State Director of Public Affairs

## About Us

Our nation’s education system is leaving millions of students—including an overwhelming number of students of color and low-income students—unprepared for college, career, and life. Research shows that classroom teachers are the single most important in-school factor in improving student achievement, and we believe a truly thriving teaching profession requires educator voice and leadership. We work to build durable teacher power, especially with those who have been historically excluded from decision-making, to shape the systems and policies that define education.

Founded by public school teachers, Educators for Excellence is a growing movement of nearly 40,000 educators working together to build a high-quality, diverse teaching profession with the resources and conditions necessary to help every student thrive. Together, we research and develop educator-informed solutions, build teacher power, and advocate for policy change at the district, state, and national levels.

## What We Do

Our work is grounded in the belief that the teaching profession is one of the most vital forces shaping our shared future – and that educators must be at the center of shaping the policies and systems that define public education. We focus on developing teacher leadership and power to drive issue advocacy campaigns that shape policy, contracts, and the national conversation.

To achieve our vision for transforming the teaching profession, we advance and support the implementation of a focused set of policy solutions backed by research and educators. Our agenda focuses on achieving a high-quality, diverse workforce through:

– Building strong and sustainable career pathways.
– Creating coherent systems of instructional support.
– Funding public schools fully and equitably.

By building durable teacher power, teachers unite as a collective force to drive lasting change and advance an equitable, sustainable public education system where every student has the opportunity to learn, grow, and succeed.

## 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 Massachusetts.

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 level. The State Director of Public Affairs in Massachusetts 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 Massachusetts.
– 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 Massachusetts

– 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, ensuring political context, alignment with 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 Massachusetts, 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

– Represent local work with funders, foundations, and individual donors 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 designing and leading issue advocacy campaigns, ideally at the state level or in a large urban local government.
– Deep experience operating in fast-paced, complex, highly political environments.
– Additional electoral campaign experience preferred.
– Transportation: Often works out of the office (or home office), with ~20% travel.
– Must be able to work occasional weekends and evenings.
– Must be willing to travel nationally.

## Core Values – What beliefs do you embody?

– **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 celebrate success and show growth in ourselves and our work.

## Positional Skills – What can you do well?

– **Setting Vision & Direction**
– **Leading Change**
– **Setting & Managing Expectations**
– **Influencing & Motivating**
– **Making Decisions & Demonstrating Judgment**
– **Cultivating Relationships & Collaborating**
– Thriving in a matrixed campaign environment without direct people management.

## Functional Knowledge – What do you know a lot about?

– Legislative, state, or local issue advocacy campaigns; intergovernmental affairs; or legislative work.
– Translating deep policy expertise into clear, tailored campaign messaging.
– Communications and public speaking in issue advocacy.
– Electoral campaign experience (not exclusively).
– Serving as a public leader and spokesperson.
– Strong relationships with policymakers, advocates, and opinion leaders.
– Managing or working with lobbyists.
– Deep network in state and local politics.
– Experience with teachers’ unions and education policy dynamics.
– Understanding how policy wins move from introduction to passage.
– Awareness of local political conditions and issue framing.

## Benefits & Applying

Educators for Excellence (E4E) provides benefits supporting self-care, wellness, and financial stability, including paid time off, health insurance, competitive salaries with pre-tax benefits, and cell phone reimbursements.

E4E is an Equal Opportunity Employer and prohibits discrimination of any kind.

### Compensation Policy

Salary bands (based on location):

– **$153,000 – $218,000** for High Urban (NYC & San Francisco)
– **$138,000 – $196,000** for Mid-High Urban (LA & Boston)
– **$132,000 – $188,000** for all other locations

E4E does not negotiate salaries; the first offer is the best offer.

### COVID-19 Vaccination Policy

All new employees must be fully vaccinated before employment unless exempt for medical or religious reasons.

### Accommodations

To request an accommodation during the interview process, email **[email protected]**.

### EEOC Questionnaire

Applicants are encouraged to complete the EEOC questionnaire to help ensure a diverse pool of candidates. Hiring managers do not see this information.

Apply here