Future Humans Senior Program Manager

What We Do

The mission of the Berggruen Institute (BI) is to ask questions and develop foundational ideas about how to reshape political and social institutions in a transforming society. We work across cultures, disciplines, and political boundaries to engage great thinkers in developing and promoting long-term answers to the biggest challenges of the 21st Century.

Our Values

  • Respect the human dignity of all
  • Cultivate future-oriented solutions
  • Inquire with an open mind
  • Build a collaborative environment
  • Invest in people and relationships

Future Humans

The Berggruen Institute’s “Future Humans” program launched in Fall 2022 and is a developing program within the Institute. Its research traces how the category of the human is shifting and asks, what life will become in the future?

The program has developed original ideas through publications and programming with intellectual and institutional partners and now seeks to further develop original ideas with extraordinary thinkers and propagate them in the world around core Research Areas of Time & Consciousness, The Alien, and Embodiment. The ultimate goal is to contribute to a new
episteme of life.

Reporting to Claire Webb, Associate Director of Future Humans, the Senior Program Manager will support the program’s operations, logistics, and network development. Along with the Program Coordinator, this position will drive the successful implementation of the program’s
unique model of experimental and experiential philosophical exploration.
To be successful in this role, the Senior Program Manager will bring excellent program and project management experience to the team to support the development and delivery of experimental platforms, immersive experiences, and publications. These processes and outputs
will grow the frameworks and texts originating from the Future Humans program across a broader global community to include collaboration with the Institute’s Europe and Asia Centers, network of research and cultural institutions, as well as continue to cultivate a focused cohort of world-class scholars, scientists, speculative fiction writers, futurists, and creators to elevate the work through original intellectual and creative projects.

Key Areas of Responsibility will be to support:

  • Robust, regular, and formalized internal and external stakeholder engagement plan
  • The formalization of the Future Humans model for immersive experiences, signature events, and workshops that support our theory of change.
  • A rubric to establish, develop, and execute the Future Humans project pipeline that balances effort with impact. This includes supervising the program coordinator as well as managing external vendors and contractors.
  • An aggressive publication strategy that will support the popularization and propagation of new categories of knowledge-building
  • A Comms and PR plan that will broadly promote the work of Future Humans to generate a steady pipeline of high-quality, original, and thought-provoking content in novel forms
  • A development plan devoted to creating an efficient pipeline for finalizing and promoting Future Humans outputs: essays, films, lectures, artworks, conversations

Required Experience & Skills:

  • Bachelor’s degree required, master’s degree a bonus
  • Minimum of 3-5 years of progressive experience in both Project & Program Management with specialization in creative and experimental event and media production
  • Excellent communication and interpersonal relationship-building skills
  • Practiced in managing multi-dimensionally to ensure successful project implementation and reports to key stakeholders
  • Experienced in managing individuals and teams to ensure appropriate goals are set and deliverables met
  • Posses a systems mindset to work, creating repeatable and easy-to-navigate structures and processes that allow for flexibility and iteration to achieve scale
  • Confident working independently as well as building collaborative coalitions to identify gaps and bring solutions / resources to drive projects
  • Familiarity with collaborative platforms such as Slack, Asana, Google Suite, and other tools to drive execution of projects, deliverables, and events

Additional Desired Experience:

  • Proactive and biased towards action; can confidently navigate ambiguity and create clear pathways to realize ambitious and experimental projects through deploying internal and external resources
  • Confident acting as subject matter expert on all things project operations, processes, and budget; comfortable interfacing with senior leadership, external stakeholders, and internal collaborators
  • Familiar with established and emerging art and media forms (fine art, new media, design, architecture) and experienced in managing collaborative creative projects
  • Excited about realizing an emergent episteme of life that Future Humans will contribute to defining in the 21st century and beyond
  • Curious about science, technology, philosophy, and design, and motivated to expand and deepen knowledge through practice

Work Perks:

  • Hybrid office work model
  • Exceptional 401k plan
  • Health, dental, and vision
  • PTO, sick, and holiday pay
  • Cell phone reimbursement
  • Pet-friendly workplace
  • Snacks and gourmet coffee

The hiring range for this position is $90,000 - $110,000 per year commensurate with experience.

Please email the cover letter and resume to careers@berggruen.org. No phone calls please.

Berggruen Institute is a proud equal opportunities workplace. We firmly believe employing a diverse workforce is important regardless of race, religion, color, national origin, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender, gender identity,
gender expression, transgender status, sexual stereotypes, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, or other applicable legally protected characteristics. We also consider qualified applicants with criminal histories, consistent with applicable federal, state and local law. Berggruen Institute is committed to providing reasonable accommodations for candidates with disabilities in our recruiting process. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please let us know.