[Hiring] Senior Public Policy and Government Affairs Manager @Samsara

Role Description

Samsara's Public Policy and Government Affairs team is looking for a Senior Public Policy & Government Affairs Manager to expand our work on Capitol Hill and beyond to help develop and drive new tailwind opportunities to support Samsara’s Public Sector business. This is a senior, highly cross-functional role for someone with a track record of moving concepts to reality, building coalitions, and navigating the authorizing and appropriations process to drive powerful programmatic and funding opportunities to enable U.S. cities, states, and the Federal Government to adopt technologies that improve the safety, efficiency, and sustainability of their operations.

• Represent Samsara directly before Congress, building and maintaining relationships with members, committee staff (particularly on appropriations and authorizing committees), and select federal agency officials.
• Be proactive. Identify and generate new funding or programmatic opportunities — formula funding, grant programs, appropriations language, and other mechanisms — that Public Sector Sales can sell into at the local, state, and federal level.
• Build and maintain a living, prioritized opportunities list, bringing clear, well-reasoned recommendations on where to focus — grounded in market opportunity, feasibility, timing, and cost to pursue.
• Partner closely with Public Sector Sales on an ongoing basis, providing critical intelligence into legislative and funding developments, and translating that information into concrete input for their pipeline and go-to-market strategy.
• Stay ahead of developments across Congress, agencies, and target states, and use that intelligence to help shape Samsara's broader policy strategy and priorities.
• Manage outside consultants by, among other things, participating in their strategy calls, critically evaluating their proposals and recommendations, and holding them to a high bar.
• Draft and help advance legislative language, funding tasks, letters, testimony, and other materials in support of Samsara's government affairs priorities.
• Collaboration with Legal, Marketing, and Product to ensure our government affairs work reflects an accurate and compelling picture of Samsara's technology and roadmap, and that our advocacy is in-line with the direction of the business.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree required.
• 8+ years of relevant experience in public policy, government affairs, or government, with a strong preference for appropriations-focused experience — for example, on Capitol Hill (personal office, leadership office, or committee staff) or at a federal agency.
• In-house government affairs experience at a company, ideally working in direct, sustained coordination with a sales, GTM, or revenue organization.
• Deep, first-hand understanding of the federal appropriations and budget process, and demonstrated experience translating that process into concrete funding outcomes.
• A track record of proactively generating opportunities, not just monitoring or reacting to a legislative calendar.
• Established relationships with congressional offices, committee staff, and/or federal agency officials relevant to transportation, infrastructure, or technology funding.
• Demonstrated judgment in evaluating policy or funding opportunities — able to build a rigorous case for why something is or isn't worth pursuing, not just identify that it exists.
• Experience working with outside consultants, including the ability to critically assess their strategy and pitches.
• Skilled at persuasively and diplomatically advocating complex policy positions before a wide variety of audiences.
• Exceptional verbal and written communication skills, and the ability to concisely summarize policy issues and advocacy points for both government and internal business audiences.
• Experience managing multiple high-priority projects simultaneously in a fast-moving, dynamic environment.

Requirements

• Experience with DOT, surface transportation, infrastructure, or public safety funding programs, or with technology procurement processes at the state or local level.
• The ability to translate government-to-business and business-to-government issues fluently in both directions.
• The ability to issue-spot, identifying potential opportunities for sales enablement and challenges before they materialize.
• Familiarity with the physical operations, transportation, or public sector technology landscape.