Open Policy Manager
Creative Commons
Creative Commons promotes and works for the adoption of open policies and supports the policy efforts made by the CC Global Network (CCGN) in national and international forums and in close collaboration with others. Our policy and advocacy work is focused on improving the ecosystem in which sharing is made possible and supported by governments, foundations, organizations and individuals alike. This includes focusing our policy efforts on both current opportunities and immediate threats to the commons, ensuring a proper balance is struck between user rights and copyright protection, and working to ensure publicly funded resources are open by default.
To fulfill this important objective, Creative Commons is seeking a Policy Manager who is passionate about open culture, copyright reform, the public domain, and the creation, adoption and implementation of open policies. This individual will help shape and focus our policy and advocacy work leveraging CC’s unique and extraordinary global network of members who are national, regional, and international experts in global copyright reform and open policy work.
The Policy Manager will report to the Director of Ecosystem Strategy and will work closely with the CCGN, and the CC Legal, Open Education, and GLAM teams.
Qualifications & Requirements
The single most important task for the CC Open Policy Manager is to help shape CC’s policy and advocacy priorities for the next five years. This position will identify high priority and high impact programs and focus areas around which CC can best marshall its resources, credibility, and global community for maximum policy impact. This will involve leading the development of an organization-wide policy and advocacy strategy and helping to prioritize activities and outreach aligned with this strategy and CC’s overarching mission.
The ideal candidate will possess many or all of the following skills:
- Deep understanding of substantive policy topics that bear on Creative Commons’ mission, including open copyright licensing, copyright reform, the public domain and the creation, adoption and implementation of open policies.
- Ability and experience working with a diverse community of stakeholders, including open and collaborative online communities and networks across cultures and time zones.
- Experience helping governments, foundations and/or GLAM institutions approach, create, adopt and implement open policies; including understanding their challenges.
- Experience working in international or regional fora or communities, such as WIPO or other intergovernmental organizations, the European Union, and/or private organizations such as Communia.
- A critical mind that can prioritize the myriad opportunities for engagement in policy and open advocacy, identifying and assisting CC in focusing its resources toward opportunities where CC is most uniquely able to have an impact.
Primary Responsibilities
- Manage the coordination, creation, editing, research, and promotion of public policy positions, issue campaigns, and policy advocacy in collaboration with CC staff, the CCGN, and community of copyright experts. This includes serving as an organizing voice and secretariat for the CCGN Copyright Reform Platform.
- Liaise with all CC program areas and the global network to coordinate responses to strategic public policy and copyright reform intervention opportunities—aligned with CC’s vision, mission, and community platform priorities — in support of expanding the commons, promoting user rights, and protecting the public interest.
- Assist and facilitate the activities of the CCGN on relevant public policy and advocacy projects, interventions, and issue campaigns, through the copyright reform platform and other venues.
- Advise the Director of Ecosystem Strategy on needs and opportunities to engage partners, collaborators, funders, and the network to advance CC’s campaigns, policy, and advocacy goals.
- Provide policy expertise and develop (via meetings, blog posts, policy analysis briefs, white papers, case studies, social media, etc.) communications explaining and promoting CC tools for policy audiences, copyright reform in service of users and the public interest, and open policy adoption.
- Actively contribute to strategic coalition work (including ad hoc CCGN groups) related to copyright reform, open policy, open access, civil society / public interest coalitions on balanced copyright in trade agreements.
- Actively participate in key virtual and face to face meetings including the CC Global Summit, as well as other convenings related to public policy issue areas where warranted, such as RightsCon, Mozilla Festival, Wikimania, and also virtual events such as Open Access Week, Open Education Week, Copyright Week, and Fair Use Week.
- Conduct ongoing networking and community building with other open policy and copyright reform organisations, nonprofits, businesses, academics, and legal experts
- Track and broadly share information with the community on relevant copyright and public policy issues related to CC, including news, trends and calls to action.
The ideal candidate also has
- 3 years of experience working in government, civil society advocacy groups, or think tanks.
- Excellent research skills and strong attention to detail.
- Comfortable working remotely.
- Outstanding writing skills, including the ability to write in-depth and shorter pieces for a variety of audiences.
- Ability to work in a language in addition to English (is not required but is a plus!), especially French, Spanish or Arabic.
Diversity & inclusion
We believe that diverse teams build better organizations and better services. Applications from qualified candidates from all backgrounds, including those from under-represented communities, are very welcome. Creative Commons works openly as part of a global community, guided by collaboratively developed codes of conduct and anti-harassment policies.
Work environment and location
Creative Commons is a fully-distributed organization — we have no central office. This position is in a remote working environment and you can be anywhere in the world as long as you’re available for meetings between 2 PM to 8 PM UTC. You must have reasonable mobility for travel to twice-annual all-staff meetings and the CC Global Summit (a total of 3 trips per year). We provide a subsidy towards high-speed broadband access. Laptop/desktop computer and necessary resources are supplied.
Salary and benefits
Creative Commons is a leading non-profit employer, offering competitive salaries and benefits, including health and wellness plans, annual retirement contributions, and a positive, supportive work environment. We offer competitive salary in the range for this position from $70,000 to $80,000 USD annually, commensurate with relevant skills, experience, and location.
How to apply
Please email your cover letter and resume as a single PDF to “jobs@creativecommons.org” with the subject heading of “Policy Manager / [Last Name].” Phone calls and messages will not be returned.
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