About IFP’s High-Skilled Immigration Team
A nation’s ability to innovate depends on its ability to attract and retain talent. Yet the United States’ high-skilled immigration system — from student visas to green cards — is slow, opaque, and disconnected from our national interests.
At the Institute for Progress, our High-Skilled Immigration team works to realign immigration policy with America’s long-term strategic advantage: its capacity to recruit, educate, and integrate the world’s most talented people.
We study how the immigration pipeline actually functions (or doesn’t) and use that evidence to advocate for reforms that make the system more efficient and talent-focused. The US urgently needs to take a proactive approach to recruiting global talent, rather than passively ceding.
Examples of our team’s focuses include:
- Talent pipelines: Ensuring the U.S. remains the top destination for global students and researchers through improving programs like the F-1, J-1, O-1, and STEM OPT.
- Strategic talent policy: Integrating immigration into broader national security and innovation strategy and aligning visa design with America’s need for scientists, AI experts, and entrepreneurs.
- Efficiency and state capacity: Addressing visa processing delays, inefficiencies, and low state capacity at USCIS and the State Department to ensure timely adjudications and reduce backlogs that undermine U.S. competitiveness.
Responsibilities
We’re seeking candidates with interest and relevant expertise in one or more of the following:
- Policy design and analysis: Developing and evaluating immigration reforms, from proactive talent recruitment, to merit-based immigration legislation, to regulations on affecting international student retention policies, to subregulatory guidance affecting adjudications of O-1A visas.
- Federal engagement: Working with DHS, State, and DOL officials to modernize processes and advocate for administrative improvements. Or perhaps, building relationships with Hill staff and Members, drafting legislative language, and identifying opportunities for targeted reform.
- Public communication: Writing clear, accessible explainers and commentaries that connect immigration mechanics to broader questions of growth and strategy.
Fellows and Senior Fellows will be responsible for tasks such as:
- Interacting with policymakers and stakeholders
- Conducting technical and policy research
- Writing for IFP’s website and external publications
- Managing coalitions across universities, employers, and advocacy groups
Senior Fellows will also be expected to identify and execute independent initiatives with limited oversight.
Qualifications
You’re excited to work with a team of policy entrepreneurs doing one or more of the following: immigration policy analysis, data-driven research, or political engagement. You thrive at the intersection of economic reasoning, analytical depth, and institutional design.
You might be a great fit if:
- You’re intrigued by how systems work — and how to make them work better.
- You excel at cultivating trusted relationships with a wide variety of decisionmakers and stakeholders.
- You’re detail-oriented, analytical, and can communicate clearly across technical and policy audiences.
- You know how to take a good policy idea and turn it into a network of people who can make it real.
- You enjoy using new evidence to shape policy debates.
- You’re skilled at guiding unruly groups toward an actionable consensus.
- You want to work in a fast-moving environment where impact matters more than publication count.
For Fellows: you’re familiar with topics like high-skilled immigration, labor markets, or innovation policy, and have some experience with data, policy engagement, or immigration law.
For Senior Fellows: you have a record of high-impact work in government, think tanks, academia, industry, or law — roughly equivalent to 8+ years of relevant experience — and can independently drive ambitious projects.
Possible profiles include:
- A policy entrepreneur who’s worked on immigration, education, or workforce issues in Congress or federal agencies.
- A data-driven researcher with experience in R, Python, or Stata who can turn messy administrative data into clear insight.
- A strategic thinker interested in linking immigration design to America’s innovation ecosystem and national strategy.
- A writer or communicator skilled at explaining complex systems and mobilizing coalitions.
You don’t need to check every box and encourage candidates who might thrive in one or more of these profiles to apply. We care more about creativity, initiative, and judgment than about specific credentials.
Location and Compensation
- Location: Washington, D.C. (preferred; hybrid flexibility possible)
- Start Date: Winter 2025 (flexible)
- Compensation: Competitive, commensurate with experience. In general, we aim to pay at the upper end of non-profit salaries for similar roles.
- Benefits: Unlimited PTO + holidays, generous health coverage, 12 weeks paid parental leave, 5% retirement contribution, and support for productive remote work.
- Visa Sponsorship: We may be able to sponsor work visas for exceptional candidates lacking U.S. work authorization.
Applying
Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis, with priority for those received by November 23, 2025.
