Join the country’s most trusted environmental organization and become a force for good.

About us: 

Position Title:
Communications Manager

Terms:
Permanent full-time position

Location:
Vancouver

Reporting:
Director of Communications and Public Engagement

Compensation:
$63,000 annually

The purpose of the role is to create and deliver a media strategy that reaches beyond the converted to change the tone of debate and coverage of environmental issues, growing the DSF community through earned media.

You'll create a media strategy that empowers people with clear, factual information and compelling stories. You'll lead our communications staff in sharing facts and stories not just about environmental crises but also about inspiring solutions already being tested and implemented. You'll integrate traditional and social media campaigns and help formulate the content-marketing strategy for all owned platforms (web/email/social). You'll use every media opportunity strategically to help more people discover and become part of DSF campaigns and projects.

As the head of our core communications team, you’ll lead four direct reports and eight dotted-line reports who counsel on, devise and deliver media plans, campaigns and copy to promote our message and reach new supporters of the DSF. Your first step will be to review our existing media relations, communications plans and integration of digital approaches, driving up standards and bringing innovation and rigour to delivery. To excel in this pivotal role, you’ll need to be a skilled manager who is very good with people and at building relationships, leads by example and is fluent in digital communications. You'll make the most of the unique capacities of the DSF, including our connections to multicultural and Indigenous communities. You will be passionate about the role of good internal communications within an organization to ensure all staff are up to date and informed, and to maximize opportunities for internal collaboration. You’ll also have a good understanding of and experience with managing crisis situations in media work.

This role suits someone who can generate creative, persuasive stories and comment in line with an overarching strategy and who understands clearly what will work across channels to drive acquisition and community growth. The role has a strong focus on strategy development, excellence in co-ordination and process design for a large, distributed communications staff, and an ability to articulate and measure how our media strategy helps achieve community growth and beneficial outcomes in our goal areas of environmental rights, biodiversity and climate solutions.

Your role

• Setting and overseeing our overall media strategy, including:
  • Getting our message into traditional and social media by pitching interviews, op-eds, letters to the editor, news releases, graphic shares, videos and anything else you can think of
  • Creating meaningful, informative quarterly key performance indicators, and tracking and reporting on our progress

• Ensuring our message and rhetoric are effective and on point by being our messaging guru and tone-of-voice advocate
• Supporting implementation of our overall content strategy to ensure our communications are holistic, co-ordinated and audience-centred
• Leading nimble, timely response to crisis communications and teachable moments, and supporting specific ad hoc campaigns or projects when crucial situations arise
• Maintaining and building strong lasting relationships with a broad range of media contacts, content partners, influencers and retailers in order to maximize publicity, PR opportunities and reach
• Being a media spokesperson
• Producing or overseeing production of short videos for the web
• Managing core communications department staff, and collaborating effectively with communications staff in DSF regions and departments, including meeting the specific needs of our Quebec team
• Integrating and expanding our diverse audiences through ongoing support of Chinese-language and Punjabi media outreach
• Amplifying Indigenous voices and seeking out opportunities for collaboration with Indigenous media partners
• Managing the budget of our Communications team
• Other tasks as required

• Five or more years of experience in a media relations, public relations or other communications-related leadership role
• Strong understanding of the Canadian media context and existing relationships with key contacts and outlets
• Sound financial management skills
• Strong project management experience
• Proven track record of preparing communications to support senior stakeholders and spokespeople
• Demonstrating success in telling multi-channel compelling brand stories
• Experience with social media campaigns — either you've led these (ideal) or you've worked closely with someone who has — in order to integrate traditional and social media strategies
• Excellent public and personal communication skills. Ideally, you have experience with being a spokesperson for an organization and you definitely have experience with clear internal communications about strategy, goals and process design
• Demonstrated team management experience, ideally including within a matrix organization; a collaborative approach to management is a requirement
• Experience with content strategy and content marketing approaches
• Strong co-ordination and planning abilities; some demonstrated expertise in designing communications systems and processes within a complex organization, and co-ordinating the work of a large team with diverse skill sets
• Basic video production and camera skills; expertise in video production and editing would be a bonus
• French language skills highly desired

Please submit your cover letter and resume explaining why you are interested in this opportunity by going online to: http://www.davidsuzuki.org/about/employment/ and clicking on the "I'm Interested" link. This position will remain open until it is filled.

We recognize the importance of a diverse workforce and encourage applications from Aboriginal people, members of a visible minority and people with a disability.