Director of State and Local Advocacy

Since 1972, Covenant House has served and advocated for youth and young families experiencing homelessness, human trafficking, and exploitation. Our overarching goal is to end homelessness among youth and young families by helping them achieve housing stability, heal from trauma, tap into their innate resilience, and hone their interests and skills to forge new pathways to independence. This work is carried out across Covenant House sites in 34 cities in the US, Canada, Mexico, Guatemala, and Honduras.

About the Role:

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; as well as a trusted advisor and coach to site leaders as staff.

The ideal candidate is someone who can independently lead projects, build trust across diverse stakeholders, cultivate strategic partnerships, navigate complex political environments, and help local leaders become more powerful and successful advocates. They are motivated by effectiveness rather than ideology, comfortable working across political perspectives, and committed to building durable bipartisan support for policies that improve outcomes for America’s most vulnerable young people.

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. In this role, you won’t just analyze policy. You will help turn it into action, working across state and local systems in partnership with leaders, public officials, community providers, and young people. You’ll have the autonomy to lead meaningful projects, the mentorship and visibility that come with partnering directly with senior leadership, and the opportunity to build a national reputation as an emerging public policy leader. 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.

Required 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

Preferred Knowledge, Skills, Abilities and Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s or master’s degree in public policy, social work, public administration, public health, political science, law, or related field
• Proficiency with Asana, Smartsheet and Quorum
• Capacity building and adult learning expertise
• Coaching and facilitation skills
• Exceptional policy writing and communication abilities
• Landscape analysis and environmental scanning experience
• Systems-thinking and systems-change orientation
• Coalition-building and stakeholder engagement expertise
• Ability to translate strategy into operational plans and deliverables

Yearly Salary Range: $83,640 – $95,000

Tagged as: Government Affairs/Legislative/Policy