Senior Associate

Building on over two decades of political involvement at the national, state, and local levels, Townsend Public Affairs is a California-based, bipartisan firm with offices in Southern California, Northern California, Central California, and Washington, DC.

The firm specializes in the development and execution of legislative and funding strategies for a select clientele of public agencies and non-profit organizations, including but not limited to municipalities and counties, community colleges, special districts, K-12 school districts, transportation agencies, and museums.

This position is a client service position working to serve a large and varied client base as a registered state and federal lobbyist.

This includes day to day attention to both short and long-term client initiatives, development of legislative, funding, and regulatory strategies to address those priorities, and proactive identification of new opportunities at the state and federal levels.

This position is expected to provide comprehensive client service to their individual client portfolio, firmwide policy area expertise and support, and strong business development support.

This position is located in Sacramento, CA, however, regular travel to visit clients across various locations, including Orange County and Washington, DC, is required.

The job will require participation and attendance at evening events, as well as overnight travel for statewide conferences.

JOB DUTIES

• Manage a client portfolio that includes a variety of clients (cities, special districts, etc)
• Proactive development, management and implementation of a client’s legislative and funding advocacy agenda and initiatives
• Responsive and timely approach to client requests and objectives
• Proactive follow up on all client items and priorities, not allowing anything to fall through the cracks
• Successful leveraging of other team members to advance the client’s agenda
• Present to client leadership and other elected officials
• Ability to anticipate and seize creative, unique and strategic client service opportunities that goes above and beyond traditional legislative advocacy or grant writing
• Strong customer service ethic
• Proactive client service management of client legislative tracking initiatives, including but not limited to : Monitoring legislative hearings on bills of interest to clients, Preparation of alerts, bills matrices, memos and other client communications regarding legislation, Ability to run sponsored legislation on behalf of clients, Ability to develop and provide testimony during legislative hearings, Ability to lead state and federal advocacy days, including scheduling, development of all materials, mastery of all talking points and proactive follow up on individual agenda items, Ability to proactively anticipate legislative opportunities and work with clients to advance their priorities (targeted advocacy in state bonds, state budget earmarks, etc.)
• Develop strong relationships with client legislative delegation and appropriate staff
• Proactive client service management of client funding initiatives, including but not limited to : Mastery of key local, state and federal funding opportunities, Able to develop a strategic funding agenda specific to individual client priority projects, Ability to draft, submit and provide follow up on all funding applications, Execution of the advocacy component of grant writing
• Develop a mastery of a policy area that can be leveraged firm wide for various clients (i.e. housing, water, healthcare etc)

SKILLS

• Outstanding written and verbal skills
• Strong research skills
• Superior oral and written communication skills
• Strategic and analytical mindset
• Able to multi-task and work in an extremely fast-paced and unpredictable environment
• Interest in state and local government issues, including transportation, water, environment, energy, public safety, education, and community development policies, and the ability to manage a broad portfolio of issues
• College degree required (preferably in a relevant area of study)
• Experience working for a Member of the California Legislature, United States Congress, or other regional elected official is preferred

DISCLAIMER

We understand that not every individual will possess every characteristic listed in our job posting. Nevertheless, if you have confidence in your ability to excel in this role and resonate deeply with TPA’s core values and mission, we invite you to apply.

Our team highly values diverse experiences and perspectives, and is dedicated to fostering a supportive environment where individuals can thrive.

Even if you don't meet every criterion, but feel that this is the right fit for you, we would love to hear from you.