Chief Policy and Communications Officer

Type: Regular, Full-Time, Exempt, Executive Position

Reports to: Executive Director

Location: San Francisco, CA. This is a hybrid role that is required to work in our San Francisco office two days a week. Statewide travel is required; with 30% domestic travel expected.

Due Date: Applications are due by Friday, April 20.

Compensation: The annual compensation depends on years of relevant experience and ranges from $175,000 to $200,000.

Benefits

ALC’s comprehensive benefits package includes generous vacation and paid holidays; medical, dental, disability, and life insurance coverage (ALC pays 100% of premiums for employees and 75% for qualified dependents); a flexible spending account (FSA); and a 401K retirement plan with employer non-elective contribution and match.

Travel & Meetings: All ALC staff are expected to participate in regular check-in meetings with their supervisor/supervisees, staff meetings, team meetings, and other organization meetings, as required. This includes two (2) annual retreats, an anniversary celebration dinner, and meetings as needed in the San Francisco Bay Area. Occasional travel within the United States to attend external key stakeholder, funder, partner, meetings and/or convenings are expected, as needed. This is a senior executive role for a lawyer who combines strategic judgment, sharp analytical and communication skills, and the discipline to support a team toward efficient execution of deliverables.

The Opportunity

Reporting to the Executive Director, this leader will oversee policy, community engagement, and communications, and drive ALC’s integrated advocacy approach across litigation, policy, and narrative change work. They will ensure ALC’s analysis is substantive and actionable, communications are timely and strategic, and coalition partnerships are strong and well-cultivated.

A critical part of the role is partnership with the Legal Director to align legal strategy with policy, communications, and community engagement including serving as a trusted thought partner and senior backstop when needed. This leader will also represent ALC in high-stakes settings and may serve as a senior organizational voice in place of the Executive Director when appropriate.

The right person has a strong track record in policy development and execution and is a quick-thinker, balancing high-level strategic thinking with the ability to get into the weeds: reading drafts, working closely with staff on substance, and ensuring the work meets the standard the moment requires. They are able to formulate a vision and strategy but also comfortable with orchestrating its implementation, requiring both external and internal leadership. They understand the tradition of movement lawyering rooted in community power, direct services, and systemic change and bring the ambition, legal credibility, and communication skills to advance it, in service of the communities ALC has fought for since 1972.

Responsibilities

Strategy and Integrated Advocacy

• Develop and drive integrated advocacy work plans that connect ALC's litigation, policy, and communications work into a unified strategy.
• Ensure that significant cases, regulatory moments, or legislative opportunities are accompanied by a coordinated policy and communications plan.
• Identify strategic opportunities and bring the right partners together to assert power on behalf of ALC's clients and communities.
• Broaden ALC's coalition of partners, including labor, faith communities, and allied advocacy organizations, to expand collective power across issue areas.

Policy and Community Education

• Own and lead ALC’s public policy positions in alignment with legal strategy
• Build out a lean, high-quality, high-impact policy and community engagement team, making targeted investments in capacity that lay the groundwork for a stronger function over time.
• Lead the development of accessible community education materials: know-your-rights resources, policy explainers, digital content, and print materials that translate complex legal and policy issues for the broader API and AMEMSA public.
• Provide senior legal and policy direction to the Policy team, including close engagement with drafts, briefs, and memos to ensure that ALC has impact at the local, state and national levels of government.

Communications

• Own and lead communications and narrative strategy and develop communications tools and channels that help scale up ALC’s impact and thought leadership externally
• Oversee ALC's Communications team, ensuring the organization's voice is cohesive, clear, consistent, and strategically deployed.
• Utilize legal and subject-matter expertise to cut through internal review processes and get content out the door at the speed the moment demands.
• Build ALC's profile as a thought leader through op-eds, public comment, media relationships, and strategic positioning on the issues that matter most to its communities.

Executive Team Leadership

• Serve as a full member of ALC's executive team alongside the ED, COO, Chief Development Officer, and Legal Director, contributing to organizational strategy, planning, and cross-functional coordination.
• Work in close, ongoing partnership with the Legal Director to ensure ALC's policy, communications, and community education work is integrated with and informed by its litigation and legal strategy.
• Collaborate actively with all executive team members to align external-facing work with ALC's programmatic priorities and organizational direction.
• Represent ALC leadership in external policy, community, and funder spaces with a specific lens on furthering ALC’s thought leadership as needed with credibility, clarity, and authority

Team Management & Development

• Supervise and mentor Communications Director and Policy Director, with an eye towards building leadership, accountability, and effective teams
• In collaboration with the Legal Director provide mentorship to legal department staff in litigation, integration of ALC’s core strategies, developing and growing external relationships, and moving ALC’s work forward.
• Act as a dotted line supervisor across programmatic staff on various cases, projects, or initiatives

Qualifications

• B.A./B.S. and J.D. degrees. California bar membership required.
• 10+ years of relevant experience in policy making, community engagement, and/or communications in a legal non-profit organization
• Substantive knowledge in one or more of ALC's core issue areas including immigrant rights, workers' rights, housing, national security and civil rights, or voting rights and the intellectual range and curiosity to engage credibly across all of them.
• A strong writer and sharp analytical thinker; someone who reads carefully, identifies gaps quickly, and produces work that moves people.
• Demonstrated experience managing and building teams, including supervising, developing staff, setting expectations, and driving accountability.
• A track record of running complex initiatives that required coordinating across legal, communications, and policy or community engagement functions.
• The strategic judgment to triage priorities and keep teams focused accordingly.
• Collaborative by nature; someone who builds trust with peers and brings out the best in the people around them.
• Deep commitment to and familiarity with API and AMEMSA communities and the issues ALC works on.

Preferred

• Experience strengthening external relations, policy, or communications function.
• Existing relationships in legislative, advocacy, media, or coalition spaces relevant to ALC's work.
• Has more than 8 years experience working in allied issues or sectors.
• Substantive knowledge in one or more of ALC’s issue areas
• Demonstrated experience managing and building teams, including supervising, developing staff, setting expectations, and driving accountability

Application Process

Interested candidates should submit via Breezy (as PDF attachments), the following:

1. Cover letter explaining your interest in the position
2. Resume
3. One writing sample (no more than ten (10) pages)
4. Three (3) professional references (including at least two direct supervisors)

ALC’s comprehensive benefits package includes generous vacation and paid holidays; medical, dental, disability, and life insurance coverage (ALC pays 100% of premiums for employees and 75% for qualified dependents); a flexible spending account (FSA); and a 401K retirement plan with employer non-elective contribution and match.