Head of Public Policy Engagement (Hybrid)

Citi Overview

Citi is a preeminent banking partner for institutions with cross-border needs, a global leader in wealth management, and a valued personal bank in its home market of the United States. Citi does business in nearly 160 countries and jurisdictions, providing corporations, governments, investors, institutions, and individuals with a broad range of financial products and services.

The Head Role in Government Affairs

The Head is a new Director role within Government Affairs responsible for developing and leading a practice team that will guide Citi’s engagement on emerging public policy issues that have potential business and reputational implications for Citi. Based in Washington, D.C. and supervised by the head of U.S. Government Affairs, the role will be responsible for overseeing engagement with public policy organizations, such as think tanks and advocacy groups – both liberal and conservative, that influence public policy impacting the bank’s ability to conduct business and serve clients. The role will hire and manage two experienced professionals to drive these efforts and coordinate with function and business leaders internally to build awareness and understanding of these issues and drive appropriate response. The role will also work in close partnership with business units, including Regulatory Engagement and Community Investing & Development, which may share responsibility for engagement efforts with similar stakeholder populations.

Key Responsibilities

• Serve as a subject matter expert on emerging policy developments and potential business implications for Citi
• Oversee creation and execution of a public policy stakeholder engagement strategy for both the team and key Citi leaders to cultivate and manage productive relationships with public policy organizations and influence public policy issues
• Partner with Regulatory Engagement and Community Investing & Development colleagues to ensure comprehensive and coordinated engagement, particularly among overlapping stakeholder organizations
• Set the strategic direction around identifying, analyzing, and regularly communicating emerging policy issues internally and working with relevant colleagues to address
• Lead the development of Citi’s perspective on emerging policy issues, coordinating across key internal stakeholders as appropriate, including Communications, Community Investing & Development, and Citi businesses
• Represent Citi in public fora and in meetings with policy organizations when appropriate
• Hire and manage a team of two experienced professionals
• Manage the team’s budget and expenses

Qualifications

• Minimum 15 years of experience in public policy organization engagement either from government, a major corporation, trade association or other business organization, a private law or government affairs firm, advocacy organizations, and/or think tanks
• Prefer experience working on financial services issues
• Experience managing budgets, teams of experienced professionals, and consultants
• Excellent communications skills to influence and build trust with a wide range of audiences
• Experience, preferably at the most senior levels, working on public policy issues with government officials and/or public policy advocacy leaders and business leaders
• Experience directing engagement strategies to achieve public policy goals
• Prefer experience working with think tanks on idea generation for research projects
• Ability to travel

Competencies

• Executive and Team Leadership: Proven experience in leading, influencing, and developing executive-level relationships. Experience with building, coordinating, and engaging colleagues and networks between geographies, products, and functions both externally and internally. Demonstrated experience in managing, influencing, and developing teams and providing effective leadership to motivate and inspire.
• Collaboration and Influencing: A team player that can demonstrate an ability to create and maintain strong relationships that build trust and confidence with key internal and external stakeholders. Candidate needs to be able to interact and communicate effectively and comfortably, with credibility, honesty, and transparency, to a wide range of audiences including Citi senior executives, high-level public policy organization leaders, and the media.
• Business Acumen and Results Orientation: The candidate needs to be self-motivated with the ability to manage a set of deadlines and deliverables with limited supervision and take ownership of issues in a constantly changing corporate environment. A self-starter who can think strategically as well as tactically to help address problems or advance business objectives, with the ability to improvise and adapt while being comfortable with ambiguity.
• Public Policy and Political Knowledge: The candidate should understand the relevance of government action on business decisions; have significant knowledge of the intersection of political trends and public policy that impact Citi business; be able to assimilate and summarize large amounts of information to analyze political risks and translate into strategy; and demonstrate proven capacity to design and implement an engagement strategy within a complex regulatory environment.

Education

• Bachelor’s degree required, advanced degree preferred

This job description provides a high-level review of the types of work performed. Other job-related duties may be assigned as required.

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