Advocacy Director

Advocacy Director

Disability Rights Montana

Location: Helena, MT (open to hybrid)

Salary: $110,000-130,000

Resume and Cover Letter required for application to be reviewed

Let’s be clear about what this job is.

This is the position that decides how power actually moves through this organization and how that power changes Montana. You’ll be leading attorneys, advocates, investigators, and culture-builders. You’ll be deciding when we educate, when we investigate, when we negotiate, and when we litigate.

If you want to stay in your lane, this isn’t the job for you. This is for the leader who is done watching legal, policy, and advocacy work operate in silos. If you want to build something integrated, strategic, and hard to ignore, this very well could be the perfect fit.

Who We Are

Disability Rights Montana protects and advances the civil rights of all disabled Montanans. This includes people with physical, sensory, intellectual, neurodiverse, and psychiatric disabilities. Disability Rights Montana is a private non-profit designated as Montana’s federally mandated Protection & Advocacy system. We are not a think-tank, we take action.

We have authority no other entity in Montana has:

• We can investigate abuse, neglect, and rights violations;
• We can go into private and public facilities including jails, schools, psychiatric hospitals, group homes, etc. to see how people are being treated;
• We can access both people and records that are locked away from the public; and
• When we find problems, and boy do we find problems, we can advocate using any approach we see fit, including systemic class action litigation.

Our job is to turn these federally granted tools into real outcomes for disabled people across Montana. We’re not here to check compliance boxes. We’re here to transform Montana.

For information about us, please visit: http://www.disabilityrightsmt.org

What You’ll Own

You’ll lead the entire advocacy engine legal, non-legal, and community advocacy while partnering closely with the Policy Director to make sure every effort is building toward the same outcomes.

1. Build One Integrated Advocacy Strategy (Not Silos)

• Align legal advocacy, investigations, monitoring, policy, and outreach into one clear strategy
• Make sure we’re not doing disconnected work and are building toward shared outcomes
• Decide how different tools (education, negotiation, litigation, media) work together in each priority area
• Turn diffuse efforts into focused campaigns

2. Lead and Develop a Cross-Functional Team

• Supervise attorneys, advocates, and investigators
• Build and lead systemic litigation teams with internal attorneys and co-counsel from across the state and nation
• Set expectations that go beyond “caseload” toward impact
• Foster a culture where everyone’s expertise matters
• Grow people into leaders who understand systems, not just tasks

3. Drive Legal Strategy, But Keep It in Its Place

• Oversee high-impact litigation, including complex and systemic cases
• Help decide which cases we take and why
• Ensure legal work supports broader advocacy goals (not just individual wins)
• Maintain excellence in legal analysis, ethics, and execution

At the same time: You know lawsuits aren’t the only means of system transformation and you develop strategic plans that account for that.

4. Strengthen Investigations and Monitoring as Power Tools

• Elevate monitoring and investigations beyond compliance into real leverage
• Use access authority strategically to uncover systemic failures
• Turn findings into action in a combination of legal, policy, and public pressure
• Support teams doing on-the-ground work in facilities, schools, and communities

5. Turn Advocacy Into Systems Change

• Connect individual stories to structural reform
• Identify patterns early and act before they become entrenched
• Drive policy and administrative change alongside legal work
• Build relationships that increase pressure and open doors

6. Be a Movement-Oriented Leader

• Center disabled people in the work, not just as clients, but as partners and co-leaders
• Help shape public narratives about disability, autonomy, and belonging
• Connect Disability Rights Montana’s work to broader state and national movements
• Use every tool available: law, media, partnerships, and culture

7. Help Set the Direction of the Organization

• Serve on the leadership team
• Bring clarity to difficult strategic choices
• Push for bold action when it matters
• Help DRM stay focused on impact, not activity

What Success Looks Like

• Legal work, advocacy, and investigations are aligned, not competing
• Your team knows what matters and why, and executes at a high level
• Monitoring reports lead to change, not just documentation
• Litigation is strategic and visible, not reactive and hidden
• Disabled people across Montana feel the shift in real ways and are supported in participating in it

Who You Are

• You’ve spent real time in civil rights, disability advocacy, or public interest work (8-10+ years is typical but that is not a hard and fast rule)
• You’ve led teams or you’re clearly ready to
• You understand both legal strategy and broader advocacy tools
• You can see patterns across hundreds of stories and turn them into action
• You don’t get stuck in professional silos or hierarchy

And:

You believe the goal isn’t delivery of discrete services. You know services are a means to the end. The goal is shifting the power to Montanans with disabilities, so they have control over their lives and the systems that affect them.

What you need

• JD required, but you operate beyond just legal frameworks
• Licensed in Montana or able to obtain licensure
• Strong understanding of disability rights and civil rights law (ADA, Section 504, IDEA, etc.)
• Experience supervising multidisciplinary teams is a big plus

Hiring Process

Please send a cover letter and resume to Christine Purcell, Disability Rights Montana Office Manager, at christinep@dr-mt.org.

Please address the following in your cover letter:

· why you would like to work for Disability Rights Montana,

· your personal and professional interest in advocating for persons with disabilities;

· a discussion of how you meet the minimal qualifications for the position;

· supervisory experience, and details to any hybrid remote or telecommuting proposals you would like Disability Rights Montana to consider, if applicable.

Resumes without a cover letter will not be reviewed.

Submissions will be reviewed on a rolling basis and will be accepted until the position is filled. The interview process will include two rounds of interviews. If selected as a finalist, Disability Rights Montana will ask the applicant for writing samples and references.

Disability Rights Montana is an equal opportunity employer. Is also committed to promoting universal accessibility and fairness in our interview process. At least three business days before an interview, Disability Rights Montana will provide applicants with the names and titles of interviewers and will provide the interview questions, which will be the same for all applicants. We know that other efforts to make our process more accessible may be needed based on individual needs and we will provide reasonable accommodations for any portion of the application or interview process. You can request them by contacting Christine Purcell, Disability Rights Montana Office Manager, at christinep@dr-mt.org. If you are not sure if you would benefit from an accommodation, you can review the Job Accommodations Network (JAN) website, which provides many ideas about possible accommodations that have worked for others, and you are more than welcome to call Katherine to discuss ideas you have or what we have done in the past. JAN is located here: https://askjan.org/soar.cfm

Position Title: Advocacy Director

Company Name: Disability Rights Montana

Location: Helena (open to hybrid)

Posted: June 5, 2026

Education: Juris Doctorate and admission to practice in Montana within 6 months of hiring.

Experience: Significant civil rights, disability advocacy, or public interest work

Job Category: Management, reports to Executive Director

Job Type: Full-time, Exempt

Salary: $110,000-130,000

Benefits: health, dental, and vision insurance are 100% employer paid for the employee and their qualifying family members. Employer paid 403(b) contribution, life insurance, long-term care insurance, vacation and sick leave. Additional voluntary employee paid benefits are also available.

Job Type: Full-time

Pay: $110,000.00 - $130,000.00 per year

Benefits:

• Dental insurance
• Flexible schedule
• Flexible spending account
• Health insurance
• Health savings account
• Life insurance
• Paid time off
• Professional development assistance
• Relocation assistance
• Retirement plan
• Vision insurance

People with a criminal record are encouraged to apply

Work Location: Hybrid remote in Helena, MT 59601