Title: Director, Principals and Surrogates
Reports to: Chief of Staff
Direct reports: Director of the Office of Gabby Giffords, Senior Events Manager, Scheduling Manager
Hours: full-time, exempt
Location: Washington, DC
Led by former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, GIFFORDS is a nonprofit organization whose team is on a mission to save lives from gun violence. GIFFORDS is proud to be an equal opportunity employer committed to creating an environment that celebrates diversity, equity, and inclusion. People of color, trans individuals, gender non-conforming individuals, women, people with differing abilities, and veterans are strongly encouraged to apply.
Position Summary
The Director of Principals and Surrogates is responsible for the strategic utilization of GIFFORDS’ principals and surrogates. The Director ensures principal and surrogate deployment is strategic, efficient and effectively aligned to further the organization’s goals. The Director oversees the team that develops principal and surrogate daily and long-term schedules; ensures these individuals are briefed on scheduled activities and that their engagements are effectively planned and executed; ensures all briefing and logistics materials are compiled in a timely and thorough manner; manages information flow among principals, surrogates and staff, and external stakeholders; and supports special events and ad-hoc projects.
This is a full-time position based in our Washington DC office. This position requires the ability and willingness to travel up to 20% of the time, as well as interest and ability in staffing weekend and evening events as needed, and being on-call on evenings and weekends. This position will be expected to work in a hybrid model, with some days a week in the office and the rest of the time working remotely. Applications are accepted on a rolling basis until the position is filled. Due to the high volume of applicants, no phone calls or emails, please.
Duties + Responsibilities
- Provide strategic oversight of all aspects of principal and surrogate scheduling including events, movements and travel ensuring alignment with organizational priorities and external opportunities.
- Develop cross-departmental relationships and work closely with executive and senior staff to develop quarterly schedules and manage teams who produce schedules that advance GIFFORDS’ work and mission, and ensure all of the principal and surrogate meetings and events are effectively planned and executed.
- Manage a team that includes the Director of the Office of Gabby Giffords, the Scheduling Manager who supports drafting and implementing the principals’ schedules, the Senior Events Manager and the Executive Assistants who support Congresswoman Giffords and the Executive Director.
- Ensure principals are adequately prepared for all engagements by overseeing logistics, preparation, and timely production of accurate briefing materials and memos.
- Set agendas and lead regular senior-level meetings and calls to coordinate and execute follow up on all tasks to support principal scheduling and surrogate deployment ensuring accountability and effective execution.
- Establish and oversee the systems, protocols, and infrastructure to deploy a cohort of trained, credible messengers, such as gun owners, survivors, Latino advocates, and Courage Fellows, to represent the organization effectively at events across the country.
- Provide strategic leadership to staff coordinating with relevant stakeholders, including event contacts, program staff and advance staff on principals’ role, event program, and transportation.
- Ensure the coordination and arrangement of all logistics related to scheduling and traveling of unpaid surrogates such as speakers at events.
- Oversee the workflow of scheduling requests submitted for internal and external meetings and event appearances and direct the flow of responses and manage an ever-evolving high-level calendar. Ensure requests are vetted and strategically prioritized and oversee the scheduling of all travel, events, meetings, and calls on the principals’ schedules.
- Drive improvement and streamlining of processes, strengthen cross-departmental collaboration and implement best practices for efficiency and effectiveness.
- Maintain a high degree of confidentiality regarding all matters, conversations, and documents.
- Lead special projects as assigned to support the GIFFORDS mission.
Required knowledge, skills + experience
- 10+ years of progressively responsible experience in scheduling, operations, executive support, events, or political/advocacy environments, including responsibility for complex, high-stakes calendars and external engagements.
- Proven people manager with experience directly managing senior staff and multi-function teams; demonstrated accountability for the accuracy, quality, and timeliness of team work products.
- Skilled coach and people developer who provides regular, specific, and actionable feedback; recognizes performance or management issues early and partners appropriately with leadership and HR.
- Demonstrated ability to set and execute departmental strategy in alignment with organizational priorities, including building work plans, setting team cadence, and managing teams to goals and deadlines.
- Strong cross-departmental leader with a track record of building trust and effective working relationships across teams through sound judgment, responsiveness, and clear, respectful communication.
- Experience providing strategic oversight of executive or principal scheduling, including prioritization of requests, coordination of travel and events, and anticipation of risks, conflicts, and operational challenges.
- Ability to oversee complex logistics and preparation processes, ensuring principals are consistently well-prepared through accurate, timely briefing materials and coordinated execution.
- Comfort representing an organization to high-level external stakeholders, including partners, event hosts, elected officials, and senior leaders; able to clearly present strategy, logistics, and priorities.
- Demonstrated facility with incorporating IDEA principles into management practices, collaboration, and decision-making.
- Strong operational judgment and discretion, with a demonstrated ability to handle highly confidential information with professionalism and care.
- Experience managing workflows, approval processes, and budgets, including vendor coordination and expense approvals, with an understanding of how individual projects fit within broader departmental and organizational budgets.
- Proven ability to anticipate challenges and adapt approaches, streamlining systems and improving processes to increase efficiency and effectiveness across teams.
Valued non-essential knowledge, skills, + experience
- Bilingual in Spanish and English.
Salary + benefits
The salary range for this position is $150,000 - $171,000 annually with the exact salary depending on experience. Competitive benefits include employer-funded health, dental, and vision insurance; health, transit, and parking flexible spending accounts; 401k plan with 4% employer match; reimbursement for cell phone and monthly wifi stipend; 25 days of PTO annually plus paid week closure at the end of the calendar year; and 10 paid federal holidays.
Applying + the interview process
Submit your resume and a brief cover letter (400 words maximum) that outlines three specific ways that you would be a good fit for this position. Our interview process for this position consists of a phone interview, two Zoom interviews, and reference checks.
GIFFORDS is proud to be an equal opportunity employer committed to creating an environment that celebrates diversity, equity and inclusion. People of color, trans individuals, gender non-conforming individuals, women, people with differing abilities, and veterans are strongly encouraged to apply.
