Program Coordinator, Center on Education & Labor

About New America: New America is a think tank and civic enterprise committed to renewing American politics, prosperity, and purpose in the Digital Age. We generate big ideas, bridge the gap between technology and policy, and curate broad public conversation. We combine the best of a policy research institute, technology laboratory, public forum, media platform, and a venture capital fund for ideas.

About the Center on Education and Labor at New America (CELNA)
The Center on Education and Labor at New America (CELNA) is the organization’s hub for research, analysis, and programmatic work that advances equity and opportunity through education, workforce, and labor policy.

This position will support our growing Youth Pathways initiatives, including the Partnership to Advance Youth Apprenticeship (PAYA) and Launch. PAYA is a multi-year, collaborative initiative that supports states and cities in their efforts to expand access to high-quality apprenticeship opportunities for high school age youth. Launch is  is a national college and career pathways initiative that strives for every learner to have access to and succeed in high-quality and equitable pathways.

Position Summary: The Center on Education and Labor at New America (CELNA) seeks a highly organized, detail-oriented Program Coordinator to support the operational effectiveness of projects focused on creating high-quality postsecondary pathways for youth. This role is essential to making our initiatives run smoothly: coordinating agreements and reimbursements, managing calendars and timelines, supporting event planning, and keeping the trains running on time. The ideal candidate is someone who genuinely enjoys the behind-the-scenes work that makes programs successful and is interested in a career in non-profit administration, operations, or management.

Responsibilities:

• Contracts & Agreements
  • Support drafting, tracking, and monitoring of contracts, MOUs, subawards, and partnership agreements.
  • Track deliverables and timelines to ensure compliance and follow-through.
  • Ensure program contracts and supporting collateral are updated, organized, and accessible by initiative.
• Finance & Reimbursements
  • Coordinate reimbursements, invoices, and expense tracking for program activities.
  • Work with finance staff to ensure payments are accurate and timely.
• Scheduling & Calendar Management
  • Maintain program calendars for two major initiatives (deliverables, deadlines, convenings, technical assistance sessions).
  • Schedule in-person and virtual meetings, workshops, and events, ensuring prep materials, agendas, and follow-up are handled.
• Event Planning & Execution
  • Provide logistical, technical, and administrative support for in-person and virtual convenings, workshops, and technical assistance sessions for our various learning networks.
  • Coordinate vendors, venues, catering, participant communications, and meeting materials.
• Administrative Support
  • Maintain shared documentation and organizational systems for the team, including our customer relationship management system.
  • Assist with project tracking and task management.
  • Serve as a reliable point of contact for partners, vendors, and team members on operational matters.

Minimum Requirements:

• 2-4 years experience in roles that have supported program administration
• Experience using Microsoft, Google Suite, and CRM (like HubSpot or Salesforce)
• Strong professional communication skills
• Superior organizational skills and attention to detail
• Ability to take ownership of work and see assigned tasks through to completion
• Ability to work both independently and as part of a team
• Commitment to working in an organization that values and promotes diversity, equity, inclusion and anti-racism
• Interest in education and workforce development issues for young adults is a plus

Compensation and Benefits: This position is a full-time role with benefits. The annual salary will be between $60,000.00 – $70,000.00, depending on your experience and demonstrated competencies.

New America offers a highly competitive benefits package that includes health care, dental, and vision coverage; a generous retirement plan; paid time off; observes all federal holidays; and an office-wide closure between Christmas and New Year’s Day.

Location: This is a hybrid position with at least 2-3 days/week in New America’s offices located in Washington, DC, just steps away from the White House.

Travel: Occasional travel may be required.

Application Process: Please submit a resume and a short cover letter explaining how you meet the requirements. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis, with the goal of having someone on board in early 2026.

No phone calls or emails will be answered

Physical Requirement:

• This position is hybrid, working from home and in an office environment and sits at a desk for extended periods of time and requires dexterity to operate general office equipment;
• The person in this position will frequently communicate with peers, management, company partners/vendors, and the general public and must be able to exchange accurate and timely information verbally and in writing and
• This position may require walking, bending, kneeling, and standing and will require sitting for extended periods of time.

Work Environment:

• The work environment is in an indoor office environment. This role routinely uses standard office equipment such as computers, phones, photocopiers, and filing cabinets

Originality and Transparency: At New America, we value authentic voices and intellectual property rights. All application materials, including, cover letters, writing samples, and any other submissions, must be solely your own original work. The use of AI text generation tools like ChatGPT, language models, or other artificial intelligence writing assistants is strictly prohibited for any part of your job application. Submissions found to contain AI-generated content will be immediately disqualified from consideration. Applicants have a responsibility to be fully transparent about authorship and any tools or resources utilized. We celebrate human ingenuity and want to hear your genuine thoughts and experiences

New America is an equal-opportunity employer committed to hiring a diverse workforce at all levels of the organization thereby creating a culture that allows us to better serve our clientele, our employees, and our communities. We value and encourage the contributions of our employees and strive to create an environment where everyone can reach their full potential and drive outstanding results. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, national origin, age, sex, religion, disability, sexual orientation, marital status, veteran status, gender identity or expression, or any other basis protected by local, state, or federal law. This policy applies with regard to all aspects of one’s employment, including hiring, transfer, promotion, compensation, eligibility for benefits, and termination. This is a bargaining unit position.