Communications Specialist

  • Full-time

Company Description

Our mission is to conserve the natural environment, support agriculture and connect people to nature by protecting open spaces, natural areas, and working farms and ranches for future generations. We have protected 25,000 acres of natural and agricultural lands in Santa Clara County. Our agency operates a network of open space lands to manage and conserve natural resources and provide compatible opportunities for hiking, biking, and equestrian uses.

We know our continued success depends on our employees and the work they do. We are committed to providing a collaborative and inclusive work environment that encourages growth and development and acknowledges individual and team achievements

Job Description

You are a self-directed, detail oriented and creative communications specialist, with a desire to contribute to your community through your work. You are an effective relationship builder – with the public, with media outlets, with vendors, with Authority partners, and within the Authority team. You bring top-notch communications skills; mastery of public speaking including on-camera interviews; the ability to write engaging content; and strategic thinking.

In this role you will be responsible for the all aspects of the Authority’s communications and audience engagement plans. You will create and manage the editorial calendar, developing strategies and timelines for campaigns that reflect the work happening across all departments of the Authority. The Communications Specialist has ownership of the Authority’s style guide, to ensure it is being implemented consistently across the agency and that staff have access to needed resources, so they can always represent the Authority brand appropriately.

The Communications Specialist builds and maintains relationships with media outlets that represent all of the Santa Clara Valley and beyond. In this role you will be the face of the Authority, responding to media inquiries, providing comment, appearing on video interviews to represent a suite of Authority projects and topics. In addition to responding to earned media, the Communications Specialist will create the strategies for paid media campaigns.

The Authority publishes content across a wide range of primarily digital platforms, from press releases to social media posts, newsletters and blogs to video creation. The Communications Specialist is responsible for ensuring that the content created meets the strategic needs of the Authority, accurately tells the Authority’s story. Staff - and occasionally consultants - are primary content creators, but the Communications Specialist should be comfortable with creating content for a variety of platforms. The Authority has invested significantly in creating a website that is transparent to the public, provides engaging content to visitors who come for a wide variety of information, and is aesthetically pleasing and easy to navigate. 

The Authority’s Communications Team includes the Community Engagement Coordinator and the Communications Coordinator. This powerhouse team looks to the Communications Specialist for leadership, guidance, and support. As an engaged manager you will work with the Team to ensure they each have access to what they need for their own success. The Authority looks for supervisors to build trust within the Team so all feel comfortable and empowered to bring up constructive, out-of-the-box suggestions. You will also manage relationships and contracts with a variety of professional consultants.

Please review the complete position classification here: https://bit.ly/3oLH4V2

Qualifications

The ideal candidate will possess the skills, background, and experience needed to be successful in this position.  For example:

  • BA or BS in Business Administration, Communications, or related field;
  • A minimum of 3 years of increasingly responsible experience in strategy development, planning, design, and implementation of communications plans, media relations, content generation;
  • Software knowledge in Microsoft Office programs, Adobe Creative Suite, and experience with website editing software and cloud-based CRM systems;
  • Experience supervising staff and contractors/vendors;
  • Fluency in one or more of the following languages is a plus: Spanish, Vietnamese, Mandarin, Cantonese

This position is required to take and pass a pre-employment background check.

Additional Information

Compensation & Benefits

The salary range for this full-time, non-exempt position is $40.52 to $49.25 hourly, depending on experience and qualifications. To complement this salary, we offer a robust benefits package that includes medical, dental, and vision insurance for employees and their dependents – we cover 100% of the cost for these premiums. We participate in CalPERS retirement programs as well as offering a separate 457 Plan for tax deferred retirement savings. A basic life insurance policy is provided to all eligible employees with the option to purchase additional personal insurance benefits.

Application and Selection

All application materials must be received prior to March 8, 2021, at 5:00 PM. To be considered for this opportunity, submit your application materials including cover letter and resume at the application link provided below. Resume should reflect years and months of employment.

Go here to apply for the job:   http://smrtr.io/-CWs

The Open Space Authority strives to engage a workforce reflective of the community it serves. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, age, gender, national or ethnic origin, religion, sexual orientation or physical disability. All qualified applicants are encouraged to apply.