Vice President, External Affairs

At Thorn, our cause is our code. We are a nonprofit whose mission of defending children from sexual exploitation and abuse is deeply embedded within our core—a shared code that drives us to do challenging work with resilience and determination.

Here, you’ll work and grow among the best hearts and the best minds in tech, data, and business alongside our network of independent partners, NGOs, and law enforcement agencies. Together, we’re focused on building technology that protects children’s futures. We are looking for dynamic problem solvers with the desire to help address some of today’s toughest issues. You'll collaborate with a diverse group of peers in a remote environment centered on wellness, care, and compassion.

In 2019, we took the stage at TED and shared our audacious goal of eliminating child sexual abuse material from the internet. Come join us to help make this goal a reality and build a world where every child can be safe, curious, and happy.

About the Role:

The VP of External Affairs is a key leadership position reporting directly to the CEO, Julie Cordua. They will be responsible for leading the Marketing and Communications team, the Philanthropy team and the Policy team. These teams are responsible for continuing to strengthen the Thorn brand, increase awareness and demand for Thorn’s products, growing the donor base and expanding relationships with policy makers, industry leaders, and other key stakeholders. This is a unique opportunity at the intersection of technology and social-impact, to play a critical role in Thorn’s 5-year strategic growth plan. This role will be a key driver in Thorn’s ability to achieve key milestones on their growth and sustainability plan, all in service of Thorn achieving its goal of ending online child sexual abuse. 

The nature of this role will require significant travel as part of building and nurturing key relationships globally. In addition, Thorn may host company-wide gatherings, and smaller teams may hold in-person meetings and team-building events, or require attendance at specific conferences. The role is US-based with some travel required (40%).

What You’ll Do:

• Organizational Leadership: 
  
  • Lead a high performing and diverse team of subject matter experts across marketing, communications, philanthropy and policy to ensure cohesive team dynamics, growth and measurable impact. 
  • Serve as a core member of Thorn’s leadership team, working alongside cross-functional leads to remove roadblocks and build healthy relationships across the organization. 
  • Play a key role in crafting Thorn’s strategic plan, thinking broadly about the long-term business needs and bringing the expertise and insight from the external affairs lens into that process. 
  • Drive annual planning cycles and define organizational performance metrics that align with short and long term business objectives 
• Fundraising:
  
  • Expand the donor base and partner with the CEO to raise $11M/year from major donors. It is essential that this person is comfortable making seven figure asks of donors. 
  • Launch a $35M five year capital campaign to support the organization until they achieve their revenue goal of $15M/year. 

• Marketing Communications:
  
  • Lead a high growth product marketing team. Create a marketing strategy and tie KPIs back to the broader organizational growth goals. 
  • Develop and manage a comprehensive vision for Thorn’s external presence that helps achieve Thorn’s goal of being a globally recognizable, trusted, well-funded brand known for high impact work to end online child sexual abuse.
  • Serve as a senior leader interacting with C-Level technology executives, foreign officials/agencies, political leaders, celebrities, and other high profile stakeholders. 
• Policy: 
  
  • Continue to drive legislative priorities within the United States and the European Union. Support the policy team as it navigates global policy matters as needed. 

What We’re Looking For:

• You will have 15 - 20+ years of experience across a diverse range of external affairs functions - marketing, communications, policy and philanthropy. 
  
• You will have at least 10 years of executive leadership experience (VP equivalent), a plus in high growth organizations.
  
• You lead with empathy and are a strong collaborator able to work closely with other members of the leadership team, as well as ext