Public Communication Specialist II - Community Engagement

About this Job: In this position, you assist, coordinate, and provide continuing support for the City’s community engagement functions, ranging from service requests and customer service processes to public input and participation in projects and programs. You will be a key player in enhancing the community’s experience and engagement with the City government by leveraging technology, driving process changes, implementing modern best practices, providing excellent customer service to residents, and improving efficiency. 


As a Public Communication Specialist II, you will:

• Lead efforts to increase community engagement by researching, developing, and implementing new options and alternatives for strategic communications planning for all City departments; participate in shaping public opinion and public perception; and identify and create key communications plans and statements
• Identify, research, and play a key role in the resolution of public issues having a high degree of impact on the management and operations of the City and affecting citizen opinions. 
• Manage customer service/resident request processes and tool enhancement to ensure citywide clear and consistent customer service; Monitor and evaluate the existing customer experience and create ways to make it better.
• Work with internal and external focus groups and task forces to offer strategies for public participation and communications; gather community feedback and coordinate with internal agents to increase usability and make continuous improvements. 
• Conduct public, in-person outreach to cultivate support in the community for resident engagement initiatives and to educate the public. This may include attendance at community events during irregular hours.
• Coordinate with the Office of Accessibility and external advocacy groups and individuals with disabilities on digital engagement accessibility and proactively find ways to improve usability, accessibility, and engagement of the City’s resident request tools. 
• Evaluate and implement new digital communications tools; monitor changing technology, use data to develop insights and reports, and make recommendations to the Communications department to meet its mission; proactively seek ways to augment existing activations and events with technology.
• Research, design, develop, and implement communications, advertising, and marketing strategies including planning, copywriting, media buying, image positioning, and design and production of final product.
• Conduct agent training on tools and best practices to enhance the City’s customer service and branding for a consistent customer experience. 
• Research, develop, and market City information to local, state, and national trade publications and broadcast media in conjunction with the department's media marketing program.

We are looking for candidates who demonstrate:
 
Knowledge of:

• Modern office technology, especially the Microsoft Office suite 
• Public relations and crisis communications best practices
• Public engagement strategies

Ability to:

• Provide excellent organizational and customer service skills
• Analyze problems, identify alternative solutions, and make recommendations
• Excel in a fast-paced environment
• Communicate clearly and concisely, orally, and in writing to various levels of stakeholders 
• Prioritize, organize, and manage multiple projects from a variety of different departments 
• Evaluate and resolve complex issues

• Bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university with major coursework in communications, marketing, journalism, media, or a related field
• Three years of full time public relations, communications, digital media content creation, community engagement, public participation, community outreach or marketing experience

We value a diverse range of qualifications and experiences. Our organization views each year of further education as equivalent to each year of relevant work experience, and each year of additional relevant work experience as equivalent to each year of required education.

The following qualifications are not required, but they are considered desirable. If you possess any of the preferred qualifications, please include specific details in your application. This information may be used to identify a top group of applicants. 

• Experience managing multiple social and digital channels for a government, non-profit, media, or business
• Experience managing customer/community feedback 
• Experience with public speaking
• Possess the International Association for Public Participation (IAP2) certification or a similar certification

Salary : $66,042 - $79,282