Senior Government Affairs Manager

The National Employment Law Project (NELP) seeks a dynamic, experienced, and skilled person to join our Government Affairs team as a Senior Government Affairs Manager to advocate for pro-worker priorities before Congress, the White House, federal administrative and executive agencies, as well as state legislatures and executive branches.  The Senior Government Affairs Manager position is an extraordinary opportunity to leverage your talent and join a team that ensures progressive and impactful worker-driven policies are at the forefront of current and future worker rights in the U.S. labor market. The position will be based in our Washington (DC) office.

Who We Are

Founded in 1969, the nonprofit National Employment Law Project (NELP) is a leading advocacy organization with the mission to build a just and inclusive economy where all workers have expansive rights and thrive in good jobs. Together with local, state, and national partners, NELP advances its mission through transformative legal and policy solutions, research, capacity building, and communications. Our victories over the last decade have impacted the lives of an estimated 100 million workers and their families. We lead and collaborate in fights for higher pay and just benefits, secure and safe jobs, and support at each stage in a worker’s life. We build worker power and we challenge rules that allow corporate harm and undue power. We are transforming precarious work by raising the floor so that every job is a good job and everyone who wants a job can have one. Together over the next decade, we will build Black, immigrant worker power and advance transformative solutions to achieve racial and economic justice. For more information, read our annual reports and explore our website: www.nelp.org

NELP has a team of 45 staff people based across offices in New York City, Washington D.C., and Berkeley, CA, with a 12-person Board of Directors, an annual budget of $14M, and hundreds of partners in the field with whom we work to further our mission.

What You Will Do

You will be based in the Washington D.C. office and will report to the Director of Government Affairs. You will work in conjunction with NELP’s staff of lawyers, policy experts, researchers, and strategic communications experts to advance our priorities. You will be responsible for the following:
 

• Lobbying Congress, the administration and federal agencies about our core issues and priorities, including coordinating lobby visits for coalitions and allies.
• Drafting Congressional or other testimony, op-eds, blogs, reports, talking points, and other outreach and educational materials.
• Assisting with state and local legislative and administrative campaigns.
• Representing NELP in the coalitions, community events, public forums, and the media, including print, radio, television, and social media.
• Keeping abreast of relevant information, resources, tools, and developments in the federal domestic economic policy field.
• Sharpening the vision of our strategic priorities in collaboration with our team.
• Supporting a workplace culture where all team members grow and develop professionally.
• Actively contributing to NELP’s work in becoming an anti-racist organization that reflects and embodies internally the values of dignity, justice, equity, and inclusion.

Who You Are

• You have at least 10 years’ advocacy experience in policy, legal, research, or organizing work to advance economic and/or racial justice; and specifically at least five years’ experience lobbying.
• You may describe yourself as a “people person.” You thrive meeting new people and forging productive working relationships with them. 
• You have a proven track record of working with diverse stakeholders and in coalition with groups, such as community-based organizations, legal, and labor; we prefer experience with unions, worker centers, faith-based organizations, and policymakers, elected and appointed.
• You are creative and independent; you have a track record of starting or leading new initiatives or existing projects at work, in school, or in your community.
• You have strong project management skills. You are a strategic and clear-headed thinker and doer, have experience managing multiple projects, overseeing, and tracking details, and a track record of achieving timely results.
• You have strong racial equity competencies and center your role in an analysis and understanding of how race and power shape systems in our society and culture and you are continuously learning, reflecting, and growing; you foster trust and transparency across lines of difference by listening deeply, and offer direct, honest feedback with compassion and clarity of purpose. 
• You are a confident and comfortable public speaker and have experience speaking in front of a variety of audiences; and are skilled in presenting, testifying, and/or engaging with the media.
• You are skilled at conducting high-quality and thorough policy research and analysis.
• You are a skilled written communicator, with a demonstrated ability to create compelling and digestible work products such as reports, op-eds, talking points, and/or issue briefs.   You have an ability to communicate about complicated issues and policies in a compelling and simple but accurate fashion.
• You are self-aware, curious, and respectful with strong interpersonal skills fostering a sense of purpose and community and have high standards for holding yourself and others accountable.
• You operate with a commitment to excellence, integrity, diplomacy, and camaraderie.

Start Date, Location, Compensation and Benefits:  In response to the pandemic, all staff are currently working remotely and are not traveling. When conditions are amenable, the position will require some travel, primarily for NELP internal meetings or conferences, but travel is not a significant part of your job. This position is based in our Washington D.C. office at the point that we return to working in the office. The start date will be as soon as possible. This position is in NELP’s bargaining unit, represented by National Organization of Legal Service Workers, UAW Local 2320. Classification and compensation for NELP bargaining unit positions is commensurate with relevant experience and education and based on NELP’s collectively bargained scales. Based on our union scale, the salary range for a candidate with an advanced degree and 12 years’ relevant experience is $95,400-$110,400, depending upon education attainment. Compensation also includes an excellent comprehensive benefits package, including full-coverage of family health insurance, a medical reimbursement plan, generous vacation and sick leave, contribution from employer to a retirement plan, and student loan repayment assistance for qualifying participants.

To apply: Through our online database, submit a cover letter, resume, writing sample and three references to http://bit.ly/WorkWithNelp, choosing the “Senior Government Affairs Manager” option under position. If you have questions regarding this announcement, please forward those to nelp@nelp.org, noting “Senior Government Affairs Manager” in the subject line. No phone calls or other email inquiries please. We will consider applications on a rolling basis. Applications due by October 11, 2021.

NELP is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization and an equal opportunity, fair chance, affirmative action employer, committed to building a diverse and inclusive workforce.  All qualified applicants will be considered for employment without regard to race, color, creed, national origin, sex, age, disability, marital status, sexual orientation, military status, prior record of arrest or conviction, citizenship status, current employment status, or caregiver status.