The ACLU seeks applicants for the full-time position of Senior Advisor, Affiliate Legal Programs in the Affiliate Support and Nationwide Initiatives Department of the ACLU’s National office.
While a hybrid work arrangement is preferred, with in-office expectations of two (2) days per week or eight (8) days per month in New York, NY, Washington, DC, or San Francisco, CA; U.S. based remote candidates will also be considered and are encouraged to apply.
The Affiliate Support and Nationwide Initiatives Department (ASNI) builds state capacity and strengthens and maintains the connections between the ACLU and its network of 54 state affiliates and the 1,500 staff who work out of the state offices. Their work constitutes an unparalleled bulwark defending and advancing our civil liberties and civil rights. The Department helps the ACLU thrive as a nationwide organization by strengthening its affiliates, connecting National and affiliates, and building the capacity, relationships, and opportunities that enable the federation to do its best work.
The Program and Strategy Team within the Department works with ACLU affiliates in two interrelated ways. The team builds and cultivates excellence, best practices, and alignment in communications, legal, digital, legislative, advocacy, and organizing programs in ACLU affiliates. The team also works with affiliate and national staff to drive and coordinate regional, multi-state, and nationwide efforts to advance civil rights and liberties issues. The team collaborates with other ASNI teams, ACLU national office partners, and ACLU affiliate program staff to advance high-impact collaborative efforts with affiliates, grow durable capacity and power in affiliates, and support strong and resilient organizations that center equity, diversity, inclusion, and belonging.
This position is part of a collective bargaining unit. It is represented by ACLU Staff United (ASU).
Reporting to the Senior Director of Program and Strategy, the Senior Advisor, Affiliate Legal Programs serves as a senior resource and strategic advisor to affiliate Legal Directors and their teams, helping affiliates build and sustain strong, effective legal programs appropriate to their unique circumstances and contexts. Drawing on deep expertise in nonprofit civil liberties and civil rights legal program practice and management, the Senior Advisor proactively identifies opportunities to strengthen affiliate legal programs and works with affiliate leaders to develop and implement improvements in legal strategy, docket development and management, cooperating attorney relationships, program infrastructure and systems, staffing and leadership, and alignment with affiliate priorities.
A central part of the role is helping affiliates drive legal work as part of an integrated advocacy strategy. The Senior Advisor works alongside affiliate legal, advocacy, communications, organizing, legislative, and other colleagues to help determine how the range of tools can be deployed most effectively to achieve shared goals. This includes helping affiliates assess when litigation is the right tool, when it should be combined with other tools or other approaches, and how different capacities and strategies can reinforce one another to maximize impact.
While there is no one single model for a strong affiliate legal program, the Senior Advisor also works across the affiliate network to identify emerging needs, share and scale effective practices, strengthen connections among legal leaders, and develop resources and approaches that advance effectiveness across the nationwide organization. The role will also partner with National colleagues to strengthen affiliate legal programs and advance integrated advocacy.
The ACLU is committed to equity, transparency, and clarity in pay. Consistent with our compensation philosophy, there is a set salary for each role based on geographic work location. The annual salary for this position is $167,568 (Level E), reflecting the salary of a position based in New York, NY. Salaries are subject to a regional pay adjustment if authorization is granted to work outside of the location listed in this posting.
For details on our pay structure, please visit: https://www.aclu.org/careers/ACLU_Geographic_Pay_Structure-July_2024.pdf
For over 100 years, the ACLU has worked to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed by the Constitution and laws of the United States. Whether it’s ending mass incarceration, achieving full equality for the LGBTQ+ community, establishing new privacy protections for our digital age, or preserving the right to vote or the right to have an abortion, the ACLU takes up the toughest civil liberties cases and issues to defend all people.
We know that great people make a great organization. We value our people and know that what we offer is essential not just their work, but to their overall well-being.
At the ACLU, we offer a broad range of benefits, which include:
Accessibility, equity, diversity and inclusion are core values of the ACLU and central to our work to advance liberty, equality, and justice for all. For us diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion are not just check-the-box activities, but a chance for us to make long-term meaningful change. We are a community committed to learning and growth, humility and grace, transparency and accountability. We believe in a collective responsibility to create a culture of belonging for all people within our organization – one that respects and embraces difference; treats everyone equitably; and empowers our colleagues to do the best work possible. We are as committed to anti-oppression, anti-ableism, and anti-racism internally as we are externally. Because whether we’re in the courts or in the office, we believe ‘We the People’ means all of us.
With this commitment in mind, we strongly encourage applications from all qualified individuals without regard to race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, national origin, marital status, citizenship, disability, veteran status and record of arrest or conviction, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.
The ACLU is committed to providing reasonable accommodation to individuals with disabilities. If you are a qualified individual with a disability and need assistance applying online, please complete the Accommodation Request Form
If you are selected for an interview, you will receive additional information regarding how to request an accommodation for the interview process.
The ACLU is an non-profit, non-partisan organization of people who believe in the power of action. We are united by the quest – “We the people dare to create a more perfect union.”
Whether in the courts, statehouses, Congress or communities, we fight to defend the rights that the Constitution guarantees to all of us —regardless of who we are, where we come from, whom we love, or what we believe.
Together, we take up the toughest civil rights and liberties challenges of our time. We seek to inspire those who want change to become the ones who make change.
