Title: Lead, Government & Strategic Relations, BCY

Employee Working Location: Partially Virtual / Hybrid (BCY)

Employment Status: Permanent Full-time

The Canadian Red Cross (CRC) - an inspirational not for profit organization, helps people and communities in Canada and around the world in times of need and supports them in strengthening their resilience. As a Canada's Best Employers 2024, we are committed to having an accessible, diverse, inclusive, and barrier-free work environment.

In this role, you will:

• Provide timely, well-supported expert advice and recommendations to internal clients on government engagement strategies. This includes advancing organizational positioning and interests within the political environment and responding to political developments
• Contribute to issues management, navigating complex challenges involving diverse geographic stakeholders during times of response.
• Ensure that engagement plans are developed and implemented in coordination with relevant internal stakeholders, as appropriate.
• Partner with the policy team to advance key organizational priorities by designing and delivering strategic engagement opportunities such as roundtables, white papers, and other engagement initiatives to build influence with government stakeholders.
• Identify and assess funding opportunities within the geography, collaborating with Geographic VP and service lines to pursue them. This includes cultivating key strategic partnerships and stakeholder relationships to create and/or support new funding prospects.
• Contribute actively to the development of proposals, briefing notes and policy recommendations, offering geographic insights and subject matter expertise from geographic perspective.
• Act as a delegate for Geographic VP on assigned files, supporting the full range of their portfolio.

What we are looking for:

• A minimum of 7 years of experience in stakeholder relations, proposal development, and issues management and a college diploma or university degree in public policy, government relations or any related field.
• Expert research and analysis skills to inform expert views on Geographic government priorities to inform CRC work.
• Experience as external facing spokesperson on behalf of CRC to external forums, including media, conference, and community events.
• Ability to influence groups with conflicting interests by synthesizing diverse perspectives, clearly expressing ideas, finding mutually beneficial solutions, and obtaining commitment, often in sensitive or complex situations
• Ability to explore and analyze complex issues and to provide strategic advice, written briefings and recommendations for senior leadership.
• Fluency in English is required; French is an asset.

Working Conditions:

• Will be working primarily in an office environment with travel to regional operations, events, forums and meetings required.
• All roles contributing to emergency response efforts directly or indirectly.
• All CRC roles are required to adapt work and priorities to support emergency response efforts, be present in person as required to support service delivery and deploy to emergency responses when appropriate and/or required (personnel availability and request for exceptions will be discussed with line management).
• For CRC roles that are assigned a function in the Emergency Relief operational structure (in field and virtual), personnel may be required to be part of an on-call roster and be available for scheduled on-call work.
• As we work with and support people (managers, colleagues, beneficiaries/customers, volunteers, donors and external partners) and communities in Canada and around the world, applicants whose first language is not English may be required to perform the responsibilities of the role in English.
• Eligibility to work in Canada: At this time, we welcome applications from candidates eligible to work in Canada. If you are not a citizen or permanent resident of Canada, we encourage you to carefully review your visa to find out whether you are eligible to work in the job you are considering applying for. Refer to our FAQ for more information.
• If you are selected for this role, you will be required to complete a successful pre-employment screening process which includes a satisfactory Enhanced Police Information Check (E-PIC).