Director of Deliberation (National)

Unify America: Director of Deliberation

We’re looking for a seasoned civic practitioner who loves helping communities succeed—someone to lead training, support Democracy League partners, build a culture of continuous learning, and help bring high-quality deliberative processes, including civic assemblies, to communities nationwide.

About Unify America

Unify America is a national nonprofit working to replace political division with collaborative problem-solving. We help communities bring together everyday people—across differences—to deliberate, learn, and make shared decisions about the issues that affect their lives. Through our Democracy Leagues, a network of local civic institutions, we partner with communities to embed resident-led problem-solving into community life.

Job Description

The Director of Deliberation will lead the design, project management, implementation, and continuous improvement of public problem-solving processes across communities nationwide—especially through high-quality, inclusive, and well-facilitated civic assemblies. Central to this role is building local capacity: training, mentoring, and supporting community-based practitioners to design and run their own citizen deliberations, and helping partner communities recruit, identify, and select the local talent needed to sustain this work over time.

This role sits at the core of Unify America’s Democracy League work, supporting civic institutions committed to embedding collaborative problem-solving and inclusive civic engagement into the fabric of community life across the country. This is a remote position with significant national travel to support on-the-ground civic assemblies, partner communities, practitioner trainings, and convenings. The Director of Deliberation will report to the Senior Director of Deliberation.

Key Responsibilities

Design and Deliver Deliberative Processes

• Architect and manage public problem-solving events focused on specific community issues, including using representative and randomly selected groups of residents, where appropriate.
• Develop and manage process flows and schedules for each deliberation, including learning phases, expert briefings, structured deliberation, trade-off analysis, and final recommendations.
• Travel frequently to partner communities to support training, planning, delivery, facilitation oversight, and relationship-building.

Training, Partnerships, & Learning Networks

• Help our partner communities recruit local talent for deliberative design and facilitation, play a lead role in vetting and/or mentoring candidates, and onboarding those selected to lead.
• Design and deliver training for Democracy League partners, facilitators, and local civic leaders to build their capacity to plan, run, and sustain high-quality civic assemblies and other deliberative processes.
• Train and support partner communities in using technology appropriately to support in-person, hybrid, and virtual deliberation work.
• Develop and maintain practical training materials, curricula, and toolkits that translate deliberation best practices into clear, usable guidance for partner communities.
• Coach and support local practitioners as they implement deliberative processes, providing feedback, troubleshooting, and quality assurance across diverse community contexts.
• Convene Democracy League deliberation professionals into a structured learning network to share insights, strengthen practice, and advance collective learning.
• Plan and facilitate peer-learning sessions, workshops, and convenings that support skill development, relationship-building, and cross-community learning.
• Integrate best practices from national partners and practitioner networks, contributing to Unify America’s growing library of deliberation resources, frameworks, and tools.

Qualifications

• Demonstrated experience in deliberative democracy, participatory processes or community-involved policy development.
• Demonstrated experience creating and providing training, coaching, and mentorship.
• Strong project management skills with the ability to manage complex, multi-phase civic processes across multiple sites.
• Experience selecting and using technology to support facilitation, training, and learning across in-person, hybrid, and virtual civic processes.
• Exceptional communication skills—written, verbal, and interpersonal.
• Ability to build trust across diverse populations, communities, and ideologies.
• Rigorous commitment to nonpartisanship, transparency, and collaborative public problem-solving.
• Willingness and ability to travel extensively (often multiple times per month) to support in-person civic assemblies, trainings, and partner engagements nationwide.

Compensation & Benefits

• First year salary: $85,000 – $100,000, depending on relevant experience.
• Flexible, self-managed PTO.
• Medical, dental, and vision insurance.
• 401k match up to 5%.
• Internet and phone reimbursement.
• A healthy, appreciative, feedback-driven workplace.