Program Manager, Global Programs

Who We Are

At Thousand Currents, we believe the people most affected by injustice are the ones already building the solutions. Around the world, peasant farmers, Indigenous communities, women's collectives, and grassroots movements are organizing across borders to transform food, energy, and the commons as  well as the underlying economic systems. Our role is to back them with flexible funding, with the relationships and platforms that amplify their leadership, and with the long-term solidarity that movement-building requires. 

Thousand Currents funds, connects, and supports visionary grassroots groups and movements leading solutions in food, climate, and the economy.

We support our movement partners in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Asia and the Pacific with core, flexible, long-term grants and value-added services. In the past 40 years  we’ve invested over $60 million in more than 650 grassroots groups and movements across 85 countries.

Our Values

At Thousand Currents, we envision a world in which self-determined and connected peoples share and uphold the abundance of life. To realize this vision, we embrace and practice a clear set of values: 

• Courage - We confront injustice and inequality with love, strength, conviction, and integrity.
• Humility - We are part of a greater whole. We are one among many currents. We recognize our place among many forces for good and change that exist in the world.
• Experimentation - In order to take principled actions together, we prioritize learning, commit to self-reflection, embrace trial and error, and honor multiple ways of knowing.
• Creative collaboration - We share power, practices, and resources to reimagine new ways of living.
• Interdependence - With our futures intertwined, we respect all beings and build authentic relationships to move forward together.

Key Details: Compensation, Location, Travel, & Benefits

Title:  Global Programs Manager

          Transnational Movement Organizing

Position: Full time, Exempt

Team: Global Programs

Location: Remote, Anywhere in the United States, Africa, Asia and the Pacific, or Latin America and Caribbean

Travel: Up to 40%

Position Reports to: Vice President, Global Programs

Compensation: $97,000 USD annually

Benefits: 

• Health, Dental, and Vision cost reimbursement or stipend for employee + dependents, and out of country medical travel insurance for employee 
• 10 paid annual holidays + open paid time off policy allowing flexible time off with supervisor pre-approval 
• Up to 16 weeks of paid parental leave
• Up to $1,000 stipend to set up work space
• Up to $2,000 per fiscal year in wellness stipend, $1,500 per fiscal year for work from home expenses, and up to $2,000 per fiscal year for learning and professional development 
• Retirement contribution paid monthly as a 4% salary boost 
• Possibility of sabbatical leave after seven years of employment

What You’ll Do

As the Global Program Manager you  build and steward a portfolio of transnational movement partners working across agroecology, stewardship of the commons, and energy democracy. You support transnational movement building, movement narrative power, convergence and global influencing to shift the global rules that shape what's possible at the grassroots.

This is a deeply collaborative role, working with regional teams across Africa, Asia and the Pacific, and Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as Grants Operations and Learning teams ensuring that resources move smoothly, risks are managed responsibly, and movement leadership is centered in everything we do. In addition the role works collaboratively with the Center for Transforming Philanthropy, Philanthropic Partnerships Team as well as Communications. 

A member of the Global Programs Team, the role reports to the Vice President of Global Programs.

Resource and Support Movements (50%)

This work is the foundation of the role: building and stewarding long-term partnerships with transnational movement formations, ensuring that financial, intellectual, and relational resources flow in ways that strengthen movement building and movement resilience.

• Identify politically and values-aligned movements through networks, relationship-building, desk research, gatherings, and ecosystem mapping.
• Build and steward a portfolio of movement partners that serve as the backbone of transnational movement organizing.
• Develop respectful, ongoing partnerships through regular communication, check-ins, and engagement with partner work.
• Lead a cohort of partners working collaboratively to advance movement solutions globally.
• Steward  financial, intellectual, and relational resources to strengthen movement resilience using various strategies, including accompaniment, responsive support, movement capacity and movement ecosystems support, and connecting partners. 

Coordinate and collaborate across global movements (25%)

This work supports movements to come together, build narrative power, and engage in the global spaces where global policies are set and resources are contested. It is a role that is bridging between movements, funders, and platforms so that movement leadership shapes the broader field.

• Develop a clear analysis of global context and power analysis related to the strategic focus areas to inform partnership and movement convergence.
• Participate in and support movement convergence. Leverage insights on collective agendas and action to advance movement priorities.
• Identify and support the infrastructure that strengthens the movement ecosystem with a focus on narrative power, political education, and strategic analysis.
• Coordinate movement partners and Thousand Currents' participation in strategic platforms, preparing briefs, schedules, and identifying opportunities to amplify movement voices.
• Serve as a bridge between movements and funder coalitions; plan partner convenings, peer learning, and funder connections.

Facilitate Learning and Share Insight from Movements (20%)

This work turns what is learned from accompanying movements into knowledge that shapes strategy, strengthens partnerships, and advances Thousand Currents' role as a thought partner to movements, peers, and funders.

• Bring an orientation of curiosity and inquiry to partner work, and surface emerging patterns, tensions, and insights from across the portfolio.
• Collaborate with the learning team to curate learning processes among partners. Guide synthesis of what is learned into briefs, reports, and contributions to the Transnational Movement Organizing Strategy.
• Translate movement insights into content that informs donor proposals, reports, and Thousand Currents' external communications, ensuring partner voice and analysis are centered.
• Coordinate partner participation in Thousand Currents events and external platforms, with support for travel logistics in collaboration with the Operations Team, ensuring that movement leadership is visible and well-supported.
• Represent Thousand Currents in meetings, gatherings, and global fora, sharing analysis, amplifying partner stories and impact, and identifying opportunities to build strategic alliances.
• Stay current on food, climate, and economic justice, systems change, and movement-building through reading, peer engagement, and ongoing reflection on Thousand Currents' partnership approach.

Organizational Collaboration: 5%

• Show up fully for organizational activities, including staff meetings, retreats and training.
• Work collaboratively with colleagues as necessary for cross program activities and functions;
• Support organization-wide activities, such as the Thousand Currents Academy, annual events, etc.
• Manage regular personal administration, including timely submission of receipts, reimbursement requests, scheduling, travel planning, filing HR paperwork etc.

Who You Are

We are looking for someone who has:

• 7+ years of demonstrated experience working with or within social movements, particularly in the Global South, on issues related to food sovereignty, agroecology, climate justice, energy democracy, land and commons, or related fields.
• A grounded political analysis of global systems and the role of movements in transforming them.
• Experience stewarding partnerships built on trust, accompaniment, and solidarity.
• Strong relational skills and cultural humility; able to build rapport across geographies, languages, and contexts.
• Strong project management and problem solving skills. Strong attention to details. Highly motivated and passionate about movement building.
• Skilled at synthesis with demonstrable ability to make sense of complex movement landscapes and translate them into clear analysis for diverse audiences.
• Comfort with the rhythms of movement work: convenings, emergent strategy, intentional trust building, fast turnarounds.
• Excellent written and verbal communication in English; additional languages (especially Spanish, French, Portuguese) strongly preferred.
• A learning orientation and a sense of humor.
• Ability to work effectively in a fully remote, tech-forward environment, using digital tools to communicate, collaborate, and manage work.
• Comfortable working in a fast‑paced, dynamic environment with a remote, geographically dispersed team. Ability to maintain momentum through uncertainty and to adapt within rapidly changing priorities. 
• Ability to travel as needed, both nationally and internationally and to engage virtually across time zones.
• Experience engaging with transnational movement organizing, engaging global spaces engagement with philanthropies  in climate justice, economic justice, and food sovereignty is considered an added advantage.

Please note: This role can work remotely, anywhere in the United States, Africa, Asia and the Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean.  We are unable to provide visa sponsorship or relocation assistance

Physical Requirements

The physical demands of this position are light and may require walking or standing to a significant degree.  The position requires frequent computer use at a workstation. As Thousand Currents staff work in a number of locations and come together for meetings on occasion, all staff must be able to travel by car and plane to meetings at locations nationally and internationally. Availability to travel and maintenance of a valid passport is required. National or international travel represents up to 40% of the time for this position. Thousand Currents will make reasonable accommodations in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. This job description and its physical requirements will be reviewed periodically as duties and responsibilities change with business necessity.  Essential and marginal job functions are subject to modification.

Application Deadline : Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis and the position will close once a suitable candidate has been identified

To Apply

Please submit your CV and a short cover letter (maximum 300 words).  In your cover letter we ask that you share concise, evidence-based examples of your experience supporting multi-country or transnational partnership or movements and your level of grantmaking/portfolio management experience. We are interested in evidence of experience aligned with this role, not general statements of interest or motivation.