Director, Trade and Industrial Strategy

Silverado seeks an experienced Director for our Trade and Industrial Strategy team to lead independent analysis on U.S. supply chain security, export controls, and competitors' industrial strategies — with real control over your workstreams and direct engagement with senior policymakers.

About Silverado

Silverado Policy Accelerator is a Washington, D.C.-based, bipartisan geopolitical think tank that turns data-driven policy ideas into actionable solutions. We believe the defining challenge of the 21st century is maintaining American leadership and competitiveness amid renewed great-power competition.

Our mission is to drive tangible policy outcomes across four strategic pillars: National Security; Trade and Industrial Security; Energy and Resource Security; and Cybersecurity and AI.

Silverado’s Trade and Industrial Strategy work includes creating trade policy solutions to support American companies and workers and secure America's supply chains. We produce economic policy analysis in public reports, submit policy recommendations to federal agencies, and convene policymakers and stakeholders from across the political spectrum to build consensus around achievable solutions.

About the Role

We are seeking an experienced and motivated Director to join the Trade and Industrial Strategy team. This is a substantive, mid-career role for someone who works independently with primary statutory and regulatory sources from U.S. and foreign governments, incorporates quantitative economic data and reasoning into policy analysis, and develops polished, decision-ready policy product based on self-started research.

You will collaborate with the Silverado Policy and Research Teams to develop and advance Silverado's trade and industrial policy agenda — including work on U.S. import and export policies, economic and national security policies to include advanced-technology and energy products, and the industrial strategies of key competitors, China foremost among them.

The position offers meaningful creative control over your workstreams, direct engagement with senior policymakers and external experts, and the opportunity to see your analysis translated into real policy outcomes.

Who You'll Report To

The Director reports to Silverado's Vice President of Policy, Trade and Industrial Strategy, who develops the organization's trade policy proposals on industrial efficiency, technological competitiveness, and economic security.

Key Responsibilities

• Conduct economic policy analysis on trade and industrial policy matters, including creation and defense of U.S. supply chains for products essential to U.S. security.
• Research and assess geoeconomic policies of foreign competitors — particularly China — including trade and industrial policies, export-control measures, and sector-specific strategies in areas such as semiconductors and other emerging technologies, steel, aluminum, and other critical goods and services.
• Draft and refine high-quality written products, including policy papers, white papers, public comments and agency Request for Information responses, oral and written testimony, op-eds, and briefing materials, working from primary statutory and regulatory sources.
• Support the design and execution of convenings, roundtables, tabletop exercises, and the annual Silverado Summit, including substantive preparation and follow-up.
• Track legislative, regulatory, and agency developments and quickly synthesize their implications for Silverado's priorities and partners.
• Engage with policymakers, congressional staff, agency officials, industry, and coalition partners in support of the team's initiatives.
• Manage multiple concurrent workstreams against deadlines while maintaining rigorous attention to detail and analytical accuracy.
• Contribute to conceptual development of Silverado's data dashboards and quantitative analysis

Qualifications

Required

• Approximately ten years of relevant professional experience in U.S. trade policy, international economics, trade remedies, industrial policy design, or a closely related field, in government, a think tank, a law firm, a trade association, or industry.
• Demonstrated command of U.S. trade law and policy tools, such as Section 301 and Section 232, AD/CVD practice, and/or export control policy.
• Strong analytical and quantitative skills, including facility with trade and economic data and proficiency in Excel; comfort with data analysis or visualization tools is a plus.
• Excellent writing skills, with the ability to produce clear, precise, transparently researched policy product, and to edit your own work to a high standard.
• Ability to work independently and deliver under deadline pressure.

Preferred

• A master's degree and/or J.D. in public policy, economics, international affairs, or a related discipline; equivalent professional experience will be considered.
• Familiarity with Chinese industrial and trade policy. Familiarity with additional countries’ policy structures is a plus.
• Experience with formal federal regulatory or trade-remedy processes (e.g., Department of Commerce, the USITC, USTR proceedings).
• Working knowledge of strategic-sector supply chains in industries including semiconductors and energy products is a plus.

Salary Range

$110,000 - 150,000, annually. The final starting salary offer will be determined based on your experience and qualifications.

Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability or protected veteran status. Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer

Please note that applicants must be U.S. citizens or have appropriate legal authorization to work in the United States.