Director of Programs, Next River
About Next River
Next River is an institute for practicing the future. We pursue liberatory culture change on a generational timeline by activating networks of people with the practices, narratives, and beliefs that support collective wellbeing.
Established in 2021, we have built a strong organizational foundation. We are hiring our first full-time Director of Programs, who will build out Next River’s programmatic offerings and strategic partnerships.
About the Director of Programs
This position reports to the Managing Director and will play a key role in concretely charting how Next River enables groups of people in relationship with each other to adopt the beliefs and practices of freedom as interdependence, in service of advancing a broader culture of collective care. This is an opportunity to shape the landscape of our programmatic scope.
This role is for a practical visionary—someone who is guided by possibility and potential, and excels at getting things done. Our ideal Director of Programs derives deep satisfaction from designing, managing, and facilitating experiences that encourage rich human connection, strengthen networks, and offer transformation at the individual and collective levels.
Position Details
This is a full-time exempt position.
While the position is remote, we are seeking a California-based candidate.
We have a strong preference for someone located in or around the San Francisco Bay Area to make in-person meetings easy.
This role will require occasional travel (estimated 1-2 trips per quarter).
You must be legally authorized to work in the United States. Next River does not provide work visa sponsorship or support (e.g., H-1B, OPT, CPT, or other employment authorization sponsorships).
Annual salary is between $145,000 and $155,000 depending on experience, plus benefits.
Key Responsibilities
Strategy and management of Next River curricula & offerings (70%)
Next River’s main programmatic offering to date is a workshop experience designed to bring to life our Freedom’s Revival Field Guide. The Director of Programs will continue to build out this body of work alongside our more nascent workshop offerings focused on futurist imagination. The Director of Programs will hold the:
Strategy and lifecycle of partnership-based projects
Collaborate with the Director of Special Projects (who is responsible for securing new partnerships) to align partnership-building strategy with programmatic goals and priority audiences, i.e.,communities of expertise, social impact networks/organizations, and philanthropy
Iterative design of Next River’s workshop curricula
Maintain systems that support coordination, communication, and program effectiveness
Management and capacity building of our facilitation team
Cultivate, manage, and expand our bench of facilitators to deploy program offerings
Match facilitators with workshop opportunities across schedules, styles, and programmatic needs
Collaborate with the Managing Director (who is responsible for contracts management) to establish necessary contracts with facilitators
Impact and Experimentation
Represent Next River in ecosystem convenings, funder meetings, etc.
Build out and test new, experimental offerings, with input from the Next River team
Evaluate Next River’s current programmatic offerings against our stated goals and refine as needed
Collaborate with Next River leadership to raise funds to meet our program strategy goals
Facilitation (10%)
Provide highly-skilled in-person and online facilitation that brings Next River’s body of work to life
Collaborative narrative strategy (10%)
Coordinate with our communications team to ensure Next River’s thought leadership and narrative strategy content aligns with programmatic goals and learnings.
Participation in Next River’s organizational development strategy (5%)
Work closely with Next River’s leadership and the broader team to design and execute organizational strategy
Foster organizational culture of joy, collaboration, learning, and belonging where all staff feel safe, seen, and supported
We’re looking for someone who has:
7-10 years of related work experience leading and/or managing liberatory programs and initiatives. You have the ability and interest to create new initiatives and comfort with the ambiguity that stems from starting new bodies of work.
A skilled and dynamic facilitation style that is ready to adapt across cultural context, group size, in-person/virtual set-ups, and vibe. You nurture cultures of belonging and hold space for people who come to this work from different places and perspectives.
A passion for social justice work and a deep understanding of and fluency in intersectionality about race, gender, and class. You are committed to ending oppression and helping us get free.
Creative prowess in the building and design of workshops.
Demonstrated people management experience, including coaching, performance management, and developing teams to deliver strong outcomes.
Drive and experience around engaging in evaluation of programs and processes. You have an optimizing approach. You enjoy using data to measure progress, inform decisions, and improve strategy.
A demonstrated history of developing networks and building alliances. You know how to nurture strategic relationships and achieve common goals in varied and diverse contexts, whether that’s an organizing meeting in a church basement or a happy hour with heads of foundations.
You thrive in a dynamic, open, and collaborative work environment. You are at home in a lean start-up environment with the ability to stay focused and nimble in the face of rapid change. You believe in collaboration and including a diversity of views, experiences, and perspectives.
Practiced emotional intelligence. You know yourself well—your strengths and areas of growth, what you need and what your boundaries are, and what you can and can’t do. You ask for help when you need it. You are good at getting to know others so you can work with them effectively and build a strong team.
Strong executive functioning (or a lot of well-established support techniques for getting things done). This role is for someone with prioritization skills who likes crossing things off a to-do list and carrying forward multiple workstreams that you are directly responsible for and oversee.
A high level of skill in creating smoothly running systems. You recognize organization as an act of service.
Comfort with remote work. While we like to make time to see each other in person when possible, we are seeking someone who thrives with an at-home office set up and a high level of self-management.
A clear communication style in both written and verbal contexts.
An understanding and enthusiasm for abolition, afrofuturism, anarchy, socialism, mutual aid, and/or cooperatives.
Fundraising experience, including direct experience cultivating multi-year grants or gifts with philanthropic organizations and/or individual major donations would be a plus.
We do not anticipate that candidates will have every skill listed here. We encourage you to apply if this role seems like a fit for you, regardless of your specific experience.
We strongly encourage people who identify as Black, Indigenous, queer, transgender, and/or have lived experience of being low-income, unhoused, incarcerated, and/or doing sex work to apply. We encourage people of all backgrounds to apply, knowing decisions concerning the employment relationship will be made without regard to age, race, ethnicity, color, religion, disability, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, and marital status.
How to Apply
If you are interested in this role, let us know by filling out this application form.
We’ll be accepting applicants through Sunday, October 18, 2026. We’ll aim to conduct an initial round of interviews in the last week of October. The second round of interviews for select candidates will take place in early November (we will compensate these folks $75 for their time), with a target offer letter in mid-November.