Solicitation for USPSC - Emerging Technologies and Innovation Specialist

As the home base for USAID’s Democracy, Human Rights and Governance (DRG) programs, the Center for Democracy, Human Rights and Governance (DRG Center) within the Bureau for Development, Democracy, and Innovation (DDI) focuses on advocating for democratic governance, driving important research, and supporting over 90 USAID Missions worldwide to develop and implement programs and activities. USAID’s DRG sector includes support for democratic and economic governance, rule of law, elections and political processes, civil society and media, human rights, and other DRG fields. The DRG Center’s Democratic Resilience and Innovation (DRI) team supports the Agency in addressing domestic and international drivers of authoritarianism, identifying incentives for governments and societies to align with democratic values and recalibrating existing interventions to build resilience to democratic backsliding. The DRI team does this through research and technical assistance for field programming. A key component of the DRI team approach is to better understand how technologies and the data that undergirds and emerges from them can foster digital democracy or enable digital repression in order to inform and improve USAID democracy and development programming. DRI supported activities aim to address and prevent the misuse of data-driven technologies by strengthening respect and protection for human rights across the digital ecosystem. Efforts also aim to increase demand for and investments in technologies that respect human rights and data privacy “by design.” As part of DRG/DRI, the Emerging Technologies and Innovation Specialist is expected to advise USAID field teams and Washington on how technologies can foster digital democracy or enable digital repression. This position lies at the intersection of technology and regulations that govern these technologies, private sector engagement and partnerships, and use of these technologies to deepen civic engagement and strengthen democratic societies and institutions. At the core of this position is the ability to support USAID Missions to implement programs that take advantage of the democracy enhancing properties of data driven technologies, while preventing or mitigating their potential to undermine democracy and human rights. This programming requires application of evidence-based approaches. The successful offeror’s responsibilities will be geographically world-wide, varied, and dynamic to reflect changing circumstances facing USAID and the DRG Center. The position will be based in Washington, D.C. and may include temporary duty assignments overseas as needed.