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About the Role:

The VP of External Affairs is a key leadership position reporting directly to the CEO, Julie Cordua. They will be responsible for leading the Marketing and Communications team, the Philanthropy team and the Policy team. These teams are responsible for continuing to strengthen the Thorn brand, increase awareness and demand for Thorn’s products, growing the donor base and expanding relationships with policy makers, industry leaders, and other key stakeholders. This is a unique opportunity at the intersection of technology and social-impact, to play a critical role in Thorn’s 5-year strategic growth plan. This role will be a key driver in Thorn’s ability to achieve key milestones on their growth and sustainability plan, all in service of Thorn achieving its goal of ending online child sexual abuse.

The nature of this role will require significant travel as part of building and nurturing key relationships globally. In addition, Thorn may host company-wide gatherings, and smaller teams may hold in-person meetings and team-building events, or require attendance at specific conferences. The role is US-based with some travel required (40%).

What You’ll Do:

• Organizational Leadership:
  
  • Lead a high performing and diverse team of subject matter experts across marketing, communications, philanthropy and policy to ensure cohesive team dynamics, growth and measurable impact.
  • Serve as a core member of Thorn’s leadership team, working alongside cross-functional leads to remove roadblocks and build healthy relationships across the organization.
  • Play a key role in crafting Thorn’s strategic plan, thinking broadly about the long-term business needs and bringing the expertise and insight from the external affairs lens into that process.
  • Drive annual planning cycles and define organizational performance metrics that align with short and long term business objectives
• Fundraising:
  
  • Expand the donor base and partner with the CEO to raise $11M/year from major donors. It is essential that this person is comfortable making seven figure asks of donors.
  • Launch a $35M five year capital campaign to support the organization until they achieve their revenue goal of $15M/year.

• Marketing Communications:
  
  • Lead a high growth product marketing team. Create a marketing strategy and tie KPIs back to the broader organizational growth goals.
  • Develop and manage a comprehensive vision for Thorn’s external presence that helps achieve Thorn’s goal of being a globally recognizable, trusted, well-funded brand known for high impact work to end online child sexual abuse.
  • Serve as a senior leader interacting with C-Level technology executives, foreign officials/agencies, political leaders, celebrities, and other high profile stakeholders.
• Policy:
  
  • Continue to drive legislative priorities within the United States and the European Union. Support the policy team as it navigates global policy matters as needed.

What We’re Looking For:

• You will have 15 - 20+ years of experience across a diverse range of external affairs functions - marketing, communications, policy and philanthropy.
  
• You will have at least 10 years of executive leadership experience (VP equivalent), a plus in high growth organizations.
  
• You lead with empathy and are a strong collaborator able to work closely with other members of the leadership team, as well as external stakeholders
  
• You have the proven ability to influence and drive change with management teams and across organizations, aligning people strategy with values and goals.
  
• You have a commitment to putting the children we serve at the center of everything you do.
  
• You're a natural role model and inspire the teams you lead but you also know how to build culture and have fun. You are a team builder and coach that identifies and cultivates a growth mindset within your team and across the organization. You are comfortable coaching at all levels.
  
• You have demonstrated the ability to raise either philanthropic or venture capital
  
• You are a natural relationship builder with very high emotional intelligence
  
• You have a track record of successfully leading high growth product marketing teams
  
• You have worked in highly complex fields that engage in media relations, government relations, and multi-disciplinary stakeholder engagement in order to advance organizational goals.
  
• You have strong executive communication skills, asking critical questions, communicating key points, and raising critical issues and opportunities with a well-formed point of view.
  
• You are an effective storyteller with strong written and verbal communication skills. You are able to simplify the complex, especially in sometimes ambiguous situations.
  
• You have a knowledge and understanding of the EU and US policy systems. Experience working with EU legislators and US policy makers is a plus.

Compensation and Benefits:

A reasonable estimate of the compensation range for this role is $188,000 - $248,000. This range takes into account the wide range of factors that are considered in making compensation decisions, including, but not limited to, location; skill sets; experience and training; licensure, and certifications.

Our remote-first work model is structured around working from home most of the time. But, there will be times that employees are expected to travel. For example, Thorn may host company-wide gatherings, and smaller teams may hold in-person meetings and team-building events, or require attendance at specific conferences.

At Thorn, we know that great people make a great organization. We value our people and offer employees a broad range of benefits. Learn more about what working at Thorn can mean for you.