Vice President, Government Relations and Public Affairs
# Vice President, Government Relations and Public Affairs **SAN JOSE WATER COMPANY** · San Jose, CA · `On-site` 🕒 **Статус:** *Опубликовано: вчера* · *Источник: Indeed* --- ### About the Role | Requisition ID req1202 Type of Employment Regular Full-Time Employee | Job Openings 1 Compensation Range 300,000.00 - 330,000.00 | Compensation Type Annual Salary Founded in 1866, San Jose Water Company is an investor owned water company headquartered in Silicon Valley. With a service area of 140 square miles, it is one of the largest and most technically sophisticated urban water system in the United States. We serve over 1 million people with high quality, life sustaining water, with an emphasis on exceptional customer service. We are actively seeking talented, driven and highly-productive applicants for the position of Vice President, Government Relations and Public Affairs to join our dynamic team. We offer a challenging and rewarding work environment along with a competitive salary and an excellent benefits package. Position Overview The Vice President, Government Relations & Public Affairs serves as a senior strategic advisor to the President and executive leadership team, leading the Company’s enterprise-wide government relations, public affairs, regulatory advocacy, and external engagement strategy. The Vice President is responsible for anticipating and shaping the legislative, regulatory, political, and public policy environment in which the Company operates. Working across Legal, Finance, Engineering, Operations, Communications, and other business functions, this role translates the Company’s strategic and operating priorities into an integrated external affairs agenda designed to protect the Company’s interests, advance critical initiatives, strengthen its reputation, and support long-term business and infrastructure objectives. Rather than operating as a standalone functional leader, the Vice President serves as an enterprise integrator, ensuring that government relations, regulatory strategy, public funding, coalition building, communications, and community engagement operate as a coordinated strategy. The Vice President represents the Company with senior government officials, regulatory agencies, industry organizations, business and community leaders, and other external stakeholders and serves as a trusted advisor to executive leadership on political, regulatory, reputational, and public policy matters. Core Responsibilities 1. Enterprise Government Relations and Public Affairs Strategy - Establish and lead the Company’s enterprise-wide government relations and public affairs strategy in alignment with corporate priorities, operating objectives, capital plans, and long-term business strategy. - Translate business priorities into a focused government and public policy agenda, prioritizing initiatives based on business impact, urgency, political and regulatory feasibility, reputational considerations, and potential return to the Company and the communities it serves. - Advise the President and executive leadership on the political, legislative, regulatory, and public affairs implications of major corporate decisions and initiatives. - Determine the appropriate pathway for advancing strategic priorities, including legislation, regulation, public funding, administrative action, permitting, coalition advocacy, community engagement, or other government intervention. - Establish annual and longer-term advocacy priorities, success measures, stakeholder strategies, and executive engagement plans. - Maintain executive-level visibility into significant legislative, regulatory, funding, political, and public policy developments affecting the Company. - Anticipate changes in the external environment and identify emerging opportunities, threats, and reputational risks before they materially affect the business. - Provide clear recommendations to executive leadership regarding when the Company should engage, where it should focus its influence, and when restraint is strategically appropriate. 2. Executive Advisory and Cross-Functional Leadership - Serve as the President’s senior advisor and strategic partner on government affairs, public policy, regulatory advocacy, community positioning, and external stakeholder matters. - Convene and align senior leaders across Legal, Finance, Engineering, Operations, Communications, and other functions around a unified external affairs strategy. - Ensure government relations and public affairs priorities reflect operational realities, financial objectives, regulatory requirements, infrastructure needs, and community considerations. - Establish governance, accountability, and decision-making processes for significant government and public affairs initiatives. - Provide executive-level briefings and recommendations regarding legislative developments, regulatory actions, political dynamics, public sentiment, and stakeholder activity. - Prepare senior leaders and Company representatives for high-level engagements with elected officials, regulators, policymakers, community leaders, media, and other influential stakeholders. - Serve as a strategic escalation point when government action, regulatory uncertainty, stakeholder opposition, or public controversy threatens critical Company objectives. 3. Government Advocacy, Political Strategy, and External Relationships - Develop and maintain trusted relationships with elected officials, regulators, government executives, policymakers, agency leadership, and other influential external stakeholders. - Represent the Company before governmental and regulatory bodies and serve as a senior spokesperson on public policy and government affairs matters, as appropriate. - Position the Company as a credible, constructive, and informed participant in legislative, regulatory, infrastructure, environmental, economic, and community policy discussions affecting its business. - Direct advocacy strategies to advance favorable legislation, regulation, funding, permits, administrative decisions, and public policies. - Lead strategies to oppose, modify, or mitigate legislative or regulatory proposals that could adversely affect the Company’s operations, customers, financial position, infrastructure investments, or reputation. - Develop executive engagement strategies that deploy the President and other senior leaders where their participation will have the greatest strategic impact. - Oversee the Company's external government relations consultants, lobbyists, associations, and other strategic advisors, ensuring alignment with enterprise priorities and measurable outcomes. 4. Coalition and Stakeholder Strategy - Build and lead coalitions that strengthen the Company’s ability to advance significant legislative, regulatory, infrastructure, and community priorities. - Establish strategic partnerships with cities, counties, public agencies, industry organizations, business groups, labor organizations, environmental organizations, community stakeholders, and other aligned entities. - Identify areas of shared interest and develop coordinated advocacy strategies, joint communications, stakeholder outreach, public engagement, and other collective actions. - Assess stakeholder interests, influence, and potential opposition surrounding significant Company initiatives and establish strategies to build support and address concerns early. - Strengthen the Company’s long-term civic and institutional relationships throughout the communities and jurisdictions in which it operates. 5. Regulatory, Permitting, and Infrastructure Advocacy - Provide executive leadership for external strategies supporting significant regulatory approvals, permitting requirements, infrastructure initiatives, and other government-dependent business priorities. - Partner with Legal, Engineering, Operations, Environmental, and other technical functions to identify regulatory, statutory, administrative, and permitting barriers that could affect project execution. - Develop strategies to address complex regulatory or permitting challenges through agency engagement, policy advocacy, administrative action, legislative change, or senior-level intervention. - Establish relationships with regulatory and agency leadership to promote early engagement, clarity of requirements, predictable decision-making, and timely resolution of significant matters. - Escalate material regulatory delays, conflicting requirements, or policy uncertainties to executive leadership and develop strategies to protect Company objectives. - Anticipate policy and regulatory changes that could affect future infrastructure investment and incorporate those considerations into long-range Company planning. 6. Public Funding and Strategic Investment - Lead the Company’s strategy for identifying and pursuing government funding opportunities aligned with capital, infrastructure, environmental, operational, resilience, and community priorities. - Partner with Finance, Engineering, Operations, and other functions to prioritize projects that are competitive for public funding. - Position Company initiatives for government investment by clearly articulating project need, economic and community benefit, cost, urgency, readiness, and alignment with government priorities. - Build relationships with agencies, elected officials, and other decision-makers responsible for funding programs and infrastructure investment. - Provide executive oversight of external funding strategies and ensure opportunities are integrated into the Company’s broader government relations agenda. 7. Public Affairs, Communications, and Reputation - Lead the integration of government relations, public affairs, communications, and stakeholder engagement around significant Company priorities. - Establish compelling policy narratives that translate complex technical, engineering, regulatory, financial, and operational issues into clear messages for policymakers, regulators, communities, media, and other external audiences. - Provide strategic direction for executive briefings, testimony, policy papers, public comments, talking points, advocacy materials, and other communications supporting the Company’s external agenda. - Partner with communications leadership to direct public relations and earned-media strategies that strengthen the Company’s reputation and reinforce its policy and advocacy objectives. - Advise executive leadership on external messaging and positioning during significant legislative, regulatory, operational, reputational, or public policy matters. - Ensure messaging across government relations, public affairs, community engagement, and corporate communications is coordinated, credible, and consistent. 8. Community and Civic Engagement - Provide strategic leadership for the Company’s community engagement and civic presence, ensuring these activities reinforce the Company’s broader business, reputation, and stakeholder objectives. - Oversee the strategic alignment of community partnerships, charitable giving, sponsorships, and civic engagement with the Company’s values and external affairs priorities. - Build relationships with community organizations and civic leaders in jurisdictions where the Company operates or maintains significant interests. - Identify opportunities for Company executives and subject-matter leaders to participate in civic, industry, government, and community forums that strengthen the Company’s visibility and credibility. 9. Organizational Leadership and External Affairs Governance - Establish the operating model, standards, priorities, and performance expectations for the government relations and public affairs function. - Lead, develop, and manage internal staff and external consultants supporting government relations, lobbying, public affairs, communications, coalition development, and related activities. - Manage external affairs resources and investments to ensure they are directed toward the Company’s highest-value strategic priorities. - Establish systems for tracking legislative, regulatory, funding, stakeholder, and advocacy activity and reporting material developments and outcomes to executive leadership. - Promote disciplined coordination across departments so external engagement is intentional, consistent, and aligned with Company strategy. Executive Leadership Capabilities Successful performance in this position requires: - Executive-level political judgment with the ability to assess complex political and regulatory environments and determine when, where, and how the Company should engage. - Enterprise strategic leadership with the ability to translate corporate objectives into sophisticated government relations, regulatory, and public affairs strategies. - Executive presence and influence with the credibility to advise the President and senior leadership and represent the Company with senior government officials, regulators, business leaders, and community stakeholders. - Deep knowledge of legislative, regulatory, budget, administrative, and agency processes, with the ability to navigate multiple levels of government. - Strong business acumen and the ability to understand how government action affects operations, infrastructure investment, financial performance, customers, communities, and long-term business strategy. - Ability to navigate complex regulatory environments and integrate legal, technical, political, operational, financial, and reputational considerations into executive recommendations. - Exceptional stakeholder and coalition-building capability, including the ability to develop relationships across government, industry, business, labor, environmental, and community interests. - Strategic communications expertise, with the ability to translate complex technical and operational matters into compelling public policy narratives. - Sound judgment in high-stakes and sensitive situations, including matters involving regulatory uncertainty, political opposition, public scrutiny, or competing stakeholder interests. - Exceptional written and verbal communication skills, including executive briefings, testimony, advocacy, public presentations, and communications with senior officials. - Organizational leadership, including the ability to lead teams and external advisors while coordinating complex initiatives across multiple executive and functional stakeholders. - Ability to operate simultaneously at strategic and execution levels, maintaining focus on long-term enterprise objectives while ensuring critical near-term advocacy priorities are advanced.
Наблюдалась 2026-10-20, впервые 2026-10-19, источник — Indeed.