Conservation Colorado is seeking a Political Director to lead the organization’s efforts to build and maintain racially-diverse, pro-conservation electoral majorities on the federal, state, and local levels. The Director is the organization’s primary political strategist, provides vision and direction for its political work, and acts as its key representative at various political and electoral tables. They play a major role in the organization’s work to build and leverage power with decision makers and to grow and support leaders in the environmental movement.
About Conservation Colorado
For more than 50 years, we’ve faced off against powerful interests and worked to win the conservation, justice, and public health that Coloradans expect. In the past few years, this has meant winning nationally-leading climate policies, conserving hundreds of thousands of acres of land, and building equity into every part of our work. Our work to protect Colorado’s climate, air, lands, water, and communities reflects our commitment to racial and social justice.
We achieve these goals by organizing people and electing conservation-minded policymakers. We work closely with policy leaders, activists, businesses, and other organizations, and have built a reputation as one of the leading conservation advocacy organizations in the region. Within the organization, we aim to create a workplace culture of policies and practices that demonstrate how we value equity and inclusion.
You can learn more about our mission by clicking here.
What You’ll Do
As the Political Director, you will be responsible for designing the vision for Conservation Colorado’s political work and developing election strategies that will support our program and policy goals. You’ll report directly to the VP of Programs, but also work closely with the CEO, Protégete Director, and other staff while managing one team member. This role can evolve over time, but you will have these areas of responsibility:
Win political campaigns & develop civic engagement opportunities
Drive strategies to implement federal, state, and local political campaigns; build budgets, write plans, track all relevant data, and oversee their execution in order to win elections and build power with candidates and voters.
Work closely with the Protégete Director to engage Latino voters and execute a Latino-focused electoral program.
Run partisan & non-partisan voter registration and GOTV drives.
Team management and organizational leadership
Hire and manage a team to support the development and execution of the political team’s strategy.
Oversee the selection & management of political/electoral contractors and vendors.
Serve as a member of the organization’s program leadership and management teams.
Build and leverage relationships with partners and decision makers
Identify and cultivate relationships with local and national political and environmental partners, key decision makers, and others.
Provide information and guidance to shape organizational work on the politics of issues.
In addition to your regular responsibilities, all staff are expected to participate at some level in organizational priorities including helping in certain fundraising efforts, and committing to our organizational efforts around equity & inclusivity.
Qualifications
To be successful in this job, you will demonstrate judgment, results-focused work, and efficiency that will allow you to work well with our team. Fundamentally, we want someone who loves a political fight, but can do that in a way that furthers our policy goals. More specifically, you will have or be most or all of the following:
Fundamentally, we are seeking an issue campaigner with the skills and experience to deliver significant and equitable public lands policy victories to Colorado. More specifically, you will have or be most or all of the following:
Political strategist: 8+ years of relevant experience that includes working on elections either with a political campaign or issue advocacy organization. An ability to design and drive the vision for the organization’s political program, with a particular eye towards the changing dynamics of Colorado’s political sphere and what this means for our electoral work.
Relationship builder: Excellent at building the trust and respect necessary to maintain relationships with high-level political decision makers, partners, and colleagues, especially those who have more experience, different priorities, might disagree, or have different social identities.
Collaboration and teamwork: This position requires you to work across teams to achieve your goals so an instinct for collaboration is a must. Having experience managing projects with people who do not directly report to you will be useful.
Racial justice: A sophisticated understanding of how race dynamics impact managerial relationships, campaigns, and politics, and a history of successfully centering racial justice in political contexts and decisions. Cultural competency is a must, as we are focused on changing the face of the environmental movement by expanding our base and partnerships to reach communities who have been traditionally excluded, particularly Black, Latinx, Indigenous, and other communities of color.
Manager and leader: Management experience in a spirit of learning, collaboration, transparency, accountability, inclusion, and equity. Experience engaging with and/or managing a racially diverse team is a plus. Ability to be a leader for the organization and movement.
Commitment and passion: Commitment to our mission, advocacy work that centers equity and justice, and a theory of change that focuses on elections, policy and organizing. Loves the political inside baseball fight, but understands that elections are a way to win on policy and uses this to build power for Coloradans, and especially communities who have been traditionally shut out of decision making tables.
This position does not have an undergraduate education requirement. Spanish/English bilingual is a skill we value, but it is not a requirement. This is a full-time job but there can be some flexibility in the exact schedule.
Compensation and Benefits:
The full-time salary range for this role is between $80,000-95,000, based on a wage analysis across the organization and new staff rarely starting at the top of the range.
We provide high-quality, zero-deductible health insurance and a strong benefits package that includes a SIMPLE IRA retirement plan with a match, at least 35 days of vacation & holidays as well as 6 physical & mental wellness days in your first year, and parental leave and a sabbatical program. Please note that as a 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization, Conservation Colorado employees are not eligible to participate in the Federal Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program.
This job offers an opportunity to play a leadership role in one of the region’s largest state-based advocacy organizations in finding solutions to some of the most important environmental issues in Colorado and work with a successful team that is committed to a better, more equitable future. It will be challenging, inspiring, and sometimes frustrating, but you’ll be making a real difference.
We are committed to building a more diverse and inclusive organization and conservation movement to fully represent and engage all Coloradans and to build as powerful a movement as we can. Recruiting staff that better reflects Colorado is a priority and we encourage applicants from all cultures, race, ethnicity, geographies, political affiliation, sexual orientations, gender identities, and all other identities represented in Colorado or protected by law. We are proud to be an equal opportunity employer.
