Senior Communications Specialist S&K Mission Support

This workstream leader position is expected to be full-time, fully remote (East Coast hours) and will report directly to engagement leadership and senior federal clients—serving as one of several active members of the contract PM Team.

The Senior Communications Specialist Team Lead will be ready to guide, join, and empower a small communications workstream in planning, executing, and developing an array of well-crafted informative, persuasive, creative, and/or engaging communications products and deliverables collaboratively with our federal clients and counterpart team members embedded in their programs.

Your experience and energy will be used to improve a complex, evidence-/data-driven homeland security and emergency management office environment. You will be the day-to-day lead for two to three team members who work closely and collaboratively to organize for, stage, resource, and accomplish great work together. 

As a small workstream leader, you play a pivotal role in organizing, prioritizing, negotiating, developing, and encouraging your team as you balance and share communications and projects—which will become increasingly planful and less ad hoc over the coming year with your assistance and perseverance. You understand inherently that developing new or existing communications tools, artifacts, plans, and strategies is an exciting and critical part of driving and demonstrating success in this environment. You have experience points and success to build on. Our client’s homeland security and emergency management focus are a compelling feature of the job. Your communications work will build their artifacts cache and promote their capabilities and people—while articulating and advancing their brand over time.   

Leading this workstream and performing as a key contributor, you will collaborate and partner heavily with our embedded project team members and clients/stakeholders who serve as senior data governance professionals to:   

• Build and maintain a trusted relationship with an enthusiastic, senior federal champion. 
• Develop, lead, execute, and monitor progress against comprehensive communication plans across multiple lines of effort, in alignment with the client’s mission and objectives.
• Establish a cadence to consistently identify, harmonize, deconflict, and anticipate communications priority work; serve as the bridge with clients and team to do the same. 
• Inform and complete development of a system for intake and tracking of communications request to support hours planning and assignments with your workstream. Identify efficiencies over time. 
• Provide routine team planning and reporting to support and share team success and contract goals. 
• Collaborate to develop communication objectives, tools, tracking mechanisms, metrics and other new communication artifacts including a communications artifact library and stakeholder engagement tracking mechanisms, working in close coordination with program workstream leads. 
• Guide and/or support the design and creation of cohesive branding efforts and materials including but not limited to executive or stakeholder briefings, fact sheets, talking points/messaging, creative products and campaigns, workforce-promoting and engaging materials, surveys, reports, SharePoint sites and pages, etc. 
• Identify and support cross-program, cross-Office messaging and branding cohesion efforts. 
• Support client needs for prioritization, staging and scheduling deliverables where feasible. 
• Create, develop and/or make recommendations on storyboards, mockups, graphics, infographics and communications-related metrics. 
• Prepare data governance leadership briefing materials and related presentations for senior management and stakeholders.
• Lead or execute bi-weekly collection, editing and preparation of senior leadership highlights slides. 
• Assist with content development/editing/QA needs in MS Word, MS PowerPoint, Adobe, and other basic software applications commonly used by government. 
• Leverage non-Communications team resources providing limited product and deliverable technical editing and graphics support, where available and needed. 
• Serve as key proponent for team adherence to style, branding, and other guidance consistently. 
• Exercise good discretion and communicate any significant project roadblocks, needs, opportunities or risks to engagement leadership appropriately, if they arise, to support success and pre-empt issues. 

Education

• A bachelor’s degree in communications, English, Public Relations, or related field required
• Master’s degree in a relevant field preferred but not required

Experience

• Seven (7) years of communication experience required
• At least 2 years of experience directing the activities of others in coordination and collaboratively with others while delivering a range of professional communications services and products
• Experience in federal government settings is desired to facilitate quick acclimation to the project environment
• Direct federal Plain Language experience (https://www.plainlanguage.gov/) 

License, Cert or Registration

• Must be a U.S. Citizen if required for national security contract work
• Ability to obtain and maintain DHS suitability (public trust)

Special knowledge, skills, & abilities

• Be available and responsive full-time in a remote environment, keeping East Coast office hours to support maximum team fluidity and coordination. 
• Experience within federal civilian environment strongly preferred (with homeland security, emergency management, or data-/evidence-driven communications environment experience a plus)  
• Significant skill in interviewing, facilitation, active/empathetic listening, and attention to detail
• Resourcefulness in research and information gathering—with the ability to work with technical and non-technical audiences to quickly translate information on complex topics into relatable and compelling materials for various audience levels and types.
• Experience with leading and/or developing creative and appealing branding materials (logos, banners, cover pages, etc.) in common Adobe creative tools (e.g., InDesign, Illustrator, etc.). 
• Significant experience with using Microsoft Teams (using chat features for coordination, hosting/attending/supporting/facilitating meetings and presentations, file storage practices and a willingness to use the MS Planner card feature for transparent task staging, monitoring and transparency). 
• Functional understanding of SharePoint and how it is used to support communications and manage information. 
• A broad grasp and experience with a range of communications media/venues. 
• Embody the a “one team,” no-job-too-big-or-small culture and employ proactive communications
• Willingness and ability to:  
• Adjust and tailor communications and/or trainings based on the various client audience-levels (executive, management, and general workforce) 
• Communicate effectively, efficiently and collegially 
• Provide supportable or experience-based recommendations to senior and mid-level clients
• Craft compelling messaging with unique audience sets and communications channels in mind
• Quickly assemble and ramp up resources to execute and lead in the face of ambiguity 
• Pivot efforts/resources where needed and communicate changes with those who need to know
• Demonstrate excellent writing and organizational skills, with the ability to manage multiple priorities simultaneously
• Apply analytical and problem-solving skills to help navigate complex issues.
• Technical writing experience and interest to support cross-team efforts
• Experience in developing materials for online and interactive mediums

SKT, Inc. is an AA/EEO/Veteran/Disabled employer. For a general description of benefits, please visit: https://www.sktcorp.com/career-center/