About the Internet Society 

Career Opportunities

Regional Bureau Director, North America

November 2011

About The Internet Society

The Internet Society (ISOC) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1992 to provide leadership in Internet-related standards, education, and policy. With offices in Washington DC, USA, and Geneva, Switzerland and staff located around the globe, ISOC is dedicated to ensuring the open development, evolution, and use of the Internet for the benefit of people throughout the world. The Internet Society provides leadership in addressing issues that confront the future of the Internet, serves as the organizational home for the groups responsible for Internet infrastructure standards, acts as a global clearinghouse for Internet information and education, and facilitates and coordinates Internet-related initiatives around the world focused on enabling access, building InterNetWorks, and ensuring trust and identity.

About the Position

The Regional Bureaus are integral hubs in ISOC's work, helping to build capacity where it is needed, mobilizing local support for ISOC's global efforts; contributing to development of policy and building relationships with policy makers; organizing workshops and conferences to advance regional capacity and issue awareness. They are the voice of ISOC in their regions and serve as vital conduits, interconnecting ISOC's staff, Chapters, organizational and individual members around topical regional issues. Bureaus are instrumental in building awareness of ISOC's commitment to Internet and economic and social development worldwide and within regional communities: understanding and addressing local issues important to Internet development, and initiating and managing programs to advance ISOC's goals and working with ISOC global staff to build membership, partnerships and resources to support ISOC's activities.

ISOC maintains five Regional Bureaus around the world. The activities and regional objectives of each Regional Bureau will be led by a director level member of our team. Reporting to the Chief Operating Officer, the Regional Bureau Directors provide global leadership and management to develop and achieve internal and external projects, practices, campaigns and programs that create positive recognition and visibility of ISOC's vision, mission, and values at the Regional levels. The position will be based in a major hub in one of ISOC's five regions: in this case, for North America, in ISOC's headquarters in Reston, Virginia.

Within a matrix management model, each Director will collaborate with strategic and operational personnel within ISOC in the design, prioritization, implementation, integration, and measurement of key programmes that impact the organization's global activities, strategic initiatives and objectives. Externally, the Director will communicate ISOC's messages and positions on a range of Internet issues spanning the scope of differing regional needs and priorities in functional areas such as ISOC's objectives on policy, technology and capacity building. In addition, building and strengthening sustainable membership and business development are central responsibilities of the Regional Bureau Director. The Director will ensure the progress of each functional objective and consistently report and liaise with the departmental leaders on key benchmarking goals in order to underpin the requirement for bi-directional communication. Overall, each Director is responsible for the full complement of ISOC's global initiatives and programs and deliver outcomes at the regional and local level. This will be done in close collaboration with ISOC's Chapters, members, and partners in order to solidify the mission and principles of ISOC at the regional level.

Responsibilities

• Manage a Regional Bureau in prioritising and building collaboration, engagement, visibility, support and communication around our mission, principles and practices while keeping global issues and challenges in mind.
• Create and leverage opportunities for ISOC to deliver its messages and principles on technical and policy issues at the local and regional level. This includes but is not limited to ISOC-organized events such as INETs (ISOC-organized regional conferences), policy fora, regional events, workshops and speaking engagements.
• Increase the visibility and positive impact of ISOC's regional events and projects. Develop strategic communications avenues through which to publicize and promote ISOC activities in line with ISOC's mission.
• Establish additional venues for policy information exchange between the appropriate stakeholders to enable ISOC's work in technical imperatives to be presented and discussed via local venues such as ISOC's INETs, regional events and partner forums.
• Develop communications, which will publicize and promote ISOC activities in line with ISOC's mission through chapters, members, and partners within the regional area.
• Engage in direct engagement and communications with key regional influencers.
• Engage with key policy makers, technologists, and thought leaders in the region in order to monitor sector developments and to influence those developments in ways that support ISOC's mission. Reach out to policy makers, as appropriate, on key issues and decisions that impact the global development and reach of the Internet, including ISOC's engagement with intergovernmental institutions.
• Develop strategies and objective criteria in collaboration with ISOC global functional champions to effectively extend ISOC's influence and impact. Work collaboratively across the ISOC organization in order to provide regionally based information to inform ongoing work and to identify opportunities to advance global initiatives throughout the region.
• Increase the visibility and positive impact of ISOC's regional events and projects.
• Own and drive business development activities in the region, encompassing organization memberships, grants and program sponsorships.
• Grow ISOC's membership base in the region:
  • strengthen local chapters, develop new chapters, and integrate chapters into the overall regional strategy.
  • drive business development and revenue activities in the region, encompassing organization memberships, grants, and program sponsorships.
  • Mentor, manage, and direct internal staff within the region.

Desired Qualifications

• At least ten years of management experience in building consensus working in a cause based and/or policy related field.
• Hands-on experience with Internet policy and regulatory issues, development programs or educational projects within the respective region.
• Expertise in one or more facets of ISOC's key areas of focus: Internet capacity building, program funding, public policy, membership communications, or technical areas of Internet standards.
• Past involvement with the Internet community, such as IGF, ICANN, IETF, or other key stakeholders in the Internet ecosystem is considered a strong plus.
• Experience with one or more international intergovernmental organizations dealing with ICT and Internet issues and in the national, (i.e., U.S. and Canada) and regional meeting preparatory processes.
• Broad understanding of Internet-based communication and work tools, including a strong knowledge of the social media capabilities and local media influencers.
• Demonstrable ability to work in a fast-paced multi-cultural environment and interact quickly and skillfully with different internal and external constituencies.
• A collaborative work style.
• Strong writing and presentation skills.
• Commitment to ISOC's organizational mission, vision and values.
• Exceptional strategic and proactive leadership and management skills.
• Willingness and ability to travel extensively.

Compensation for this position will be competitively commensurate with the successful applicant's qualifications.

Applicants are encouraged to read ISOC's 2012-2014 Business Plan and Budget (PDF).

Applicants should forward a resume, salary history, and any other relevant materials to jobs-regional-director.

Applications will be evaluated until the position has been filled. The list of applicants will not be posted publicly, and will be reviewed in confidence by members of the evaluation committee.