External Stakeholder Lead – Senior

Barbaricum is seeking an experienced Senior External Stakeholder Lead to lead external stakeholder engagement and partner coordination under the Military Community and Family Policy (MC&FP) Outreach and Digital Enterprise Services (MODES) contract. You will support community and public engagement objectives, strengthen stakeholder understanding and trust, and help align external engagement, messaging, feedback, and reputational risk management with MC&FP priorities.

Responsibilities:

• Lead engagement and coordination with external stakeholders, partners, policy-focused organizations, advocacy groups, and community-facing organizations to support MC&FP objectives.
• Serve as the primary coordination point for external stakeholder engagement, ensuring continuity, alignment, and timely communication across functional teams.
• Develop and implement stakeholder engagement plans aligned with MC&FP priorities, external affairs strategy, public engagement objectives, and brand reputation needs.
• Build and manage relationships with national, regional, state, local, and targeted organizations that influence policy dialogue, public perception, and community trust.
• Represent MC&FP in stakeholder meetings, coalition forums, working groups, and public-facing engagements to build goodwill, promote collaboration, and shape policy dialogue.
• Capture, assess, and analyze external feedback to inform planning, messaging, engagement approaches, reputational risk awareness, and senior leadership updates.
• Draft, review, and coordinate stakeholder materials, briefings, talking points, engagement summaries, and public-facing support products.
• Lead stakeholder mapping, influence analysis, and engagement strategies for legislative, regulatory, reputational, and community priorities.
• Monitor public policy trends, stakeholder concerns, and reputational risks, recommending engagement and crisis response strategies as needed.
• Coordinate internal working groups and recurring updates with government affairs, legal, communications, program operations, and senior leadership to ensure consistent messaging and enterprise-wide visibility.

Required Skills:

• Strong knowledge of stakeholder engagement, external affairs, public affairs, government affairs, advocacy, public policy, community engagement, and strategic communications.
• Ability to build trust-based relationships with external stakeholders, partner organizations, government entities, advocacy groups, and cross-functional internal teams.
• Ability to assess stakeholder perspectives, public policy trends, reputational risks, and engagement opportunities in a dynamic and politically sensitive environment.
• Strong strategic planning skills with the ability to develop engagement plans, stakeholder maps, influence strategies, and coordinated outreach approaches.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills, including the ability to present complex concepts clearly and concisely to executives, clients, partners, and public-facing audiences.
• Ability to draft and review briefings, talking points, engagement materials, leadership updates, and public-facing communication products.
• Strong judgment, discretion, and professionalism when handling sensitive stakeholder issues, policy concerns, reputational matters, and crisis response support.
• Ability to coordinate functional teams, manage competing priorities, track dependencies, elevate risks, and maintain alignment with MC&FP objectives.
• Strong analytical and organizational skills, including the ability to synthesize external feedback, identify implications, and recommend practical engagement actions.

Required Qualifications:

• Master's degree, MBA, or advanced degree in Public Administration, Public Policy, Communications, Public Relations, Government Affairs, Political Science, Organizational Leadership, Business, or a related field is preferred.
• 10+ years of experience in stakeholder engagement, public affairs, government affairs, external affairs, advocacy, communications, policy engagement, or related fields.
• 5+ years of leadership experience working with or in state or local government, policy organizations, public affairs organizations, advocacy campaigns, or third-party stakeholder organizations.
• Experience working within a large corporation, policy organization, public interest group, government environment, or mission-focused public-sector program is preferred.
• Proven ability to manage external relationships and influence policy, engagement, or reputational outcomes through strategic stakeholder coordination.
• Familiarity with federal policy, regulatory, legislative, advocacy, or public affairs environments.
• Experience developing stakeholder engagement plans, influence strategies, external briefings, leadership materials, and coordinated engagement updates.
• DoD Secret Security Clearance.