Director, Digital Advocacy and Engagement

Innocence Project•New York, NY

19h•$151,725 - $192,000•Hybrid

About The Position

The Innocence Project recognizes the immense power of strategic communications to advance legal and policy initiatives to free the innocent, prevent wrongful convictions and achieve criminal legal system reform. Reporting to the Chief Communications Officer, the Director, Digital Advocacy and Engagement leads the Innocence Project’s Webby-, Shorty-, and Telly Award-winning digital communications team and is responsible for growing and mobilizing our more than 5 million supporter community. The role drives pivotal campaigns, multiplatform storytelling, and grassroots mobilization to move supporters from awareness to action and build pressure for systemic change. The Innocence Projects’s digital platforms are key to amplifying the organization’s most consequential public moments — including exonerations, execution and clemency campaigns, policy wins and reforms, and rapid responses to breaking news. They are key to growing and elevating the Innocence Project’s brand and profile as a leader in criminal justice reform. In collaboration with the Director of Digital Fundraising, the Director, Digital Advocacy and Engagement is responsible for the organization’s digital channels (inbound, outbound, paid, and earned). The Director, Digital Advocacy and Engagement reports to the Chief Communications Officer, directly supervises the Digital Engagement Specialist, Digital Coordinator, and consultant team, and partners closely with the Director of Digital Fundraising in the development department. They also have close working relationships with other members of the entire communications department, including the editorial, creative, marketing, and media teams, and with colleagues across our programmatic areas, including policy, legal, science & research, and social work. We are interested in every qualified candidate who is eligible to work in the United States. However, we are not able to sponsor visas and we are not an e-verify employer. The duties of this position require approximately 40 hours of work per week to be performed virtually/in-office. We currently have a hybrid in-office model, with all employees in the office three days per week and the remainder of the week remotely. Wednesday is our organization’s “anchor day” where all staff works in the office. The number of required in-office days is subject to change.

Requirements

Master's degree plus 12 years experience or Bachelor's plus 14 years experience in digital advocacy, campaigns, or political communications, with a track record of impact and leading rapid-response efforts at scale
Commitment to people-first leadership with experience leading diverse and collaborative teams, centering the people closest to the issues, and managing both in-house team members and external consultants with care
Proficiency with generative AI tools for content and workflow, paired with a critical understanding of how AI, from facial recognition to AI-generated evidence, intersects with the criminal legal system.
Fluency with the digital advocacy tools (Meta, YouTube, TikTok, Phone2Action/Quorum or similar tools, Salesforce NPSP, email and SMS platforms, paid media, analytics) and the collaboration stack (Slack, Notion, Monday)
Alignment with Innocence Project’s values — equity-centered, collaborative, and committed to telling the stories of clients and impacted people with dignity and care
Must be legally authorized to work in the U.S.

Nice To Haves

Bilingual English/Spanish is strongly preferred

Responsibilities

Lead digital strategy and content for the Innocence Project's highest-stakes communications campaigns including execution and clemency cases, state-based policy reforms, and rapid response to breaking developments.
Ability to collaborate and partner with colleagues in the legal, social work, and policy teams as well as external partner organizations along with colleagues in the communications team. Commitment to centering the experiences of clients and those in the freed and exonerated community who are closest to the issues we are addressing.
Translate complex legal and policy issues into accurate, compelling, and accessible public calls to action across the organization’s digital channels (in English and Spanish, where campaigns demand).
Build grassroots power to convert supporters into advocates and mobilize them to act when it matters most through petitions, calls, emails to decision-makers and during rapid-response moments.
Maintain and strengthen a rapid-response infrastructure (templates, escalation paths, and on-call team coverage) that allows the organization to mount campaigns with tight deadlines.
Manage and develop the digital team including the Digital Engagement Specialist and Digital Coordinator, with clear goals, work plans, and a culture that prioritizes both excellent work and well-being. In partnership with the Director of Digital Fundraising, manage and oversee a team of consultants who are deeply engaged in the communications and digital fundraising teams’ day-to-day operations.
Track and analyze digital communications data to surface what is working and where opportunities lie for setting the IP apart and breaking through the noise on digital platforms.
Stay abreast of digital trends to ensure our strategies and content are primed for maximum impact. This includes attention to the look and feel of our content along with increasing our searchability and impact. It would also encompass strengthening discoverability across both search (SEO) and AI-generated responses (GEO)