Communications Manager – Charlottesville, Atlanta, Nashville

As a Communications Manager for SELC, you will be an integral part of the communications team working to engage and educate about a full range of environmental issues of particular importance to the South—climate change, clean air and water, our public lands, coastal protections, and environmental justice.

If you’re up for the challenge of figuring out how communications can advance environmental progress, we want you to be part of our team. We are hiring for two Communications Managers: one responsible for overseeing communications for our Virginia office (based in Charlottesville), and one responsible for overseeing communications for our Tennessee office (based in Nashville or Atlanta), as well as providing support for our work in Georgia and Alabama. For both positions, you also will act as the point person for other regional and federal programmatic issues.

You will work closely with our attorneys, partner groups, and communications team members to plan and execute communications strategies. You will think strategically and creatively about how to message environmental issues, incorporate storytelling into our content, help shape media coverage on environmental legal and policy developments, and integrate different communications touchpoints to reach target audiences. Your days will involve working with attorneys to develop a messaging platform on a new issue, pitching reporters on a development, collaborating with the digital and creative team on an online advocacy campaign to advance an issue, and working with partner groups on an op-ed or press event.

This is a chance to join our 18-person communications team of strategists, designers, analysts, investigators, ambassadors, and innovators who work closely together to develop comprehensive communications strategies to help SELC meet its programmatic and organizational objectives. We tell the stories, paint the picture, make the information clear, and reach the right people to move the environmental needle.

This is a full-time position based in Charlottesville for the Virginia position and based in either Nashville or Atlanta office for the Tennessee position; if based in Atlanta, the position will require monthly travel to Nashville. The Communications Manager will report to the Director of Communications and work in close partnership with our Virginia or Tennessee Office Director and communications and program teams.

Primary Responsibilities:

• Work closely with SELC attorneys and the design, digital, geospatial, and marketing teams to develop and implement communications strategies for Virginia or Tennessee (also providing coverage help for Georgia and Alabama communications), in addition to overseeing the communications for regional programmatic issues.
• Collaborate with other communications managers to address joint challenges and opportunities, share regional coverage duties, and provide help on coverage in other states and program areas as needed.
• Help lead and coordinate the development and implementation of broader communications campaigns for higher priority issues, working closely with the design, digital, geospatial, and marketing teams.
• Oversee all phases of outreach, from messaging strategy and materials development to media relations. Responsible for ensuring website content on assigned issues is up-to-date. Work with digital and design team to guide News Feed, social media, graphics, advertising, and multimedia content.
• Act as media point of contact for assigned issues, managing and cultivating press relationships.
• Stay in close communication with the attorneys to keep up-to-date and anticipate upcoming opportunities and needs and coordinate the legal review process to ensure our communications are consistent with legal objectives and requirements.
• Establish productive relationships with partner groups to develop strategies, ensure messaging consistency, and coordinate responses and outreach.
• The Virginia position will be based in our Charlottesville, VA office. The Tennessee position will be based in either Atlanta or Nashville. If based in Atlanta, this will require regular monthly travel to our Nashville office.
• Report to the Director of Communications.

Qualifications:

• A Bachelor’s degree, or equivalent combination of education and experience.
• 5-7 years of communications experience, preferably advocacy-oriented communications.
• Commitment to and knowledge of environmental, climate, and environmental justice issues.
• Creative and strategic thinker. You love thinking through strategies of how to reach people and move them to action, and you’re creative in considering new approaches to make change. 
• Significant experience working with the media and establishing strong relationships with reporters.
• Excellent communicator and writer. You will play an integral role in crafting messages that engage target audiences and ensure that materials – from web, to social, to email, to ads – adhere to the overarching narrative. As an important voice of the South’s leading environmental organization, you’ll need to be able to package complex legal issues for a range of platforms, moving with ease between talking points, press releases, op-eds, web copy, and digital campaign emails that move people to get more involved.
• Familiarity with a variety of content production and a track record overseeing projects that use video, audio, illustrations, and other kinds of multimedia to advance an issue. You think creatively about how to use different types of content to reach the broadest audiences.
• Strong You have a genuine interest in and commitment to helping SELC create and foster a more diverse, inclusive, and equitable workplace. You think about how to infuse commitments to equity into communications strategies and into organizational and campaign planning from the ground up. You engage in ongoing personal learning and are eager to contribute to our organizational efforts to be a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive workplace.
• Highly organized. You are self-driven and have excellent time management skills. You can move from drafting a rapid response press statement, to ensuring digital campaign components are designed and delivered on time, to tracking the budget for a communications project. You feel confident shifting priorities in a fast-paced environment, including managing several communications efforts at once.
• Collegial, collaborative team player. You enjoy learning together with your teammates and helping others to succeed in their work as well. You bring a collaborative attitude to engaging with other team members and external stakeholders alike.

To Apply: Applications should include a resume and a cover letter directed to the Director of Communications Erin Malec. The initial deadline for receipt of complete applications is March 5, 2021. However, applications are being accepted on a rolling basis until the position is filled.

Please submit your application materials in one email to: marcomjobs@selcva.org. Please include “Communications Manager” in the subject line and indicate in your cover letter if you are interested in the Virginia or Tennessee position.

Compensation: SELC offers salaries competitive with other leading environmental non-profits nationally, and provides an excellent benefits package. The starting salary range for this position is $65,000-$80,000, commensurate with experience. For more details about our benefits package, please visit our Careers page.

About SELC:  With nine offices across the region (Charlottesville, VA; Chapel Hill, NC; Atlanta, GA; Charleston, SC; Washington, DC; Birmingham, AL; Nashville, TN; Asheville, NC; and Richmond, VA), SELC is widely recognized as the Southeast’s foremost environmental organization and regional leader. SELC works on a full range of environmental issues to protect the South’s natural resources and the health and well-being of its people. Although its regional focus is the Southeast, much of its work is national in scope and impact. 

SELC works in Congress and state legislatures to inform environmental laws; in regulatory agencies to implement environmental laws and policies; and in the courts to enforce the law, stop the worst abuses, and set important precedents. The organization works collaboratively with more than 100 national, state, and local groups to enhance their efficacy and achieve common conservation goals. It currently has a staff of more than 130 individuals, with 80 attorneys, including some of the nation’s leading experts in their respective fields. Additional information is available at www.southernenvironment.org.

SELC believes that a broad range of ideas, life experiences, and backgrounds enriches our workplace, drives innovative thinking, and attracts highly talented people who seek a work environment that values the unique contributions of individual team members. We are eager to welcome new team members who share this belief. We still have much progress to make, but our goal is to create and maintain a staff that, at every level, reflect the rich racial and cultural diversity of the communities where we work and the clients that we serve. SELC is an Equal Opportunity Employer and committed to fostering a transparently inclusive workplace environment. We are looking for people to join us in this effort. Persons of all backgrounds—including people of color, women, people with disabilities, veterans, and LGBTQ candidates—are strongly encouraged to apply.