Senior Associate, Anticipatory Leadership Programme (Two-Year Fixed-Term Contract)

Why We Are Recruiting

The World Economic Forum is strengthening its intelligence and foresight capabilities to help leaders anticipate disruption, interpret emerging signals and translate expert insight into practical strategy and governance solutions as part of its upcoming Global Strategic Intelligence Programme. To support the implementation and growth of these capabilities, we are seeking a Senior Programme Associate to work across workstreams, stakeholders and programme activities. The role will help transform ideas, insights and partnerships into operational and strategic outcomes, ensuring that our upcoming intelligence and foresight programme delivers high-quality engagement experiences, meaningful outputs and measurable impact. 

The Role

The Senior Associate will serve as a central delivery and coordination lead for the upcoming global intelligence and foresight programme - supporting programme management, stakeholder engagement, event and sprint implementation, partner coordination and operational execution. Working closely with Strategic Intelligence, foresight, partnerships and technology teams, the Senior Associate will help translate programme objectives into action by coordinating activities across the programme lifecycle, from planning and expert engagement through to delivery, reporting and follow-up.

The role sits at the intersection of programme management, stakeholder engagement, strategic intelligence, foresight, and innovation, with a focus on ensuring effective implementation of a global initiative that helps strengthen anticipatory governance and preparedness capabilities worldwide. 

Key Responsibilities

• Manage day-to-day management and execution of the Global Strategic Intelligence Programme (Anticipatory Leadership).
• Coordinate timelines, workplans, milestones and deliverables across multiple programme workstreams.
• Track progress against programme objectives and support reporting to internal and external stakeholders.
• Provide operational support for grant-funded activities and implementation requirements.
• Coordinate programme governance processes, meetings and decision-making mechanisms. 
• Manage engagement with governments, international organizations, academic institutions, foundations, businesses and expert communities participating in the programme
• Organize steering group meetings, expert exchanges, workshops and consultations.
• Support, strengthen and expand the programme ecosystem and partnership network.
• Coordinate delivery of Strategic Intelligence Labs, workshops, masterclasses and related capacity-building activities.

Preferred Requirements and Experience

• Advanced degree in public policy, international affairs, political science, economics, business, systems transformation, innovation, management or a related field.

• 6+ years of relevant experience in consulting, stakeholder engagement, public-private cooperation, innovation ecosystems, policy initiatives or international organizations.

• Strong project and programme management capabilities, including coordination of complex multi-stakeholder initiatives.

• Experience engaging government, academic, private-sector and civil-society stakeholders.

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills and the ability to produce high-quality briefing materials and reports.

• Strong organizational skills with the ability to manage multiple priorities simultaneously.

• Experience designing and delivering workshops, communities of practice, learning programmes or expert networks is desirable.

• Familiarity with strategic intelligence, foresight, anticipatory governance, public policy or emerging technology topics would be an advantage.

• Experience with digital collaboration tools, AI-enabled productivity tools and knowledge-management systems is desirable. 

Why join us?

Join an independent and impartial organization with over 55 years of connecting leaders to make sense of global challenges and move the world forward together.