Director of Communications and Marketing

King County • Seattle, WA

6d • Hybrid

About The Position

King County Metro is hiring a Director of Communications & Marketing who will play a vital role in helping the agency engage partners, policymakers, and the diverse communities we serve, while advancing our work to provide integrated, safe, clean, and welcoming mobility options that strengthen equity, sustainability, and our regional economy. This role will help shape and strengthen Metro's communications programs, elevate Metro's brand, and advance a wide range of organizational objectives. They will support and advance the work of several highly talented teams, including Public Affairs, Creative & Marketing, Web Communications, and Employee Communications. They will collaborate closely with other teams within the Office of the Chief of Staff, including Partnerships & Engagement, as well as with key customer communication sections and programs in other divisions and division and department leadership. This recruitment will be used to fill one (1) Career Service Transit Section Manager classification vacancy. In addition, this selection process may be used to generate an eligibility pool for future Special Duty Assignment (SDA), Term Limited Temporary (TLT), and Career Service (CS) vacancies that may occur in this classification within this workgroup. The eligibility list will be retained for 12 months from the date of posting and may be used at the discretion of the hiring authority.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in communications, marketing, public relations or a related field AND At least ten (10) years of increasingly responsible experience in customer experience and communications.
• Minimum of five (5) years directly supervising or managing teams.
• Experience leading enterprise-wide communications strategy in a large, complex organization.
• Demonstrated experience in strategic marketing and communications, public affairs or relations, and emergency or crisis communication; experience within the transportation sector is strongly preferred.
• Experience developing communication strategies related to policy implementation or government relations.
• Ability to actively support media relations, partner agency relationships, and relations with other important constituencies.
• Experience leading and coordinating matrixed teams.
• Strong interpersonal skills with the ability to collaborate effectively at all organizational levels.
• Ability to work as part of a collaborative team and enthusiasm for building relationships with key stakeholders and partners.
• Excellent communication, analytical, and stakeholder engagement skills.
• Demonstrated experience as a people leader, fostering team collaboration, driving results, and supporting the professional development of direct reports.
• Experience with budget monitoring, development, and allocation.
• Knowledge of the management techniques for a large, complex, multidisciplinary organization.
• Commitment to equity and social justice.
• Expertise in accessible, culturally competent, and multilingual communication practices.
• Skilled in brand development, content development, writing, and dissemination of messaging and content via digital and print mediums in ways that successfully engage diverse perspectives and communities
• Experience managing enterprise social media strategy, analytics, and digital engagement.
• Superior written and verbal communications skills – multilingual a plus.

Nice To Haves

• Knowledge of King County Metro Transit policies & procedures.
• Experience working with large, unionized organizations/agencies, and/or public sector experience.
• Knowledge of transit operations and optimization.
• Experience with SharePoint and SharePoint site administration.
• Experience with facilitation and change management.

Responsibilities

• Lead the strategic development of enterprise-wide communications plans and programs, including assuring coordination across matrixed teams to stay aligned in messaging, develop accessible products, and implement communication activities.
• Develop methods to ensure alignment of communications and marketing strategies with agency goals.
• Build strong working relationships with internal agency leadership and other partners throughout Metro and external partners within the industry including but not limited to other county departments and transit agencies to promote an integrated communications approach with internal and external stakeholders and audiences.
• Lead, supervise, and develop King County Metro’s Communications & Marketing teams, including performance management, workforce planning and staff training and development.
• Manage diverse teams to communicate effectively in accessible, linguistically diverse, and culturally relevant ways.
• Develop, approve, and monitor the budget; determine and allocate resources.
• Execute a consistent brand messaging strategy and agency voice that is reflected across all products and service programs, both internally and externally.
• Develop communication performance strategies, lead continuous improvement efforts, and identify ways to collect, analyze, and report on the success of communications in achieving intended goals and outcomes.
• Develop messaging platforms and editorial content.
• Guide and oversee the agency's media, online and social media strategy.
• Support elected official communications and policy and program rollout.
• Lead emergency communications.
• Other duties as assigned.

Benefits

• King County has a robust collection of tools and resources to support working remotely.
• Employees will be provided with a County-issued laptop and must maintain a home workspace with an internet connection where they can reliably perform work and remain available and responsive during scheduled work hours.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Manager