Sr. Lead, Global Policy Management

International Justice Mission (IJM) is the global leader in protecting vulnerable people from violence around the world. Our team of over 1,300 professionals are at work worldwide in over 30 offices. Together we are on a mission to rescue millions, protect half a billion, and make justice unstoppable.

We are a global community that cares for one another. We believe that the way we work is as important as the results we achieve. We provide professional excellence with joy and celebration to all those we serve. 

For over 25 years, IJM has pioneered the work to protect vulnerable people from violence. Nine out of nine times in the last decade, IJM’s Justice System Strengthening Projects have reduced slavery and violence between 50% and 85% for very large populations of people in poverty. Our vision is to scale our impact to protect 500 million people living in poverty from violence. Embedded within the Risk Leadership team of the Legal, Governance, Risk, and Compliance division, the new Sr. Lead, Global Policy Management role will play a critical part in achieving that vision as swiftly and effectively as possible.

This role will architect a next-generation global policy strategy and framework that is human-centered, co-created, and deeply integrated into a risk management framework. The role will approach policy not as a static compliance requirement, but rather as a proactive, risk-intelligent mechanism to help drive behavior that is vital to mission success, supporting operational, reputational, regulatory, and strategic risk management across the enterprise. Further elevating its importance, the role’s portfolio also will include ownership of IJM’s global Safeguarding and PSEAH policies, processes, and practices.

This position is hybrid (onsite Tuesdays and Thursdays) if located in the Washington, DC area or remote for non-local candidates. It is only available to US-based candidates with the right to work in the United States. It reports to the Director of Risk Leadership.

Strategic Policy Leadership

• Lead a collaborative process that designs, develops and implements a “next-generation” global standards and policy framework that aligns with and propels IJM’s mission and prioritized risk management.

• Lead the global standards and policy management function, ensuring standards and policies are designed and maintained as active instruments of risk management and strategic alignment.

• Promote an organizational mindset shift from “policy as compliance” to “policy as a risk tool,” and from “policy as prevention” to “policy as smart enablement of mission success.”

• Promote a culture that embraces policy as something that makes it easier to act in a risk-intelligent, ethical, legal, and mission-driving way.

Policy Development & Governance

• Oversee the lifecycle of global standards and policies – e.g., scoping, stakeholder engagement and discovery, iterative drafting and testing, approval, communication, implementation and adoption, monitoring and learning, maintenance, archiving, etc.

• Work with senior leaders and pertinent subject matter experts to guide, facilitate, and support the selection and drafting of policies and standards in accordance with the principles and processes of the next-generation framework.

• Develop and own a process of continuous improvement of the organization’s global policy management framework.

• Facilitate the contextualization and harmonization of policy across regions and functions, striking an appropriate balance between needed global consistency/standardization and local requirements.

Risk Integration

• Integrate the standards and policy framework into the broader enterprise risk management framework, positioning standards and policies as proactive risk-management instruments rather than standalone ends.

• Prioritize policy development that drives business success by helping mitigate the greatest threats or unlock the greatest opportunities to scale the protection of people living in poverty from violence.

• Ensure policies are risk-informed and support the organization’s risk appetite and tolerance.

Safeguarding and PSEAH

• Own a collaborative project to rethink and strengthen how safeguarding is positioned, structured, and delivered across the organization, resulting in a next-generation approach that fully delivers on our commitment to effectively embed safeguarding excellence throughout our global operations.

• Own the organization’s global Safeguarding policy, processes, and practices.

• Own the organization’s global Protection against Sexual Exploitation, Abuse and Harassment (PSEAH) policy, processes, and practices.

Partnership and Communication

• Communicate proactively and effectively with all relevant customers and stakeholders at each “moment that matters” in the policy lifecycle.

• Take a human-centered approach to delivering results in every responsibility area, actively listening to, engaging, empathizing with, collaborating with, and co-creating with internal customers and other stakeholders.

Capacity Building

• Build capacity across all teams to adapt, implement, and uphold global standards and policies effectively.

• Support and, at times, own the ideation, creation, and delivery of various skill-development, learning, and “enablement” resources that are designed to achieve behavior changes and norms specifically targeted by global policies.

Measurement, Learning, and Reporting

• Support, and at times own, the establishment of mechanisms to monitor policy implementation, effectiveness, and user experience, and to report on same.

• Support the development of metrics and dashboards to assess policy effectiveness in achieving targeted vital behavior change and management of targeted risk, and incorporate assessment learnings into continuous improvement practices.

• Support Compliance and MERL assessments in the policy space.

• Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field.

• Certifications in project management, risk management, or safeguarding preferred. Willingness to pursue training in them is required.

• Ten years of progressive experience in policy development and lifecycle management, preferably with a risk-management mindset rather than compliance-oriented one, and preferably in a global, mission-driven organization.

• Work experience in project management. Experience with Human-Centered Design (Design Thinking), with Systems Thinking, or in User Experience design strongly preferred.

• Demonstrated ability to successfully design for behavior change.

• Demonstrated ability to produce deliverables that are practical, intuitive, accessible, easy to implement, and experienced by internal customers as solutions to significant workday problems rather than as initiatives to be implemented.

• Proven track record of successfully engaging and building trust with stakeholders as users, customers, collaborators, and as co-creators.

• Exceptional cross-cultural communication and facilitation skills with a proven ability to influence opinions and decisions at all organizational levels.

• Critical thinker with a growth mindset.

• A deep understanding of risk-based policy frameworks and of the interrelationship between risk management and behavior change management.

• Mature Christian faith and an eager commitment to IJM’s Core Values: Christian, Professional, and Bridge-Building.

• Orientation to lead and collaborate with empathy, humility, emotional intelligence, and cultural intelligence.

• Commitment to enabling others to thrive in their roles.

• Self-motivated with the ability to work independently and with minimal supervision.

Upload Resume, Cover Letter & Statement of Faith* in one PDF document.

*What is a statement of faith?
A statement of faith should describe your Christian faith and how you see it as relevant to your involvement with IJM. The statement can either be incorporated into the cover letter or submitted as a separate document and should include, at a minimum, a description of your spiritual disciplines (prayer, study, etc.) and your current fellowship or place of worship.

• Comprehensive Medical/Dental/Vision benefits

• Monthly commuter and parking benefits in the DC metro area

• Retirement benefit options

• Paid leave starting at 23 days

• 12 holidays (plus early release the day prior)

• Daily, quarterly, and annual community spiritual formation

• Robust staff care resources

IJM holds strict safeguarding principles and a zero tolerance to violations of the Safeguarding Policy, Protection against Sexual Exploitation, Abuse and Harassment Policy, and Code of Ethics. Candidate selection is based on technical competence, recruitment, selection and hiring criteria subject to assessing the candidates value congruence and thorough background, police clearance, and reference check processes.

At IJM, we’re committed to building a diverse workforce through fair and equitable employment practices. IJM encourages people of any race, color, age, sex, marital status or political ideology to apply for employment. While we welcome everyone into this work, we truly believe that the work we are doing is God’s work, not our own, and practice spiritual disciplines together daily. That’s why we legally require under SEC. 2000e-1 [Section702] of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that all employees practice a mature orthodox Christian faith, as defined by the Apostles’ Creed.

IJM requires a background check, police clearance and thorough review of references with an employment offer and/or employment contract.