Primary Purpose:

BIO convenes and leads The Council of State Bioscience Associations (CSBA), a coalition of independent, state and territory based non-profit trade associations, each of which advocates for public policies that support responsible development and delivery of innovative life-enhancing and life-saving biotechnology solutions.

Theprimarypurposeofthispositionisto manage BIO’s engagement with CSBA member associations, fulfill CSBA member requests, and to serve as the state- and territory-based bioscience associations’ primary liaison for BIO Advocacy.  This is both a relationship management and an operational role and will be heavily focused on supporting BIO’s policy outreach and education to enable CSBA affiliates’ advocacy.  This role will also involve program development for BIO’s monthly CSBA calls, and the CSBA summer and end of year retreats, under the direction of the Vice President. 

The Director, CSBA will execute BIO’s federal advocacy strategy via the state associations (driving issue education and advocacy, sign on letters, local grass tops support and more) under the direction of the Vice President.  (The departmental VP also serves as the CSBA Executive Director).

The Director will also administer the state affiliate grants program, under the direction of the External Affairs Vice President.  

This position will require up to 30% travel.

Essential Job Duties and Responsibilities:

1.      Develop and maintain outstanding relationships with CSBA state associations to:

a.      Drive affiliate engagement on BIO’s priority advocacy issues

b.      Support Champion development, grass roots and home-state efforts in support of BIO’s Federal affairs goals

c.       Partner with BIO’s State Government Affairs team to achieve key state policy goals

d.      Achieve mutual policy goals

2.      Under the direction of External Affairs’ Vice President, the Director will execute on all aspects of planning, logistics and follow-up for two BIO signature events. This will require coordination with key BIO functions including Events, Sponsorship, BIO Business Solutions and across the Advocacy team:

a.      CSBA Summer meeting, typically held during BIO’s annual convention.

b.      CSBA Annual member retreat (Q4).

3.      Manage fulfillment and operations for BIO’s CSBA work.

a.      Scheduling CSBA Board Calls, CSBA monthly calls, and working with Vice President to develop agendas for these calls.

b.      Collecting and processing invoices for the CSBA grants program

c.       Maintain an up-to-date knowledge of current BIO communications tools, campaigns and resources and deliver them to strategically targeted stakeholders in support of timely goals. 

d.      Respond to and fulfil CSBA member requests, including Convention comp codes, marketing tool kits, meeting invitations, policy tools, and other ongoing requests. 

e.      Build a mutually respectful and strong working relationship with functions outside of Advocacy and across BIO, including the Events and Sponsorship teams, BIO Business Solutions and other core functions.

f.        Serve as staff liaison with the Grassroots / Digital team to execute on BIOaction campaigns

4.      Employee will be expected to effectively manage their own calendar, set up their own meetings and travel, and handle their own expense reports and other administrative tasks.

5.      As noted previously, this position will require up to 30% domestic travel.

Education and Experience Required

·       Bachelor’s degree required

·       7+ years of professional experience, preferably working for or with private sector biotech or healthcare companiesinpublicaffairs,governmentaffairs or alliance development. 

·       Experience with healthcare coalitions and / or working for Federal or State government entities including Congress, State legislatures, State or Federal Agencies or Executive offices is also desired.

Knowledge and Skills Required

·       Outstanding relationship management abilities and strong interpersonal skills

·       Superb communications skills, both written and interpersonal, including public speaking.

·       Deep understanding of the state and/or federal legislative environment

·       Excellent organizational skills and attention to detail.

·       Commitment to operational excellence.

·       Resilience and willingness to adapt to feedback and coaching.

·       High learning aptitude

·       Strong desire to contribute to team success, with an enthusiasm for supporting team members efforts

Candidates should be aware that BIO currently maintains a policy requiring all US-based employees to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and receive a booster shot once eligible. Newly hired employees must be vaccinated and boosted prior to their employment start date BIO is an equal opportunity employer and will provide a reasonable accommodation to those unable to be vaccinated or receive a booster where it is not an undue hardship to the company to do so as provided under federal, state, and local law.