Arena Careers

Abigail Spanberger’s 2025 campaign for Governor is seeking a highly organized, motivated, and experienced Research Director for the most high-profile race in the nation in 2025. The Research Director will be responsible for building an effective Research Program to support strategic campaign goals. The Research Director will develop both short and long-term research products, collaborate closely with the Political and Communications Departments, and manage a core team of Research Staff.

The Research Director will report directly to the Campaign Manager. This is a full-time position based in Richmond, Virginia.

Job Responsibilities

• Develop, execute, and maintain investigative research plans with a particular focus on opposition research.
• Develop backup for paid media on the tight deadlines required by a competitive election cycle.
• Provide staff with succinct rapid response documents that can be used to generate public-facing content.
• Build the campaign’s Research Department; hire, train, and manage all research staff.
• Monitor the daily news cycle and breaking news events to identify opportunities for the campaign to accomplish the key strategic goals.
• All other duties as assigned.

Required Qualifications

• At least (2) two cycles of experience in political research, preferably in a leadership role.
• Deep understanding of politics, political campaigns, and the daily news cycle.
• Extensive experience with investigative and archival research.
• Ability to consistently generate ideas and think creatively about different avenues for investigative research.
• Significant experience and ability to train research associates on LexisNexis, campaign finance databases, corporate and business filings, and other common research tools.
• Ability to manage and track progress on long-term projects and appropriately delegate tasks to team members to complete projects on tight deadlines.
• Ability to maintain a high degree of confidentiality.

Compensation:

$9,000/month, commensurate with experience. Health, vision, and dental insurance are included with Employee premiums covered 100% by Spanberger for Governor.

Spanberger for Governor is proud to be an equal opportunity employer committed to creating an environment that celebrates diversity, equity, and inclusion. People of color, trans and gender non-conforming individuals, women, people with differing abilities, and veterans are strongly encouraged to apply.