Director, Public & Government Affairs

The Director of Public & Government Affairs (PGA) leads, mentors, and develops the strategy by which PGA's regional advocates will drive a national conversation around oral health care by tracking, analyzing, summarizing and recommending positions on proposed state legislation and regulation in concert with the retained state lobbyist team. The director oversees all state advocacy, leveraging our team of lobbyists to promulgate, amend or oppose proposed legislation and regulation affecting Enterprise networks, growth prospects and regulation and seeking opportunities to elevate our position as a thought leader in health care. The director will distill insights and trends from a wide variety of signals throughout all our regions and recommend strategies and initiatives to allow the enterprise to more proactively address risks and opportunities. As a leader in our division, the director works closely with the Legal Division's Senior Leaders and directors to promote collaboration between departments, enhance the division's culture and socialize the work of the regional advocacy team.

• Partner with the VP to influence the national advocacy agenda with the Delta Dental Plans Association Strategic Advisory Committee based on insights from our regional model.
• Develops a strategy, manages execution through regional advocates and strategizes with industry trade groups (e.g., NADP. CADP, the Maryland Alliance) to bolster effectiveness of advocacy in enterprise states.
• Based on the oral health care strategy set by the ELT, and the goals set by the VP of Public and Government Affairs, develop and execute a nationwide legislative and reputation strategy that highlights Delta Dental of California and Affiliates as an oral health leader with key elected officials and stakeholders.
• Develops and mentors the regional advocacy team to grow in their roles, increasing their effective management of the state lobbyists, leveraging technology to gain greater insights, demonstrating an entrepreneurial mindset for their region, and collaborating with leaders across the enterprise and within the division to ensure the function provides best in class advocacy on behalf of the enterprise.
• As a divisional leader, fosters development across the division and drives cultural adoption of our people strategy and leadership skill sets serving as a mentor on approaching key stakeholders and external constituents.
• Through the data and insights from the regional advocates, pro-actively scan the environment for key policy matters as they “bubble up” or trends in the civic /social, business and government spaces to ensure the enterprise and ELT is proactively aware of any pending regulatory or reputational risks and demonstrate the ability to recommend priorities and strategies informed by external trends and insights.
• Provide external insight for the enterprise to contextualize the trends and opportunities and decode the external environment into the enterprise by leveraging various leadership forums to educate our enterprise leadership.
• Serve as a thought leader in the legislative and regulatory community and a leadership escalation point for the regional advocates to drive a greater conversation in oral health through our enterprise states.
• Develops metrics and reports for management and executive management use.
• Develops and implements program plans including scope, resource requirements, new program ideas, best practice protocols, and communications.
• Creates and establishes program goals, objectives, and deliverables to reflect program vision, while working in partnership with cross-functional teams.
• Other duties as requested or assigned.

• A minimum of 12 years of related experience with Bachelor's degree; at least 3 years of experience managing teams.   
• At least 3 years working for, or with, a state legislature.
• Familiarity with how to hire, work with and direct lobbyists for the advancement of a healthcare organization.
• Excellent organizational/time management and project management skills and multi-tasking abilities.
• Excellent communication skills, including effective written, oral and presentation skills necessary to effectively convey information to and/or influence a wide range of audiences, including all levels within the enterprise, as well as third parties.
• Ability to establish and maintain non-adversarial, productive relationships with key lawmakers, regulators, alliance partners and counterparts from competitor organizations.
• Excellent people leadership skills, both to navigate HR policies and procedures, and to mentor and develop staff towards advancement in the government relations profession; Ability to build and manage a strong effective team.
• Ability to perform both process and data-driven structured analysis techniques and make recommendations and decisions in ambiguous circumstances in alignment with enterprise strategies.
• Knowledge of broad health care industry issues.
• Ability to maintain confidentiality.
• Strong analytical, problem-solving, negotiation and strategic thinking skills.
• Ability to allocate and re-allocate work to ensure strategic outcomes and set achievable goals and measures to guide the function.

Licenses