Vice President, California
Remote
Sunstone Strategies
Date Posted: 10/24/2024
Seeking dynamic, accomplished senior leader to oversee growing portfolio of California work.
Due to the anticipated volume of applications, only those selected for an interview will be contacted.
Who We Are
Sunstone Strategies is a mission-driven communications and public affairs firm focused on equitable solutions to the climate crisis. We lead state and federal climate policy communications campaigns to phase out the nation's largest sources of fossil fuel pollution.
Sunstone was established in 2018, but our roots run deep—with a staff that pulls from decades of experience leading issue campaigns, justice-oriented advocacy, on and offline organizing, and climate policy. Sunstoners possess a unique mix of climate expertise, judgment honed by experience, and the best public relations skills in the sector.
About the Role
Sunstone was founded in California six years ago and has fast become a driving force behind many of the state’s most successful climate policy campaigns. We support the work of a broad and diverse set of organizations seeking to maintain and grow California’s climate leadership, from completing the transition to 100% renewable energy to accelerating adoption of electric vehicles to electrifying buildings to holding oil, gas and other corporate polluters accountable, while maintaining a focus on energy affordability and environmental justice.
As Sunstone continues to expand in service of the climate movement, we seek a dynamic, accomplished senior leader to oversee our growing portfolio of California work. Our California Vice President will spearhead exciting campaigns and strategies across climate issues, with a specific focus on clean and reliable power. This person will support and coach staff, ensure internal coordination and alignment across workstreams, and manage complex workflows, media relationships, and political dynamics.
The California Vice President will be positioned at the forefront of some of the nation’s highest impact environmental campaigns, shaping communications and political strategy. The role will be a senior advisor and point of contact for partners and funders, developing project and retainer plans and scopes, incorporating feedback, ensuring excellent, on-time, on-budget completion of deliverables and regular updates to stakeholders, and quickly, tactfully navigating challenges when they arise.
The VP will oversee a stellar team of California program leads who have an exceptional understanding of issues related to climate such as those related to the power sector, affordability, gas and buildings, transportation and polluter accountability. Expertise in all issue areas is not required of the VP, though we do have a preference for candidates with power sector experience. Ultimately, the California Vice President is responsible for the success of our California campaigns and our partner and funder relationships which form the backbone of our work.
Compelling applicants will have demonstrated impressive results in high-level strategic communications, public affairs and advocacy campaigns. The ideal candidate has experience in and a nuanced understanding of California climate policy and politics and longstanding relationships in the field as well as with journalists who cover it.
The California Vice President will report to our founder and principal and serve on Sunstone’s senior leadership team. The role is remote, but the successful candidate must be based in California. Occasional travel is required.
Key Responsibilities
Strategic campaign leadership, development and implementation:
Oversee and advise on strategies, tactics, and messaging in collaboration with Sunstone staff and coalition partners, providing leadership on multiple campaigns and projects simultaneously.
Maintain a current, sophisticated understanding of California climate policy and politics, including regulation, legislation, advocacy, elections, key actors, and the state’s climate movement.
Serve as an expert on key climate issues, especially in the power sector.
Track campaign status, budget, deliverables, and progress across the whole of Sunstone’s California campaigns, and ensure our team is read in as appropriate.
Make spending and capacity prioritization decisions, ensure team alignment, and nimbly lead strategy shifts and tactics changes as needed.
Manage and resolve escalations with staff, coalition partners and funders.
Ensure compliance with campaign and advocacy laws and regulations.
External relationship management and business development:
Lead coalition communications, building alignment and working diplomatically between parties with different perspectives.
Contribute to business development and client relationship management; help secure and maintain funding for key programs, issue areas and projects.
Lead on cultivating funder relationships including developing scopes of work and reporting back on activities, collaborating closely with funders in real time, learning and internalizing their perspectives, priorities, and interests, and envisioning how Sunstone can best contribute.
Serve as a trusted advisor, providing expertise and sound judgment.
Be highly responsive at key moments including outside of normal business hours—on call to advise and coordinate with senior-level external partners and mobilize Sunstone resources for rapid response as needed.
Represent Sunstone at in-person meetings as needed.
Organizational management:
Oversee California team—working alongside Program Directors and campaign leads to share best practices and synchronize campaign overlap both within California-based campaigns and with other state based/national work.
Mentor and guide staff of various seniority, contributing to continuous learning and development.
Serve as a senior leadership team member, contributing to internal initiatives and activities.
Media relations and outreach:
Come with a robust media contact list or strong understanding of the California media landscape; build and foster relationships with editors, reporters and other media stakeholders.
Successfully pitch stories and place op-eds in alignment with campaign strategy.
Draft, edit, and approve content including press releases, media advisories, talking points, op-eds, LTEs, fact sheets, websites, social properties, etc.
Paid media planning and oversight:
Develop and implement paid media strategies in coordination with the Digital Content Director to align ad content and media buy strategy with overall campaign goals, including digital, print, TV, radio, social media ads, etc.
Manage media budgets and allocate resources effectively across various channels and campaigns to maximize impact.
Coordinate and collaborate with campaign and design teams to ensure cohesive messaging across earned, owned, and paid media.
Digital communications:
Work in partnership with digital and design specialists to execute online communications campaigns; oversee production of content including short animations, videos, memes and shareable online assets.
Qualifications
Sunstone values the unique contributions each individual candidate may provide. We encourage candidates who may not fulfill the qualifications listed below to still apply!
10+ years of focused work in communications, public affairs, and climate campaigning with increasing responsibility in a role or roles related to climate and energy or within California policy and politics.
Sophisticated understanding of climate policy and politics in California.
Demonstrated experience generating earned media and leading innovative and high-impact paid media campaigns.
Excellent political, communications, and campaign judgment, with an emphasis on generating creative communications tactics to deliver messages to targets.
Exceptional interpersonal relational skills, with a strong professional network relevant to this role.
Superb writing, editing, and other communications skills.
Prior experience successfully managing and leading diverse staff.
Mastery in authentic leadership and diplomacy while elevating the views of diverse communities and working across lines of race, class, gender and geography—and an analysis of how climate change and energy-related issues intersect with historically oppressed and marginalized communities.
Ability to analyze complex policy issues and communicate them in a compelling, easy-to-digest manner for diverse audiences to encourage and drive coalition support.
Ability to learn on the job, meet strict deadlines, juggle competing priorities and work under pressure.
Openness to giving and receiving direct, compassionate feedback.
Highly reliable, organized and self-motivated.
Our Commitment to Racial Equity, Diversity, Inclusion & Climate Justice:
Sunstone Strategies is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to transparent and equitable recruitment, hiring and promotion processes that foster inclusion and belonging. The climate movement has long suffered from, and been less effective, due the absence of partnership with impacted communities and racial and social justice movements.
We believe that diversity in our team is not just a value but brings different lived experience and perspective that is essential to solving the climate crisis. We strongly encourage applicants from communities that have been underrepresented in the climate movement to apply for this position. If you need a reasonable accommodation during the application or interview process, please email us at jobs@sunstonestrategies.org.
Compensation and Benefits
This is a full-time position with a comprehensive benefits package, which includes:
100% employee health, vision and dental coverage
Employer sponsored life and AD&D insurance
4 weeks vacation/paid time off
10 days of sick/personal leave
12 paid holidays
Automatic 5% 401k employer contribution after 3 months of continual employment that is 100% vested
One-time, $500 home office stipend
Annual $300 professional development stipend
Quarterly $300 health and wellness stipend
Monthly phone and internet reimbursement
Year-end discretionary bonus
This position will remain open until filled. Candidate review and phone screens will be conducted on a rolling basis throughout the search period. The interview process will consist of an initial screening and two interviews, all via Zoom. Candidate finalists will also be asked to provide references.
Salary
$190,000 - $210,000 per year
