Vice President, Public Affairs - Southern California

This role will support the Southern California Market Job Summary: The Vice President, Market Public Affairs serves as the senior-most Public Affairs leader within the market and is responsible for advancing and protecting Kaiser Permanente's reputation, mission, strategic priorities, and business objectives through integrated communications, media relations, community affairs, stakeholder engagement, local government relations, executive positioning, and issues management. Reporting directly to the Chief Public Affairs Officer and maintaining a dotted-line relationship to the Regional President, the Vice President serves as the primary Public Affairs advisor to market leadership and operates at the intersection of enterprise strategy and market execution. This leader is accountable for ensuring enterprise Public Affairs priorities are effectively translated into market strategies, stakeholder engagement efforts, campaigns, communications programs, and community activities while ensuring local market realities inform enterprise decision-making. The Vice President serves as a member of both the Chief Public Affairs Leadership Table and the Regional Presidents leadership team, reinforcing the enterprise nature of the role while helping shape enterprise strategy and ensuring the market speaks and acts with One KP Voice. The Vice President serves as the primary Public Affairs point of contact for the Regional President and market leadership team and works in close partnership with medical group leadership and health plan leadership. While certain Public Affairs functions, including State Affairs and Federal Government Relations, maintain direct reporting relationships to enterprise leaders, the Vice President is responsible for ensuring all Public Affairs activities within the market are coordinated, aligned, and executed through a unified One KP approach. The role provides a single point of integration for market leadership, ensuring enterprise capabilities are effectively leveraged and market needs are effectively represented across the Public Affairs function. The Vice President leads a market-based Public Affairs team responsible for communications, media relations, community affairs, stakeholder engagement, local government relations, executive positioning, reputation management, and issues management. The role works in close partnership with enterprise centers of excellence across External Communications, State Affairs, Federal Affairs, Internal Communications & Engagement, Community Affairs & Engagement, Advocacy, Marketing, Legal, Policy & Regulatory Affairs, and Community Health. Internal communications will be more tightly connected between enterprise and markets, with enterprise teams providing shared platforms, strategies, and support while market teams lead execution for market-specific priorities. That work includes everything from day-to-day workforce communications to sustained change management campaigns tied directly to how a market competes, including quality measure improvement, care delivery transformation, and operational shifts that require employees to work differently. These are not enterprise storytelling exercises; they are operational necessities that require local knowledge, local relationships, and dedicated market capacity, delivered with enterprise awareness and alignment. As the senior Public Affairs leader in the market, the Vice President serves as a trusted advisor to the Regional President and market leadership team, a visible executive presence across the market, and a key relationship builder across Kaiser Permanentes care delivery system. This leader helps cultivate market network relationships across the health care delivery system and ensures Kaiser Permanente maintains strong relationships with local media, community leaders, employers, labor leaders, nonprofit organizations, civic organizations, chambers of commerce, local elected officials, business groups, and other influential