[Hiring] Director, State & Local Advocacy @Covenant House International

Role Description

The Director of State and Local Advocacy is responsible for strengthening advocacy capability across our domestic sites in the United States to help advance policy solutions that prevent and end youth homelessness, combat human trafficking, and address the social determinants of health that impact young people’s access to a bright, healthy, safe future.

This role is designed for an emerging mid-career policy leader who combines strong cross-cutting legislative and regulatory knowledge with a practical, implementation-oriented approach. The director will serve as a hands-on contributor who:

• Develops tools, analyzes policy landscapes, supports advocacy campaigns, builds partnerships, and translates policy opportunities into action.
• Acts as a trusted advisor and coach to site leaders and staff.

The ideal candidate is someone who can:

• Independently lead projects.
• Build trust across diverse stakeholders.
• Cultivate strategic partnerships.
• Navigate complex political environments.
• Help local leaders become more powerful and successful advocates.

In this role, you will report directly to the Senior Vice President of Advocacy and Strategic Partnerships. There are no direct reports to this role at this time. This is a unique opportunity to help shape the future of youth homelessness advocacy across the United States within an international federation of sites.

If you are energized by solving complex problems, thrive in collaborative environments, enjoy translating strategy into execution, and want your work to have a tangible impact on the lives of vulnerable young people, this role offers a rare blend of mission, influence, growth, and purpose for a policy professional looking to take the next step in their career.

Qualifications

• Minimum 7 years of progressively responsible experience in public policy, advocacy, systems change, government affairs, coalition leadership, technical assistance, consulting, or related fields.
• Demonstrated experience supporting policy implementation and/or advocacy initiatives at state and local levels.
• Significant knowledge of at least one major social determinant of health policy domain, such as housing, behavioral health, workforce development, education, child welfare, poverty reduction, public benefits, violence prevention, or juvenile justice.
• Familiarity with federal legislative and regulatory processes and their interaction with state and local systems.
• Experience working with nonprofit organizations, public agencies, coalitions, or cross-sector partnerships.
• Experience navigating politically diverse environments and building bipartisan relationships.

Requirements

• Project management excellence — ability to manage multiple initiatives simultaneously and consistently deliver high quality outputs on deadlines.
• Political judgment — knows how to effectively assess risk, timing, and stakeholder interests to provide discerning recommendations to SVP of advocacy and strategic partnerships.
• Change management — experience helping organizations, teams, and individual contributors adopt and sustain new practices and approaches.
• Relationship management across levels — comfortable engaging CEOs, frontline staff, youth leaders, government officials, and community partners.
• Facilitation and convening expertise — capable of leading workshops, strategy sessions, peer-learning cohorts, and planning processes.
• Data literacy — ability to interpret and communicate data for advocacy, policy analysis, and decision-making.
• Resource development and grant knowledge — familiarity with public funding systems and how policy influences nonprofit financing.
• Cultural humility and intergenerational leadership — experience working effectively with youth, emerging leaders, and senior executives alike.
• Comfort with ambiguity and entrepreneurial environments — able to build systems, iterate for improvement, rapidly apply learning, pivot rapidly, and effectively prioritize.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office Suite, Teams, Zoom, and project management tools.

Benefits

• Ability to travel once per year to New York City in early October for our annual in-person traditions.
• Travel nationally up to 25% for direct technical assistance, meetings with the Advocacy Team or Strategy Office, and conferences/meetings.
• Outside of above travel, this position is 100% remote.

Our Community

Our critical mission demands that we have all voices at the table. A team of diverse people, perspectives, and experiences is smarter, stronger, and more effective for our young people. At Covenant House, every team member is valued, respected, heard, and supported, and we welcome honest and courageous self-reflection on any aspects of our work that are based on biased or outdated viewpoints. We deliberately create opportunities for our staff to grow and thrive.

Covenant House International is an Equal Opportunity Employer and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any kind: CHI is committed to the principle of equal employment opportunity for all employees and to providing employees with a work environment free of discrimination and harassment.