Director, Communications & Outreach

Abt Global•Rockville, MD

6h•Hybrid

About The Position

The Director of Communications and Outreach leads the Ticket Program Managers (TPM) project’s communications, marketing, and outreach work. The TPM project is part of the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) Ticket to Work program, which support disability beneficiaries as they pursue career development and employment. This role is responsible for planning and coordinating beneficiary and service provider outreach, including GovDelivery messaging, and recommending and implementing outreach activities. The Director drives multi-channel outreach (web, email, social, SMS, paid media, webinars, events) to educate Ticket-eligible beneficiaries about program participation and work incentives, and to increase and strengthen the Employment Network (EN) community through a targeted recruitment strategy. To be successful, the individual must ensure outreach products and processes meet accessibility, privacy, security, records retention, and approval requirements. This position is contingent upon award of the project to Abt Global.

Requirements

Bachelor’s Degree + Twelve years of relevant experience, or Master’s Degree + Ten years of relevant experience, or PhD + Eight years of relevant experience
Bachelor's or Master's degree from an accredited institution in Communications, Public Relations, Business Administration, Marketing, or similar field.
Advanced writing and editing skills; ability to develop original outreach content and ensure message clarity and tone.
Demonstrated experience planning and executing multi-channel outreach/marketing campaigns in a governed environment (e.g., public sector, healthcare, benefits, or other regulated context).
Proficiency in market research methodologies and using performance data to optimize campaigns.
Deep understanding of social media strategy and content development within the confines of agency policies and procedures.
Experience producing or overseeing webinars and virtual events with accessibility requirements, including captioning and teleconference options.
Familiarity with SSA disability employment ecosystem and/or services involving ENs, VR agencies, WIPA, PABSS, or related stakeholder groups.
Experience with GovDelivery (or similar government-grade broadcast tools) and managing subscription audiences and account governance.
Demonstrated Section 508 / digital accessibility experience, including operationalizing testing and remediation processes.
Experience with paid digital advertising (social/search/display) and content performance optimization.

Responsibilities

Lead the design and execution of a broad-based, organized outreach approach across channels (website content, email, social, paid advertising, media, podcasts, video, SMS/text, and other SSA-approved strategies).
Build and manage monthly marketing/outreach plans that propose topics and channel tactics; ensure coordination with other SSA outreach activities.
Develop and oversee creation of outreach products (web content, fact sheets, videos, checklists, publications, blogs, social content—paid and organic) that use plain language, clear calls-to-action, and accessibility best practices.
Coordinate with web teams to ensure beneficiary-facing and provider-facing sites deliver current, accessible, action-oriented content (including blog content and WISE webinar registration/archive pathways).
Lead planning and execution of email outreach and stakeholder dissemination using GovDelivery (or equivalent) as provided by SSA, including management of files and Ticket Program-related GovDelivery accounts, as approved/directed by SSA.
Improve campaign performance through measurable tactics and track engagement metrics to inform optimization.
Design and implement SMS/text strategy (consistent with applicable laws and agency requirements).
Partner with operational teams to align outbound messaging with Help Line capacity and beneficiary experience.
Lead delivery of 12 WISE webinars per year, including topic planning, and speaker/SME sourcing.
Manage end-to-end webinar production (pre-production through post) and metrics.
Develop and implement a targeted EN recruitment strategy, using a multi-pronged approach.
Lead message development, channel selection, and recruitment marketing execution; ensure tactics are efficient and outcome-oriented, with measurement plans and incentives to maximize participation.
Use data-driven targeting to identify underserved geographies and high-opportunity segments for EN recruitment and beneficiary outreach.
Analyze the EN Request for Application (RFA) requirements and provide SSA improvement recommendations within the required timeframe; support revisions that maintain quality while reducing unnecessary barriers to participation.
Track and report recruitment efforts and outcomes in monthly progress reporting.
Contribute to achievement of SSA performance expectations that the net number of ENs increases by a quantity established by SSA.