Description du poste
Position Summary Advocacy Rising is a boutique policy and advocacy consulting firm that works with nonprofits, foundations, and coalitions across the country to develop effective advocacy strategies and advance public policy. We are seeking an experienced policy and advocacy leader with two core strengths: deep experience developing and executing state legislative strategies across different political environments, and demonstrated success building and leading broad coalitions of organizations with diverse interests, perspectives, and priorities. Advocacy Rising serves as the strategic and organizational backbone for policy campaigns. We help coalitions develop effective strategies, make informed decisions, build alignment, and advance shared policy goals. Our Senior Associates lead this work by providing strategic guidance, facilitating coalition relationships, and helping stakeholders navigate complex decisions while respecting the authority of coalition leadership. Success in this role requires strong political judgment, skilled facilitation, and the ability to build trust among senior organizational leaders and coalition partners. Senior Associates must be comfortable navigating disagreements, balancing competing interests, and bringing organizations together around a shared strategy without relying on formal decision-making authority. Senior Associates typically lead up to three campaigns simultaneously across different states and policy areas, often without established relationships in those communities. Most coalition development, relationship building, and campaign management takes place virtually, with periodic in-person travel. The strongest candidates can independently build relationships, maintain coalition alignment, and advance campaigns across multiple engagements with limited day-to-day supervision. Role Responsibilities The Senior Associate will report to the Principal and lead multiple policy campaign engagements simultaneously. Responsibilities may also include multi-state convenings, advocacy research, and strategic advising based on the needs of the firm. Coalition and Executive Committee Leadership Independently build, lead, and sustain broad coalitions of nonprofit organizations, advocacy groups, community leaders, and other stakeholders with different interests, perspectives, and levels of policy experience. Build trusted relationships with coalition members and senior organizational leaders, including stakeholders in states and communities where Advocacy Rising does not have established relationships. Serve as a skilled facilitator who can bring diverse organizations into alignment around shared policy priorities, campaign strategies, and collective decisions. Navigate disagreement, competing organizational priorities, interpersonal conflict, and power imbalances while maintaining trust and productive working relationships. Lead coalition decision-making processes that balance political urgency, diverse stakeholder perspectives, and the authority of coalition leadership. Establish credibility and trust in unfamiliar states and issue areas without relying on frequent in-person engagement. Facilitate productive virtual meetings with senior stakeholders, ensuring meaningful participation, clear decisions, and shared accountability. Multi-State/Locality Campaign Leadership Independently develop and execute legislative and public policy strategies across different states and political environments. Develop viable legislative pathways, including identifying policy options, building political support, recruiting legislative sponsors, and coordinating advocacy strategies. Adapt legislative and coalition strategies to different political environments, including Republican-led, Democratic-led, and divided-government states. Coordinate with contract lobbyists and in-state advocacy partners while maintaining responsibility for overall campaign strategy and coalition alignment. Policy and Legislative Strategy Develop viable policy options grounded in evidence, fiscal reality, implementation considerations, political feasibility, and state or local context. Manage structured policy-setting processes that include research, discussion, stakeholder input, decision-making, and formal adoption. Draft strategy memos, policy concept memos, governance documents, multi-year advocacy roadmaps, and campaign timelines that define key milestones, decision points, political targets, and advocacy tactics. Assess the political landscape, stakeholder ecosystem, decision-making environment, implementation considerations, and campaign readiness in each jurisdiction. Synthesize complex research and conflicting stakeholder perspectives into clear strategic findings and recommendations. Develop multi-year advocacy strategies incorporating coalition alignment, power analysis, legislative and executive strategy, and inside-outside campaign design. Map political power and identify the elected officials, legislative committees, executive branch actors, agency leaders, political stakeholders, and other key decision-makers that will shape policy outcomes. Translate the coalition’s policy agenda into a focused legislative, budget, executive, or administrative strategy. Client, Project, and Business Management Build trusted relationships with clients and provide clear, credible recommendations on campaign strategy, risks, tradeoffs, and next steps. Set and maintain clear expectations regarding project scope, roles, responsibilities, timelines, deliverables, and decision points. Oversee project workflows across up to three simultaneous engagements to ensure timely, high-quality completion of deliverables. Identify project and client risks early and take corrective action when timelines run over, stakeholders become misaligned, scope expands, or decision-making stalls. Escalate issues requiring Principal involvement while independently resolving routine strategic, client, and project management issues. Produce high-quality, client-ready work that requires limited substantive revision or strategic direction from the Principal. Identify opportunities to expand successful engagements, extend client relationships, or apply Advocacy Rising’s Policy Campaign Engine in additional jurisdictions or issue areas. Support business development efforts, including relationship development, scoping, proposal development, and engagement design. Qualifications Required Qualifications State Legislative Strategy: At least seven years of experience in legislative advocacy, public policy campaigns, government relations, or closely related work, including direct professional responsibility for leading state-level legislative or policy strategy in at least one state. Candidates must have personally developed and executed state-level advocacy strategies, including assessing political conditions, identifying viable policy pathways, engaging policymakers and coalition partners, and directing campaign implementation. Experience across multiple states or distinct political environments is strongly preferred. Coalition Leadership: Demonstrated experience personally leading and facilitating multi-organization coalitions, including establishing governance structures, building stakeholder alignment, navigating disagreement, and guiding groups through collective decisions. Stakeholder Relationship Building: A strong record of building trusted relationships with organizational leaders and stakeholders who bring different perspectives, institutional interests, geographic experiences, and levels of political influence. Virtual Facilitation: Demonstrated experience leading virtual meetings, building relationships remotely, and maintaining engagement and accountability across geographically dispersed stakeholders. Political Judgment: Ability to assess political conditions, identify viable policy pathways, develop legislative strategies, and adapt approaches to different political environments. Independent C