This is an excellent opportunity for an energetic, mission-driven, strategic communications leader who is excited to lead communications strategy; build infrastructure; engage in planning; share expertise and best practices in messaging, digital, branding, and media relations; and execute creative, audience-centered content.
The Team
The National Center for Youth Law’s Communications team is responsible for increasing awareness of the organization as a respected, go-to source on children and youth issues among target audiences. The team also executes a communications plan that promotes public policy changes, improves services for youth, and elevates legal precedent that benefits children and youth autonomy and opportunities. The team leverages a range of communications strategies and tactics to highlight challenges confronting children and youth, and solutions that improve the lives of children, youth, families, and communities.
Position
This is an excellent opportunity for an energetic, mission-driven, strategic communications leader who is excited to lead communications strategy; build infrastructure; engage in planning; share expertise and best practices in messaging, digital, branding, and media relations; and execute creative, audience-centered content. The Senior Director will advance the organization’s new brand identity with internal and external audiences, as well as assess and enhance website strategy and branding a year after a new website was launched in 2022.
Applicants should be excited about advancing high-impact communications objectives, long-term planning and goal-setting, building and supervising a developing team, establishing a strategic communications direction for the organization, and creating shared learning on best practices in communications.
The position reports to one of the organization’s Interim Co-Executive Directors.
Essential Functions
- Develop, implement, and oversee a strategic communications plan for the Communications team and organization, including setting priorities and goals, measurable objectives, strategies, and tactics.
- Lead the Communications team, which includes supervising team members, developing their workplans, delegating work, and identifying goals.
- Ensure strategic communications support is provided to advance the National Center for Youth Law’s advocacy and campaign goals across all of our focus areas.
- Create and lead a plan for strategic message development and shared learning across staff on values-based or asset messaging. Ensure consistency of messaging.
- Develop shared learning for senior staff and their teams on foundations of communications, communication strategies, tools, and tactics that can best advance the work of the organization and streamline collaboration.
- Lead strategies and priorities with communications consultants (creative and website), including needs assessment, timelines, and budgeting.
- Lead ongoing brand strategy, rollout, and compliance with internal and external audiences.
- Establish and manage effective cross-team relationships with organization leadership, program leads, development, and others to identify communications goals, target audiences, and timely, strategic opportunities that advance collective priorities.
Qualifications
- 10+ years of strategic communications experience in a nonprofit, association, public affairs firm or news environment, and/or a dynamic policy, political, or nonprofit environment
- Proven record in identifying and achieving measurable strategic communications goals, strategies and tactics
- Experience building and managing a team, including hiring, supervision, delegation, and establishing best practices in communications
- Excellent writing, digital communications, and editing skills
- Strong knowledge of media relations, web and social media, content creation, SEO/SEM, accessibility standards, and email marketing strategies
- At least three years of demonstrated success leading a communications team within a complex organizational structure
- Experience supervising entry and non-entry-level staff
- Experience leading communications strategies with an equity, diversity, inclusion, and anti-racist lens
- Experience working with advocates, attorneys, youth, elected officials, and/or community leaders
- Experience with promoting responsible, human-centered storytelling – including thoughtful partnership working with people affected by systemic racism and other injustices
- Strong knowledge of values-based or asset framing and working with diverse audiences to advance solution-oriented messages
Physical Requirements
Prolonged periods sitting at a desk and working on a computer.
Salary, Benefits & Location
This is a full-time, exempt position. The salary is competitive at $179,768.00 annually. A geographic salary differential may be applied if the candidate resides somewhere other than the Los Angeles, CA, New York, NY, Oakland, CA, or Washington, DC metro areas.
The National Center for Youth Law provides a robust benefits package including health, dental, vision, and life insurances, generous vacation and sick benefits, flexible spending account, employer contribution to a retirement plan, paid sabbatical, and short-term and long-term disability insurance.
Candidates must reside in, or be willing to relocate to, Arizona, California, Colorado, Illinois, Maryland, New York, Virginia, Washington DC, or Wisconsin.
This position is eligible for 100% remote work through December 31, 2023. It is possible that starting in January of 2024, the National Center for Youth Law will require people to work in an office, in which case they will need to be in a location where they can regularly commute to a National Center for Youth office (DC, Los Angeles, Oakland, or Sacramento).
Submit a cover letter and resume at the link below. Please, no emails or calls.
Apply at: https://recruiting.paylocity.com/recruiting/jobs/Details/1785150/Nationa...
Applicants with lived experience within any of our practice areas, and Black, Indigenous, and other people of color, are strongly encouraged to apply.
It is the policy of the National Center for Youth Law to provide equal employment opportunities to all Applicants (including Employees) regardless of race, ethnicity, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, pregnancy, breastfeeding, national origin, age, abilities/disabilities, neurotypicality, socioeconomic status, veteran status, marital status, prior convictions, or any other protected classifications under federal, state, or local law.