The ACLU Foundation of San Diego & Imperial Counties (ACLUF-SDIC) seeks an External Affairs Project Manager.

The ACLUF-SDIC is a nonpartisan, not-for-profit 501(c)(3) civil liberties and civil rights organization. working to advance equality, freedom and justice through public education and litigation. Together with the ACLU of San Diego & Imperial Counties, the 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization that does our legislative lobbying work, we are a prominent force for the protection and expansion of fundamental rights in California’s second-most populous county (San Diego) and the county with the highest per capita Latina/o population (Imperial).

While there are more than 50 ACLU affiliates nationwide, our work covers the length of California’s border with Mexico. We work collaboratively with the National ACLU and with ACLU affiliates in California, on the U.S-Mexico border and throughout the United States. In addition, we value partnerships and collaboration with community organizations and groups across the state and throughout the binational border region.

The ACLU Foundation of San Diego & Imperial Counties and ACLU of San Diego & Imperial Counties (known collectively as ACLU-SDIC) have a proven track record of success combining impact litigation, policy advocacy, legislation, research and analysis, public education, strategic communications and community organizing to achieve meaningful social change. We are dedicated to confronting issues that threaten our most cherished civil rights and freedoms and defending the progress the ACLU has made over its 100-year history.

Deciding to apply for any position is an investment of your time and energy. We are providing the detail below to help you decide if exploring this opportunity feels right to you. To learn more about us and have a small peek into our organizational work, please watch the videos linked below.

Videos: Why we do this work | Hope for the Future

Position Summary:

The External Affairs Project Manager drives the planning, coordination, and execution of projects across the External Affairs department, ensuring strong operational infrastructure, clear workflows, and consistent follow-through on priorities. This role leads project management and internal systems, partners closely with departmental leadership, and serves as a central point of coordination to keep cross-departmental initiatives moving forward. The ideal candidate is highly organized, detail-oriented, and proactive, with a demonstrated ability to anticipate needs, bring structure to complex work, and ensure projects are completed on time and with care.

Primary Duties and Responsibilities:

Project Management

• Partner with project owners across the EA team to establish roadmaps, milestones, and Asana projects for departmental events, campaigns, and initiatives.

• Work closely with the Philanthropy Relations Manager to provide logistical support for events throughout the year. This includes serving as the logistics lead in securing venue, catering, décor, invitations, publication, volunteers, AV needs, speaker arrangements, and any other component for a successful event.

• Project manage the production of donor engagement collateral, including one-pagers, end of year appeal, case for support and more.

• Support project management for department-led grants, including application and reporting deadlines.

• Work with project owners and the Finance & Operations (FAO) team to execute administrative and logistical tasks related to larger events, campaigns, and projects.

• Project manage annual cyclical activities such as budgeting, work plan development and reviews.

• Coordinate and track regular cyclical activities such as board reports, all-staff updates and supporter updates.

• Prepare and reconcile expenses for External Affairs–owned projects in collaboration with project owners and directors.

Team Infrastructure

Focus: workflows, tools, documentation, and internal efficiency

• Maintain, develop, and refine departmental workflow systems, ensuring processes are clearly documented, communicated, and consistently followed.

• Manage and maintain the team’s Asana environment, including workspaces, project templates, recurring tasks, and user permissions.

• Monitor and organize the department’s shared drives and digital filing systems to ensure consistency, accessibility, and version control.

• Add, triage, and organize tasks submitted to the team via email in Asana, ensuring clear ownership, prioritization, and timely follow-up.

• Coordinate onboarding for new staff, including orientation to team tools, workflows, processes, and norms.

• Identify opportunities to streamline or improve internal processes and implement updates in collaboration with team leads.

Executive Administration

Focus: senior leader support, logistics, responsiveness, and coordination

• Manage department-wide calendaring, including scheduling meetings, tracking key deadlines, and proactively adjusting for out-of-office periods and holidays.

• Prepare and distribute meeting agendas, notes, and follow-up actions to ensure alignment and accountability.

• Process expense reports, reimbursements, and related documentation for the CEA, DP, and DC.

• Support logistical planning and execution for department meetings, retreats, and events.

• Support other administrative projects as assigned by External Affairs leadership.

Collaboration & Continuous Improvement

• Partner closely with the FAO team to troubleshoot Asana and other system-related issues.

• Ensures cross team working agreements are understood, applied consistently and updated regularly

• Collaborate with cross-departmental teams to improve workflows, information sharing, and coordination.

• Support alignment across the External Affairs department by maintaining awareness of overlapping priorities and ensuring smooth communication.

• Contribute to a positive, solutions-oriented team culture that values efficiency, transparency, and learning.

• Participate in department and organizational meetings, offering feedback on operational processes and team functioning.

Our Must Haves:

• Exceptionally reliable and detail-oriented, with a proven ability to drive projects to completion, maintain momentum, and keep complex work organized and on track.

• Thrives in a fast-paced, dynamic environment, effectively prioritizing and managing multiple concurrent projects while maintaining accuracy and composure.
• Collaborative and proactive, anticipating needs, initiating next steps, and communicating clearly to keep teams aligned and operating efficiently.

Required Qualifications:

• Demonstrated ability to manage multiple priorities, meet deadlines, and maintain strong attention to detail in a fast-paced environment.

• Proven track record of being proactive and solution-oriented—anticipating needs, identifying bottlenecks, and independently proposing and implementing improvements.

• Exceptional interpersonal, written, and verbal communication skills with the ability to work collaboratively and diplomatically across teams and levels of seniority.

• Experience designing, implementing and maintaining systems, processes, or tools that improve operational efficiency and team coordination.

• Proficiency with project management and collaboration tools (e.g., Asana, SharePoint, Teams, or similar platforms).

• Comfort setting, enforcing and upholding team processes and standards including managing up and across roles while remaining approachable, patient, and supportive.
• Commitment to equity, inclusion, and the mission and values of the ACLU.

Preferred Qualifications:

• 4–6 years of experience in project management, operations, or administrative roles with increasing responsibility for driving work and coordinating across teams in a nonprofit, advocacy, or mission-driven organization.

• Project Management Certification (e.g., PMP)

• Experience managing complex calendaring, logistics, or departmental workflows for senior leaders or multi-person teams.

• Familiarity with fundraising, donor engagement, or communications projects (e.g., appeals, events, supporter communications).

• Familiarity with data, project, or workflow management systems and a demonstrated ability to learn new software and digital tools quickly.

• Experience building or improving internal processes for collaboration, reporting, or knowledge management.
• Understanding of communications, advocacy, or policy environments and how cross-functional teams operate within them.

Cultural Competencies:
Demonstrated awareness of one’s own cultural identity, views about differences, and the ability to learn and build on varying cultural and community norms. A complex understanding of racial justice and the urgency of confronting institutional racism and inequity. Commitment to equity and inclusion as organizational practice and culture. Proven track record of working across lines of race, immigration status, ethnicity, language, class, gender and other identities and experiences including record of arrest or conviction. Courage and impeccable integrity.

Physical Requirements:
While performing the responsibilities of the job, the employee is required to exchange accurate information, detect/identify documents and the information contained in them, move between areas in and out of the office to complete their role. The employee may need to move various equipment including computer to their work location.

Travel Requirements:
Valid automobile driver’s license and working vehicle required; this position will involve travel throughout San Diego and Imperial County.

Hybrid Working:
The ACLUF-SDIC is headquartered in San Diego, California, though employees have hybrid schedules that allow for remote work.

Compensation:
The hiring salary range is: $88,000 - $98,000. Salary will be determined by a variety of factors, including the knowledge, skills, and experience of the individual selected.

Excellent benefits include four weeks paid vacation; 17 office holidays; 100% medical, vision and dental insurance for staff members and their families; life and long-term disability insurance; gender affirming care, flexible spending accounts, EAP support, and 401(k) plan with employer match and immediate vesting of the employer match.

What Now?
Please submit a cover letter explaining your interest in and qualifications for the position as detailed in this announcement, a current resume, writing sample, and names and contact information of three professional references (including as least one supervisor).

Electronic Applications Preferred. To submit your application, please click here.

However, hard-copy applications can be mailed to:

Chief Operating Officer
ACLU Foundation of San Diego & Imperial Counties
P.O. Box 87131
San Diego, CA 92138-7131

The ACLU is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer and encourages applications from women, people of color, persons with disabilities, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals, veterans, and people with arrest records and/or convictions.