Chief Of Communications Jobs

The Role:

Location: Chevy Chase, Maryland (right outside of Washington, DC)

Reports to: President

Position Summary:

The Chief of Communications is HHMI’s most senior communications leader and strategist, responsible for maintaining, expanding, and strengthening HHMI’s reputation and brand internally and externally; developing HHMI’s capacity to communicate effectively; designing and implementing marketing and communications strategies to advance HHMI’s vision and top priorities; and cultivating the communications talent and resources necessary to position HHMI for continued success.

As a member of HHMI’s senior leadership team, the Chief of Communications reports to the President, and collaborates closely with the Chief Operations Officer, and other leaders to develop and execute a shared vision of communications that authentically reflects and pragmatically advances HHMI’s vision, mission, business needs, and culture.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

The Chief’s responsibilities include leading and providing strategic oversight of HHMI’s central external and internal communications, including reputation management; brand development; media relations; digital strategy, online presence, and social media; advertising; creative content and asset management; program marketing and communications; executive communications support; and employee communications.

More specifically, the Chief is responsible for:

Leadership and Operations

• Fostering an effective, continually improving communications team that senses and adapts to changes in the Institute’s needs and in communications best practices, particularly regarding audience engagement, creative content, digital assets and technology, and consultative skill; and ensuring the stewardship of communications infrastructure such as historic material, videography and photography, and brand assets.
• Demonstrating, and expecting of peers and direct reports, observable leadership behaviors and skills that create and contribute to a work environment consistent with HHMI’s values, including excellence, collaboration, innovation, integrity, inclusion, and developing others.
• Leading and inspiring a department of approximately 20 staff, managing day-to-day operations and an annual budget of approximately $6.6 million, and promoting mentorship and professional development amongst the team.

Internal Communications

• Enhancing the Institute’s internal communications capability through collaborative development of tools, training, and methods that enable leaders at all levels to connect with key audiences to create desired behaviors and perceptions; and enhancing the employee experience by improving information flow across the organization and guiding the development of organizational conversations.

External Communications

• Managing high-priority program communications, including strategy, design, project management, and evaluation of campaigns to recruit scientists, educators, and institutional grantees; serving as advisor to program staff as needed.
• Developing relationships with communications leaders at peer organizations, as well as effectively leveraging the services of outside communications firms to help meet HHMI’s communications needs.

Strategic Development

• Leveraging HHMI’s diverse media channels to strategically develop integrated content approaches to internal and external storytelling and dialogue with diverse stakeholders across HHMI offices, labs, host institutions and peer organizations; and ensure high-quality, accurate science communication.
• Shaping a central HHMI brand identity, including position, voice, and visual look and feel, that readily allows core internal and external audiences to experience, understand, learn from, and be inspired by the Institute’s distinctive vision, mission, and impact.
• Working collaboratively to identify and build consensus with key leaders in the President’s office and across departments about areas of strategic focus for the short- and long-term, and then planning and aligning communications staff and resources to advance those strategic priorities in balance with emergent business needs

Executive and Senior Leadership Support

• Ensuring the President’s Office has a high level of executive communications support, including strategic counsel; messaging; speechwriting; drafting, editing, and/or review of leader-authored publications, communications, and presentations; media preparation; identification and shaping of thought leadership opportunities; collaborating with other leaders to ensure communications are consistent, on-voice, and strategic.
• Leading the Institute’s crisis communications, in close coordination with the President’s Office, the Office of General Counsel, and other senior program and operations leaders as needed. Maintaining a strategic outlook and in-depth knowledge of issues pertinent to HHMI’s mission and reputation, including emerging trends, issues, and tensions; proactively identifying and managing organizational risks and opportunities across the Institute’s headquarters, Janelia, and host institutions.
• Serving as a trusted partner and advisor to the President’s Office, senior leadership, and the Board of Trustees on matters relevant to HHMI’s communication strategy.

Qualifications:

Education:

• Minimum 15 years of progressively responsible experience envisioning, developing, and implementing successful and comprehensive communications programs across enterprises with multiple constituencies and a wide variety of audiences.
• A bachelor’s degree in Journalism, Communication or related field is required; an advanced degree is strongly preferred. Experience:
• Minimum 10 years managing a fully defined communications office in a highly complex environment, ideally in a scientific or technical setting.

Skills and Abilities

• Energetic, confident, and poised with an unflappable demeanor.
• An aptitude for using quantitative and qualitative data in making decisions and measuring success, while recognizing the limits of metrics.
• Approachable, thoughtful, and intentional leader who is a relationship-builder and mentor with genuine concern for others.
• Experience envisioning and implementing successful communications in partnership with scientists or other technical leaders. An understanding of biomedical science and academic research science strongly preferred.
• Active listener who is responsive, patient, and persistent.
• Strong experience with recruiting, retaining, and fostering a robust, autonomous, and highly collaborative team. A record of creative management and a strong commitment to personal and professional development.
• Exceptional diplomacy, discretion, and interpersonal skills.
• A record of success as a dynamic, highly organized, and collaborative leader in a complex, mission-driven organization with numerous and distributed partners, shared decision-making, and often rapidly shifting priorities.
• Intellectual curiosity and the ability to think creatively and unconventionally, with the judgment to execute sensibly; innovative and adaptable.
• Superb communication skills, both written and oral.
• Resonate with HHMI’s unique mission, culture, vision, and impact.
• Keen creative and design sensibilities, with a strong understanding of the communications process from creative concept through implementation, as well as the ability to increase efficiency and effectiveness of the communications process without sacrificing quality and impact.
• Boldness in adopting and adapting new technologies, including analytics and social media, to advance communications.
• Broad experience in media relations, public relations, perception management, internal communications, and crisis management; a strong grasp of standard industry processes.

Compensation and Benefits:

• HHMI’s salary structure is developed based on relevant job market data. HHMI considers a candidate’s education, previous experiences, knowledge, skills, and abilities, as well as internal equity when making job offers. Typically, a new hire for this position in this location is compensated between the minimum and the midpoint of the salary range.
• The Chief of Communications compensation range is: $303,232.00 - $379,040.00 - $492,752.00
• HHMI employees are compensated from a total rewards perspective in many ways for their contributions to our mission, including competitive pay, exceptional health benefits, retirement plans, time off, and a range of recognition and wellness programs.