Program Director, Community Impact

Knight Foundation • Full-time • California, United States • $180k - $200k / year • 3h ago

Knight Foundation seeks a local, social investor with deep California roots in both San Jose and Long Beach and a conviction that communities thrive when people have real economic opportunity, vibrant cultural life, and access to trustworthy information. This role presents an opportunity to serve as the foundation’s lead investor and principal presence in your city, shaping how Knight’s capital drives lasting, transformational change.

As a Program Director on the Community Impact team, you will build and execute a place-based investment strategy anchored in Knight’s three focus areas: Information Ecosystems, Economic Mobility and Cultural Vibrancy. You will bring deep local knowledge and field expertise to bear in identifying the ideas, organizations and leaders best positioned to strengthen your community — and you will be accountable for what that portfolio achieves.

What This Role Is

The Program Director role is intellectually demanding, relationship-intensive and deeply rewarding. Our most effective directors operate at the intersection of strategy and execution — they are rigorous thinkers who can hold the big picture and the portfolio details at the same time.

You will deploy Knight’s capital in three ways: financial capital through grantmaking and strategic investments; knowledge capital through learning, synthesis and sharing of insights; and social capital through convening, connecting people and strengthening networks. You will define what success looks like, measure it honestly, and adapt when the evidence calls for it.

What You Will Do

Execute portfolio strategy across one or more focus areas, ensuring investments, partnerships and learning efforts are tightly aligned with the foundation’s strategy and theory of change.
Apply deep field expertise and judgment to shape how financial, knowledge and social capital are deployed across ecosystems and communities.
Set learning agendas and define how impact is measured at the portfolio level — using evidence, reflection and partner input to adapt strategy and practice.
Steward grants throughout their full lifecycle, maintaining active engagement with grantees, monitoring progress against agreed outcomes, and ensuring responsible use of funds.
Build and maintain relationships with practitioners, community leaders and field partners to stay informed about emerging ideas, needs, risks and opportunities — and to contribute insight that strengthens the foundation’s presence and credibility.
Represent Knight publicly through field engagement, thought leadership and external partnerships.
Work across programs and functions, identifying intersections and opportunities where integrated approaches reinforce one another and increase impact.
Make portfolio decisions legible to colleagues, grantees and partners — actively incorporating diverse perspectives and modeling the transparency and care that Knight’s values require.
Collaborate internally with Communications, Finance, Legal and other functions to ensure effective execution and stewardship of resources.

The Qualities We Are Looking For

Field Expert: You bring substantive, recognized expertise in one or more of Knight’s focus areas. You are sought out for your perspective. You know the landscape, the actors and the ideas that matter.
Strategic Investor: You identify exceptional opportunities and the teams best positioned to execute them. You understand how markets and ecosystems work and can align capital to accelerate change rather than simply fund activity.
Learning-Oriented: You establish clear outcomes, track them honestly and treat evidence as a tool for improvement — not just a reporting requirement.
Skilled Relationship Builder: You earn trust across sectors — with grantees, community leaders, peer funders and colleagues alike. You are direct, transparent and skilled at navigating the inherent power dynamics of a funding relationship with integrity.
Collaborative by Instinct: You see across silos and actively pursue opportunities to reinforce colleagues’ work and be reinforced by it. You bring a team orientation to a role that can easily become siloed.
Values-Driven: You engage with openness and respect, take shared responsibility for learning and feedback, and bring rigor and adaptability in equal measure.

About Knight Foundation

Knight Foundation supports a more effective democracy by funding free expression and journalism, arts and culture in community, research in areas of media and democracy, and the success of American cities and towns where the Knight brothers once published newspapers. Our approach is inclusive and nonpartisan. We value freedom of speech and the press, and we often embrace new and innovative technology to achieve our goals. Our drive to create positive change is amplified by our ability to collaborate internally and with our partners. We look for authenticity, agility, and accountability, knowing we are at our best when we leverage our collective strengths and experiences. We proactively approach our work with a sense of pride and responsibility–adapting, as needed, to the changing realities in our communities.

Salary

The hiring salary range for this role is $180,000 – $200,000. Knight Foundation also offers a generous benefits package.

To Apply

Tell us what excites you about this opportunity and why you are the right person for it. Submit your resume and a brief note through the link.

For more on Knight Foundation, visit www.kf.org and follow @knightfdn on social media.

Knight Foundation is an equal opportunity employer.

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