State Government Affairs Director

Company Description

Guardant Health is a leading precision oncology company focused on helping conquer cancer globally through use of its proprietary tests, vast data sets and advanced analytics. The Guardant Health oncology platform leverages capabilities to drive commercial adoption, improve patient clinical outcomes and lower healthcare costs across all stages of the cancer care continuum. Guardant Health has commercially launched Guardant360®, Guardant360 CDx, Guardant360 TissueNext™, Guardant360 Response™, and GuardantOMNI® tests for advanced stage cancer patients, and Guardant Reveal™ for early-stage cancer patients. The Guardant Health screening portfolio, including the Shield™ test, aims to address the needs of individuals eligible for cancer screening.

Job Description

About the Role:

The Director of State Government Affairs will serve as a member of the company’s Public Affairs team, reporting to the Senior Director of U.S. Government Affairs. Working closely with key internal partners, this position will provide government affairs support and drive state policy objectives.

The Director will be responsible for promoting the company’s legislative agenda in key states. Day-to-day activities include managing contract lobbyists where applicable, direct lobbying, providing legislative testimony, meeting with key stakeholders in the region and providing political and policy analysis to internal executives. The candidate must have political campaign experience and some level of multi-state lobbying experience. The position will play an integral role helping GH build a best-in-class public affairs organization and will work closely with public policy, patient advocacy, and other external facing business units.

Job Responsibilities

• Direct and organize lobbying team(s) to advance legislative and regulatory objectives and protect company's interests from adverse public policy. 
• Prepare and submit presentations, testimony and other official materials to relevant decision-makers to advance specific policy goals and objectives. 
• Participate in the management of designated state and national organizations and associations as company representative. 
• Act as company representative within assigned states before legislative and regulatory bodies on high profile issues that are of critical importance to the company and help strategically position the company to effectively engage.
• May be required to develop industry-wide coalitions and manage significant grassroots/PR campaigns relating to key issues. 
• Must be willing and able to operate within adaptive workflows that mirror legislative session calendars and their fast paced environment when necessary.
• Develop actions plans and implements activities that will mitigate negative impact or facilitate positive policy change. 
• Provide accurate, timely and insightful responses and analysis regarding various projects and initiatives. 
• Working with public policy, government affairs, and alliance colleagues analyzes and assesses relevant state and local policies and trends. 
• Monitor activities of the assigned state Executive Branches and Legislatures that would potentially impact the industry; alerts and advises leadership on emerging opportunities and concerns.
• Work with internal partners across functions in Commercial, Medical Affairs, Market Access, Corporate Communications, and Patient Advocacy to execute our public policy strategies and achieve business goals.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree required. Advanced degree a plus.

• Knowledge of the political process and functions in the government required.
• A minimum of 10 years of working experience in government and/or political affairs; a combination of experiences in a government settings such as a legislative body or executive office, trade association, and/or corporate multi-state environment.
• State government affairs experience with legislative bodies in larger states such as TX, GA, FL, NC, and CA a plus.
• Political campaign experience. 
• Experience working in public affairs roles on complex policy issues. Familiarity with the diagnostic industry or life sciences sector a plus.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills; Must be able to convey complex information clearly and succinctly.
• Candidate must be a creative, flexible, and entrepreneurial thinker capable of leveraging relationships and facilitating partnerships with industry peers, government officials, and other external stakeholders to reach public affairs goals.
• Demonstrated ability to work independently and successfully prioritize competing tasks in a fast-paced environment.
• Required regular travel 30-40% of the time (3-4 times per month during peak legislative session).