About the position
The Policy Manager position is full-time with a competitive salary and flexible work schedule. Candidates would need to be available for regular meetings and events during the workday and occasional evenings and weekends. While most BBF meetings are virtual, occasional in-person meetings, presentations, or conferences across the state of Vermont will be required. This is a home-based position with the option to work in BBF’s Williston headquarters. The Policy Manager receives supervision from the Policy and Program Director.
About Building Bright Futures
Building Bright Futures is a nonprofit that works to improve the well-being of each and every child and family in Vermont, from the prenatal period through age 8. We bring together a robust network of policymakers, early childhood professionals, educators, health and mental health providers, business leaders, families, and other partners to share insights and problem-solve through regular meetings of 12 Regional Councils, 7 Committees moving forward the work of Vermont’s Early Childhood Action Plan (VECAP), and a 23-member State Advisory Council. We empower and elevate family and community voices as partners in decision-making. We also centralize and disseminate early childhood data to inform policy through Vermont’s Early Childhood Data and Policy Center.
Compensation and Benefits
Salary range of $58,500 – $65,000 annually. Benefits include:
- Generous paid time off, including 34 days of combined Paid Time Off and a flexible work schedule
- In addition to Paid Time Off, the BBF office is closed for a week over the winter holidays and on Fridays from June through August
- BBF covers up to 80% of employees healthcare insurance premiums and offers dental and vision insurance
- BBF offers a Simple IRA retirement plan and matches up to 3% of an employee’s annual salary
- Employees receive a $150/month stipend for remote work expenses
Primary Responsibilities Include:
Legislative Support
- Monitoring weekly committee hearing schedule for relevant early childhood topics and alignment with the Policy Recommendations
- Viewing live and recorded testimony (typically remotely) and sending notes/summaries to the team
- Tracking the progress of relevant bills
- Monitoring a portfolio of legislation during legislative session, using Quorum
- Project-managing the communications of legislative updates, both internally, in written updates to staff, and externally, by working with the Policy and Program Director to develop a public bill tracking dashboard
- Monitoring federal legislation with implications for early childhood policy
- Monitoring a number of listservs and media outlets for updates from Vermont’s federal delegation and Congress as a whole to add to the team’s understanding of federal policy changes and investments
- Support with compiling information and data for legislative testimony
Policy Recommendation Support
- Attending a variety of VECAP Committee and Regional Council meetings throughout the year to support recommendation identification
- Synthesizing and documenting emerging priorities
- Building and running a new system to provide project management support to the Policy and Program Director throughout the Policy Recommendation process
- Synthesizing and documenting feedback
- Supporting the drafting and development of potential Policy Recommendations
- Communicating clearly with partners about the process
Policy Research and Communications Support
- Providing project management for grants and research projects
- Working to communicate internally to insure that there is alignment across scopes of work and that team members are up-to-date on priorities
- Working with external partners to share progress updates on BBF efforts
- Drafting required grant reporting based on knowledge of internal work in partnership with Data and Policy team
- Supporting the development of other communications and tools about BBF’s policy work including: data and policy briefs, the annual Policy Playbook document, blogs, legislative wrap-ups, Family Needs Assessments, and more
Continuous Identification of Needs
All BBF Data and Policy team members are part of our effort to support the early childhood system in continuously identifying needs and elevating priorities. The Policy Manager’s specific role will be:
- Increasing BBF’s presence at community, regional, and statewide meetings related to the Policy Recommendations and VECAP
- Working with the Network Manager to document and elevate related identified needs and priorities
- Helping the team mark progress and continued areas of need by monitoring Policy Recommendations, both through legislative tracking via Quorum and through supporting network-based, qualitative information gathering
- Working in collaboration with the team to publish annual tools to communicate publicly about progress related to the Policy Recommendations
Measures of Success:
By the end of year 1, the Policy Manager will have:
- Internalized the mission and vision of the Building Bright Futures State Advisory Council Network
- Supported building the Policy and Data team’s tools to monitor progress on Policy Recommendations and related priorities, including in the Quorum database, and taken over the project management of these tools
- Contributed to and built new systems to communicate with the BBF staff about progress on Policy Recommendations and related priorities
- Learned BBF’s approach to advisement in the legislature and contributed to the development of written testimony
- Been oriented to the Policy Recommendation development process and preparing to project-manage that process for the 2026 Policy Recommendations
Required Skills and Experience
- Writing and Communications: has demonstrated experience writing policy memos, research papers, or other materials with a clear voice and data-driven framing.
- Internal Communication and Administrative Skills: has demonstrated experience managing and updating documents or tools for internal teams. Is able to send concise updates and communicate about the urgency of an issue.
- Community Engagement: has demonstrated experience with and commitment to working in community, asking for partner feedback, and working to get buy-in and collective vision with a diverse group of partners, colleagues, etc.
- Organization and Project Management Skills: stays on top of multiple projects, plans backwards, anticipates obstacles, identifies and involves stakeholders appropriately.
- Commitment to Social Justice, Racial Equity, and Systems-Change: recognizes the role of race, gender, and other identities in shaping disparities, is driven to improve conditions, and proactively learns re: race, equity, and identity. Understands and is committed to supporting systems-change to reduce disparities in Vermont’s early childhood systems.
- Experience with Technology that supports collaborative and virtual work, including WordPress, Facebook, Google Suite, Microsoft Office Suite, Slack, and Zoom. Experience with legislative tracking tools, such as Quorum and/or AI experience, preferred.
- Bachelor’s degree in political science, communications, economics, sociology, or a related field. Master’s degree or demonstrated additional learning or professional development preferred.
Preferred Expertise
- Content Familiarity – background or knowledge in early childhood policy and/or policy issues related to child care, housing, economic policy (tax credits, paid leave, Reach Up), health care, mental health, nutrition, education, etc.
- Legislative Experience – background or knowledge in the state lawmaking process and advocacy work.
- Vermont Policy Experience – background or experience related to Vermont’s policy and lawmaking context, political dynamics, processes, etc.
To Apply
Please send a cover letter, resume, and three references as one PDF labeled: lastname_firstname_Policy Manager to: kmobbs@buildingbrightfutures.org. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis beginning July 1. Position is open until filled.