About The Carter Center
The Carter Center is guided by a fundamental commitment to promoting human rights, alleviating human suffering, enhancing freedom and democracy, and improving health conditions. The Center seeks a highly qualified, motivated, and energetic consultant to serve as Project Director for the Nevada Election Observation Network, a project fiscally sponsored by The Carter Center.
The Democracy Program works globally to support and strengthen participatory democracy, consistent with human rights. Beginning in 2020, The Carter Center began efforts to support good election administration in the United States, including expanding nonpartisan observation, bolstering dispute resolution, tracking disinformation and dangerous speech, contributing to electoral reform and accessibility, and promoting principles for trusted elections.
Employment Details
- Level of effort: Up to 22 days per month
- Start date: As soon as possible
- Location: Nevada (U.S.)
- Pay: Commensurate with experience
- Length of assignment: September 2026 – February 2027
Scope of Work
This role is Project Director for the Nevada Election Observation Network (NEON). The NEON Project Director will oversee the day-to-day implementation of NEON’s statewide nonpartisan election observation program, including management and support of regional and county coordinators, observer recruitment and deployment, training, observation logistics, operational planning, and tracking of program deliverables.
The NEON Project Director will work closely with The Carter Center’s Nevada project lead and NEON Deputy Manager to ensure that statewide program activities are implemented effectively and on schedule. The role will serve as the primary point of coordination for NEON’s operational team and will be responsible for translating statewide program goals into clear assignments, timelines, and deliverables.
Statewide Program Operations and Implementation
- Lead day-to-day implementation of NEON’s statewide election observation activities in coordination with Carter Center staff and the NEON Deputy Manager.
- Develop and maintain operational workplans, timelines, calendars, checklists, deployment plans, and other tools necessary to ensure successful implementation of observation activities
- Translate project goals and decisions into clear assignments, deadlines, and deliverables for NEON consultants, regional coordinators, county coordinators, and other operational personnel.
- Monitor progress toward program goals and key milestones; identify operational gaps, delays, or emerging challenges, work with relevant team members to resolve them, and elevate significant issues to Carter Center staff as appropriate.
- Support the development and implementation of internal policies, procedures, scopes of work, operational guidance, and other program documentation necessary for effective statewide election observation.
Team Management and Accountability
- Coordinate the day-to-day work of NEON regional and county coordinators and other consultants involved in observation operations.
- Establish clear assignments, deliverables, deadlines, and expectations for the operational team and regularly monitor progress toward completion.
- Provide guidance, coaching, troubleshooting, and operational support to coordinators and other team members.
- Conduct regular individual and small-group check-ins with NEON staff and ensure that staff are effectively managing responsibilities within their assigned areas of responsibility.
- Identify and address delays, gaps, or performance concerns and elevate significant issues to Carter Center staff as necessary.
Weekly Team Coordination
- Develop agendas for and facilitate NEON’s weekly statewide team meeting.
- Use weekly meetings to review progress toward program goals, identify upcoming deadlines and priorities, troubleshoot operational challenges, and coordinate responsibilities across the statewide team.
- Ensure that key decisions, assignments, deadlines, and action items are documented and communicated.
- Monitor completion of action items between meetings and follow up with responsible team members as necessary.
- Participate in regular weekly coordination meetings with Carter Center staff, NEON staff, consultants, partner organizations, and other project stakeholders.
Coordinator and Observer Recruitment and Management
- Recruit and support regional coordinators, county coordinators, and election observers in conjunction with NEON and Carter Center staff.
- Support hiring, contracting, onboarding, and management processes for coordinators and observers.
- Set recruitment and deployment goals and monitor progress toward statewide staffing targets.
- Ensure that coordinators recruit, onboard, train, and manage their target number of observers to meet NEON’s observation goals.
- Maintain systems for tracking coordinator and observer participation, training attendance, completion of required paperwork, deployment status, and other administrative requirements.
Training and Observer Preparation
- Support planning and implementation of NEON statewide and regional trainings.
- Lead or support training for regional coordinators, county coordinators, and election observers, including training related to early voting and Election Day observation and county-level election processes.
- Coordinate with Carter Center staff, the Deputy Manager, election experts, and other consultants to ensure that training materials accurately reflect Nevada election procedures and NEON’s observation methodology.
- Ensure that coordinators and observers complete required training before deployment.
Election Observation Operations
- Lead operational planning and implementation for NEON observation activities, including poll worker training, logic and accuracy testing, early voting, Election Day, vote-by-mail processing and tabulation, audit, and results certification activities, as applicable to NEON’s observation methodology.
- Develop and maintain statewide observation schedules and deployment plans.
- Work with regional and county coordinators to identify dates, times, and locations of observable election processes.
- Ensure appropriate observer coverage of priority election processes and polling locations.
- Oversee observer assignment and deployment and troubleshoot staffing, scheduling, access, and logistical issues.
- Monitor implementation of observation activities and coordinate operational responses to emerging issues during observation periods.
Election Official Coordination
- Maintain constructive working relationships with county election officials necessary for successful observation operations.
- Serve as a liaison with county election offices to obtain dates, times, locations, procedures, access information, and other county-specific information required for observation planning.
- Coordinate with the NEON Deputy Manager on significant or sensitive communications with election officials and elevate issues involving statewide policy, access, or relationships as appropriate.
- Support regional and county coordinators in maintaining professional, nonpartisan relationships with election administrators.
Administration, Data, and Logistics
- Oversee maintenance of statewide administrative procedures and tracking systems with support from Carter Center staff.
- Coordinate logistics for observer trainings, meetings, observation activities, and other NEON events.
- Acquire and maintain proficiency with internal platforms used for data collection, program management, and analysis.
- Work with Carter Center staff and relevant contractors to ensure that operational data systems support statewide deployment and observation needs.
Reporting
- Provide regular and timely operational reporting to Carter Center staff on recruitment, training, coordinator performance, observer readiness, deployment, observation activities, and progress toward program milestones.
- Maintain appropriate documentation of program activities, decisions, assignments, and deliverables.
- Immediately elevate significant operational risks or issues that could affect NEON’s ability to implement planned observation activities.
Qualifications
- Relevant experience in election observation, election administration, democracy programming, civic engagement, field coordination, and/or related work;
- Demonstrated experience coordinating teams, managing field-based activities, or supporting large-scale deployments in fast-moving environments;
- Strong organizational skills and ability to manage multiple workstreams, deadlines, and operational details at once;
- Experience supporting trainings, supervising staff or volunteers, and maintaining clear communication across dispersed teams;
- Strong written and verbal communication skills;
- Ability to synthesize field information clearly and communicate findings to both technical and non-technical audiences;
- Familiarity with Nevada electoral context is strongly preferred; ability to quickly learn additional Nevada-specific election processes is required;
- Proficiency with Microsoft Office and comfort using structured reporting and data collection systems.
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience supporting nonpartisan election observation or civic monitoring efforts;
- Close familiarity with Nevada election administration, including early voting, Election Day procedures, canvassing, and post-election processes;
- Experience working with observer reporting systems, survey tools, or mobile data collection platforms;
- Knowledge of accessibility considerations in election administration;
- Experience working with diverse stakeholders, including election officials, civil society actors, and community-based partners.
How to apply
Please submit an application by emailing your resume and cover letter (optional) to Nevada@cartercenter.org
Applications are accepted on a rolling basis until the position is filled. Only applicants selected for an interview or additional consideration will be notified.