Director - State & Local Government Affairs - Motorola Solutions - Chicago

Job description
This position within Government Affairs supports the North America Government Sales organization through project funding and business development activities that have a political focus. These activities include developing customer funding strategies to support procurement of large public safety communications systems as well as on-going life cycle investments in such systems. This requires a working knowledge of MSI’s product portfolio in order to develop funding plans tailored to the customers’ project requirements and timelines. This department is responsible for developing and maintaining high-level relationships with state and local elected officials and key staff to promote MSI government sales.


This position is responsible for developing and implementing political and funding strategies for large-scale public safety communications projects. This requires lobbying both the executive and legislative branches of state/local government and a demonstrated ability to get state or local elected leaders to prioritize these projects among other competing budget needs, including efforts to generate grassroots/grasstops support for these projects. In particular, these projects will often involve developing and driving legislative initiatives. Accordingly, it is expected that the candidate has existing relationships with state legislators in Midwest states and can provide examples of successful efforts to get legislation passed or defeated, preferably in multiple states. Examples of successful legislative initiatives involving IT procurement projects is preferred. Experience involving public safety markets is a plus.

It is expected that this position will be responsible for outcomes that prove to be a critical success factor in closing and/or making measurable progress on sales opportunities. This position works in close partnership with internal clients primarily in the Midwest sales region which covers 13 states, including IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, OH, MI, MN, MO, NE, ND, SD and WI.

This position is also responsible for working with customers to incorporate federal grants into their overall funding plans and for doing federal funding presentations to customer groups to support business development efforts.

Desired Skills and Experience
Seeking candidates in the Greater Midwest Region. (IL, IA, IN, KS, KY, OH, MI, MN, MO, NE, ND, SD and WI)

Extensive travel within Greater Midwest Region

This position requires the following knowledge/skills:

• Bachelors Degree
• 10+ years work experience
• Must have state/local lobbying or government experience
• Ability to partner with both internal and external customers and to gain their trust
• Ability to develop strong relationships with state/local government officials and staff
• Knowledge of state/local appropriations and budgeting processes
• Knowledge of federal grant programs
• Understanding of state/local campaign finance laws
• Ability to develop strategic political contribution plans
• Ability to effectively manage state/local contract lobbyists
• Ability to effectively leverage association memberships
• Effective communicator, including strong presentation and inter-personal skills
• Ability to deal with diverse personalities
• Critical thinking and thought leadership capability

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