Program Officer

The David and Lucile Packard Foundation

The David and Lucile Packard Foundation

Administration, Operations

USD 200k-235k / year

Posted on May 13, 2026

About The David and Lucile Packard Foundation

Founded in 1964 by David and Lucile Packard, The David and Lucile Packard Foundation (the Foundation) is a family philanthropy dedicated to supporting leaders and organizations around the world working to invest in children and families, protect and restore the natural world, and create just and inclusive societies. For more than six decades, the Foundation has advanced scientific innovation, championed reproductive health and rights, conserved and restored our natural world, and invested in the well-being of children and families. The Foundation’s goals today include:

• Build Just Societies: support a strong civil society and inclusive institutions and governance to
build just and equitable societies for all people.
• Protect and Restore Our Natural World: champion bold climate solutions, an ocean that sustains
us, and scientific innovation and discovery to secure the health and future of people and planet.
• Invest in Families and Communities: prioritize the importance of children having a healthy start
and promoting resilient and vibrant communities where children and families thrive, so they have
the power to shape their lives.

To achieve lasting change, the Foundation also strives to address root causes of longstanding problems, including building a thriving, resilient U.S. democracy; advancing racial justice in the United States and
gender equity globally; and supporting a strong civil society around the globe.

Inclusive collaboration is the heart of the Foundation’s approach, with the belief that actively listening to and learning from people with a wide range of views is the best way to create solutions that match the scale and urgency of the challenges we face. The Foundation is dedicated to supporting community-based solutions shaped by the knowledge and experience of the people whose lives are most affected and informed by data, recognizing that meaningful solutions require patience, urgency, and supporting the conditions for transformational change. The Foundation is committed to addressing complex issues over the long term while making tangible progress today.

The Foundation’s Vision, Mission, and Values are as follows:

• Vision: A just and equitable world where both people and nature flourish.
• Mission: We work with people and communities to create enduring solutions for just societies and a healthy, resilient natural world.
• Values: Equity, Integrity, Belief in Individual Leadership, Thinking Big, Respect, and Effectiveness.

U.S. Racial Justice Initiative

As the Packard Foundation advances its goal to “Build Just Societies,” essential to supporting thriving families, strong communities, and a sustainable natural world, it is clear that advancing racial justice in the United States is essential—both in its own right and to a healthy democracy, where the full participation, representation, and protection of all communities are safeguarded.

The U.S. Racial Justice initiative aims to accelerate progress toward just and equitable outcomes for Black people and communities, creating ripple effects that expand opportunity, improve social and economic outcomes, and build a more just society for everyone.

We advance this goal through grantmaking across three interconnected portfolios:
• Strengthening the leadership and voices of those most affected by injustice in the U.S. South, so they can help shape our collective future.
• Investing in efforts to defend the constitutional and legal rights guaranteed to all.
• Catalyzing big ideas that propel us toward a more just and equitable future.

Together, these efforts contribute to a nation more fully aligned with its highest ideals.

The Program Officer Role

Located within the Just Societies goal area and reporting to the Director of the Racial Justice Initiative, this Program Officer will lead a grantmaking portfolio focused on defending and advancing constitutional and civil rights as a core strategy for racial justice. They need to bring strong knowledge of civil rights, particularly the 14th Amendment framework, and the ability to translate theory, application, and strategy into clear, actionable grantmaking approaches. They will be able to identify which legal strategies create meaningful opportunities to advance racial justice and shape funding partnerships that advance the work.

The Program Officer will design and manage a portfolio that supports work across litigation, enforcement, community leadership, and public narrative. They will build relationships with legal experts, advocates, and community leaders, and collaborate with colleagues and funding partners to extend the reach and impact of the portfolio. They will partner with grantees and seek out new grantees, recommend grants, and serve as a resource and connector for grantees in the execution of program strategies.

The ideal candidate is a strong analytical thinker who is comfortable navigating complexity and change. They bring a clear commitment to equity and racial justice, communicate effectively, and center the perspectives of impacted communities in their work. They will also bring a nonpartisan, innovative, creative approach to this work, and will stay abreast of emerging trends, synthesizing information across
a dynamic field, to inform strategy.

The Opportunity

Grantmaking and Strategic Leadership

  • In partnership with the Director, lead the development and implementation of the strategy for one or more portfolios within the Racial Justice initiative.
  • Lead all aspects of annual grantmaking, assessing opportunities, recommending new grants. managing relationships with grantee partners, and evaluating the impact of investments.
  • Empower and enable grantee partners to achieve meaningful impact through specific policy and programmatic objectives, providing expertise/technical assistance as needed.
  • Clearly and consistently communicate with grant recipients, staff, and other partners in a transparent, timely, and respectful manner.
  • Partner with other Foundation staff, consultants, and grantees to ensure effective grantmaking and that deadlines and budgets are met or readjusted as needed.
  • Manage the grant proposal process and contribute to the shaping of proposals.
  • Manage complex processes and projects involving multiple institutions and cross-functional Foundation teams.
  • Review and resolve legal, financial, and technical issues raised by specific grants and grant reports.
  • Produce high quality and timely materials for senior leadership and the Board, including quarterly
  • Board docket materials, strategy documents, updates, dashboards, and other materials as needed.

Strategic and Field Leadership

  • Organize foundation-sponsored convenings of grantees and field experts, including legal experts, advocates, movement leaders, and peer funders.
  • Research, analyze, identify, and cultivate new opportunities for investment in the civil rights and racial justice landscape, translating into funding strategies.
  • Integrate strategic communications and monitoring and evaluation into the portfolio’s grantmaking strategies, maintaining a dynamic learning environment for grantees and staff where lessons learned are regularly synthesized and shared.
  • Collaborate with key internal and external stakeholders to provide strategic leadership, identify gaps, and develop effective solutions across the field.
  • Effectively represent the Foundation and the U.S. Racial Justice Initiative externally with credibility and clarity across a wide range of audiences, including meeting with current and potential grantees, giving presentations and attending public forums and conferences on topics of relevance, and when interacting with nonprofit, intergovernmental and private sector leaders, elected officials, academics, collaboratives and journalists.
  • Contribute to broader field building efforts through writing, collaboration, and other forms of thought leadership.

Desired Qualifications

While no one candidate will possess all the qualifications listed below, the ideal candidate will be passionate about The David and Lucile Packard Foundation’s mission and bring many of the following skills and experiences.

Education and Experience

  • A minimum of 7 years of experience working across core areas of the U.S. Racial Justice initiative, including civil rights, power building, racial equity, and social justice.
  • A Bachelor’s degree is required for this role; an advanced degree is strongly preferred.
  • Experience working in social justice, philanthropic fields, or social impact organizations is strongly preferred.

Field Knowledge and Experience

  • Brings a deep knowledge of civil rights, particularly the 14th Amendment framework, and its application in advancing racial justice and equity.
  • Experience working with or alongside litigation, legal advocacy, or movement organizations; familiarity with how legal strategies are developed and implemented in practice.
  • Experience translating legal, policy, or advocacy strategies into actionable initiatives, investments, or programs (within philanthropy, nonprofit organizations, government, or aligned sectors).
  • Track record of success as a results-oriented senior thought leader and program manager within a philanthropic, nonprofit, management consulting, academic or government context

Skills, Abilities, and Qualities

  • A commitment to the vision, mission, and values of the Packard Foundation.
    Innovative, strategic, and analytical thinker skilled in understanding and meeting ever-evolving challenges.
  • Highly skilled and persuasive communicator with exceptional written, oral, interpersonal, and presentation skills, including the ability to translate complex legal or policy concepts for diverse audiences.
  • Ability to build effective partnerships and networks externally, as well as sustain collaborative relationships both internally and externally
  • Able to flex between self-directed and collaborative, as well as decisive and flexible, with the capacity to give and receive feedback graciously.
  • Thrives in a team-based and collegial workplace.
  • Committed to inclusion and deeply values creating a workplace that is supportive of difference; brings experience with diverse teams and success at navigating cross-cultural communication.
  • Devoted to growing own cultural competence and willing to actively participate in the Foundation’s efforts to integrate justice and equity into all facets of our work together.
  • Strong administration skills with keen ability to prioritize across workflows.

Compensation and Benefits

The position is full-time. The salary range for this position is $200,000- $235,000 annually. This salary range is an estimate, and the actual salary may vary based on various factors, including without limitation individual education, experience, tenure, certification, skills, and abilities, as well as internal equity and alignment with market data. Offers are based on the candidate’s years of experience and our practice of upholding salary equity within the foundation.

The David and Lucile Packard Foundation offers excellent benefits for eligible employees. Current benefits include medical (HMO and HDHPs), dental and vision coverage; 15% employer contribution to employee retirement plan; life insurance, disability insurance, vacation, and sick leave; an adoption benefit; fertility benefit; a financial wellness program; health advocacy services, paid time off to volunteer for nonprofit organizations; matching grants for employee contributions to tax exempt organizations; commute assistance; and tuition assistance.

To Apply

This search is being led by Rachel Burgoyne and Danielle Higa of NPAG. Please apply using this link: https://www.npag.com/packard-rjpo.

Hybrid Work Policy

The Packard Foundation’s current Hybrid Work Policy is that staff are expected to be in the office on Tuesdays and Wednesdays each week with some additional days required. This position requires the ability to travel a minimum of 30% of the time. In addition, work outside regular business hours may be necessary to accommodate time zone differences and support key responsibilities.

Equal Employment Opportunity

The Foundation is an equal employment opportunity employer, which means we recruit, hire, assign, train, promote, compensate, provide benefits, discipline, and discharge (and all the other terms and conditions of employment) based on merit, qualifications, job requirements, and other legitimate business factors.

See more open positions at The David and Lucile Packard Foundation