Program Director, Grants

Overview

Program Director, Grants

Compensation: $140,000 - $190,000+ in the US; £90,000 - £115,000+ in the UK

Location: London / San Francisco (preferred); New York or Washington DC possible.

Application deadline: Sunday, March 8, 2026

About the Tarbell Center

The Tarbell Center for AI Journalism supports journalism that helps society navigate the development and deployment of advanced AI. We provide funding and training to strengthen AI reporting at major news outlets.

Since 2023, we've raised $20M in funding and supported 50+ journalists through fellowships, grants, and residencies. We're now entering a period of rapid expansion as we scale from a $4M budget in 2025 to $14M by 2027.

Across our programs, we've supported a wide range of impactful reporting.

• Accountability reporting: Our journalists have broken corporate accountability stories about OpenAI's legal tactics against nonprofits and xAI violating its own safety policies. A recent investigation about Character.AI's failure to protect minors on its platform contributed to banning under-18s within a week of publication.
• AI policy coverage: Our reporters have produced expert policy analysis, revealed exclusive information about state-level AI policy developments, and investigated AI policy lobbying.
• Impacts from AI: Coverage of the impacts from current systems, from climate impacts to mass discrimination, and the emerging risks from frontier models.
• Sensemaking: Explanatory journalism that helps the public make sense of circular funding deals, advancements in automating AI R&D, military integration, and developments in China.

About the role

You'll lead Tarbell's grantmaking efforts, managing one direct report with potential to grow the team. You'll start with responsibility for an annual budget of $2M+, with potential to grow to $10M+ in coming years. You'll have ownership over funding strategy, grant evaluation, and the growth trajectory of all grantmaking programs.

The core of this role is institutional grantmaking. You'll build this initiative from scratch, providing $50-500k in funding directly to newsrooms to build AI coverage capacity. Rather than funding individual stories, you'll fund the journalists and teams who produce them, working with editors and newsroom leaders to establish new teams, spin up investigative units, and launch dedicated verticals at major outlets.

This might look like:

• $400k to the Washington Post for an 18-month investigation into corporate lobbying from AI companies
• $400k for Fox News to establish a dedicated vertical on frontier AI models and their impact
• $150k for an investigative team at The Bureau of Investigative Journalism to scrutinize Frontier Safety Policies
• $100k for a series of technical AI explainers at Lawfare

You'll work closely with our Partnerships Director to identify opportunities and pitch newsroom leaders. The goal is not to spend down a fixed budget but to fund everything that clears our bar for impact. If you find ten excellent opportunities that require $5M in total, Tarbell will work to raise additional funds to support all ten.

You'll also oversee our AI reporting grants program. This program provides smaller awards of $1-20k for individual stories and is already running well under our current staff member. Your role will be to provide strategic oversight and management to ensure flawless execution. Reporting grants will be one arm of a larger grantmaking operation, funding stories that fall outside institutional partnerships. It primarily supports freelancers and newsroom teams needing funding for specific projects.

Strong performers will have a path to an expanded grantmaking budget of $5M+ within 18-24 months and $10M+ by 2030.

Current funding priorities

Tarbell is focused on funding journalism that helps society navigate AI development and deployment. Current priorities include:

• Accountability reporting on frontier AI companies
• Investigations into lobbying and campaign financing
• AI policy coverage in the US
• Incident reporting: real-world harms from deployed AI systems
• Foundational explainers and analysis
• AI's transformative potential and diverse perspectives
• Developments in China
• AI and labor market impacts

These priorities will evolve, and you'll help shape that evolution.

Who we're looking for

We're open to two profiles: deep expertise in journalism OR AI grantmaking/strategy. You need one, not both. You must demonstrate genuine interest and potential in the other domain.

We also expect:

• Leadership experience: 5+ years managing high-performing teams
• Entrepreneurial drive: you proactively identify opportunities
• Strategic judgment: identify important gaps and maximize impact
• Independent execution: ownership of complex programs
• Clear communication: concise, persuasive writing
• Mission alignment: belief in Tarbell's mission

Salary and location: We'll offer a salary of $140,000 - $190,000+ in the US; £90,000 - £115,000+ in the UK based on experience and seniority.

Benefits

• 33 days of annual leave
• 16 weeks of paid parental leave (increasing to 24 weeks after 3 years)
• $5,000 per year in professional development funding
• Up to 5% employer pension/401(k) contribution
• US employees: Platinum health, dental, and vision plans with most premiums paid by Tarbell
• Flexible working hours
• Offices in London and San Francisco

We prefer candidates based in London or the San Francisco Bay Area and require 2 days/week in office. We are open to New York or Washington DC, or candidates who require short periods of remote work. We sponsor UK work visas for this role.

Please inquire with if compensation or benefits questions affect your decision to apply.

Application process

Interested candidates should express initial interest by filling out an application (

Tarbell is proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity employer. We do not discriminate based on race, religion, color, national origin, sex, pregnancy, sexual orientation, marital status, gender identity, age, disability, or other protected characteristics.