Description

Position Summary
Advocacy Rising is a boutique policy advocacy consulting firm that helps nonprofits, foundations, and coalitions turn policy priorities into organized, effective campaigns. We work across states and issue areas to build advocacy strategy, develop coalitions, and lead campaigns designed to achieve meaningful policy change.

This position offers the opportunity to lead consequential state and local policy campaigns, work directly with senior clients and coalition leaders, and help shape how a growing consulting firm approaches campaign strategy and execution. The Senior Associate will independently lead engagements and play a central role in moving complex policy campaigns from strategy into action.

We are looking for an experienced policy campaign leader who can take a campaign from early research and strategy through coalition development and legislative execution. The strongest candidates combine political judgment, coalition leadership, and client management with the ability to independently drive multiple complex campaigns forward.

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.

Multi-State/Locality Campaign Leadership

• Lead Advocacy Rising’s Policy Campaign Engine in up to three states or localities.
• Maintain clear ownership of campaign strategy, timelines, deliverables, client relationships, stakeholder engagement, and outcomes across assigned projects.
• Assess campaign conditions continuously and recommend when a strategy should advance, narrow, sequence, redesign, or pause.
  Maintain strategic consistency across multiple engagements while adapting the Policy Campaign Engine to the political, policy, and stakeholder context of each jurisdiction.

Advocacy Research and Strategy

• Conduct policy and advocacy research on legislative, executive, administrative, budget, and political developments relevant to each engagement.
• Assess the political landscape, stakeholder ecosystem, decision-making environment, implementation considerations, and campaign readiness in each jurisdiction.
• Identify the information required to determine whether a viable policy pathway exists and whether sufficient political and stakeholder conditions are present to advance.
• Analyze policy options, political feasibility, stakeholder alignment, legislative and executive pathways, implementation considerations, and campaign resource requirements.
• Synthesize complex research and conflicting stakeholder perspectives into clear strategic findings and recommendations.
• Translate research findings into actionable recommendations for policy direction, coalition structure, political strategy, and campaign sequencing.

Coalition and Executive Committee Leadership

• Build the leadership and coalition infrastructure required to guide and advance each policy campaign.
• Establish Executive Committees or comparable decision-making bodies with clear authority, responsibilities, participation expectations, and decision-making procedures.
• Identify, recruit, and onboard organizations and leaders whose participation strengthens coalition credibility, political influence, policy expertise, geographic representation, implementation capacity, or public legitimacy.
• Develop coalition prospect lists and recruitment strategies across relevant sectors and stakeholder groups.
• Facilitate Executive Committee meetings, coalition meetings, policy-setting processes, campaign strategy sessions, and other decision-making forums.
• Maintain consistent engagement, alignment, accountability, and momentum among Executive Committee members and coalition partners.
• Navigate disagreements among stakeholders and facilitate timely decisions while maintaining coalition ownership of substantive policy and campaign decisions.
• Identify and address gaps in coalition representation, leadership, decision-making, participation, and execution.

Policy and Legislative Strategy

• Develop viable policy options grounded in evidence, fiscal reality, implementation considerations, political feasibility, and state or local context.
• Work with clients, subject-matter experts, Executive Committees, coalition members, and other stakeholders to move from broad policy interest to a defined and actionable policy concept.
• 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.
• 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.

Legislative Campaign Execution

• Prepare each qualifying campaign to enter the legislative or decision-making period with clear leadership, policy direction, political strategy, responsibilities, and decision-making procedures.
• Manage the process for identifying and selecting qualified contract lobbyists or other external campaign partners when required.
• Coordinate with contract lobbyists and campaign partners on legislative strategy, sponsor engagement, executive branch engagement, committee strategy, budget advocacy, coalition deployment, and key decision points.
• Engage Executive Committee and coalition members strategically to recruit and strengthen legislative champions, executive branch allies, and other influential supporters.
• Prepare coalition members and external validators for policymaker meetings, hearings, testimony, sign-on letters, public communications, constituent engagement, and other campaign activities.
• Complete post-campaign and post-session assessments identifying outcomes, barriers, opportunities, lessons, and recommendations for the next phase of work.
• Support the transition from policy adoption to implementation strategy when included within the engagement.

Client, Project, and Business Management

• Serve as the primary day-to-day strategic lead for assigned client engagements.
• 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.

Requirements

Required Qualifications

• 7+ years of experience in state or local legislative advocacy, public policy, government relations, policy campaigns, or closely related work.
  Significant experience independently leading multiple state or local policy campaigns, with responsibility for policy development, coalition building, political and legislative strategy, stakeholder management, campaign execution, and outcomes.
• Demonstrated ability to assess political conditions, identify viable policy pathways, and adapt campaign strategy based on legislative, executive, stakeholder, and political dynamics.
• Experience building and leading coalitions or multi-stakeholder bodies, including facilitating senior stakeholders through strategy development, disagreement, and collective decision-making.
• Experience independently managing senior organizational leaders, funders, coalition leaders, elected officials, or other high-level stakeholders.
• Demonstrated ability to manage multiple complex campaigns, clients, or projects simultaneously while maintaining strong strategic attention, responsiveness, and quality.
• Strong policy analysis, political judgment, strategic synthesis, facilitation, and written communication skills, including the ability to translate complex information into clear strategic recommendations and client-ready materials.
• Demonstrated commitment to public-interest advocacy, public policy, and the missions of nonprofit and philanthropic organizations.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience working across multiple states or jurisdictions simultaneously.
• Experience with Medicaid, food access, health policy, or Food is Medicine policy.
• Experience managing or coordinating contract lobbyists, government relations firms, or other external campaign partners.
• Experience working in consulting or another client-service environment.