Deputy Executive Director and Strategy Officer

• Remote in Florida or Hybrid (Miami or Tallahassee)
• ACLU of Florida
• $160,000 to $180,000
• Managing Budget: $1.3 million
• Reports to:
  
  Bacardi Jackson, Executive Director

Jim Norfleet Social Impact Practice Leader and Senior Consultant

The American Civil Liberties Union of Florida (ACLU of Florida) seeks a mission-focused, strategic, and results-oriented leader for the newly created position of Deputy Executive Director and Strategy Officer.

This inaugural executive leadership role will provide dedicated, high-level support for Executive Director Bacardi Jackson, who has led the organization since May 2024. The successful candidate will serve as a strategic advisor and trusted partner to this dynamic, forward-thinking leader, driving strategic alignment and operational excellence across the state’s largest organization dedicated to protecting and strengthening the civil liberties and civil rights of all Floridians.

The organization is conducting an accelerated search with the goal of the new Deputy Executive Director and Strategy Officer assuming their role in the first quarter of 2026.

The ACLU of Florida is one of 54 affiliates of the American Civil Liberties Union, the preeminent defender of civil liberties and civil rights in this country since 1920. Chartered in 1965, the ACLU of Florida operates with two offices in the state and 39 full-time staff members as well as fellows, interns and externs. In addition to the Miami headquarters, there is a regional office located in Tallahassee.

With more than 60,000 members and supporters across Florida, the ACLU of Florida is funded entirely with private donations, foundation grants, court-awarded legal fees, and membership dues. It does not receive any government funding.

The affiliate consists of two separate, nonprofit corporate entities: the ACLU of Florida, a 501(c)(4) social welfare organization, and the ACLU Foundation of Florida, Inc., a 501(c)(3) charity. Both entities are tax-exempt, share the same overall mission, and use common office space and employees.

The ACLU of Florida uses an integrated advocacy model—including litigation, legislative lobbying, strategic communications and narrative change, and people-centered engagement and mobilization—to pursue strategic campaigns that protect and expand fundamental rights and freedoms. The affiliate works proactively to pursue policies, practices, and laws that protect Floridians against unfair and unequal treatment.

Current priority issues:

• First Amendment Freedoms
  • Freedom of Speech
  • Right to Assemble and Protest
  • Freedom of Press
  • Religious Liberty
• Equality, Justice, and Dignity
  • Racial Justice
  • Immigrants’ Rights
  • LGBTQ Rights
  • Economic Justice
  • Reproductive Rights
• Democracy and Accountability
  • Voting Rights
  • Local Sovereignty, Community Rights & Power Building
  • Constitutional State Governance, Checks and Balances, Transparency and the Rule of Law

The ACLU of Florida is part of the ACLU’s first regional initiative for Southern states, the Southern Collective, a transformational initiative to build the power and impact of the ACLU’s thirteen Southern state affiliates—Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia—and strengthen the fight for civil rights and liberties in the South.

The Southern Collective was created to address the challenges in the South that are rooted in its unique history of racial oppression and violence, and equally remarkable history of civil rights struggles and victories.

For more information on the ACLU of Florida, please visit their website.

Serving as a strategic advisor and trusted partner to the Executive Director, the Deputy Executive Director and Strategy Officer (DEDSO) provides essential executive leadership, strategic direction, and management oversight for the organization. This pivotal role oversees the day-to-day management of the Executive Department and guides implementation of the strategic vision for the ACLU of Florida, whose mission is to protect, defend,…