Chief Programs Officer

Term of Employment: Full-Time, Exempt
Reports To: Executive Director

Location: Remote

Who We Are:

The Animal Legal Defense Fund’s mission is to protect the lives and advance the interests of animals through the legal system. The Animal Legal Defense Fund accomplishes this mission by filing high-impact lawsuits to protect animals from harm, providing free legal assistance and training to prosecutors and other stakeholders to ensure justice for animal victims of cruelty, supporting tough animal protection legislation and fighting legislation harmful to animals, gathering data about and advocating for effective regulation of animal exploitative industries and providing resources and opportunities to law students and professionals to advance the emerging field of animal law.

Role Description:

The Chief Programs Officer is a member of the ALDF Senior Leadership Team who implements and oversees the legal programs necessary to advance ALDF’s core mission and values. The Chief Programs Officer primarily is responsible for managing the development and execution of ALDF’s legal strategies, while supervising the directors of the Litigation, Legislative Affairs, Criminal Justice, Animal Law Education & Scholarship, Pro Bono , and Transparency & Regulatory Affairs Programs and leads a staff of approximately 55 employees with an annual budget of $10 million. The Chief Programs Officer role also is responsible for ensuring the impactful, effective functioning and administration of ALDF’s Legal Programs work, advancing organizational growth, creating meaningful goals and benchmarks to evaluate success, developing annual budgets, optimizing program resource allocation, maintaining a positive and inclusive culture, participating in long-term strategic planning, supervising and coaching a team of leaders and professionals, and providing strategic guidance and support to the Executive Director, Leadership Team, and all staff members who report into and are stakeholders of ALDF’s programmatic functions.

How You Will Make a Difference:

• Leading the development and execution of ALDF’s legal strategies to maximize the organization’s impact in fulfilling its mission, both individually and with external partners.  
• Supervising the directors of the Litigation, Legislative Affairs, Criminal Justice, Animal Law Education & Scholarship, Pro Bono, and Transparency & Regulatory Affairs Programs––providing guidance on strategy, vision, and culture. 
• Identifying opportunities to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of ALDF’s programmatic work by driving and supporting strategic synergies among the legal Programs. 
• Ensuring that ALDF legal Programs and staff are well integrated across the entire organization and collaborating effectively to support the Communications, Development, Finance, and Operations teams in messaging the significance and impact of the organization’s work.  
• Overseeing and participating in the development and execution of ALDF Programs’ annual and long-term business and strategic planning, determining and formulating Program policies, and providing overall direction for legal programmatic activities in partnership with Program Directors and team members.   
• Working with the Leadership Team and Directors to execute the annual budget planning process for the legal Programs, overseeing Programs’ financial and budget activities throughout the fiscal year, ensuring that resources are allocated in a way that maximizes impact for animal protection in measurable ways.  
• Cultivating a positive and collaborative working environment with fellow Leadership members and staff to support a positive, productive, and inclusive culture that reflects ALDF’s integrity and values. 
• Serving as an engaged and active member of ALDF’s Senior Leadership Team, participating and contributing to ALDF initiatives and processes, conferring with fellow leaders and staff members to discuss strategy, coordinate activities, and resolve problems.  
• Ensuring that ALDF and its Programs are operating in a manner that reflects sound controls, high mission impact, and manageable workloads for staff.  
• Working with the legal program team leaders, Executive Director, and Leadership Team to advise on the organization’s programmatic matters and prepare reports for key stakeholders such as the Board of Directors.  
• Working with the Senior Leadership Team to ensure that ALDF’s legal Programs and staff comply with all organizational policies, including record retention, technology use, employment and labor, communications standards, etc.  
• Actively participating in fundraising efforts and providing strategic oversight.  
• Maintaining a working knowledge of significant developments and trends in animal law and animal rights.  
• Establishing and upholding standards for the quality, rigor, and strategic value of ALDF’s programmatic work, including criteria for selecting cases, legislative campaigns, and other major initiatives. 
• Leading the Programs team in a unionized workplace, applying the Collective Bargaining Agreement consistently and fairly, in partnership with the COO and Human Resources. Performing other duties as assigned.

We Are Looking for Candidates With:

• A law degree (JD, LLM, SJD) and license to practice law in at least one jurisdiction. 
• Preference for 12+ years of experience in a legal setting, and relevant practice experience in litigation, regulatory affairs, criminal justice, or legislative policy. Strong preference for significant experience in a non-profit legal setting. 
• 10+ years in a formal people leadership or executive role with a track record of modeling inclusive leadership for high performing teams. 
• An understanding of and demonstrated commitment to the mission of the Animal Legal Defense Fund. Additionally, a demonstrated understanding of how legal advocacy advances the organization’s mission. 
• A collaborative partnership and solutions-oriented mindset. 
• A commitment to building and participating in an inclusive workplace, and a strong understanding of, experience with, and commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion principles. 
• Exceptional leadership skills and experience expressing a vision for the organization and inspiring alignment to that vision. 
• Demonstrated written and verbal communication skills, including comfort communicating with a variety of internal and external stakeholders. 
• Excellent problem solving, critical thinking, and decision-making abilities. 
• Empathetic interpersonal and conflict resolution skills, with the ability to work collaboratively with others in a team-oriented environment and with external partners.  
• A commitment to working with integrity and with exceptional judgment.  
• Demonstrated experience supervising legal work and attorneys, including reviewing work product, evaluating case strategy, and assessing legal and organizational risk. 
• Experience managing staff in a unionized environment, or demonstrated understanding of collective bargaining agreements and a commitment to working effectively within one. The ability to travel for staff meetings and retreats (estimated 1-3 trips annually). Additionally, the Chief Programs Officer must be available for frequent travel to conferences, trainings, Board meetings, and donor meetings as required.

Please note, this job description is not intended to be a comprehensive list of all duties and responsibilities of the position, which are subject to change in order to best advance ALDF’s strategic objectives and mission.

We Offer Competitive Compensation with Excellent Benefits, Including:  

• Annual salary of $203,838 for most geographic locations
• For candidates located within 25 miles of Washington D.C., Cotati, CA, and Los Angeles, pay is $214,567
• For candidates located within 25 miles of New York City and San Francisco, pay is $225,295

To ensure salary equity, we do not negotiate salary outside of the published starting rate. Rate is determined by role, using set geographical factors.

• Comprehensive health care, dental, life and vision benefits (100% employer paid); Flexible Spending Account (FSA) and Dependent Care Account (DCA) are also available
• 192 hours of PTO
• 19 paid holidays
• 1-month paid sabbatical after 5 years of continuous employment
• 16 weeks paid parental leave
• 401k plan with a maximum 5% employer contribution match after one year of employment
• Alternative work schedules (at manager’s discretion)
• One-time remote work allowance of $750
• Annual professional development reimbursement of up to $1,000

Maintaining a healthy work/life balance is a core value for the Animal Legal Defense Fund.

Additional Information:

This is a U.S.-based position. In compliance with federal law, all persons hired will be required to verify identity and eligibility to work in the United States and to complete the required employment eligibility verification form upon hire.

The Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF) is an equal opportunity employer and committed to providing an employment environment which is welcoming of persons from diverse backgrounds and free from unlawful discrimination and harassment, and in which all legal rights of our employees are recognized and protected. ALDF conducts all internal and external operations, programs, and employment-related decision making (including hiring decisions) without regard to actual or perceived race, ancestry, color, religion, national origin, citizenship, immigration status, sex or gender (including pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding, or related medical conditions), gender identity or expression, political affiliation, disability or medical condition (including physical, intellectual, or psychiatric), sexual orientation, marital status, military or veteran status, genetic information, age, or other protected category, and in compliance with all applicable federal, state, and local anti-discrimination and anti-harassment laws. 

Consistent with the organization’s mission, our offices and events are free of animal products and byproducts.