Job Description

Position

The American Civil Liberties Union of Idaho Foundation (ACLU of Idaho) seeks a Chief Program and Strategy Officer (CPSO) to oversee our multi-department, integrated advocacy efforts that combine legal, community organizing, legislative policy work, and strategic communications. The CPSO is a member of the executive leadership team and charged with leading the direction of the organization’s programmatic work in alignment with our multi-year strategic plan, resulting in greater depth in advocacy strategies to protect and advance civil rights and liberties for all Idahoans.

The CPSO is responsible for managing cross-departmental strategy, overseeing implementation of programs and work plans, leading the development and use of programmatic evaluations tools, and supporting the reporting of outcomes. Our integrated advocacy focuses on four issue areas: Immigrants’ Rights, Transgender Justice, Criminal Legal Reform and Reproductive Rights.

We seek an experienced, innovative, and collaborative leader who works well with diverse groups of people. Each of our programmatic areas is led by an experienced director who in turn supervises their team. The successful candidate will have extensive experience as both a manager and strategist in pursuing an integrated advocacy approach to further a broad range of civil liberties and civil rights work priorities. In addition, the candidate must have a strong background in setting up internal structures for managing staff, program implementation, and evaluation tools to harness the organization’s impact and power more effectively.

The CPSO supervises the Legal Director, Advocacy Director, and Communications Director. The CPSO is supervised by the Executive Director. This is a full-time, exempt position based in Boise, Idaho. The successful candidate must reside in Idaho or be willing to relocate to the state before employment begins.

Responsibilities and Duties

Vision & Strategy Development

• Work closely with the Executive Director and program department directors to operationalize the current strategic plan to execute the organization’s vision.
• Lead the program teams in developing shared, ambitious short- and long-term goals for integrated advocacy campaigns, engaging them in creative and transformative visualization of programs to strengthen the reach, impact, and effectiveness of the ACLU of Idaho’s work.
• Collaborate with the Executive Director and other senior leaders to develop new initiatives, long-term goals, and operating plans to advance civil liberties, equity, and racial justice.

Leadership & Team Management

• Assist the Executive Director in developing and implementing key performance indicators and methods to monitor impact and evaluate the effectiveness of the organization’s programs. Regularly report on progress and challenges, suggest solutions, and identify innovative methods to share that impact with a variety of audiences.
• Oversee all integrated advocacy by working with directors to develop coordinated work plans, tracking progress, managing collaboration between departments, holding staff accountable, and evaluating and measuring success.
• Provide support, guidance, mentorship, and coaching to programmatic staff.
• Foster a culture that promotes teamwork, accountability, and professional growth characterized by excellence along with anti-racism, equity, diversity, inclusion and belonging.
• Work with the Executive Director and the leadership team to assess programmatic capacity gaps and collaborate to identify external partnerships, consultants, and resources to help build organizational capacity that increases our programmatic effectiveness and sustainability.
• Partner with programmatic department directors and the Director of Finance and Administration in providing feedback and monitoring annual budgets.
• Manage compliance by programmatic departments with legal, regulatory, ethical and internal policy requirements as well as consistency with ACLU values.
• Collaborate with the Director of Philanthropy to organize and manage program activities that maximize opportunities for philanthropic support; this includes collaborating closely with organization leadership on drafting grant proposals and grant reporting and joining periodic meetings with major donors.
• Collaborate with the ACLU National office, and other affiliates as needed, on nationwide and statewide issues.
• Although serving primarily in an internal facing role, act as a spokesperson and public face for the ACLU of Idaho, as appropriate.

Building Long-term Political Power and Influence

• Maintain a deep analytical understanding of the electoral and political landscape and work to better position the ACLU of Idaho to influence policymakers, government agencies and voters.
• Collaborate with Executive Director and affiliate staff to understand partnerships, shared goals and strategies across coalitions of partner organizations in the civil rights, faith, business and other sectors to advance values and priorities related to constitutional rights and develop strategies to strengthen these relationships.

Required Qualifications

• A minimum of (7) years of relevant experience including (5) years in senior management roles that required significant judgement, emotional intelligence, and management and leadership finesse.
• Experience working at a nonprofit or similar public interest focused organization with an integrated advocacy model where legal, policy, communications and community mobilizing are used to achieve results.
• Significant experience supervising a team of at least three (3) people and designing and executing integrated advocacy campaigns.
• Excellent analytical problem-solving and coaching skills; adept at overseeing and executing strategic projects with significant visibility and impact. Demonstrated ability to resourcefully solve problems with a people-centered focus.
• Exceptional interpersonal skills, tact and diplomacy with the ability to develop and maintain cooperative, collaborative, and successful working relationships.
• Demonstrated ability to develop and manage effective teams in a fast-paced, complex environment and the ability to foresee needs and challenges.
• Ability to provide clear direction, delegate tasks, while developing and nurturing highly talented and diverse staff.
• Patience, emotional intelligence, and cultural competency, including the ability to participate in, create, and sustain inclusive and engaging spaces for people with a wide range of races, ethnicities, language proficiencies, abilities, genders, gender identities, sexual orientations, ages, backgrounds, skills, personalities, and geographies.
• Desire to receive and incorporate feedback.
• Clear, strong, and proven commitment to racial justice, civil liberties, public interest work, and the mission of the ACLU of Idaho.
• Valid driving privileges and willingness to travel across Idaho and occasionally to other places in the United States.
• Ability to attend in-person meetings and events.
• Experience working with at least one of the impacted communities we serve through our strategic priorities.

Preferred Qualifications

• A JD/law degree.

Compensation

The salary for this position is $140,000 , which is re-evaluated on an annual basis and is subject to adjustment in connection with an organization wide adjustment of compensation. We offer excellent benefits, including 100% employer-paid premiums for medical, vision and dental insurance, 401(k) plan with an employer match, life and long-term disability insurance, sabbatical eligibility after at least five years, and generous paid holidays.

ACLU of Idaho will provide up to $5,000 to support relocation expenses.

To Apply

(1) Compile the following into a single PDF file:

• Résumé.
• A cover letter, no more than two pages, explaining how your background and experience prepare you for this job.
• Contact information for three references.

(2) Send to careers@acluidaho.org .

Please reference “Chief Programs and Strategy Officer” in the email subject line and indicate in your cover letter where you found this job listing.

Review of applications will begin on October 12, 2026. The position will remain open until filled.

If you are a person with a disability and need assistance applying, please e-mail careers@acluidaho.org .

If we select you for an interview, you will receive more information about how to request accommodations for the interview process.

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