Job Description

Reporting to the Manager of Health Promotion & Quality Improvement, the Senior Policy Lead provides regional leadership on policy advocacy, analysis, and monitoring to support the advancement and impact of health promotion work across VCH Communities of Care. Working closely with Medical Health Officers, Directors and staff across VCH Public Health, this role is responsible for leading the co-creation, implementation, monitoring, and reporting of healthy public policy and health promoting initiatives. At the direction of Medical Health Officers, the Executive Director of Population Health, or Manager, the lead provides expertise in thematic areas of core concern to public health, and seeks to influence the development, mobilization, and adoption of healthy public policy within and through key sectors and settings across the VCH region. These include but are not limited to: government, non-governmental organizations, private sector, schools and other early childhood environments, and other sectors and settings as identified.

QUALIFICATIONS:Master’s Degree in Public Policy, Public Health, Public Administration, Law, Planning, Urban Health or another relevant field with five (5) to seven (7) year's recent, related experience that includes managing large-scale projects (including policy research development, advocacy initiative and strategic planning and deployment projects) and facilitating and managing consultation processes with a wide range of stakeholder groups. Current registration with relevant professional College/Association, if applicable. Excellent communication skills to function within a complex interdisciplinary environment including ability to communicate with senior members of government including federal, provincial and municipal. Computer literacy with word-processing, spreadsheet, presentation, project management and database applications. ROLE SPECIFIC EXPERTISE:• Demonstrated strong knowledge, skills and experience in public policy development, applied strategic research methodologies, and affecting social change and organizational change.• Demonstrated broad knowledge of population health, social, environmental, and behavioural determinants of health.• Demonstrated applied knowledge of social, economic, political and health trends and statistics.• Demonstrated knowledge of urban, rural and regional planning and policymaking processes, urban politics, advocacy and activism.• Demonstrated current and up-to-date knowledge of policies, programs, funding streams, capacity building opportunities, community and industry interventions, events, campaigns and other relevant considerations as related to population health.• Considerable experience leading and coordinating working groups and steering and advisory committees, which may include senior internal and external stakeholders, senior personnel from other departments, dedicated project team staff and consultants, in the development, implementation and monitoring of strategic initiatives.• Demonstrated ability to conduct rapid policy reviews, memos, and other internal communication materials.• Demonstrated ability to lead strategic efforts, manage conflict, and to exercise a high degree of judgment and independence toward delivery of outcomes.• Demonstrates comprehensive knowledge, skills and experience in project management principles and methodologies, including the ability to set and adapt to changing priorities in a complex, fast paced work environment, and ability to coach other team members on these skills.• Demonstrates thorough understanding, and experience engaging, available resources for projects and relevant stakeholder groups.• Demonstrated ability to utilize initiative, vision, independent thinking and creative problem-solving abilities to implement project plans and realize project completion.• Demonstrated ability to provide strong feedback and detailed analysis on project processes, and make recommendations as required.• Demonstrated ability to utilize effective facilitation, persuasion and negotiation abilities to achieve consensus, resolve conflict and achieve desired outcomes.• Works effectively under time pressure to meet deadlines, balance work priorities, and resolve problems to achieve deliverables and outcomes in a timely manner.• Physical ability to perform the duties of the position.SHARED VALUES:You care for everyone:• You are compassionate, empathetic, and sensitive to the needs of others.• You are respectful, treating people as equals, and valuing others’ perspectives and differences.• You are appreciative of others’ efforts and give them praise when it’s due.You are always learning:• You are open minded, always receptive to different perspectives and ways of doing things.• You are curious and ask questions to find a deeper understanding.• You share your expertise and mentor others by sharing your knowledge and experience.You strive for better results:• You are accountable, and take responsibility for what you say, what you do, and who you engage in achieving better results.• You are a solution finder, empowered to solve the challenges we face in healthcare.• You take ownership for growth and development and personal development, always seek feedback and opportunities to improve how we do things.

Details

At Vancouver Coastal Health, our vision of healthy lives in healthy communities inspires us and our values and pillars guide us. We support equitable practices, diverse teams and inclusive environments, which are vital to creating welcoming spaces where everyone can bring their whole selves to work and feel supported. We encourage applications from equity-deserving communities, including Indigenous Peoples and members of racialized groups, people with disabilities and people of all gender identities and expressions and sexual orientation.Vancouver Coastal Health is proud to be recognized as one of BC’s Top Employers, Canada’s Best Diversity Employers and Canada's Top Employers for Young People in 2025.Unless otherwise noted on the posting, internal job postings close at 8:00 AM Pacific Time on the listed Closing Date. Please submit your digital application via the Internal Career Portal prior to the Closing Date & Time.Nursing & LPN successful applicants will be notified by email.We regret that only short listed candidates will be acknowledged.This is an internal job posting for Vancouver Coastal Health employees only.