Sr Director, Public Affairs

Position Title:  Sr. Director - Public Affairs

Location: Washington, DC/Northern VA area; Dallas, TX; Austin, TX 

 

Your role 

Digital Realty is seeking a Senior Director of Public Affairs to join the Legal Risk Sustainability Compliance team. This role reports to the General Counsel and is an exciting opportunity for an expert candidate to help build Digital Realty’s public policy agenda and to develop and implement strategies to advance this agenda at local, state, and federal levels. 

What you’ll do.

• Develop and implement a coordinated strategy to advance our public policy agenda across our existing and expansion markets across North America, while also coordinating with our EMEA and APAC teams. 
• Coordinate and actively participate in implementation of our public policy strategy, including building and maintaining relationships with key elected officials, regulatory agencies, and industry associations.
• Research, identify and track current and emerging public policy issues.
• Partner with various internal stakeholders to prioritize key public policy issues related to our mid- and long-term business plans.
• Select and manage third party policy advisors and lobbyists.
• Collaborate cross-functionally with internal teams, including Legal, Portfolio Management, Operations and Marketing, to ensure alignment and to marshal support on public policy and government initiatives.
• Monitor legislative and regulatory developments at the local, state and federal level that could impact Digital Realty’s operations and, as appropriate, proactively create and implement strategies to address such developments.
• Collaborate on internal processes for handling public policy matters that arise on an emergency or unexpected basis so that Digital Realty is prepared to respond in such cases.
• Assist in developing a framework to facilitate coordination of global public policy and legislative initiatives as well as community engagement.
• Prepare and disseminate periodic public policy updates for senior management.
• Work with the Marketing/PR team and internal subject matter experts to develop materials that:
  • Educate policymakers about Digital Realty, its industry and its critical role in supporting digital transformation and emerging technologies (e.g., AI). 
  • Promote Digital Realty’s dedication to entergy-efficiency and sustainability. 
  • Highlight Digital Realty’s contributions to the communities in which it operates.

 What you’ll need

• Minimum 10+ years in government affairs, public policy, lobbying or related roles; prior service in state or federal legislative/regulatory bodies a plus; relevant experience will be considered.
• Bachelor’s degree; law or master’s degree a plus.
• Strong understanding of legislative and regulatory processes.
• Excellent communication skills, including the ability to articulate complex issues clearly and concisely.
• Demonstrated track record of successfully advocating for policy initiatives and building relationships with government officials and industry stakeholders.
• Strategic thinker with the ability to anticipate challenges, identify opportunities and develop innovative solutions.
• Strong situational awareness; good judgement; and ability to work collaboratively and with a sense of urgency.
• Position based in [Washington, DC/Northern VA] area with some travel required

A bit about us

Digital Realty brings companies and data together by delivering the full spectrum of data center, colocation and interconnection solutions. PlatformDIGITAL®, the company’s global data center platform, provides customers with a secure data meeting place and a proven Pervasive Datacenter Architecture (PDx®) solution methodology for powering innovation and efficiently managing Data Gravity challenges. Digital Realty gives its customers access to the connected data communities that matter to them with a global data center footprint of 300+ facilities in 50+ metros across 28 countries on six continents.

To learn more about Digital Realty, please visit digitalrealty.com or follow us on LinkedIn and X.

A bit about our Digital team

Legal

Our Legal team works in a highly complex global business sector with a diverse range of local, regional and international organizations. From ensuring compliance in different jurisdictions to supporting business teams with customer and supplier contracts, we’re involve