About the Role 

Pew Research Center is seeking a visionary, full-time Director of Audience for a three-year term to lead the Center through a period of transformation in how our work reaches and engages the public. This is a new leadership position charged with building out two core areas of growth: our social strategy and our audience data and content strategy capabilities. 

You’ll help us evolve our trusted, gold-standard research from a model of one-way publishing to one of multidirectional connection — ensuring our research reaches people where they are, in ways that resonate, while maintaining the Center’s hallmark independence and rigor. 

This is a full-time Center position, but is limited to a 3-year term. Continuation beyond the three-year term will depend on organizational needs and available funding.

What You’ll Do 

• Build and lead new teams. Partner with leadership to hire, structure, and mentor staff across audience development, data strategy, social media, and emerging formats such as video. 

• Shape social strategy. Develop and execute a multi-platform social roadmap that brings Pew Research Center’s research into daily conversation, balances reach with relevance and fosters community among engaged audiences. 

• Advance our data and content strategy. Strengthen how we use analytics, first-party data, and audience insights to inform decisions around publishing, distribution, and impact measurement. Assist in creation of KPIs and metrics tracking. 

• Champion cross-organizational collaboration. Work laterally with research directors, communications leads, and digital colleagues to surface insights and coordinate outreach. 

• Experiment boldly. Identify new platforms, partnerships, and storytelling formats that elevate Pew Research Center’s visibility and accessibility to broader and more diverse audiences. Deploy team to staff all channels and engage where needed. 

• Measure what matters. Define and implement key performance indicators that go beyond traffic to measure engagement, resonance, and long-term impact. 

Who You Are 

• A strategic and creative thinker who thrives in fast-moving environments and is eager to build something new. 

• An experienced team builder who inspires others through clarity, collaboration, and curiosity. 

• Adept at translating complex data into actionable insights and compelling stories. 

• Comfortable working across disciplines, from researchers and analysts to designers and developers. 

• Bold enough to push boundaries — and grounded enough to do so in service of the Center’s mission. 

Qualifications 

• Education: Bachelor’s degree required, preferably in journalism, communications, digital media, public policy or related field. 

• Experience:  At least 15 years professional experience, included a minimum of 10 years of progressively responsible leadership in audience development, social strategy, or digital content operations, ideally within a media organization, research institution, or other high-paced, information-driven environment. 

• Proven experience developing and implementing large-scale social or audience strategies. 

• Strong fluency in digital analytics (Looker Studio, GA4 or similar), content performance metrics, and audience development tools. 

• Demonstrated ability to manage teams, budgets, and cross-functional initiatives. 

• Experience with multimedia or video storytelling preferred. 

• Deep curiosity about the ways people seek, share, and understand information. 

FLSA Status: Exempt 

Compensation: Starting salary is commensurate with experience within the range of $175,000 - $200,000 annually.

Hybrid Work Schedule: Pew Research Center staff are required to be present in the Center’s Washington, D.C., office three core days weekly (Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday).  Staff may work virtually from remote locations on other days in a typical work week.   

Application Procedure: Click on the Apply button, and complete required fields. Both cover letter and resume are required. 

When requested, please upload a copy of your resume/cv, as well as a copy of your cover letter in the section labeled Resume/Cover Letter. If the documents have successfully uploaded, you should see 2 attached files beneath the “Drop files here” box. Please make sure you have uploaded a resume AND a cover letter before moving on to the next page.