Lead the Ada Lovelace Institute’s EU and international policy work.

Responsibilities

Strategic planning, engagement, networking and communications (40%)

• Working closely with the Ada senior leadership team to plan, develop and implement Ada’s EU and international policy strategies, and contribute to organisation-level strategy development and implementation.
• Map, build and maintain relationships with key decision-makers in EU institutions (e.g.) Commission, Parliament, Council), key regulators, and other international forums.
• Exercise thought leadership and represent Ada in private and public forums, including high profile European and international boards (e.g. UNESCO or OECD working groups).
• Identify and develop strategic working relationships with organisations and individuals relevant to the work of Ada, including where appropriate, partnerships and coalitions with civil society organisations, academic bodies, government agencies and industry around policy issues.
• Build and share understanding within Ada about emerging legislation and policy opportunities in EU and international contexts through monitoring, briefings and liaising with subject research leads.
• Working across the organisation, particularly with the Communications team to deliver a range of effective engagement and communications strategies tailored for our specific audiences, seeing outputs through from inception to post-publication engagement and influencing.

Responsive policy research and oversight (40%)

• Work with the Ada senior leadership team and other Leads to develop, define and refine Ada’s policy interventions in EU and international forums.
• Conduct responsive research, analysis and translation on key policy issues, for policy audiences, and manage commissioned research projects delivered by third parties.
• Lead Ada’s work on specific interventions with a high degree of autonomy, including policy consultations, strategies, and legislation, using a range of approaches including events, workshops, expert deliberations, policy sprints, drafting commentary or responses, or policy research projects.
• Advise Ada researchers in other directorates on policy implications of their work and how to maximise impact with policymakers.

Resource and people management (20%)

• Line management and development responsibility for a researcher, and for occasional secondees.
• Oversee the work and contacts of researchers, external collaborators, and consultants, ensuring quality and delivery standards are met.

Skillset

• Experience of leading policy development and analysis.
• Experience working on issues of data, technology and AI policy and/or its impact on society.
• Excellent editorial, synthesis and analysis skills.
• Experience working in an international (e.g. EU, UN) policy environment (government agencies, regulators, public sector, independent bodies, political parties) and/or experience influencing policy or law (from industry, charitable or civil society organisations, international non-governmental organisations, think tanks or learned societies).
• Clear and persuasive communications, written and spoken.
• Experience of design and planning of policy/influencing strategy.
• Experience of working on AI governance/regulatory policy (any jurisdiction).
• High degree of familiarity with EU institutions (particularly those addressing AI/data) or equivalent institution in comparable international contexts and expert knowledge of EU digital legislation portfolio (especially AI Act and associated instruments).
• Experience of writing on complex topics for different audiences, including general ones.
• Experience of conducting or overseeing policy/legal analysis, fieldwork, research or data collection at the intersection of technology and society.
• Ability to work collaboratively with a diverse range of stakeholders, including senior officials.
• Ability to produce, execute and evaluate an ambitious but achievable agenda with high impact.
• Capacity to manage people, relationships and networks efficiently and with care.
• Experienced in line management and supporting staff development through empathetic and inclusive leadership.
• Experience in setting up and maintaining formal and informal collaborations involving multiple stakeholders.
• Experience with project or advocacy management, planning and coordination.
• A willingness to continually learn and immerse oneself in the issues raised by using data and AI.
• A keen and demonstrable interest in issues of social, public, and tech policy; AI governance and regulation; AI and data ethics; responsible research and innovation; and wider tech policy issues.
• A commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion, and to addressing structural inequalities and injustice.
• Approaches research and project management in an organised and structured way.
• Strategic and tactical thinking, with a good political antenna, able to spot opportunities, gaps and positioning, weighing short-term and long-term ambitions for the organisation.
• Flexible and creative, able to think outside the box.
• Ability to speak with a non-partisan voice, reflecting Ada’s commitment to independence, diversity, pluralistic and evidence-based positions.
• Comfortable working at pace and with a large degree of independence.
• A collaborative approach to research and thinking.
• A caring, mentoring and coaching approach to people management.

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