Senior Associate

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.

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.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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, stakeholder-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.

• Develop viable policy options grounded in evidence, fiscal reality, implementation considerations,…