Engineering Communication Specialist

Princeton University•Princeton, NJ

3d•Hybrid

About The Position

The Princeton University School of Engineering and Applied Science seeks a talented science writer to lead communications for two of the School’s prominent academic departments. Princeton Engineering recently concluded a major growth cycle. Creative and strategic communications are critical to maximizing the impact of that growth. This is a full-time position with a hybrid schedule and a competitive salary and benefits package. Reporting to the Office of Engineering Communications and working within a collaborative team, the Engineering Communication Specialist will focus on the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE), one of the largest and fastest growing departments on campus, and the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (MAE), a dynamic mid-sized department home to some of Princeton’s most prominent researchers and most exciting interdisciplinary initiatives. With a journalistic approach, the successful candidate will excel at making technical information exciting to a non-specialist audience, including broad non-scientific audiences. Research topics include AI, quantum computing, cybersecurity, robotics, space, advanced materials, energy and the environment, and human health. The incumbent also will take a strategic approach to identifying and crafting messages that advance the departments' goals, including leveraging traditional and digital media to promote research priorities, teaching activities and brands. The incumbent will also act as liaison for ECE and MAE with broader campus communications networks and interact regularly and closely with faculty, postdocs, staff, administration and students. Editorial duties will include reporting and writing research news and feature items; brief stories highlighting awards and other accomplishments; and profiles of students and researchers. The incumbent will also help manage and maintain websites and other digital and print materials; direct or produce video content; arrange and art-direct photo shoots; and create, edit and manage social media content. The role may require the skills to hire and supervise freelance content creators.The incumbent will work in a cross-functional team environment with communication specialists serving other departments and centers. We share ideas and best practices and collaborate and support each other’s work as opportunities arise. The incumbent must be extremely well organized, exhibit exceptional attention to detail and be able to troubleshoot and multitask.Responsibilities include content strategy, content generation and curation, project management and social media management. Please include 3-5 relevant work samples of published writing that demonstrates your ability to convey technical information to a broad audience.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree and 3+ years of work experience
Writing - journalistic approach to making complex topics accessible and engaging to multiple audiences
Manage and edit/create social media content
Ability to work cross-functionally within broad applied science and technology space
Extremely well organized. Ability to work independently while demonstrated team player
Project management experience
Website design and management
Strategic visionary for media creation

Nice To Haves

Directing / producing video content
Photoshoots / art direction
Management of freelancers
Science or Engineering degree

Responsibilities

Content strategyPublicize the departments’ activities around research, teaching, news and events, partnerships, and outreach. Evaluate the departments’ inventory of existing content. Benchmark peer websites, newsletters and social media. Work with faculty leadership and staff to create workflows that efficiently harness faculty- and student-generated content and other sources of content. Work collaboratively with faculty and staff to produce high-quality written and visual content that reaches key audiences and raises the visibility of departmental activities. Oversee visual communications (posters, banners etc.) in ECE and MAE areas.
Content generation and curationReport and write news items and other web content, or hire freelance to do so. Coordinate with the Office of Engineering Communications on the assignment, use and dissemination of longer research news and feature items. Monitor campus-wide websites for related content and adapt and post to departmental sites as appropriate. With direction from the the Engineering Communications Director, pitch news stories to media outlets and science journalists.
Project ManagementOversee print and email publications (via platforms such as MailChimp), website design, annual reports, select multimedia projects, arrange photography and attend photo shoots to enhance web content, manage and direct work of external writers, videographers, graphic artists, web specialists and photographers. Sample projects include senior thesis videos, hallway media displays, departmental graphic identity, and photography archives.
Social Media ManagementDevelop and maintain up-to-date social media content and foster engagement with stakeholders, with a focus on storytelling. Promote news stories on the social media accounts (LinkedIn). Monitor related institutional accounts and faculty accounts to amplify relevant department news and posts. Propose and develop department-related content for engineering school and University social media accounts.