Ambassador Program Impact Manager

Represent Justice; Illinois; Hybrid; USD 82,000 - 98,000; Full time

Job summary

Represent Justice seeks an Ambassador Program Impact Manager to connect Ambassador stories and films with opportunities for meaningful engagement. The role reports to the Vice President of Partnerships & Engagement and operates across ambassador engagement, impact campaigns, and partner collaboration.

The ideal candidate thrives as a strategic connector, builds strong relationships, and translates alignment into actionable opportunities while coordinating screenings, panels, and trainings with

Qualifications

• 3–5+ years in criminal justice reform advocacy, partnerships, campaigns, or related nonprofit work.
• Demonstrated ability to connect people, organizations, issues, campaigns, and opportunities.
• Excellent interpersonal, verbal, and written communication, with professional external representation.

Responsibilities

• Develop and implement ambassador engagement across programming including screenings, events, and campaigns.
• Coordinate and align ambassador opportunities with stories, expertise, and capacity.
• Track commitments, timelines, and outcomes; ensure effective cross‑team collaboration.
• Support evaluation, learning, and reporting on ambassador engagement and partnerships.

Skills

Advocacy campaigns

Partnerships

Campaign management

Storytelling

Narrative change

Strategic relationships

Event coordination

Public engagement

Program management

Tools

CRM systems

Project management tools

Job description

Job Title: Ambassador Program Impact Manager

Reports To: Vice President, Partnerships & Engagement

FLSA Status: Full-Time Exempt

Location: Remote first; optional co-working space available in Chicago, Los Angeles, and Atlanta

Salary Offer: $82,000-$98,000

At Represent Justice, our mission is to turn stories into action by building narrative power within criminal legal system-impacted communities and mobilizing audiences to transform the legal system. Our theory of change involves building up a critical mass of system-impacted storytellers using film and media to mobilize audiences to take action to transform the legal system. Represent Justice is also a legal reform organization that seeks to reduce harm, advocate for community healing and transformation, and critique the systems that impede true justice. As an organization dedicated to uplifting the stories and solutions of those closest to the problem, we believe in thoughtful analysis and partnership with criminal justice reform movement leaders across these issues, to implement our vision for a fair system and an end to mass incarceration and extreme sentencing.

The Ambassador Program Impact Manager helps connect Represent Justice’s Ambassador stories, Ambassadors, and films to opportunities for meaningful engagement and impact. Reporting to the Vice President of Partnerships & Engagement, this role works across interconnected areas: Ambassador engagement and impact campaigns. The Manager builds and nurtures relationships with Represent Justice Ambassadors, external organizations, community partners, and audiences; identifies opportunities to strategically activate Represent Justice films and Ambassadors; and supports impact campaigns that use storytelling to advance narrative change and systems change goals. The ideal candidate is a strategic connector who can identify alignment across people, organizations, films, campaigns, and issue areas—and then translate that alignment into concrete opportunities. This person should be equally comfortable building relationships internally, externally, supporting campaign execution, coordinating Ambassador participation, pitching films and partnership opportunities, and ensuring that promising film screening and speaker activation ideas move from conversation to action.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES & RESPONSIBILITIES

Impact & Advocacy Campaigns (20%)

• Support the development and implementation of impact campaigns that connect Represent Justice films and storytelling to advocacy, organizing, policy, and narrative-change opportunities.
• Help identify timely advocacy, legislative, cultural, and community opportunities where Represent Justice films, Ambassadors, and storytelling resources can add value.
• Research relevant advocacy campaigns, organizations, coalitions, policy developments, conferences, convenings, and other opportunities that align with Represent Justice films and organizational priorities.
• Support advocacy screening campaigns, community activations, partner events, panels, digital campaigns, and other opportunities that move audiences from storytelling toward engagement or action.
• Work with advocacy and community partners to identify appropriate calls to action and opportunities for audiences to engage beyond film screenings.
• Track campaign activities, partnerships, outcomes, learnings, and follow-up opportunities to support evaluation and future strategy.

Ambassador Pitching & Opportunities (60%)

• Develop, and implement meaningful opportunities for Ambassador engagement across Represent Justice programming, including film impact campaigns, advocacy partnerships, screenings, speaking opportunities, media and digital opportunities, trainings, workshops, and community events.
• Serve as a key organizational and internal liaison for connecting Ambassadors to opportunities that align with their stories, expertise, interests, lived experience, goals, and capacity.
• Build strong, respectful, and consistent relationships with Represent Justice Ambassadors and ensure they have clear information regarding relevant opportunities and expectations.
• Proactively identify and pitch opportunities for Ambassador engagement across Represent Justice programming and externally, including film screenings, community and advocacy events, film festivals, conferences, panels, media and digital opportunities, and trainings.
• Support outreach and relationship-building with organizations, screening hosts, advocacy partners, community groups, and other potential partners interested in engaging with Ambassador films and storytellers.
• Provide light event and screening management support for Ambassador film engagements, including coordinating panel participation, speaker logistics, run-of-show details, host communications, briefings, and other preparation necessary for successful events.
• Collaborate with internal teams to thoughtfully integrate Ambassadors into film campaigns, advocacy opportunities, external partnerships, communications opportunities, and organizational programming.
• Help prepare Ambassadors for external-facing opportunities by ensuring they understand the audience, purpose, goals, logistics, and relevant context.
• Facilitate regular communication and feedback loops with Ambassadors to understand their interests, experiences, goals, and evolving needs.
• Identify and share resources that strengthen Ambassadors’ ability to use storytelling, narrative strategy, advocacy, and public engagement to advance their individual and collective goals.
• Work in consultation with the Community Wellness Manager to incorporate trauma-informed practices into Ambassador engagement and external opportunities.
• As needed, support Ambassador-produced short film projects by helping coordinate program timelines, connect Ambassadors to appropriate internal resources, and troubleshoot or escalating needs.
• Help coordinate and facilitate Ambassador trainings, workshops, or learning opportunities as appropriate, in alignment with broader Ambassador Program goals including project management, collaborating with other staff or outside trainers, agenda preparation, meeting facilitation, and follow-up.

Program Management, Systems & Follow-Through (15%)

• Develop and maintain work plans, timelines, calendars, trackers, and Asana projects for Ambassador engagement, partnerships, and impact campaign activities.
• Track commitments, deadlines, partner conversations, Ambassador opportunities, screenings, campaign deliverables, and follow-up.
• Ensure key information, decisions, relationships, and resources are documented in shared organizational systems rather than held solely within individual inboxes or personal notes.
• Coordinate across internal teams to ensure relevant staff have the context and information necessary to effectively collaborate on Ambassador, partnership, and impact work.
• Proactively identify potential challenges, delays, or gaps and communicate them early to the Vice President of Partnerships & Engagement.
• Follow through on agreed-upon next steps and ensure promising opportunities continue moving forward.
• Support logistical coordination for select Ambassador and partner engagement opportunities as needed, while working collaboratively with relevant operations and event support staff.
• Oversee all day-to-day aspects of Ambassador Program operations, including payment requests, email updates, outreach for new opportunities, and training follow-ups.
• Develop engagement metrics and tracking tools for understanding and improving engagement with Represent Justice by Ambassadors.
• Develop and maintain program timelines, calendars, and Asana work plans that align with Program goals.

Evaluation & Learning (5%)

• Support the development of metrics and tracking tools that help Represent Justice understand Ambassador engagement, partnership development, film activation, and campaign impact.
• Collect and synthesize feedback from Ambassadors and partners to identify emerging needs, opportunities, challenges, and lessons.
• Contribute to internal and external reporting, documenting key activities, learnings, partnerships, outcomes, challenges, and successes.
• Incorporate feedback and emerging needs of Ambassadors into ongoing program design an internal strategy conversations.
• Use feedback and campaign learnings to recommend improvements to Ambassador engagement, partnership strategy, and impact campaign implementation.

QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE

The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required to perform this job. Reasonable accommodation may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

MUST HAVE

• No specific degree is required. Candidates should have at least 3-5 years of progressively responsible professional experience in criminal justice reform advocacy, partnerships, campaigns, organizing, nonprofit management, community engagement, social impact, program management, organizing, film impact, or a related field. Relevant higher education or professional training may complement, but does not substitute for, demonstrated experience successfully performing this work.
• Demonstrated experience managing advocacy, social-impact, organizing, narrative-change, or issue-based campaigns.
• Ability to understand a story, film, project, or campaign and clearly articulate its relevance to different audiences and prospective partners.
• Strong strategic instincts and demonstrated ability to connect people, organizations, issues, campaigns, and opportunities.
• Strong project-management skills and demonstrated ability to manage multiple diverse priorities, relationships, deadlines, and workstreams simultaneously.
• Demonstrated ability to independently move projects forward, identify next steps, follow through on commitments, and escalating challenges appropriately.
• Ability to work effectively across teams and navigate shared ownership, competing priorities, and organizational dependencies.
• Strong judgment and professionalism when representing an organization externally.
• Commitment to equity, accountability, co-creation, and centering directly impacted leadership.
• Excellent interpersonal, verbal, and written communication skills, including utilizing and encouraging language that uplifts and humanizes system-impacted communities, always maintaining professionalism.
• Ability towork in partnership with directly impacted leaders and communities, with an ability to support lived-experience leadership while bringing strong campaign, partnership, and organizational expertise to the work.
• Ability to interface effectively and collaboratively with Represent Justice Ambassadors, partners, stakeholders and other staff members.

NICE TO HAVE

• Existing relationships within criminal justice reform, advocacy, organizing, policy, or social-impact networks.
• Experience with documentary film impact campaigns, impact producing, film distribution, or social-impact entertainment.
• Experience in legislative advocacy, lobbying, policy campaigns, grassroots organizing, or coalition building.
• Experience developing or supporting film screenings, community activations, advocacy events, or public programs.
• Experience facilitating meetings, trainings, panels, coalition conversations, or community discussions.
• Experience working with speakers, storytellers, fellows, artists, Ambassadors, or other directly impacted leaders.
• Familiarity with narrative-change and culture-change strategies.
• Experience using CRM and project-management platforms to track relationships, campaigns, and deliverables.
• Experience working across both national and state/local advocacy environments.