Senior Campaigns Director

PolicyLink • Oakland, CA

1d • $170,000 - $190,000 • Remote

About The Position

PolicyLink is seeking a Senior Campaigns Director to join its Communications team and lead the implementation of our omnichannel, research-driven efforts to help people imagine, believe, and make real a nation that works for all.

Our research reveals a paradox. A majority of Americans believe this nation should care for all and ensure equal protection for everyone, and that we have a responsibility to make that real. Yet many of the strongest believers in this vision feel the most hopeless about their power to effect change. Across the entire population, people struggle to name any pathways forward.

Five years of proprietary audience research have revealed how to transform these bottlenecks into breakthroughs. We now understand the specific barriers that prevent people from imagining transformative solutions, believing in their power to advance them, and ultimately taking action to make change real. More importantly, we have identified the precise interventions—the narratives, organizing strategies, and engagement approaches—needed to address each barrier.

The potential is extraordinary. And the Senior Campaigns Director will play a critical role in helping us realize it.

The Senior Campaigns Director will oversee the implementation of various communications campaigns, including our core campaign We Are The Founders, one of the vehicles by which we are addressing barriers and seizing opportunities to catalyze imagination and action. The Senior Director will also ensure the implementation of issue-focused campaigns and ensure alignment across the organization and strategies. 

Through these campaigns, we will deliver content, leverage rigorous insights around technology and mass and popular culture, and facilitate engagement. 

As an organization, we have ambitious aims to deliver results over the next five years, including:

Reaching 10 million people through technology platforms, popular culture partnerships, and mass communications campaigns—meeting them where they consume information and form beliefs about what's possible

Positioning a clear, actionable path forward in the national consciousness

Increasing the number of people who strongly believe everyday people have power to drive change

Creating real online and offline opportunities that increase the number of people who can imagine at least one convincing / hope-generating pathway forward

In this role, the Senior Campaigns Director will oversee the implementation of strategies that include harnessing digital infrastructure, our field network, and popular and mass culture. The Senior Campaigns Director will work closely with consultants and team members across the organization to deliver measurable progress toward the four aims listed above. This role requires an exceptional operational leader: someone who can translate bold strategy and research into disciplined execution, manage complexity across partners and platforms, and consistently deliver results at scale. The Senior Campaigns Director reports to the Managing Director of Communications and will manage multiple team members over time.

Requirements

• Demonstrated ability to lead complex, multi-channel campaigns that integrate digital, field, and cultural strategies.
• Strong judgment in navigating complex issues and environments with confidence and agility
• Comfortable with results-based accountability and continuous learning.
• Passion for, and fluency with, applying rigor to campaign efforts, including harnessing the power of data and research
• Exceptional written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to synthesize complex ideas for different audiences.
• High degree of emotional intelligence and the ability to hold urgency, hope, and rigor simultaneously.
• A builder’s mindset, with deep satisfaction in making ambitious campaigns work in practice—on time, on budget, and with impact.
• Tested experience managing staff and external resources.
• Ability to travel approximately up to 35% of the time.
• A minimum of 10 years of experience in communications and campaigns, with a record of delivering large-scale change and measurable outcomes.
• Experience managing integrated communications campaigns that deliver behavior change or structural change.
• Demonstrated experience translating research and data into actionable campaign strategies and measurable outcomes.
• Experience managing significant budgets and multiple external vendors or consultants.
• Track record of working with creative agencies, digital platforms, or cultural partners to reach broad or nontraditional audiences.
• A belief in a nation that truly governs for all and a true commitment to advance the promise of a nation where all can thrive.

Responsibilities

• Work in partnership with the Managing Director, the Vice President of Communications, team members across the organization, and partner agencies and consultants to ensure a clear strategy that leverages digital infrastructure, field activation, and popular and mass culture
• Translate long-term organizational aims and research insights into phased campaign roadmaps with clear milestones, decision points, and success metrics
• Develop campaigns that leverage emergent and innovative digital technologies
• Develop and manage campaign communications budgets, timelines, and scopes of work, ensuring accountability
• Advise leadership on risks, opportunities, and strategic pivots in response to political, cultural, zeitgeist, and technological shifts
• Serve as the operational lead for communications activities to support PolicyLink communication campaigns, ensuring priorities are clear, dependencies are managed, risks are surfaced early, and execution stays on track.
• Oversee the development and deployment of integrated campaign activity spanning digital, popular and mass culture, and owned channels, ensuring consistency of narrative and tone.
• Manage regular communications and touchpoints with partner agencies and consultants
• Cultivate and manage relationships with external partners to extend reach and impact
• Ensure the smooth and coordinated execution of supporting tactics and activities, documented in the Communication team’s project management system
• Ensure alignment with organizational positions and aims and across teams
• Provide regular status updates to internal stakeholders and partners
• Incorporate and adapt strategies based on research insights, performance data, and emergent learning
• Support organizational storytelling by elevating lessons learned and evidence of impact for funders, partners, and stakeholders
• Ensure learning and results are accessible to internal team members
• Document and share best practices, playbooks, and case studies to strengthen internal capacity and the broader field
• Oversee establishing and ensuring the tracking of measurement for campaigns, which includes measures of success and milestones aligned with the objectives of the campaign

Benefits

• 100% employer-paid medical, dental, and vision plans.
• 401(k) with employer and employer-matching contributions that vest immediately. New employees are eligible to participate within one month of their date of hire.
• Flexible Spending Account.
• Short- and long-term disability insurance.
• Group term life insurance plus guaranteed-issue voluntary life insurance.
• Unlimited vacation and sick leave and other generous leave benefits.
• Three required organization reset weeks plus 13 paid holidays.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level
• Education Level: No Education Listed
• Number of Employees: 1-10 employees