Assistant Director for Research and Strategy, Center for China Analysis

Position description

The Center for China Analysis (CCA) is part of the Asia Society Policy Institute (ASPI), a think- and do- tank with a policy-solving mandate that tackles major policy challenges confronting the Asia-Pacific in security and diplomacy; trade, investment, and innovation; climate and energy; and society, technology, and public health.

Established in 2022, CCA is committed to decoding China’s complexities with an “inside-out” approach by offering evidence-based, independent, and policy-relevant analyses with a balanced, holistic, and human-centered focus, covering Chinese domestic politics; economy and technology; foreign policy and national security; climate, energy and the environment; society, public health, and education.

Summary

The Assistant Director will serve as a key internal leader, helping to manage and implement the Center’s research agenda, editorial workflow, and staff development. This role is designed for someone who can work closely with the Director of Research and Strategy to provide operational continuity, editorial oversight, and strategic coordination across research teams. It is both managerial and content-focused—well-suited to a proactive individual who can ensure quality, coherence, and efficiency in partnership with senior leadership.

Key Responsibilities

Internal Research Planning and Implementation

• Support the Director of Research and Strategy in executing the center-wide research agenda and ensuring alignment across thematic research pillars.
• Along with the Director of Research and Strategy, coordinate internal team meetings, research agenda meetings and research staff meetings; track follow-through and deliverables.
• Support the Director of Research and Strategy to assess risks, sensitivity checks, and the upsides/benefits of op-eds, research projects, issue papers, reports, and other public-facing outputs.
• Support the Director of Research and Strategy and Assistant Director of Operations and Strategy in finalizing contracts and agreements with non-resident fellows and other research affiliates.
• Monitor and support execution of high-impact research projects (e.g., issue papers, policy reports, research projects, interactive websites, webinar series, etc.), ensuring policy relevance, capacity, resource alignment, funding potential, and strategic coherence.
• Serve as a resource for research staff, guiding them on process, standards, and project management.

Editorial Oversight and Quality Control

• Lead first-line content and editorial review processes for all major CCA publications (reports, briefs, op-eds, and other contributions/outputs).
• Ensure content meets the highest standards of analytical clarity and coherence, and work with our editorial staff to ensure adherence to CCA’s editorial guidelines and standards.
• With the Director of Research and Strategy, oversee and support the production of digital content, including webinars, videos, podcasts, Substack posts, blogs, interactive websites and infographics in coordination with the communications team.
• Maintain and enforce editorial guidelines across teams.
• Manage the internal editorial pipeline and ensure timely progress toward publication deadlines.
• Work with staff on improving the clarity, consistency, and analytic rigor of their written work.

Staff Coordination and Development

• Manage day-to-day coordination of research assistants, associates, and junior staff; provide guidance on task prioritization and time management.
• Serve as a first-line reviewer for papers and reports; serve as mentor to early-career staff working on content development.
• Help onboard new research staff and maintain consistent internal processes and communication channels.
• If based in the Washington D.C. office, provide oversight of the office and serve as the primary point of contact with the CCA management and operations team.

Content and Knowledge Management

• Contribute to CCA outputs, including co-authoring or ghostwriting op-eds, policy briefs, and executive summaries.
• Synthesize complex information into digestible content for various audiences, including policymakers and media.
• Manage and support the production of briefing materials, ghost-writing of speeches, talking points, etc. for CCA and wider Asia Society leadership as needed

Partnerships and Resource Development

• Assist in developing proposals and fundraising strategies to support the research program.
• Represent CCA in external meetings with partners, funders, and policy audiences, as needed.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s or Master’s Degree in International Relations, Asian Studies, Political Science, Journalism, or a related field.
• Strong knowledge of China’s domestic politics, foreign policy, and/or economic policy required. Mandarin proficiency is highly desirable.
• Minimum 6–8 years of experience in a think tank, academic, journalistic, policy research, or editorial environment.
• Outstanding research, analytical writing, and editing skills, with demonstrated experience managing research projects and publishing content for diverse audiences.
• Strong oral and written communication skills. Fluency in English required.
• Proven ability to manage operations and workflows in a fast-paced, collaborative environment, with strong strategic, organizational, and process-design skills.
• Ability to maintain discretion and confidentiality essential.

Application instructions

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