State Director of Public Affairs
Hiring Manager: Jared Cain, Senior Vice President of External Affairs
Location: Minnesota
Role Tier: 5 - Head

The Opportunity

Educators for Excellence (E4E) is seeking a State Director of Public Affairs to serve as the senior political and strategic lead for our policy campaigns in Minnesota.

As a member of E4E's national leadership team, this role is responsible for setting the political strategy, policy positioning, and developing and managing the relationships necessary to advance E4E's national issue agenda at the state and local levels. The State Director of Public Affairs in Minnesota will operate as the public-facing leader of E4E's operations in the state, engaging policymakers, state officials, coalition partners, local officials, funders, and the media to win educator-driven issue advocacy campaigns.

This is a high-impact, externally-focused leadership role that will partner closely with our national team to ensure our campaigns are grounded in the perspective of E4E's teacher leaders and a strong political strategy to secure policy wins.

This role will not have direct reports, instead overseeing-through matrixed leadership-a local fellowship of teacher leaders who inform, drive, and act on campaign priorities. Additionally, the State Director will oversee centralized campaign operations and support from communications, digital, organizing, and policy functions embedded across the national Program team.

Responsibilities - In this role, you will:

Set Political Strategy and Campaign Vision and Direction

• Analyze the state and/or local political landscape to identify opportunities, assess constraints, and advise on viable pathways for teacher-led policy change aligned with E4E's national policy agenda
• Define the strategy and contextualized theory of change for state-level or local issue advocacy campaigns, in partnership with the National Director of State Campaigns
• Right-size campaigns based on political conditions, organizational capacity, and coalition alignment and/or capacity
• Lead assessment and recommendations on legislative pathways, timing, and decision-making that lead to success

Anchor Campaigns in Educator Voice

• Partner with the National Director of State Campaigns to develop strong teacher leader fellowships that meaningfully shape and drive issue advocacy campaigns in Minnesota
• Ensure educator voice and priorities shape issue advocacy campaign strategies and vision
• Support and develop issue advocacy skills and competencies in teacher leader fellowships, ensuring a strong bench of campaign surrogates who can partner with the State Director of Public Affairs to lead issue advocacy campaigns

Serve as the External Spokesperson of E4E in Minnesota

• Represent E4E publicly with policymakers, state officials, media, local elected officials, and other key stakeholders and decision-makers
• Build and maintain deep relationships with legislators, administration officials, coalition partners, and opinion leaders
• Serve as a spokesperson, shaping and delivering messages that reflect political realities while advancing E4E goals
• Position E4E as a credible, leading voice in shaping education policy across the state

Build and Lead Strategic Coalitions and Government Affairs

• Build, lead, and sustain strategic coalitions aligned to campaign priorities and E4E's issue agenda, leveraging existing relationships and cultivating new partnerships necessary to advance and win campaigns
• Develop and manage strong relationships with elected officials, policymakers, and other state and/or local stakeholders who influence or shape policy decisions
• Navigate complex political dynamics and opposition to maintain coalition alignment, build political capital, and advance viable pathways to campaign success
• Manage external lobbyists and government affairs partners, ensuring their work is strategically aligned to campaign goals and broader advocacy priorities

Drive Political Communications and Positioning

• Inform messaging strategy, in collaboration with campaign communications staff, that ensures political context, alignment with our teacher leaders, and opposition
• Partner with SVP Campaigns and Public Affairs to ensure campaign messaging is strategic, disciplined, and effective
• Drive E4E's public narrative and positioning in Minnesota, particularly in high-stakes or politically sensitive moments-through earned, owned, and paid media collaboration with campaign communications staff

Contribute to Fundraising Strategy and Support Funder Relationships

• In partnership with the national team, help represent local work with funders, foundations, and individual donors who are aligned with E4E policy campaign priorities
• Provide the national development team with campaign insights and strategy that support donor relationships and new prospects
• Advise on alignment between fundraising strategies, donor management, and campaign priorities
• Ensure timely execution of grant deliverables and support clear, effective communications for internal and external fundraising efforts

Minimum Requirements:

Experience:

• 10+ years of professional experience, including at least 5 years in education policy
• Proven track record primarily designing and leading issue advocacy campaigns, ideally at the state level or at a minimum in a large urban local government
• Deep experience operating in fast-paced, complex, highly political environments
• Additional electoral campaign experience preferred
• Bachelor's degree required.

Transportation: Often works out of the office (or home office), with ~20% travel

• Time will be divided between office meetings with staff within the organization and self-directed execution of tasks.
• Must be able to work occasional weekends and evenings for programmatic events and other priorities.
• Must be willing to travel to meet with staff across the country.

Core Values: What beliefs do you embody? How do you approach your work?

• Responsiveness - We keep each other in the loop to keep the work moving forward.
• Inclusiveness - We make space at the table for all, so everyone feels like they belong.
• High-Quality Work - We ensure all deliverables meet our standard of excellence.
• Ownership - We take part in finding solutions for the problems we identify.
• Equity - We look for opportunities to redistribute power in response to inequity.
• Evaluation and Reflection - We look for opportunities to celebrate success & show growth in ourselves and in our work.

Positional Skills - What can you do well?

• Setting Vision & Direction: Establishes a clear vision that is mission-aligned, sets measurable goals, and develops teams and activities to maintain alignment with this vision
• Leading Change: Identifies necessary shifts in a timely manner, involves key stakeholders in the planning process, promotes buy-in & follow-through, and adjusts course as needed
• Setting & Managing Expectations: Clarifies the outcomes of the work and names what progress should look like along the way; delegates and checks in with a productive cadence
• Influencing & Motivating: Inspires committed and positive action towards accomplishing individual and collective organizational work goals. Demonstrated ability to operate effectively and strategically amid opposition, scrutiny, or adverse political conditions. Able to influence, align, and drive results across campaign functions and supports across campaigns, policy, communications, and digital
• Making Decisions & Demonstrating Judgment: Makes strategic decisions, even in ambiguous situations; weighs factors both within and outside of one's control to mitigate risk; exercises discernment when involving others in decision-making; leverages data when appropriate
• Cultivating Relationships & Collaborating: Develops a sense of rapport and trust with staff and seeks opportunities to share expertise and leverage the strengths of others; comfortably communicates with external stakeholders. Able to quickly build relationships with new stakeholders and advocates who bolster our coalition work
• Thrives in a matrixed campaign environment without direct people management over functions that will support campaigns across the Program Team

Functional Knowledge - What do you know a lot about?

• Experience working in legislative, state, or local issue advocacy campaigns; intergovernmental affairs; or within the Legislature
• Exceptional ability to translate deep policy expertise into campaign messaging that is easily discernible-and tailored-across all audiences
• Strong background in communications and public speaking, especially in issue advocacy
• Additional experience working on electoral campaigns (not exclusively)
• Comfortable serving as a public leader and face of E4E in Minnesota, including media engagement and public speaking
• Well-established relationships with policymakers, advocates, opinion leaders, and other stakeholders in the state
• Experience managing and/or working with lobbyists
• Deep network in state and local politics
• Familiarity in working with teachers' unions and education policy dynamics
• Deep experience navigating state-level politics, ideally with experience in the legislature, executive branch, or with local elected officials
• Strong understanding of how policy wins are achieved from introduction to passage
• Dialed into local political conditions and dynamics, and hyper-aware of issue framing against the broader landscape

Benefits & Applying
Educators for Excellence (E4E) believes in providing employees with benefits to support self-care, wellness, and financial stability. We value the whole person and provide benefits such as paid time off, health insurance plans, competitive salaries that include pre-tax benefits, and cell phone reimbursements. See more information about our benefits here.