About this website
This website helps people enter and advance in emerging technology policy careers, with a focus on rapidly developing areas like AI, biosecurity, and cyber.
It’s a resource for people at any stage of their career: students exploring policy for the first time, technologists and subject-matter experts pivoting into government, and experienced policy practitioners moving into technology issues.
What you’ll find here
The site combines in-depth guides, curated resource lists, and first-person accounts from practitioners. Policy careers can be hard to navigate from the outside, from the acronyms to the institutions to the unwritten norms of DC culture. We try to make this information clear and practical so you can figure out where you might fit and how to get there.
The site is organized into six sections:
- Policy career essentials: foundational guidance on what policy work is, how to test your fit, and how to develop professionally.
- Pathways into policy: how to gain experience and land jobs through graduate school, fellowships, and other entry points.
- Institutions: the structure of Congress, think tanks, and the executive branch (including profiles of specific federal agencies), why you might work in each, and roles to consider.
- Policy areas: key resources, institutions, and fellowships for specific emerging tech policy areas like AI, biosecurity, and cybersecurity.
- Policy levers: the main mechanisms governments use to shape technology, including technical standards and evaluations, federal R&D funding, and regulatory policy.
- Tips and resources: tactical guidance on networking, policy skills, security clearances, and other practical topics.
About the authors
This site is a project of the Horizon Institute for Public Service, a non-partisan, non-profit organization that helps address the US government’s shortage of technology specialists. Our work spans the full arc of a tech policy career: supporting new entrants into the field, placing experienced technologists into government roles, and building community among established policy leaders. You can see the full picture of what we do at horizonpublicservice.org.
Much of this site’s content draws on materials originally developed for these programs.
Pages are written by Horizon staff or by external authors under Horizon’s editorial direction and are reviewed by subject-matter experts before publication.
Feedback
We’re always working to expand and update the site. If you spot a mistake, know of a resource we missed, or have suggestions for new content, please share them through this short form. We appreciate your input!
© 2023-2026, Horizon Institute for Public Service. This work is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. You’re welcome to reproduce or share it for non-commercial purposes with appropriate credit; please check with us first.
