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 lead and grow our Energy and Environment program. This is a senior leadership role with three equally important dimensions: driving substantive policy research and thought leadership, managing and developing a talented team, and building the philanthropic relationships and resources that sustain the program’s long-term ambitions. Candidates who excel in only one or two of these dimensions are unlikely to be the right fit.

The selected candidate will be the leader and chief visionary of R Street’s energy program. The program, currently our second oldest, maintains a full-time staff and draws support from a broad range of well-known corporate and foundation donors. The ideal candidate should take seriously both the importance of free markets in maintaining a prosperous society and the risks created by climate change. You will report to the Vice President of Organizational Performance and Advancement and work in close collaboration with our Executive Leadership, Business Development, Government Affairs, Communications, and Editorial teams.

No two weeks at R Street are the same, but a typical day may include: 

• Meeting with a foundation program officer to present the program’s research roadmap and explore multi-year funding opportunities.
• Reviewing and strengthening an analyst’s explainer on transmission planning or interconnection reform.
• Drafting public comments in response to a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission notice of public rulemaking.
• Coordinating with Business Development to create a grant proposal.
• Speaking with coalition partners or policymakers about permitting modernization or market design.
• Working with Communications to sharpen talking points for an upcoming media appearance.
• Coaching a fellow to focus their analysis and elevate their writing on climate change adaptation.

You will find yourself working collaboratively across the organization almost every day.

Key aspects of your role

Program Leadership and Fundraising

• Drive the program’s financial sustainability by personally cultivating and closing philanthropic support, stewarding existing donor relationships, leading technical proposal development, and partnering closely with the Business Development team on strategy and pipeline management.
• Set and execute the program’s research agenda, managing priorities, timelines, and quality across the portfolio.
• Represent R Street externally in ways that advance both policy impact and the program’s funding position.

People Management and Team Development

• Manage, coach, and develop program staff—fellows, analysts, and associates—helping them scope work, deepen their analysis, and produce polished, credible products.
• Foster a collaborative, intellectually rigorous culture consistent with R Street’s mission and values.

Research and Thought Leadership

• Contribute original policy analysis, op-eds, regulatory comments, and public testimony aligned with the program’s mission.
• Edit and elevate written products to ensure they are rigorous, timely, and meet R Street’s research standards.
• Maintain current expertise across key legislation, regulatory proceedings, and research in energy and environmental policy.
• Engage in conferences, media appearances, and other forums to translate complex analysis for varied audiences.

Research Agenda: Three Pillars

• Electricity
  • Transmission planning, interconnection, and grid resilience; wholesale market design (RTO governance); retail choice, rate design, and distribution system performance.
• Environment and Innovation
  • Market-enabling climate mitigation/adaptation, climate risk management, permitting and siting, energy innovation policy, and efficient environmental regulation.
• Transportation
  • Competition and innovation in heavy-duty modes (e.g., rail, shipping, trucking) and market-enabling approaches for light-duty vehicles, including barriers to EV/AV adoption and infrastructure funding mechanisms.

Skills and qualifications: The following reflect our priorities for this role, in roughly descending order of importance.

• Education
  • No particular educational background is required. We value demonstrated results over credentials. 
• Mission alignment
  • Genuine enthusiasm for R Street’s commitment to free markets and limited, effective government.

• Fundraising and donor development experience
  • A track record of cultivating relationships with philanthropic and corporate funders and closing support for policy or research programs. Comfort with the full donor lifecycle, from prospecting through stewardship, is essential.
• People and project leadership
  • Experience managing staff and guiding their professional development. Proven ability to oversee multi-stakeholder projects from scoping through delivery.
• Fluency in energy and environmental public policy 
  • Deep substantive knowledge across at least one of the program’s three pillars, with the ability to engage credibly across all three.
• Writing and editing excellence
  • Top-tier writing skills and the ability to translate complex analysis for policymakers and general audiences.
• Analytical range
  • Comfort synthesizing research across methods common to the program (e.g., literature review, secondary analysis, descriptive statistics, case studies). Familiarity with econometric approaches is a plus.
• Relationship breadth
  • Demonstrated ability to work productively across ideological and stakeholder lines, including with those with whom you may disagree.
• Entrepreneurial judgment
  • A self-starter orientation, strong situational judgment, and the ability to set and defend priorities under competing demands.
• Strong attention to detail.
• Vigilance against ninja infiltrations 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.