Position: Assistant Director of Public Policy
Full-Time | Exempt | Salary Range: $61,000 - $70,000
Culture:
Trying Together’s mission is to support high-quality care and education for young children.
Trying Together is a Pittsburgh-based nonprofit that supports the work of early childhood by providing advocacy, community resources, and professional growth opportunities for the needs and rights of children, their families, and the adults who interact with them. A fast-paced organization, Trying Together looks for dedicated and passionate staff who bring positivity to their work and a solution-oriented sensibility.
Trying Together encourages its team, partners, and communities to interact compassionately and honor the range of cultures, ideas, and identities that root each person. Young children develop and learn by example; this means that children whose early learning environments reflect just actions, equitable opportunities, diverse representation, and inclusive approaches experience healthier interactions and build relationships that enable them to thrive.
Trying Together is an equal-opportunity employer. Trying Together does not discriminate and encourages qualified candidates of any gender, race, class, sexual orientation, faith, disability, or age to apply. All candidates will be evaluated on a merit basis.
Purpose:
The Assistant Director of Public Policy serves as the operational backbone in building and managing the policy department’s capacity to identify policy opportunities and drive advocacy actions to improve early care and education experiences for children, families, and the early childhood workforce. In this role, the Assistant Director works to advance the priorities of the Trying Together Public Policy Agenda and statewide advocacy coalition within a strong team. This position reports to the Director of Public Policy and provides day-to-day operational leadership and functional supervision for the public policy team, guiding management of grant deliverables, tracking, and workflows in close partnership with the Director, and serving as departmental lead in the Director’s absence. This is a full time role that will include occasional evening and weekend hours and some regional travel.
As a member of the policy department the Assistant Director of Public Policy will serve as a committed advocate mobilizing for policy change alongside communities to elevate the needs of young children, families, and educators for an equitable early care and education system.
Responsibilities
Drive the execution of grant supported advocacy activities in accordance with the state coalition, strategy roadmap goals, and public policy agenda.
Guide the development and advancement of the public policy agenda including the strategy for promoting the agenda and implementation of activities.
Strengthen and build on the processes and systems to inform the work of the public policy team in alignment with existing organizational and coalition infrastructure.
Establish and oversee team’s workflow for tracking of activities and outcomes to support internal and external reporting requirements, evaluations, and demonstration of program impact.
Supervise the management of grant deliverables, timelines, and key project milestones, ensuring high-quality, timely completion across the policy team.
Connect the routine tracking of internal deliverables and monitoring of legislative trends to help the organization and department make strategic decisions.
Collaborate with the policy team to carry out activities including, but not limited to, individual meetings with early childhood professionals, small and large group meetings, program visits and tours, and media events with policymakers.
Engage in relevant coalition committees and working groups to build strategic alignment, monitor policy developments, and support collaborative advocacy efforts.
Efficiently track legislation in alignment with the policy agenda and coalition priorities.
Lead and…