Executive Director

Global Financial Integrity (GFI)
Location: Washington, DC
Position Type: Full-time, Hybrid (minimum 3 days/week in office)
Salary: $140,000 annually

Reporting: Incumbent reports to the Board of Directors
Eligibility: Must be a U.S. citizen or hold a work permit valid for at least three years.

About Global Financial Integrity

Global Financial Integrity (GFI) is a Washington, DC–based think tank and advocacy organization committed to strengthening financial transparency, curbing illicit financial flows (IFFs), and promoting equitable global development. GFI conducts cutting-edge research, engages policymakers around the world, and partners with governments, civil society, and the private sector to improve oversight of global trade, finance, and supply chains.

Position Overview

GFI seeks a dynamic, strategic, and mission-driven Executive Director (ED) to lead the organization into its next phase of growth. The ED is responsible for securing multi-year institutional funding, executing organizational strategy, managing a high-performing team, and representing GFI at the highest levels of government, international institutions, philanthropy, and global civil society.

The ideal candidate is an inspiring leader with an exceptional ability to cultivate major donors, build partnerships, and drive organizational impact. Deep knowledge of the components of global development challenges, including capital flight, global debt, ODA and FDI is expected. 

Key Responsibilities

Fundraising & Resource Mobilization

• Develop and execute a robust fundraising strategy focused on securing six-figure and larger, multi-year grants from foundations, governments, multilaterals, and major donors.

• Oversee donor cultivation, relationship management, and proposal development.

• Ensure strong stewardship, reporting, and long-term donor retention.

Institutional Management & Operations

• Oversee organizational operations, budgeting, financial management, and compliance.

• Lead, mentor, and inspire a diverse team of researchers, analysts, and program staff.

• Foster a collaborative, inclusive, high-performance organizational culture.

• Work closely with the Board of Directors, providing regular updates on programmatic, operational, and financial performance.

Strategic Leadership & Vision

• Lead the development and execution of GFI’s strategic direction, ensuring alignment with its mission and global relevance.

• Position GFI as a thought leader on financial transparency, IFFs, trade-based money laundering, beneficial ownership transparency, and related global development issues.

• Serve as the chief spokesperson for the organization, representing GFI in public fora, media, and high-level policy spaces.

External Relations & Advocacy

• Engage effectively with senior officials in relevant U.S. government agencies, multilateral organizations (e.g., OECD, UN, World Bank, IMF), and international partners.

• Build and maintain strategic partnerships with civil society organizations, research institutions, and private-sector actors.

• Lead high-impact advocacy efforts consistent with GFI’s mission and priorities.

Required Qualifications

• Minimum of 15 years of progressively responsible experience in international development, financial transparency, anti-corruption, illicit finance, public policy, or related fields.

• Demonstrated success in fundraising six-figure+ grants and cultivating relationships with major donors and philanthropic institutions.

• Proven track record of inspiring, effective, and empathetic leadership, with experience managing multidisciplinary teams.

• Strong understanding of global development challenges, including illicit financial flows (IFFs), debt sustainability, FDI, ODA, trade integrity, and financial sector reform.

• Exceptional ability to engage with high-level government and multilateral officials.

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including public speaking.

• Must be a U.S. citizen or possess a valid U.S. work permit for at least three years (GFI will not sponsor visas).

• Must live in Washington, DC or a close-in suburb in Maryland or Virginia.

• Ability and willingness to work in-person at least three days per week.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience leading a think tank, policy organization, or international NGO.

• Background in research, economics, finance, development policy, or related technical fields.

• Experience working with multilateral institutions, U.S. government agencies, or global philanthropic foundations.

• Prior experience in strategic growth planning.

Compensation & Benefits

• Salary of $140,000 per year.

• Comprehensive benefits package including health insurance, life insurance, retirement plan contributions and four week’s paid vacation annually.

How to Apply

Interested candidates should submit the following materials:

1. Curriculum vitae/resumé

2. In lieu of a cover letter, answer the following three questions (350 words total):

   • What is your experience in large-grant fundraising?

   • What is your background in global development issues?

   • What knowledge, skills and abilities do you possess that you believe make you an outstanding candidate?

3. Three references (these will only be contacted if the candidate is a finalist and with prior notice)

Send the above to: Careers@gfintegrity.org and include ‘Executive Director position’ in the Subject line.

Application deadline is January 31, 2026. 

No phone calls please

There are currently no available openings. Keep an eye on this page for upcoming opportunities with Global Financial Integrity.

No phone calls please

In 2026, Global Financial Integrity, Academics Stand Against Poverty and Yale’s Global Justice Program will be awarding the 13th annual Amartya Sen Prizes to the best original essays examining one particular component of illicit financial flows, the resulting harms, and possible avenues of reform.  Essays should be about 7,000 to 9,000 words long. We expect to award prizes totaling USD 8,000 to two or three winners, for example a first prize of USD 5,000 and a second prize of USD 3,000. Winning essays must be available for presentation at the next Yale Global Justice Program conference and for publication in the journal Academics Stand Against Poverty. Past winners are not eligible.

Illicit financial flows are explicitly recognized as an obstacle to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and singled out as target #4 of SDG 16. They are defined as cross-border movements of funds that are illegally earned, transferred, or used – such as funds earned through illegal trafficking in persons, drugs or weapons; funds illegally transferred through mispriced exchanges (e.g., among affiliates of a multinational firm seeking to shift profits to reduce taxes); goods misinvoiced or funds moved in order to evade taxes; and funds used for corruption of or by public or corporate officials.  

Components of illicit financial flows can be delimited by sector or geographically. Delimitation by sector might focus your essay on some specific activity, business or industry – such as art, real estate, health care, technology, entertainment, shipping, weapons, agriculture, sports, gaming, education, politics, tourism, natural resource extraction, banking and financial services – or on an even narrower subsector such as the diamond trade, hunting, insurance, or prostitution. Delimitation by geography might further narrow the essay’s focus to some region, country, or province.

Your essay should describe the problematic activity and evaluate the adverse effects that make it problematic. You should estimate, in quantitative terms if possible, the magnitude of the relevant outflows as well as the damage they do to affected institutions and populations. This might include harm from abuse, exploitation and impoverishment of individuals, harm through subdued economic activity and reduced prosperity, and/or harm through diminished tax revenues that depress public spending.

Your essay should also explain the persistence of the harmful activity in terms of relevant incentives and enabling conditions and, based on your explanation, propose plausible ways to curtail the problem. Such reform efforts might be proposed at diverse levels, including supranational rules and regimes, national rules, corporate policies, professional ethics, individual initiatives, or any combination thereof. The task is to identify who has the responsibility, the capacity and (potentially) the knowledge and motivation to change behavior toward effective curtailment. Special credit will be given to papers that provide a detailed description of how change may come about in a particular geographical or sectoral context.

We welcome authors from diverse academic disciplines and from outside the academy. Please send your entry by email attachment on or before 31 August 2026 to Tom Cardamone at SenPrize@gfintegrity.org. While your message should identify you, your essay should be stripped of self-identifying references, formatted for blind review.

While your message should identify you, your essay should be stripped of self-identifying references, formatted for blind review.