Lead Exposure Elimination Project
Principal Advisor, Policy and Government Engagement
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Principal Advisor, Policy and Government Engagement
About Lead Exposure Elimination Project (LEEP)
LEEP is an impact-driven, evidence-based nonprofit that aims to eliminate childhood lead poisoning, which affects an estimated one in three children worldwide. We currently focus on three sources of lead exposure: paint, spices, and traditional eyeliners. Our work involves generating data, supporting governments with the introduction and enforcement of regulation, and assisting industry in eliminating lead from their products.
LEEP was founded in September 2020. Six years on:
- We run programs in over 40 countries across Africa, Asia, and Latin America, representing over 76% of children born in low- and middle-income countries.
- Our current paint programs have the potential to protect 97.8 million children from lead poisoning in their homes over the next 35 years. Our programs on eyeliners and spices have the potential to protect a further 12.6 million children from either one of these two sources over the next seven years.
- Our follow-up studies in Malawi and Pakistan have shown lead paint market reductions estimated to protect approximately 8.5 million children from lead poisoning.
- With LEEP's support, eight countries now have regulations to limit the amount of lead in paint, e.g. in the DRC.
- In over 20 countries, manufacturers representing over 50% of the lead paint market share have taken steps to move to lead-free.
- Our team is growing rapidly: from 18 at the start of 2025 to 43 at the start of 2026, to an estimated 80 by the start of 2027.
- Founders Pledge estimates that it costs $1.66 to prevent one child’s lead exposure (in expectation) through our work, making LEEP one of its most cost-effective nonprofit recommendations. Our own analysis estimates that it costs under $5 to avert one DALY equivalent through LEEP’s first 13 established paint programs.
- We are a partner of the WHO and UN Environment Programme's Global Alliance to Eliminate Lead Paint and a member of the Partnership for a Lead-Free Future.
- We have received grants from major grantmaking organisations, including Founders Pledge, Coefficient Giving, Bloomberg Philanthropies, USAID, and Schmidt Futures.
- We have appeared in Nature, Vox, Time Magazine, The New Yorker, Prospect, on the 80,000 Hours Podcast, and our co-founders were named in Vox’s Future Perfect 50.
For more information, visit: https://leadelimination.org/.
Message from the Executive Director
Lead poisoning affects an estimated one in three children worldwide, and it is almost entirely preventable. At LEEP, we have seen what happens when governments act. With our support, eight countries have introduced regulations limiting lead in paint, and our paint programs are on track to prevent exposure in nearly 100 million children. Our next question is whether we can do the same for other major sources of lead exposure.
This role exists to answer it. This role will take our work on other sources of lead exposure into countries where governments have yet to act, and support them to do so. You will have a real budget, a high degree of autonomy, and a research team that has done the groundwork. What you learn will become the playbook our country teams use to transform how governments tackle lead, across many sources and many countries.
Few roles offer the chance to protect millions of children and to show how it can be done everywhere. I hope you will consider it.
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Dr. Clare Donaldson, Executive Director
Role Purpose
LEEP is seeking an experienced policy advocate to lead government engagement on a number of our pilots on new sources of lead exposure. Alongside our established paint programs, LEEP's Pilots Team tests strategies for eliminating other sources, currently spices and traditional eyeliners, with further pilots under consideration in areas such as drinking water systems, used lead-acid batteries, cookware, and plastics. Our pilot countries currently include Pakistan, India, Morocco and Egypt, and the work is likely to expand across South Asia, the Middle East and Sub-Saharan Africa.
Your job is to get governments to act. You will enter new country contexts, work out who really makes the decisions and what motivates them, build trusted relationships at the most senior levels, and work with governments to introduce, strengthen or enforce regulation of lead in these products. Lead is unusually tractable for this kind of work: the near-elimination of leaded petrol is one of public health's great wins, and the changes needed for the remaining sources are concrete and achievable.
You will not be executing a fixed playbook. Our research team will hand you a well-evidenced best guess at the theory of change for each source. Your job includes pressure-testing that strategy in-country, adapting it as you learn, and judging which levers will actually move a given government. Depending on the context, that might mean direct engagement and technical assistance, building coalitions with local partners, media and campaigns, or using grants to help catalyse government action.
You will have meaningful resources to deploy, including budget to fund coalition partners, studies and support to governments, and a high degree of autonomy in how you run each engagement. You will lead government advocacy on some of our pilots, covering particular sources and countries. You will be part of LEEP's Pilots Team, reporting to LEEP's Policy Director and working closely with our country teams and research team.
This role requires spending time in the countries where we work, and experience working in low- and middle-income countries is essential. We are more interested in talent and track record than credentials.
Major Duties and Responsibilities
- Mapping the landscape: Rapidly building an accurate picture of who shapes and decides policy in each country you cover, what motivates them, and where the real openings for change are.
- Building senior relationships: Establishing trust and credibility quickly with ministers, senior officials, regulators and standards bodies, and maintaining those relationships over time.
- Driving policy and regulatory change: Working with governments from initial engagement through to the introduction, strengthening or enforcement of regulation of lead in the pilots you lead.
- Refining the theory of change: Pressure-testing the strategy for each source in-country, adapting it as you learn, and advising LEEP on whether and where government action is the right lever.
- Choosing the right tools: Deciding when to use direct engagement, coalition-building, media and campaigns, or grant-making, and deploying budget effectively to catalyse action.
- Building the playbook: Turning what works into approaches that LEEP country teams and future programs can pick up and use directly.
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Profile
The following qualities are essential:
- Typically 15+ years' relevant professional experience in policy advocacy, government engagement, diplomacy, public affairs, international development or related fields.
- A successful track record of policy advocacy in LMICs: Specific examples of policy, regulatory or enforcement change that you personally drove, and can explain your role in. During the interview process, we will ask for two or three examples.
- Political judgement: The ability to quickly read who really makes decisions in a government, what motivates them, and how change actually happens in a given country.
- Rapid relationship-building at senior levels: Credibility and trust with ministers and senior officials, built quickly in contexts that are new to you.
- Strategic flexibility: Judgement about which tools fit which context, rather than a single preferred approach. You will not need deep expertise in every tool, but you will need to choose well between them.
- High autonomy: Comfort operating with ambiguity and limited structure, moving quickly, and making decisions without complete information.
- Experience working in low- and middle-income countries.
- Willingness to travel at least 8-12 weeks per year.
- A genuine commitment to impact: Caring about outcomes rather than activity and holding yourself to account for whether change actually happens.
Language Requirements
- Full professional proficiency in English is required.
In addition, the following are kinds of backgrounds and/or experiences that might make a good fit for this role. This list is not exhaustive, or indicative of essential requirements:
- Senior roles in diplomacy or international development, for example at the FCDO, the US State Department, USAID, or other countries' foreign or development ministries.
- Development implementing organisations delivering government-facing programs.
- Government relations, public affairs, or political and policy advisory work.
- Policy organisations or institutes advising governments at senior levels.
- Advocacy or campaigning organisations with concrete policy wins.
- Experience using grant-making or financing to motivate government action.
- Regional depth in South Asia, the Middle East or Sub-Saharan Africa, and professional proficiency in relevant languages.
- Experience working with remote, geographically distributed teams.
Terms of Appointment
- Hours: Full time, 37.5 hours per week
- Duration: Permanent.
- Salary: Remuneration is competitive and commensurate with the successful candidate’s experience and qualifications.
Benefits of Working with LEEP
- A chance to have a large positive impact on the world, and improve millions of lives.
- Experience working with an early-stage, fast growing, high-impact and evidence-based nonprofit.
- Flexible work arrangements.
- Supportive, collaborative team environment.
LEEP is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. Candidates and employees are always evaluated based on merit, qualifications, and performance. We will never discriminate on the basis of race, colour, gender, national origin, ethnicity, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status
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