Communications Manager

Position: Communications Manager

Location: New York City

Start Date: Winter 2024

Why Work With Us

Join a collaborative team committed to environmental justice, climate, and clean energy work. The Communications Manager will play a key role in furthering the State Impact Center’s mission of promoting and amplifying the work of state attorneys general on climate, clean energy, and environmental issues. The Communications Manager will be responsible for developing creative and captivating strategies for the Center’s written products, social media, and press relationships. We are passionate about building and sustaining an inclusive and equitable working environment for our staff. We offer a generous benefits package through NYU, which includes tuition remission and retirement benefits. We offer a competitive salary that is commensurate with experience: $75,000 – 90,000.

About the Center

The State Impact Center is a nonpartisan academic think tank based at NYU School of Law. The Center is dedicated to working towards a healthy and safe environment, guided by inclusive and equitable principles. To accomplish this, the Center studies and supports the work of state attorneys general and other state-level agencies in defending, enforcing, and promoting strong laws and policies in the areas of climate, environmental justice, environmental protection, and clean energy. We undertake academic research, hold workshops, and issue special reports that advance legal and policy analysis. We are a small, collaborative team, and value each person’s insights and contributions.

Diversity is a core value of the Center. We are passionate about building and sustaining an inclusive and equitable working environment for our staff. We believe every member on our team enriches our diversity by exposing us to a broad range of ways to understand and engage with the world, identify challenges, and to discover, design and deliver solutions.

Who We Are Looking For

We are looking for a Communications Manager to design and lead the State Impact Center’s communications and messaging strategy. The ideal candidate is a communications professional who takes ownership of their projects, is detail-oriented, and is comfortable working with our legal subject matter experts to craft accessible messages about technical topics. The Communications Manager will report to the Deputy Director and will work closely with the Executive Director and the Associate Director for Operations and Budget, as well as with our small, multidisciplinary team.

Our team values each person’s contributions to reports, newsletters, and other work, and the Communications Manager will be an integral part of planning, leading, and executing the range of the Center’s products. The Communications Manager will have a supervisory role over a small digital and communications team and work closely with our operations team on shared areas of responsibility, such as events.

Core Responsibilities:

• Strategic Communications: drive development of and track progress for the communications strategy for the Center.
• Media Relations: support the Deputy Director and Executive Director on engaging with the press; identify opportunities to share the Center’s work, including through press releases and media advisories; and develop and maintain relationships with reporters covering relevant topic areas.
• Messaging and Communications Products: design and execute communications products: (1) to highlight the work of state attorneys general on climate, clean energy, and environmental issues, and (2) to explain the work of the Center. All products should take into account the various audiences for and goals of the particular product and reflect a high standard of design, writing, and editing.
• Alliance Building: build and maintain relationships with communications counterparts at the NYU School of Law, and in attorney general offices and other organizations.
• Project Management and Team Supervision: supervise the digital and communications team, including providing feedback and pursuing opportunities for professional development; collaborate with legal and operations teams on projects.
• Events: work with the operations team to plan events, conference, and press events, and represent the Center at events hosted by other organizations.

Requirements and Qualifications:

• Experience: 4-6 years of communications experience in the legal, public policy, government affairs, campaigns, or related fields, including direct communication with the press.
• Communication: excellent written and oral communication skills, including: summarizing information in clear, concise, and accurate formats; providing appropriate project updates and directions on projects; and understanding an appropriate level of detail to give.
• Design: familiarity with graphic design in Photoshop, Indesign, Illustrator, and/or Canva.
• Project Management and Supervision: ability to develop and implement project timelines; experience leading multidisciplinary teams on reports and other communications products; experience with event planning; experience supervising a plus.
• Attention to Detail: ability to edit own work and work of others to produce work free of typos and errors; high level of attention to detail in writing and design work.
• Judgment and Deadlines: sound judgment in affirmatively raising concerns; self-directed; ability to triage work and prioritize time-sensitive work to meet deadlines; awareness of and sensitivity to diverse backgrounds and perspectives.

Application Details

Deadline: We will review applications on a rolling basis.

Salary: $75,000-90,000. Benefits offered include medical/dental/vision, tuition remission at certain NYU schools, retirement benefits, and more.

Our office is located in New York City, and this position would be appropriate for a hybrid schedule, with up to two remote days per week on a regular basis (approval of schedule required).

Benefits offered include medical/dental/vision, tuition remission at certain NYU schools, retirement benefits, and more. State Impact Center staff also have access to academic enrichment opportunities at NYU School of Law, including some faculty workshops, colloquia, and other scholarly forums.

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In compliance with NYC’s Pay Transparency Act, the annual base salary range for this position is $75,000-90,000. New York University considers factors such as (but not limited to) scope and responsibilities of the position, candidate’s work experience, education/training, key skills, internal peer equity, as well as market and organizational considerations when extending an offer.

NYU is an Equal Opportunity Employer and is committed to a policy of equal treatment and opportunity in every aspect of its recruitment and hiring process without regard to age, alienage, caregiver status, childbirth, citizenship status, color, creed, disability, domestic violence victim status, ethnicity, familial status, gender and/or gender identity or expression, marital status, military status, national origin, parental status, partnership status, predisposing genetic characteristics, pregnancy, race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, unemployment status, veteran status, or any other legally protected basis. Women, racial and ethnic minorities, persons of minority sexual orientation or gender identity, individuals with disabilities, and veterans are encouraged to apply for vacant positions at all levels.