Regulatory Affairs Manager

Swimply is the marketplace that lets homeowners rent out their private pools, hot tubs, courts and backyards by the hour. Thousands of hosts across the United States and Canada use Swimply to share space they already own with families and small groups in their community.

Because hourly backyard rentals are new, most local codes were written before they existed. Towns, counties, health departments and homeowners associations regularly try to fit Swimply into rules written for hotels, public pools, home businesses or overnight short-term rentals. We are building a dedicated regulatory function to manage those matters at scale and to move the rules in our favor, state by state.

You will own the day-to-day operation of the program and work directly with our General Counsel, our CEO, our Head of Operations and the outside lobbyists and local counsel we retain.

The Role

The Regulatory Affairs Manager runs Swimply's regulatory program end to end. Half of the job is operational: every notice a host or the company receives is logged, answered and tracked to a close. The other half is strategic: finding the bills, partners and officials that let us fix the rules for a whole state at once instead of town by town.

Run the notice program

• Own the regulatory intake: the regulatory inbox, the host reporting form and escalations from the Host Success team.
• Log every cease-and-desist letter, notice of violation, HOA demand and listing takedown in the regulatory tracker, by state, city, issuing agency and legal theory.
• Sort each matter by the theory being used against us: public pool classification, home occupation or zoning, short-term rental rules, business licensing and tax, or HOA covenants.
• Send the approved standard response to the host or code officer, and follow up until the matter is closed or escalated.
• Escalate to the General Counsel within one business day anything involving a subpoena, a records demand, a lawsuit, criminal exposure or a threat to a whole market.
• Publish a weekly regulatory report for the CEO and General Counsel: new notices, open matters, trends and recommended next steps.

Change the rules, state by state

• Track bills and ordinances in our priority states, starting with New Jersey, New York, California and Texas, and flag any short-term rental or health-code bill our language could be added to.
• Keep our model state bill and model city ordinance current.
• Prepare the testimony, one-pagers, fact sheets and talking points our lobbyists and executives use with legislators and staff.
• Reach out directly to selected city planning, code enforcement and health departments to explain our safety standards before a problem starts.
• Manage outside firms and budget.
• Day-to-day manager for our lead lobbying firm, state lobbyists and local zoning counsel: scopes, weekly updates, deadlines and invoices.
• Build and maintain a bench of zoning counsel and lobbyists in each problem state, ready for when a matter escalates.
• Own the regulatory budget against the plan the board approves, and give leadership a clear cost-versus-outcome view before any new engagement is signed.

Build allies

• Represent Swimply in short-term rental coalitions, state chambers of commerce, realtor associations and pool and spa industry groups.
• Recruit and prepare hosts to speak at hearings and council meetings.

Keep us compliant

• Handle lobbying registrations and periodic disclosure filings at the state and city level.
• Support Finance on offers to collect and remit local taxes in jurisdictions that confirm our legality in writing.
• Research permit, occupancy and licensing requirements for new products and new markets, including Canada, and brief the General Counsel and product teams.
• Pull and organize platform data when counsel needs it to respond to a government request.

Required

• 5 to 8 years in government affairs, public policy, regulatory operations or local government.
• Hands-on experience with how state legislatures and city councils actually move a bill or ordinance: committees, staff, hearings and timing.
• Experience managing outside vendors such as lobbying firms or consultants, including scopes and budgets.
• Clear, plain-English writing. You can turn a zoning code section into a one-page explanation a homeowner or council member understands.
• A system for high volume. You keep dozens of open matters across many states moving without losing one.
• Calm, professional manner with code officers, health inspectors, HOA boards and frustrated hosts.
• A bachelor's degree or equivalent experience.

Preferred

• Policy or government affairs work at a sharing-economy or marketplace company, such as short-term rentals, space rentals, ride-share or car-sharing.
• Experience as a legislative or council staffer, or in a city planning, zoning, code enforcement or public health department.
• Existing relationships in New Jersey, New York, California or Texas.
• Prior registration as a lobbyist, or experience handling lobbying disclosure filings.
• Familiarity with pool safety, public health or short-term rental regulation.
• Spanish proficiency.