CURRENT OPENINGS
Director of Public Options & Governance
The Director of Public Options and Governance advances research and policy solutions that expand access, enhance competition, and increase opportunity to critical goods and services for American consumers, families, and communities by promoting state capacity building and good governance practices. Topics of interest include federal procurement practices and public options—publicly-provided goods and services that coexist with the private marketplace.
Director of Competition & Regulatory Policy
The Director of Competition and Regulatory Policy runs the policy and research portfolio associated with the Project on Networks, Platforms, and Utilities (NPUs) and related anti-monopoly policy efforts. Many pressing challenges in public policy stem from NPUs, including supply chain issues in railroads, airline flight cancellations, broadband internet access, electric grid crashes, the emergence of nonbank money, and anticompetitive practices on tech platforms. From the middle ages to the 1970s a distinct set of regulations governed NPUs, but these tools were largely abandoned with deregulation. We seek to revive the study and use of NPU tools and study how regulatory solutions like structural separations can address widespread issues like corporate concentration.
Director of AI & Technology Policy
The Director of AI & Technology Policy will lead research and develop policy proposals to improve AI and tech governance. VPA is expanding its efforts in AI and tech policy as part of a new Tech Policy Blueprints Initiative. The Director of AI & Technology Policy will lead this initiative, which involves developing a suite of detailed, actionable policy recommendations and plans for state and federal policymakers, including legislative drafts and executive branch actions.
Senior Policy Analyst
Senior policy analysts perform research, policy analysis, and scholarly writing independently and in collaboration with other VPA staff members. They aid our mission to translate ideas and research into workable blueprints for policymakers, help organize public conferences and events, and write for a variety of different audiences.
Policy Analyst
Policy analysts perform research, policy analysis, and scholarly writing under the direction of VPA’s Faculty Director and other senior policy experts. Policy analysts build their technical policy expertise and develop their ability to research and write at a high level for a variety of different audiences.
Fellow in Networks, Platforms & Utilities (NPUs)
This two-year NPU fellowship is designed to support individuals who are interested in becoming law professors in the field of networks, platforms, and utilities, defined broadly as including transportation, communications, energy, banking, and tech platforms, and cross-cutting issues and themes across these sectors. The NPU fellow is expected to write academic articles for publication in legal journals, participate in the NPU workshop and annual NPU conference, and go on the academic job market in the second year of the fellowship. The NPU fellow will receive mentoring and guidance from Vanderbilt law faculty.
VPA Legal Fellow
Legal fellows connect with other law students from around the country and support VPA’s cutting-edge work in political economy. Students should be interested in an academic, legal, or policy-oriented career in political economy and regulation.