Government Affairs Manager

Location: Remote, New York City, or SF Bay Area

Role Type: Full-time

Compensation: $131,000

Visa sponsorship: Not available

Hires remotely in: United States

Experience: 3 years

Skills:

• Creative problem-solving 
• Strong written and oral communication skills
• Process management and organization

Recidiviz is thrilled to be expanding our Business Development team. We’re a small, fast-moving group that leads our nonprofit’s efforts to deepen our government partnerships, ensure sustainable funding for our work, and build the relationships that underpin all of our impact. You may be right for this role if:

• You’re excited to expand your understanding of the criminal justice system and are passionate about doing work that matters. 
• You’re energized by the idea of joining a fast-growing team and playing a key role in designing and building the processes that will help that team drive impact. 
• You love to build partnerships and spend time thinking about what makes partners tick and problem-solving creatively with them. 
• You’re a details person who’s great at process management and excited to help a small, scrappy team stay organized as we grow. 

About us

Recidiviz is creating safer, healthier communities by improving outcomes for people in the criminal justice system. We build technology to reduce the number of people in prison and to help criminal justice leaders embrace data-driven decision-making. 

Using software tools and thoughtful product design, we’ve been able to safely and permanently reduce incarceration and improve outcomes. We work side-by-side with leaders of the criminal justice system, people in prison and on supervision, and ecosystem partners to build a better path forward. In addition to the revenue we earn from state partners, some of the most respected philanthropists and foundations support our work.

People who succeed at Recidiviz lead with kindness and humility, assume good intent, learn from failure, and fix problems when they see them.

About the role

All of Recidiviz’s impact flows through deep and direct partnerships with state corrections agencies. In this role - the first of its kind at Recidiviz - you’ll focus on deepening and expanding our work with each of those partner agencies, from states that are brand-new to the platform to states that have been working with us for 4 years and are excited to keep innovating together.  

As Government Affairs Manager, you’ll work closely with the Director of Business Development, the State Partnerships team, and the Office of the CEO. You’ll help a small and growing team design and build its processes, identify funding opportunities, develop revenue proposals, work with government partners to co-design statements of work that underpin multi-year contracts, and help evolve both internal and external strategy. The role requires creativity, flexibility, exceptional written and verbal communication skills, and incredible attention to detail. It also requires regular travel (roughly 4 business days per month) to U.S. state capitals to work with government stakeholders and to conferences across the country. 

Core responsibilities

This role has two major components: operations and strategy. The right candidate will be equally as enthusiastic about upleveling our processes and helping our team stick to ambitious timelines as they are about owning client relationships. Proactivity, detail-orientation, and collaboration are crucial. 

Operations 

• Manage the pipeline of live and planned revenue conversations across 20 states, including tracking major deadlines for state budgets and proposals, driving follow-up, and coordinating internal handoffs to maximize the likelihood of success.
• Lead cross-functional teammates to drive toward key goals that mitigate risks and capitalize on opportunities across all states, to ensure healthy, long-term state relationships. 
• Deliver recurring internal and external updates on progress toward business development goals to the leadership team, Board of Directors, and internal team.

Strategy 

• Research and educate the team on state procurement processes and budget structures in order to develop state-specific revenue strategies.
• Identify federal grant opportunities and write grant proposals to support the expansion of our federal grant funding strategy. 
• Hire and deploy lobbyists to support revenue proposals and oversee lobbying relationships to reach revenue goals.
• Work with internal teammates and external partners to draft revenue proposal structures and materials.
• Negotiate multi-year contracts designed to maximize impact and meet states’ most acute pain points.

Minimum qualifications

• You’re self-motivated and excited by ambiguity: You’re excited to join a new and growing team and energized by the idea of defining a first-of-its-kind role at a small organization. You’re a fast learner with a growth mindset and when you find a problem, you fix it.
• You’re a resourceful problem solver: You’re a thoughtful brainstorming partner and a creative problem solver who loves wrestling with big challenges and executing on new solutions. If our impact and revenue goals come into conflict with one another, you’ll be excited to figure out a way forward that maximizes both, rather than be intimidated by the problem. When you’re faced with an issue that’s new to you, your approach is to quickly dive into the details, become an expert, and deliver results that you feel proud of. 
• You’re a cross-functional team player: You’re a clear, direct communicator who’s comfortable working with colleagues across a variety of teams and backgrounds at the organization. You’re adept at getting a group of people with disparate needs and goals to row in the same direction - toward more impact, sustainable funding, and healthy long-term partnerships.
• You’re a details person: You bring order to chaos by being thorough and systematic. You’re energized by creating systems and excited to take ownership of and improve our existing revenue pipeline management processes. You’re a documentation wizard with exceptional attention to detail, written communication skills, and the ability to juggle numerous goals and deadlines.
• You’re courageous: You’re not afraid of talking about money, internally or externally, and you’re excited to marshal your exceptional communication skills to drive innovative partnerships. You enjoy preparing for tricky conversations and think quickly on your feet when you’re in those conversations.
• 3 years of experience in business development, sales, development, government affairs, political strategy, consulting, or a similar role.

Preferred qualifications

• Have a personal connection to the criminal justice system: You have either lived or working experience with the operations and consequences of America’s criminal justice system. You don’t need to know everything about the field, but it’s helpful if the design and efficacy of our criminal justice processes feel like issues that you cannot choose to ignore. 

Compensation

Compensation levels are standard across the organization and are set as rungs, not bands. These levels help us ensure equitable compensation and responsible stewardship of our resources. Please note that we do not negotiate compensation offers. 

The compensation for this role is $131,000.

What we offer

• Effective, extremely thoughtful colleagues, working together on a mission that matters
• 90% medical, dental, and vision insurance coverage for you and your dependents
• Flexible time off, including 20 days of PTO and 13 paid holidays
• 12 weeks of paid parental leave
• 401(k) retirement plan with 5% company match and no vesting period
• Complimentary One Medical membership (depending on location)
• Partnership with Carrot to provide employees with inclusive fertility and family-forming benefits, as well as a small but growing number of hormonal health and gender-affirming care benefits
• Monthly ClassPass credit for personal wellness
• Free mental health support via Talkspace
• Well-located offices in Oakland and Manhattan, with the flexibility to work remotely or go into either office as you choose
• An annual company offsite each spring and other ad-hoc gatherings
• All the exhilarating challenges and stretch opportunities of a tech startup, combined with the mission-driven heart of a nonprofit

More about Recidiviz

Recidiviz was an all-volunteer effort until early 2019, when Clementine, Andrew, and Joshua founded the organization. Since then, we’ve built an A-team of software engineers, designers, product managers and domain experts, from companies like Google, Apple, Dropbox, Opower, and Sidewalk Labs. Recidiviz was part of Y-Combinator’s 2019 class and has received support from some of the most respected philanthropists and foundations, including Ford Foundation, Mackenzie Scott, Schmidt Futures, Arnold Ventures, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, and the Mozilla Foundation.

Today, Recidiviz works with (and earns revenue from) 15 state partners – big and small, red and blue – and covers more than 30% of the US incarcerated population. We have helped to get tens of thousands of people out of the criminal justice system, safely and equitably, and saved states nearly $1 billion. In the next five years, Recidiviz plans to partner with 40 states and help 250,000 people who are stuck in the system to get out and stay out. In addition to partnering with state Departments of Corrections, Recidiviz collaborates with and learns from partners – from organizations like the Correctional Leaders Association (CLA) to community based organizations and justice-impacted individuals, whose perspectives guide our work.

To learn more about how we do what we do, check out our 2022 Year in Review, read some press coverage, or watch our TED Talk. And if you’re really keen to see our work, you can dive into our Github :).

An important note

Lasting change is always built on diversity. Recidiviz recruits, employs, trains, compensates and promotes regardless of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, disability, age, veteran status, ancestry, citizenship, marital status, gender identity and all protected status as required by applicable law. We consider qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with legal requirements. If you have a special need that requires accommodation, please let us know in your application. Even if you don't think you meet all the criteria above, drop your resume, and we'll take a look – you might be great for another role or another time!

Salary : $131,000