Washington Legislative Director

Climate Solutions; Washington; Hybrid; USD 110,000 - 150,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

100% employee medical/dental/vision

6 weeks PTO & 14 holidays

Employment Assistance Program (EAP)

Flexible spending accounts

Life and disability coverage

Job summary

Climate Solutions in Seattle, WA seeks a Washington Legislative Director to lead state policy and advocacy. The role reports to the Washington State Director and drives the strategy to advance climate and clean energy legislation.

You will cultivate relationships with policymakers and coalitions, manage research and messaging, and guide a team through rapid, complex political environments. Hybrid work in Seattle, starting January 2027, with significant in-state travel.

Qualifications

• Experience shaping state-level climate policy.
• Ability translating policy into testimony and messaging.
• Strong collaboration with diverse stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• Lead Washington legislative strategy and advocacy for Climate Solutions.
• Build partnerships with policymakers, coalitions, and tribal nations.
• Develop and communicate policy priorities and adaptive strategy.
• Translate complex policy into compelling briefings and testimony.

Skills

Policy advocacy

Legislative strategy

Relationship building

Public speaking

Research analysis

Job description

Position: Washington Legislative Director

Location: Seattle, WA (hybrid)

Reporting To: Washington State Director

Start Date: January 2027

About Climate Solutions: For nearly three decades, Climate Solutions has worked to accelerate clean energy solutions to the climate crisis and build a thriving, equitable Northwest powered by clean energy.

Across Washington and the broader Northwest, Climate Solutions champions transformational climate and clean energy policies, builds powerful partnerships and coalitions, and helps turn ambitious solutions into action. With groundbreaking policies now in place across the region, the work ahead is both to protect and implement that progress and to keep pushing for solutions that cut climate pollution at the speed and scale required while delivering tangible benefits for people and communities.

About the Opportunity:

Reporting to the Washington State Director, the Washington Legislative Director will lead Climate Solutions’ Washington legislative strategy to turn ambitious climate and clean energy priorities into political action, building the relationships, collective power, and team capacity needed to win meaningful and lasting policy change.

What You’ll Achieve:

Lead Washington Legislative Strategy & Advocacy

• Champion Climate Solutions’ legislative agenda, navigating a changing political climate to pass, defend, strengthen, and support implementation of state-level climate and clean energy policies, while connecting legislative strategy to real-world impact.
• Shape near-, medium-, and long-term legislative priorities and strategy in partnership with the Washington State Director, Policy Directors, and contract lobbyists, translating political dynamics into strategic guidance and recommending when and how to adapt.
• Conduct legislative and political research and analysis to inform advocacy strategy and translate complex policy information into compelling testimony, talking points, briefings, and other materials.

Build Legislative Influence & Collective Power

• Cultivate and steward strategic partnerships across Washington, including with policymakers, government officials, organizations, coalitions, and tribal nations, understanding when Climate Solutions should lead, convene, support, or step back to strengthen collective power and advance collaborative policy action.
• Build momentum and win campaigns around Climate Solutions’ policy priorities, mobilizing allies across labor, communities of color, environmental coalitions, consumer protection advocates and institutions, and other aligned groups.
• Build collective power and elevate community voice, partnering with environmental justice and community organizations to ensure communities most impacted by climate and policy decisions, particularly those historically excluded from policymaking, meaningfully shape advocacy strategies and policy solutions.

Strengthen & Integrate Legislative Strategy Across the Team

• Strengthen prioritization and coordination across Climate Solutions’ legislative strategy, bringing together expertise from across the team, contract lobbyists, and other partners around shared priorities and focusing time and influence where they can have the greatest legislative impact.
• Expand the team’s capacity for legislative advocacy, drawing on expertise from across the team to engage policymakers, testify, and advocate for Climate Solutions’ priorities.

Who You Are:

• You are Mission & Values Aligned. You bring a deep commitment to accelerating clean energy solutions to the climate crisis and advancing a thriving, equitable Northwest, grounded in justice, integrity, collaboration, respect, and perseverance.
• You are a Bold & Strategic Advocate. You advocate with conviction, see the bigger picture while staying grounded in how decisions affect people and communities, and make thoughtful choices about when to push, pivot, prioritize, or pause.
• You Bridge Policy & Political Practicality. You read the political landscape and the room, understand power, stakeholder interests, and competing priorities, and know when to push, pivot, build support, or change tactics to move Climate Solutions’ policy priorities forward.
• You Bring Deep Legislative Expertise. You understand the rules, timelines, procedures, and decision points that shape how legislation and state budgets move, and know how to use the right levers at the right moments to advance priorities.
• You are a Persuasive & Adaptive Communicator. You can translate complex policy and technical information into compelling testimony, talking points, briefings, and other advocacy materials, adapting your message and approach for different audiences and settings.
• You Build Trust-Based Relationships. You build and sustain relationships grounded in trust, work effectively across different personalities and perspectives, navigate disagreement with care, and bring people together around shared goals. You value and draw on others’ professional and lived expertise, while supporting others to build their skills, contribute, and lead.
• You Bring Climate & Clean Energy Policy Familiarity. You bring familiarity with one or more climate and clean energy policy areas, such as transportation decarbonization, clean buildings, electrification, and/or clean electricity, or demonstrate the ability to build the knowledge needed to advocate across Climate Solutions’ priorities.
• You are an Effective Planner & Project Manager. You can translate strategy into clear plans, manage multiple priorities and stakeholders, track progress and follow-through, anticipate challenges, and create structure in complex and fast-moving environments.

TRAVEL:

This is a hybrid role based in Washington that requires significant in-state travel, including to the capitol, attending coalition and partnership meetings, and internal staff meetings. There is flexibility in how you structure your travel and days.

BENEFITS:

Climate Solutions provides 100% employee premiums for medical, dental, and vision, 6 weeks of PTO and 14 flexible holidays, and access to an Employment Assistance Program (EAP), health care flexible spending and dependent care spending accounts, and voluntary life insurance. In addition, Climate Solutions covers 100% of eligible employees' short- and long term disabilities as well as life.

About Our Selection Process:

Before you decide to apply, please review our Frequently Asked Questions (here). Our process includes three rounds, each offering opportunities for us to get to know one another:

• Round 1: Application submission (here) and a one-way video interview (take your interview) due by November 6 (EOD). This stage includes four interview questions (here), which candidates complete on their own time.
• Round 2: A live, 60-minute interview via Zoom with the hiring committee.
• Round 3: Final interviews with the two finalists, scheduled for December 10 & 11 in Seattle, WA.