Director, State Regulatory Affairs

Position Overview

With a focus on the dynamic state policy environment, the Director, State Regulatory & Technical Affairs is a strong collaborator and responsible for providing regulatory and technical expertise on a range of issues impacting the consumer packaged goods (CPG) industry—from packaging sustainability to product policy and ingredients. Reporting to the Chief Operating Officer and General Counsel, this role will proactively partner with the state affairs and broader public affairs team to identify and drive the organization’s response to emerging regulatory policy issues, concerns, and opportunities in states.

Key Areas of Responsibility

Regulatory Policy

With a focus at the state level on packaging sustainability efforts and product policy advocacy, work collaboratively to monitor and interpret the regulatory landscape—both with members of the organization and state regulatory agencies—to provide actionable insights for the association.

Proactively identify priorities, issues, and opportunities for the organization’s state regulatory affairs advocacy; build cross-industry support for Consumer Brands priorities and activities.

Partner with State Affairs and Legal to develop regulatory policy positions and advocacy efforts at the state level.

Establish and maintain relationships with members, regulatory agencies, and relevant consumer and advocacy groups including developing and submitting comments on proposed rules and regulations.

Inform, forecast, and develop state regulatory policy positions, priorities, member engagement opportunities, and advocacy efforts.

As needed, represent the organization at key state regulatory meetings and industry events.

Issues Management

Serve as an internal subject matter expert on both general and technical expertise relating to state regulatory issues.

Lead regulatory affairs collaboration cross-functionally on all key state policy initiatives including packaging—especially related to Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR)—and product policy and ingredient issues.

Partner with internal divisions to develop state regulatory advocacy positions and champion uniform regulatory frameworks.

Participate in discussions and consensus-building activities with member companies and stakeholders to inform positioning and advocacy on regulatory, technical, and scientific issues.

Analyze proposed regulations, guidance, and other emerging issues as needed.

Collaborate across departments to develop key external messages to advance regulatory policy positions to public stakeholders.

Leadership

Drive member engagement within regulatory affairs and demonstrate the ability to lead member committees and task forces.

Support coordination of and collaboration between the regulatory affairs and state affairs teams.

Requirements

Experience & Education

A minimum of a BA/BS degree is required. An advanced degree such as an MS, PhD, JD, or LL.M is a plus.

At least 5–10 years of related employment in the food, beverage, home, or personal care products sector is required.

At least five years of experience with HHS, CDC, FDA, USDA, and/or EPA regulatory and policy issues (or the state equivalents) is required.

Experience managing complex state regulatory and technical affairs within a highly regulated industry.

Experience leading and managing committees and/or cross-functional teams and engaging with various stakeholders.

A track record of demonstrated results in government, association, legal, and/or policy environments.

Skills

Comfort with ambiguity.

Excellent interpersonal and written communication skills.

Excellent analytical and decision-making skills with the ability to understand complex regulatory and technical issues.

Strong project management skills and the ability to manage multiple regulatory initiatives simultaneously.

Public speaking skills, including the executive presence to testify at state forums and represent the association at industry events.

Passion for learning issues, building strategy and tactics, and executing against a plan.

Ability to persuasively communicate high-level issues to a technical audience and vice versa in concise messages.

Excellent member engagement skills.

A self-starter with the ability to work independently in a fast-paced, dynamic environment.

Ability to build strong collaborative relationships across the organization.

Advanced proficiency in Office 365 Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

Flexibility in learning new software and/or computer/technical applications.

Note

This job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties, or responsibilities that are required of the employee. Duties, responsibilities, and activities may change or new ones may be assigned at any time with or without notice.

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