Manager/Senior Manager, State Campaigns

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) is a nonpartisan research and policy institute that advances federal and state policies to help build a nation where everyone — regardless of income, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, ZIP code, immigration status, or disability status — has the resources they need to thrive and share in the nation’s prosperity.  

CBPP combines rigorous research and analysis, strategic communications, and effective advocacy to shape debates, affect policy, and inform effective implementation both nationally and in states. It works closely with a broad set of national, state, and community organizations to design and advance policies that promote economic justice; improve health; broaden opportunity in areas like housing, health care, employment, and education; and lower structural barriers for people of color and others in communities that continue to face systemic barriers to opportunity. CBPP promotes policies that will build a more equitable nation and fair tax policies that can support these gains over the long term. CBPP also shows the harmful impacts of policies and proposals that would deepen poverty, widen disparities, and worsen health outcomes.  

The State Fiscal Policy (SFP) department conducts research on and analysis of tax and budget policies in the states, with a focus on how they affect low-income people and build antiracist, equitable, and inclusive communities and economies. SFP also coordinates and provides in-depth assistance to a nationwide network of state-level policy organizations, the State Priorities Partnership (SPP) network. The SPP network is the nation’s leading network of state policy organizations working to advance racial, social, and economic equity to build broad prosperity and thriving state economies.   

As we gear up for high-stakes debates at the intersection of tax justice, economic opportunity, and democracy at the federal and state levels in the coming years, SFP is hiring one Manager and one Senior Manager of State Campaigns, with the Manager focused on training and coaching on organizing and partnership strategies and the Senior Manager focused on leading priority economic and tax justice campaign strategies. The Manager will report to the Deputy Director of State Campaigns and the Senior Manager will report to the Senior Director for Advocacy and State Campaigns.   

The Manager and Senior Manager will bolster the SPP’s network policy campaigns and CBPP’s federal field strategies, support skill-building around equitable partnerships and community engagement through work with our state partners, conduct and lead trainings, and engage national allies to grow our collective impact.   

The ideal candidates will have a track record of state-based and/or federal issue campaigns, advocacy, and organizing work; a passion for building power at the state level to advance bold policy change; strong knowledge of the issue campaign toolbox; experience working in coalition and engaging people with lived experience in advocacy campaigns; and a coaching mindset. 

Responsibilities: 

• Provide surge advocacy campaign support to state partners, including facilitating campaign planning sessions, advising on rapid-response approaches and best civic engagement/digital organizing practices, and synthesizing learnings from winning strategies in states.
  • The Manager’s organizing portfolio is focused on coaching and support to state partners on the ladder of engagement and coalition management.
  • The Senior Manager’s economic and tax justice revenue campaign portfolio is focused on supporting state partners to advance efforts to raise state revenues, defeat existential state tax threats, and support bold federal tax justice as the 2025 federal tax debate heats up.
• Support cross-state learning and community-building on priority campaign areas through managing and facilitating learning cohorts and webinars and managing and creating listservs, and toolkits;
  • The Manager will coordinate a training cohort on equitable partnerships and produce trainings on coalition governance, engaging people with lived experience in policy campaigns;
  • The Senior Manager will manage a campaign cohort of states battling existential state tax threats, coordinate our National State Revenue Table, and support priority federal revenue campaign states to drive campaign goals and metrics around CBPP’s national goals.
• Support campaign coordination and cross-team project management to harness CBPP's policy, communications, organizational development, and campaigns assets by managing collaborative spaces and developing goals and strategies for CBPP's priority campaigns.
• Provide tailored, individualized coaching and support to state partners around organizing, civic engagement, and coalition approaches that embrace power-sharing and are grounded in pro-Black, antiracist values.
• Develop metrics and tools to track progress across a range of campaign supports and in state developments to support internal and funder communications in consultation with the Deputy Director of State Campaigns and Senior Director for Advocacy and Campaigns.  
• Keep internal colleagues effectively up to date on key state developments and synthesize trends, opportunities, and challenges for internal learning and for support of fundraising.
• Develop and support content for network peer learning spaces and convenings, such as developing trainings and coordinating workshops at our annual state policy conference and other smaller convenings.
• The Senior Manager will be expected to perform the responsibilities above with more autonomy and will take the lead in making decisions for their work, products, and functional work. The Senior Manager will also be expected to identify and propose new lines of work in the revenue campaign portfolio with the SPP network, be the driving force in providing hands-on coaching to network partners and SFP staff, and manage contracts and consultants for this work.  

Qualifications: 

• Manager: at least five years of issue advocacy, organizing, and/or campaign management experience.
• Senior Manager: at least seven years of issue advocacy, organizing, and/or campaign management experience.
• A passion for state-based advocacy and a commitment to antiracist principles and policies that strengthen our team and organization and create broader community change by expanding opportunity and reducing economic inequality.
• Experience designing and executing issue campaign strategy and tactics.
  • Senior Manager: previous experience in a campaign management role, responsible for directing others’ work and overseeing allocation of campaign resources in at least one legislative or electoral cycle.
• Familiarity building partnerships with diverse constituencies, working in coalition to advance a shared policy strategy, and a track record of coaching and training others.
  • Senior Manager: track record of leading a coalition or overseeing a grassroots organizing program/strategy.
• Ability to work independently and collaboratively with a team.
  • Senior Manager: Track record of fostering collaboration within and across teams and prioritizing multiple projects on a time-sensitive basis.
• Excellent communications skills, including strong interpersonal skills and an ability to translate and synthesize complex issues into easy-to-understand written and verbal communications, and experience managing project deliverables to keep stakeholders regularly informed.
  • Senior Manager: Demonstrated ability to effectively delegate tasks and manage complex projects.
• Experience with grassroots organizing and strategies to bring people with lived experience into advocacy campaigns and coalitions.
• Experience with building and leading an issue advocacy coalition that seeks power-sharing strategies with grassroots constituencies.
• Willingness and ability to travel up to two to three times per quarter for trainings, conferences, and on-site work with state partners.
• In addition, ideal candidates will have fluency in one or multiple economic security issues (state budget advocacy, revenue, refundable tax credits, etc.).

CBPP currently operates on a hybrid work schedule that includes at least two days per week in-person at our Washington, D.C. office. First preference is for D.C.-based candidates.  

We will consider remote candidates on a case-by-case basis. All candidates should expect to travel at least four times a year for SFP and/or Partnership events. Remote candidates should also expect to travel to our D.C. office at least four times per year in addition to other travel. While a remote candidate would have some flexibility around their regular working hours, they would be expected to attend meetings during core Eastern Time business hours and to meet Eastern Time deadlines. 

The Manager position reports to the Deputy Director of State Campaigns; the Senior Manager position reports to the Senior Director for Advocacy and Campaigns.  

Terms of Employment: full-time, exempt. 

Bargaining Unit Status: Both positions are bargaining unit positions.