inclusive society that provides a place, a voice, and equal opportunity for all.

A just society that holds everyone accountable to the same laws.

Our Values

The following values are the principles that guide how R Street fulfills its mission and operates. Our organization believes in these values and we live them:

Always be better

We want to achieve preeminence in every area where we work. We encourage a bias for action, innovation, creativity, and courage in everything that we do. We measure ourselves by the quality, credibility and impact we achieve as a result.

Different is good.

We believe that great minds think differently and building broad coalitions has made us who we are. Making progress on policy requires that we operate outside of the echo chamber and take non-traditional approaches to policy making. We apply this same principle to the way we operate and how we build our teams: with a focus on diversity and inclusion. We are all unique but belong to the same team.

Serious(ly)

We’re serious about our work, but don’t take ourselves too seriously. We believe in the intellectual rigor, free inquiry and honesty, that is required to achieve our mission, but having fun doing it is equally as important.

One Team

We all work together and work with humility. We strive to cultivate trust and transparency at all levels, between ourselves as individuals and as an organization, with our stakeholders, and in our work. We demonstrate respect and openness in our actions at all times. We are all unique but belong to the same team.