Communications Director

Summary

Join Action for the Climate Emergency (ACE) as their Communications Director, a remote, full-time position based anywhere in the US. You will build ACE’s presence and brand awareness, working with media outlets and a national PR firm to promote their work in clean energy and climate action. Responsibilities include overseeing national communications, managing a small team, developing messaging for campaigns, and managing earned media opportunities. You will also cultivate relationships with reporters, write press releases, and prepare ACE leaders for media appearances. The ideal candidate has 10+ years of experience in communications, expertise in earned media and strategic messaging, and strong writing skills. Regular travel will be required. ACE offers a competitive salary and generous benefits.

Requirements

• Experience Communications and media professional with over 10+ years of experience, including serving as a Communications Director in the climate and/or clean energy space
• Specialized expertise in earned media, public relations, and strategic messaging for high-impact campaigns in climate, clean energy, and politics
• You are a natural messaging creative with experience developing pithy, punchy messaging, tailored to different audiences, and ensuring messaging discipline across teams
• You bring extensive, existing relationships with journalists at the national or regional level
• You possess extremely strong writing skills, including but not limited to: press releases, statements, blogs, website copy, social media ad copy, video scripts, email production, text production, and other forms of written communications
• You are forward-looking, proactive and take initiative to plan toward key moments, coupled with strong implementation and timely follow through
• You have the ability to make strategic decisions in real-time based on breaking news or events, and possess strong analytical skills with the ability to set priorities, complete work with minimal supervision, and meet deadlines
• You are a strong manager who is fair, empathetic, and willing to roll up your sleeves at any time to get the job done
• You bring strong interpersonal skills and the ability to cultivate and manage relationships with diverse audiences
• You are a self-starter with strong organizational skills, extreme creativity, and the ability to think big—really big
• You have the ability to work independently and as a collaborative member of various diverse teams
• You have existing expertise in the climate, clean energy and democracy spaces
• You love technology
• You know how to use—or are able to quickly learn—many different digital tools, including: Google Suite, Slack, Salesforce, Google Data Studio, Engaging Networks, Mobile Commons, and many more
• Self-starter with strong organizational skills
• Ability to work efficiently and creatively within a remote team
• Team player who is a strong cross-team collaborator and communicator with an eagerness to jump into other duties than assigned
• Proactive, flexible, and solutions-oriented with a commitment to innovation
• Collaborative and team-focused, capable of inspiring and motivating others
• Dedication to fostering a culture of excellence, quality, and inclusivity
• Commitment to racial justice and equity, and fostering an inclusive organizational culture

Responsibilities

• Oversee all national communications to ensure alignment with ACE’s brand voice,, the strategic priorities in our Strategic Plan, and our rapid response as well as long-term campaigns
• Collaborate with the Research & Experimentation team to develop messaging for key campaigns that is rooted in proven ability to educate and persuade audiences
• Refine and maintain ACE’s written brand voice and tone across communications
• Manage and oversee the review process of all written communications before they are released
• Lead communications strategy over multiple timescales: from annual communications calendar, to rapid response emerging news and events
• Manage communications planning to optimize the complex cadence of external briefings, events, emails, blogs, texts, and more
• Develop communications plans, contribute messaging to overall campaign plans, and coordinate communications across all channels and collaborate with teammates across departments to implement said communications
• Manage ACE’s crisis communications planning, including creating talking points in advance of and in response to ACE events, breaking stories, climate emergencies, and other rapid response needs
• Manage contract and process with leading, national PR firm in the climate, clean energy and democracy space to elevate ACE’s brand and presence in the media across print, podcast, television and other modes
• Develop and manage a national and state level press list
• Both directly and in working with the PR firm, regularly reach out, cultivate relationships with, and pitch ACE’s work to reporters and earned media outlets to generate earned media coverage
• Write frequent press releases, statements, media advisories and other pitch opportunities
• Create speakers’ bureau and training to prepare key ACE leaders and those in our network for speaking opportunities
• Prepare background, talking points, and responses for interviewees for earned media opportunities
• Work closely with the CEO and elevate the CEO and other ACE leaders’ public profile through frequent opportunities to speak with the press, author op-eds, and more
• Elevate ACE’s brand in the public sphere through planning and scheduling speaking opportunities for the CEO, key staff and Board members
• Manage the Communications Manager on Executive Communications including: Creating a monthly Board report
• Developing and implementing monthly donor newsletters
• Managing quarterly funder briefings
• Drafting weekly posts for key moments on the CEO’s and ACE’s LinkedIn profiles
• Maintaining ACE’s public presence by keeping the website up to date including regular blog posts, ensuring press hits are online, and posting updated research and case studies to the website
• Manage the Associate Director of Communications on in-list communications including: Developing, implementing and maintaining a strategy and in-list communications calendar across ACE and our affiliated brands
• Developing and executing an annual working communications plan that is integrated and collaborative with all departments
• Writing and sending national and state level communications via e-mail and SMS to key stakeholders about action opportunities, ACE success stories, and breaking news

Preferred Qualifications

• You have appeared on national media and love being on camera
• You have pitched donors and feel comfortable doing so

Benefits

• Medical, Dental, Vision
• 403b retirement savings plan
• Vacation
• Sabbatical
• Paid Parental Leave
• 2 Floating Holidays
• 2 Community Service Floating Holidays
• Sick time
• Two weeks of full-staff time off (July 4 week and Christmas-New Years week)
• 13 observed holidays