Program Manager at Open Society… · Mexico…

Program Manager. Mexico City. Posting Date: 05/12/2026. Deadline: 05/25/2026

Role Title: Program Manager

Contract Type: Full-time

Workstyle Arrangement: Hybrid

Reporting To: Director, Refugees & Migration (with cross-team coordination across the Day One Project and the Normalizing Migration opportunity globally)

Program/Department/Unit Name: Programs

Location: Mexico City, Mexico, or Bogotá, Colombia

Team Name: Normalizing Migration

The opportunity will build new pathways for legal migration to help the world’s most vulnerable people relocate to safety and prosperity. The opportunity aims to devolve power to local actors, build public confidence in inclusive immigration systems, and diminish authoritarians’ ability to use migration as a wedge issue. 

Role Purpose

The Program Manager will serve as the Normalizing Migration opportunity’s primary point of engagement in the Western Hemisphere, connecting stakeholders across the region—governments, civil society, faith communities, the private sector, multilateral institutions, and research organizations—with the Day One Project, a multi-year effort, supported by OSF and partner foundations, to develop policy ideas for a future U.S. administration prepared to govern immigration competently from its first day in office. Based in Mexico City or Bogotá, the Program Manager will be responsible for day-to-day liaison and coordination with grantees and partners across the hemisphere, and for translating regional intelligence, relationships, and policy lessons into the Day One Project’s wider strategy—while also bringing the Project’s emerging thinking back to interlocutors in the region. The Program Manager will play an important role be implementing the opportunity, which may use a variety of OSF’s strategic capabilities, including stakeholder engagement, communications, impact investing, strategic litigation, and grant making. The expectation is that the Program Manager is a subject matter expert in Western Hemisphere migration policy and/or politics.

Key responsibilities

• Serve as the Day One Project’s in-region anchor for engagement with governments, multilateral institutions, civil society, faith and community leaders, the private sector, and research organizations across the Western Hemisphere—cultivating, deepening, and sustaining the relationships on which the regional dimension of the work depends.
• Connect regional intelligence to broader strategy—ensuring that lessons learned from migration policy and programs across sending, transit, and receiving countries inform the Day One Project’s wider thinking, and that the Project’s policy architecture reflects a coherent hemispheric perspective rather than country-by-country thinking.
• Coordinate across a complex partner ecosystem, working closely with grantees, partner organizations, and consultants engaged in regional work on behalf of the Day One Project and ensuring that contributions from across the ecosystem are sequenced, aligned, and additive.
• Support the design and implementation of strategic initiatives in partnership with the Director and Day One Project leadership, including identifying small-scale programs and policies ripe for scaling and surfacing pilot opportunities; making proposals, suggesting alternatives, and driving complex initiatives forward.
• Lead day-to-day grant management for the regional portfolio, including proposal review, processing, payments, reporting, and compliance with OSF standards and regulations; manage consultant contracts; and provide regular status updates on implementation, risks, and opportunities to the Director.
• Represent the Day One Project in regional forums and convenings, articulating its goals and approach to public and private interlocutors, and managing political sensitivities with discretion in environments where confidentiality and the trust of policymakers and operational partners are paramount.
• Contribute to written products—briefing notes, memos, lessons-learned documents, and analytical pieces—that translate regional dynamics for U.S. and other audiences engaged with the Day One Project, and that bring the Project’s wider work to audiences in the region.
• Exercise considerable discretion and intellectual independence, working with a high tolerance for ambiguity in a fast-moving political and operational environment.
• Work with leadership to maintain grant-making practice aligned with OSF’s approach and in compliance with organizational and external standards and regulations

Key internal relationships

Director, Refugees & Migration; Managing Director, Programs; Day One Project leadership and system leads; colleagues across the Normalizing Migration opportunity globally; Network Grants; Special

Advisors; Senior Advisors; Grants Management; Operations.

Key external relationships

Government counterparts (national and sub-national) across the Western Hemisphere; multilateral and regional institutions; partner foundations; civil society, faith, community, private sector, academic, and research organizations engaged in migration work in the region; consultants and grantees.

The ideal candidate

• Educated to a degree-level (or equivalent).
• Substantial expertise in migration in the Western Hemisphere, including a sophisticated understanding of the political, policy, and operational dynamics across sending, transit, and receiving countries, and a track record of work on legal pathways, the protection of vulnerable migrants, and/or coalition-building for inclusive immigration systems.
• Established relationships with relevant counterparts across the region—within governments, multilateral and regional institutions, civil society, faith and community organizations, the private sector, and the research community—and the ability to navigate them with discretion.
• Proven track record leading complex, multi-year social and political change initiatives, including strategic planning and cross-functional team coordination.
• Background in managing multi-stakeholder partnerships and in building novel coalitions that go beyond traditional civil society, including with faith groups, the private sector, unions, and community organizations.
• Experience using diverse tools—including grant making, stakeholder engagement, communications, and litigation—to execute strategies.
• Demonstrated ability to translate regional dynamics for U.S. and international audiences, and to bring U.S. and international perspectives into regional conversations.
• Strong relationship management skills, particularly in navigating complex and politically sensitive topics, and in maintaining the trust of policymakers and operational partners.
• Ability to maintain high performance while adapting to change.
• Desirable:
• Prior experience working in or with national governments in the Western Hemisphere on migration or related policy areas.
• Familiarity with cutting-edge applications of technology to immigration challenges.
• Experience working across philanthropic, governmental, and NGO settings.
• Travel is required. Travel frequency depends on the role requirements.

           

What we offer 

• Exceptional opportunities to learn, grow, and make an impact; from a generous annual professional development allowance for every employee to onsite training and learning conversations with visiting experts.
• Excellent benefits and perks to promote well-being and a healthy work-life balance, including:
  • Generous time off and flexible work arrangements.
  • Staff are required to work in an Open Society office 50% of working days per month.
  • Employer-paid health insurance and dental plans for individuals and families (no employee contribution required).
  • Exceptional retirement savings plan (non-contributory for employees) and life insurance.
  • Progressive paid parental leave, reproductive and family planning support, and much more.
• A commitment to nurturing a diverse and inclusive workplace, so you can bring your whole self to work and make a positive impact.

Who we are      

Open Society Foundations aim to establish vibrant and inclusive democracies where governments are accountable to their citizens. Our operating model organizes grant making around specific, time-limited projects, developed alongside support for established partners, enabling us to respond swiftly to emerging needs. We are committed to promoting human dignity, equality, and rights; reimagining democratic ideals and practice; and advancing equity in governance systems.

Guided by our founder’s values and the belief in the art of the possible, we engage directly with global entities, individuals, and policymakers through grants, advocacy, impact investing, and strategic human rights litigation to drive positive change. At the heart of our mission is a deep commitment to rights, equity, and justice, inspiring every action we take.

Competitive rates of pay apply.

Open Society Foundations is committed to advancing diversity, equity and inclusion, and to building a diverse staff that reflects the movements, issues and communities that our mission serves. Candidates from all underrepresented backgrounds, identities and communities are encouraged to apply.   

We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations to applicants and colleagues with disabilities.