The American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN) is the nation's leading cancer advocacy organization. Together with our charitable partner, the American Cancer Society, we work in Congress, state legislatures and local jurisdictions to support evidence-based policy and legislative solutions designed to eliminate cancer as a major health problem.

The Senior Director, Federal Advocacy serves as a principal (registered) federal lobbyist and a key strategist for the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN) and is responsible for supervising and leading a team of up to 5 lobbyists in executing and achieving identified federal legislative and regulatory policy priorities in a bi-partisan manner with the goal of reducing the cancer burden through evidence-based public policy.

The Senior Director works closely with the Vice President of Federal Relations and Coalitions and leads day-to-day management of the team to ensure execution of strategies to advance priorities with the Congress and Administration. Working with teams across public policy, grassroots advocacy, media advocacy and state and local campaigns, the Senior Director is responsible for ensuring organizational capacity is leveraged to execute sophisticated campaigns that engage ACS CAN’s nationwide grassroots network to advance federal priorities.

MAJOR RESPONSIBILITIES

• Leads team in advocating for and achieving identified federal legislative priorities, driving external and internal engagement and outcomes on enterprise mission priorities.

• Identifies and recommends public policy advocacy opportunities and designs and implements appropriate strategies in coordination with ACS CAN leadership and staff.

• Direct supervises federal relations staff, including up to 5 federal lobbyists.

• Manage day-to-day engagement, monitoring, and collaborative work on federal legislative and regulatory campaigns, ensuring partnership and execution strategies with other ACS CAN functional teams to leverage full capacity of the organization, in particular nationwide grassroots network.

• Maintains own portfolio of priorities, leadership and participation in coalitions and external partnerships.

• Directs federal relations team to coordinate necessary external engagement to move federal legislative and regulatory priorities forward, identifying and developing engagement strategies across all federal campaigns in alignment with leadership priorities and goals.

• Close collaborates with the policy team to determine appropriate positions on legislation and regulatory matters.

• Ensures balance between capacity required for coalition efforts and direct lobbying by priority.

• Works strategically with counterparts on grassroots advocacy and media advocacy and communications teams to identify campaign execution strategies and tactics to move priority federal legislation forward.

• Represents the ACS and ACS CAN before Congress, the Executive Branch, coalition partners, and others in the health care arena in support of health policy issue areas.

• Ensures assignment and full engagement of federal relations staff with priority coalitions and ACS convenings such as Roundtables as assigned.

• Works closely with the leadership of ACS’s mission pillars, Patient Support and Discovery, on key federal priorities, including coordinating engagement across pillars.

• Interacts directly with Members of Congress, Congressional staff and Administration officials to advocate on behalf of ACS CAN policy priorities.

• Ensures comprehensive approach to legislative strategies, including drafting and analyzing legislative proposals, determining required collateral such as talking points, charts, fact sheets, presentations, correspondence, testimony, briefings on and off Capitol Hill.

• Responds to information requests from Congressional offices and the public as well as inquiries from ACS CAN and ACS.

• Proactively identifies needs for research and materials to support lobbying activities and enable quick response to current events

• Attends relevant conferences and meetings.

• Provides information for member profiles and maintains reports on legislative meetings

• Provides frequent status reports to the ACS CAN President and the Vice President, Federal Relations and Coalitions on activities and work accomplished.

Teamwork & Collaboration:

• Drive collaboration and mutual support of regional field leadership and state Government Relations Directors, Grassroots Managers. 

• Support the organization’s volunteer capacity and training as needed.   

• Support revenue generation through engagement with external partners.

• Lead consistently, modeling the organization’s values and cultural beliefs. 

• Ensure collaboration with ACS colleagues to help facilitate the success of the entire enterprise. 

• Enhance the overall external visibility of the enterprise in a positive manner commensurate with the organization’s brand. 

• Model team leadership by embracing the organization’s technical tools and Direct Action Organizing (DAO) training. 

• Support and serve as an effective steward of relationships by communicating effectively with ACS CAN corporate members, partners, donors, and prospective funders (as needed). 

• Effectively complete administrative duties around reporting and documentation. 

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion:

• Approach the work of the enterprise with a spirit of diversity, equity, and inclusion, establishing a climate where every individual is valued and respected, ensuring that team members follow this lead and are held accountable. 

Legal: 

• Ensure that ACS CAN policies and guidelines are followed, along with compliance with all federal lobbying related requirements, ethics, regulations and laws. 

KNOWLEDGE/SKILLS

FORMAL KNOWLEDGE

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree (preferred).

• Federal legislative experience including working in a Congressional office (preferred).

• High level of expertise in federal health policy.

• 15 or more years of professional experience required, including extensive legislative and/or advocacy experience.

COMPETENCIES/SKILLS

• Ability to manage and lead highly effective teams to advance policy priorities.  

• Ability to develop and execute effective advocacy campaigns. 

• Ability to build and maintain bipartisan federal champions to advance mission.

• Ability to work effectively and strategically with advocacy coalitions.  

• Strong project management skills and ability to utilize technology to execute responsibilities and advance priorities.

• Self-starter with proven ability to be action-oriented and to work on fast-paced, time-sensitive matters with internal and external constituents.  

• Excellent presentation, written, oral, interpersonal, computer, and mobile application skills required.  

• Must have a positive attitude and be a team player; must be collaborative and able to work across teams to achieve goals. 

• Must be an initiative-taker able to work with minimal supervision, and understand context of media, politics, and grassroots mobilization. 

• Internet, Microsoft Office.

SPECIALIZED TRAINING OR KNOWLEDGE

• Detailed knowledge of the legislative process and political landscape. 

• High level of expertise in the legislative and regulatory process, federal budget, and appropriations process.   

• Political and/or policy campaign experience required.  

SPECIAL NOTE

INTERNAL CONTACTS:       

Interacts directly with ACS CAN Senior Leadership Team, all ACS CAN functional teams, ACS mission pillar leadership in Patient Support and Discovery.

EXTERNAL CONTACTS:      

Routine interaction with Congress, Executive Branch, American Cancer Society and ACS CAN, cancer centers, volunteers, coalition partners including the Washington, DC offices of cancer and other health groups, and advocacy organizations.

The starting rate is $155,000 to $185,000 annual. The final candidate's relevant experience/skills will be considered before an offer is extended. Actual starting pay will vary based on non-discriminatory factors including, but not limited to, geographic location, experience, skills, specialty, and education.

The American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network has adopted a vaccination policy that requires all staff, regardless of position or work location, to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 (except where prohibited by state law).

ACS CAN provides staff a generous paid time off policy; medical, dental, retirement benefits, wellness programs, and professional development programs to enhance staff skills. Further details on our benefits can be found on our careers site at: jobs.cancer.org/benefits. We are a proud equal opportunity employer.