Government Relations Manager, Salt Lake City, UT

If you’re passionate about building a better future for individuals, communities, and our country—and you’re committed to working hard to play your part in building that future—consider WGU as the next step in your career.

Driven by a mission to expand access to higher education through online, competency-based degree programs, WGU is also committed to being a great place to work for a diverse workforce of student-focused professionals. The university has pioneered a new way to learn in the 21st century, one that has received praise from academic, industry, government, and media leaders. Whatever your role, working for WGU gives you a part to play in helping students graduate, creating a better tomorrow for themselves and their families.

The salary range for this position takes into account the wide range of factors that are considered in making compensation decisions including but not limited to skill sets; experience and training; licensure and certifications; and other business and organizational needs.

At WGU, it is not typical for an individual to be hired at or near the top of the range for their position, and compensation decisions are dependent on the facts and circumstances of each case. A reasonable estimate of the current range is:
 

Pay Range: $73,000.00 - $109,400.00

Job Description

Reporting to the Vice President of Government Relations, the Government Relations Manager works collaboratively with internal partners to execute a 50-state strategy that advance the University’s mission and goals, with elected officials, political appointees, and business leaders.  Operating, always, with a focus squarely on improving the lives and aspirations of WGU students.

Responsibilities

Essential Functions and Responsibilities:

• Conducts research and analysis on legislative, regulatory, and policy issues, relevant to WGU’s areas of focus.
• Provides analysis and guidance on legislative trends and their potential implications on higher education.
• Develops policy briefs, white papers, reports, and recommendation based on evidence-based research.
• Manage the department’s grass-roots initiative, and lead in the creation of advocacy hand-outs, talking points, legislative summaries, and other communications material to effectively convey policy positions and research findings.
• Monitor and track legislative and regulatory developments at primarily the state and local levels of government.
• Collaborate with internal teams to ensure research findings inform advocacy efforts and strategic decision-making.
• Work with public affairs colleagues to identify social and digital promotion ideas to ensure the University’s perspective is both visible and persuasive in the current legislative conversation.
• Authentically reflect and portray the mission of WGU. Become a reliable subject matter expert on student success, disruptive innovation, and competency-based education.
• Performs other related duties as assigned.

• This job description includes a general representation of job requirements rather than a comprehensive inventory of all required responsibilities or work activities.  The contents of this document or related job requirements may change at any time with or without notice.

Qualifications

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

• The successful candidate will have experience as an operational leader and a record of achieving aggressive goals while operating in a cross-functional capacity and adeptly navigating external environments that may impact the University and its operations. S/he effectively engages University partners, and is probing, open-minded, and solution oriented. S/he will also be comfortable with ambiguity, willing to experiment and make decisions with less than perfect information. Must be able to clearly articulate WGU’s purpose, mission, vision and goals, and able to motivate others to achieve those goals.
• Student focus – always keeps the student at the center of what we do, and why we do it. Makes decisions and guides efforts to improve and expand value and opportunity for students and employers. Demonstrated and documented record of accomplishment in developing intergovernmental relationships and pursuing opportunities to enhance the University’s offerings and positioning in higher education.
• Integrity – we do what is right even when no one is watching.  This is a foundational principle as to how we interact with all people, and is vitally important in a role that represents the University before external audiences, many whom can impact the environment in which the University operates.
• Execution- and Results-oriented – focused on results, not just activity. Exceptional skill and demo