Managing Director

About the Foundation

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), located in Princeton, N.J., is a leading national philanthropy dedicated to taking bold leaps to transform health in our lifetime. To get there, we must work to dismantle structural racism and other barriers to health. Since 1972, we have focused on developing and promoting innovations in health and healthcare to improve the lives of millions. Through funding, convening, advocacy, and evidence-building, we work side-by-side with communities, practitioners, and institutions to achieve health equity faster and pave the way, together, to a future where health is no longer a privilege, but a right.  

At RWJF, we work toward three Generational Goals to transform health in our lifetime: Economic Inclusion for Family Wellbeing, Equitable and Accountable Public Health and Healthcare Systems, and Healthy and Equitable Community Conditions.

We take seriously our responsibilities, and we pledge to work in ways that reflect our Guiding Principles. These are rooted in equity and influence everything we do at RWJF. Equity, diversity, inclusion, and collaboration enable our staff’s wide range of experiences, passions, and perspectives to strengthen our ability to address our nation’s most pressing health issues and support a culture of belonging. Part of this work includes actively shaping an inclusive organization where all staff members thrive as we build and use our capabilities, voice, and power to advance health equity. RWJF offers a collaborative, collegial, and creative work environment. With a career at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, you will make a difference.

About this Opportunity

Reporting to the vice president, Strategic Portfolios department, the managing director will lead the Healthy Children and Families portfolio (HCF), one of four of the department’s portfolios. HCF works to achieve four shared goals to pave the way to a future where health is not a privilege for some, but a right for all. Those goals are: public goods are valued and defended; health and wellbeing are collective responsibilities; resources flow equitably; and power shifts to families and communities. Those department goals contribute to all of RWJF’s Generational Goals, which HCF centers in its grantmaking, and most prominently, Economic Inclusion for Family Wellbeing. We believe that the United States should be a country where all families have the resources to raise healthy, thriving children, and a place where everyone can live with dignity. We are working with external partners and grantees toward a new social contract that advances that vision, which reflects collective interdependence and invests in families. To accomplish that, HCF supports systems change across two interconnected areas: tax and family care. Our efforts to change the tax system seek to advance a more equitable tax system that collects and directs public resources in ways that strengthen family economic security and wellbeing. Our efforts to change the care system seek to make care, including childcare, paid leave, and other supports families rely on, more accessible and affordable, while recognizing and valuing caregivers for their essential contributions to families, communities, and the economy. Together, this work in the tax and care arenas aims to shift policies, power, and public narratives so that wellbeing, rather than economic production alone, shapes how our economy serves families.

The managing director will work closely with the vice president and associate vice presidents of the Strategic Portfolios department, as well as other senior leaders across the Foundation, to coordinate, complement, or align strategic initiatives toward achieving our Foundation-wide strategy. The managing director is expected to be conversant with the Foundation Strategic Framework, the Strategic Portfolios goals and the work of other Strategic Portfolios. The managing director, together with the associate managing directors, serves as the management team of the HCF and leads a matrixed team, including staff from the Research-Evaluation-Learning, Policy, and Communications departments.

Essential Job Responsibilities

As with staff at all levels of RWJF, the managing director is expected to demonstrate a passionate commitment to equity and alignment to the Foundation’s mission and Guiding Principles, including the ability to recognize and address how power influences strategy, relationships, grantmaking, and organizational decisionmaking.

Strategy, Program Development, Monitoring, and Refinement

• Align all portfolio work, including  program development, implementation and budgeting, grounded in systems change practice, with the Foundation’s overall Strategic Framework’s vision, Generational Goals, forthcoming 10-year outcomes, and the Strategic Portfolios department goals. Ensure that portfolio work reflects lessons from the Foundation’s Truth, Repair, and Transformation process.
• Lead the development and evolution of the portfolio’s strategic plan, including programming, convening, coordinating, reporting, and monitoring indicators of progress, with other internal and external partners.
• Ensure effective strategy implementation, including budgeting, using equitable grantmaking principles, including managing program staff to develop and execute programming.
• Oversee strategy development and refinement  grounded in targeted reviews of existing literature; surveys and research in the field; learning from evaluations of current and past grantmaking; cross-cutting indicators of progress data and learning from other organizations and partners, including people most impacted by health inequities.
• Champion and oversee communication of portfolio strategy, plans, activities, learning, and performance to colleagues, senior management, Board of Trustees, and with external partners and the field, as appropriate.
• Collaborate with senior leaders in other departments, including Communications, Research-Evaluation-Learning, Policy, and other Foundation colleagues to maximize strategic impact of programming.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

Portfolio Management and Operations

• Oversee an interdisciplinary team of staff in a matrix environment from various Foundation units that support portfolio work.
• Influence, align, and achieve results across functions and teams where formal authority is limited.
• Oversee the collaborative development of an annual portfolio workplan aligned to portfolio priorities and allocate the portfolio’s financial and personnel resources toward efficient accomplishment of the workplan.
• Create and manage annual budgets aligned with portfolio priorities and strategy and department goals with the associate managing directors and Program Finance staff.
• Lead and oversee portfolio training, structure, and processes to achieve strategic objectives, including designing portfolio meetings, workstreams, and retreats.

Staff Management and Development

• Foster and lead a diverse, collaborative, and inclusive work environment that welcomes points of view from staff with diverse professional, cultural, social, and ethnic backgrounds and who range from seasoned experts to those earlier in their career.
• Manage staff development related to diversity, equity, inclusion, and antiracist practice and plans. Coach and support the leadership and expertise of team members to advance the portfolio’s strategies.
• Assure the development of workplans for each portfolio staff member to support performance and professional development. Demonstrate interest and support of the professional growth and agency of staff.
• Assess and support staff through interpersonal conflicts to benefit team functioning and group dynamics.
• Employ flexible approaches to people leadership that demonstrate emotional intelligence.

External Relations and Strategic Partnerships

• Use the tools of philanthropy, including connecting, coordinating, convening, thought partnership, and communicating and funding programs to help catalyze systems-level change in our Prioritized Systems, especially the Economic Supports for Families (Tax and Care).
• Cultivate relationships; develop and execute regional and national strategic partnerships with, e.g., nonprofits; relevant networks of grassroots and advocacy groups; public systems; employers; and other foundations to support progress toward the Foundation’s mission and goals.
• Enhance national-level impact; working with national partners to influence decisionmakers at state and national levels to push the field forward and to spark innovation.
• Build trusting relationships with a growing network of grantees and other external partners to advance the portfolio’s strategies. Represent the Foundation externally in the media and at events (e.g., conferences, meetings).

Grantmaking Processes

• Evaluate proposals for alignment with the Foundation’s Strategic Framework, the portfolio’s strategic priorities, and the Strategic Portfolio's department's goals using team and department theories of change and alignment rubrics. Assess strength of the proposal, including health equity, racial justice and power dynamic dimensions, potential impact, value for dollars requested, and the applicant organization's capacity to achieve desired impact.
• Implement and promote practices to ensure all proposals are reviewed fairly, expeditiously, and are consistently aligned with Foundation and Strategic Portfolios department grantmaking strategic priorities and equitable grantmaking processes and policies.
• Work in collaboration with departments across the Foundation to monitor financial status and oversee the portfolio budget and cash payment system.
• Approve and recommend to senior management for approval, grants in accordance with Foundation program policies.

Minimum Requirements

• Commitment to the Foundation’s mission and vision and alignment with our values.
• Eight (8) or more years of relevant work experience with four (4) or more years of progressive experience in a complex management and leadership role with direct supervision, staff support and development, and extensive project management experience.
• At least two years experience preferred with equitable philanthropy practice, working within philanthropy, public sector, advocacy, movement-building, or intermediary institutions responsible for deploying significant resources toward social change.
• Education and experience equivalent to an advanced degree (e.g., MA, MPH, MBA) required.

Equity

• Demonstrated personal and professional commitment to equity, diversity, and inclusion, including an understanding of structural racism and other systemic biases and their impact on health; proficiency in identifying equity issues and power analysis and applying equity and justice principles in promoting economic inclusion for children and families. Has nuanced understanding of how to work at strategic and programming levels in ways that address gender, class, sexual orientation, and disability from a race lens.
• Deep understanding of and experience in building coalitions and equitable partnerships with organizations and communities with attention to transparency, accountability, and community-centered approaches.
• Experience applying equity principles in all stages of grantmaking from initial relationship development through program development, implementation and evaluation, including how to disrupt inequitable practices in philanthropy. This includes nurturing trusting relationships; incorporating perspectives of children, families, and caregivers into the work developed; and using asset-framing and plain written and oral language.
• Experience in applying lessons from truth, repair, and transformation processes, including reparative practices in strategy and programming.

Strategic

• Demonstrated ability to steward a team’s vision, evolve strategy, set clear priorities, and deliver results through timely, well-reasoned decisions informed by field dynamics and strategic trade-offs.
• Experience building equitable coalitions and partnerships that advance economic inclusion for children and families, strengthen community power and connections, and support community-led priorities with transparency and accountability.
• Experience using systems change approaches, evidence, and learning to advance health equity through the tax and/or care systems, particularly for children and families most marginalized.
• Strong networks in tax and/or care systems that advance economic wellbeing and inclusion.
• Experience defining success and measuring progress over the short, medium, and long terms.

People Management

• Ability to lead with care and adaptability through uncertainty and organizational change, providing stability for staff and clarity on roles and responsibilities.
• Demonstrated ability to coach and develop staff, delegate effectively, and support shared leadership in a matrix environment while fostering trust, belonging, inclusion, and shared accountability.
• Ability to lead with emotional intelligence, inspire others around a shared strategic vision, and bring humor and fun to the workplace.
• Ability to balance appropriately inclusive participation with timely, transparent decisions, clearly communicating the rationale and moving work forward.

Operational

• Expertise in creating and managing budgets that are aligned with strategy and priorities.
• Exhibit sound judgment. Able to make difficult decisions, while being responsive and clear. Ability to explain the rationale for decisions with transparency and invite constructive challenge.
• Solid communication skills; able to synthesize and present complex information in a clear and compelling manner; and identify innovative opportunities in a specific area while maintaining a focus on systemic change.
• Ability and willingness to work within a flexible, purpose-driven hybrid model that includes regular travel to and visibility at the headquarters, which are essential to team cohesion and accountability, as well as for site visits and to represent the Foundation at external meetings. 

Candidates whose experience exceeds the minimum requirements will be given particular consideration for a higher placement within the salary range:

• Six (6) years of progressive management and team leadership experience.
• Eight (8) years of progressive management and team leadership experience.

Physical Requirements/Working Conditions

The managing director will perform job duties in a typical business office environment. Specific physical abilities required by this job include operating basic office equipment. The incumbent will be required to attend meetings, both in person and off-site via phone or videoconference. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform essential functions. RWJF is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

Position’s Assigned Office Location

This position is assigned to our Princeton, N.J. office.

Hybrid: Flexible Purpose (HFP) Explained

As of January 1, 2023, the Foundation has implemented a model we call Hybrid: Flexible Purpose (HFP). RWJF’s new operating model is the infrastructure (e.g., policies, practices, protocols, procedures, systems) that forms the basis for how the day-to-day operations are managed, culture is built and nurtured, and mission is delivered. This model is designed to meet the needs of the organization while giving employees as much flexibility as possible. On-site participation is determined by job responsibilities, organizational and team-level requirements, and mandatory gatherings throughout the year. While there are no fixed days per week, all employees are expected to plan their time on-site and cover commuting expenses as needed to meet those expectations. Learn more about our operating model and in-office requirements.

Salary

The non-negotiable starting salary for this position is $222,200. Candidates who the Foundation determines have directly related experience exceeding the minimum requirements outlined above may be provided a higher starting salary of up to $244,420. All salary offers are non-negotiable.

Benefits

RWJF offers comprehensive health and retirement benefits to employees, generous paid time off, and more. Why work at RWJF? Learn more about the benefits of working at RWJF.

Transition Stipend

A transition stipend is provided to all new hires to aid in costs related to transitioning to a new job. 

How to Apply

• Applicants should submit a resume and required letter of interest by the stated deadline.
• Internal RWJF applicants should submit a resume and letter of interest through the Internal Jobs Hub app in Workday.

E-Verify and Employment Eligibility

RWJF participates in E‑Verify. Click here for more information.

Application Deadline

Monday, December 7, 2026, by 10 a.m. ET.