Project Communications Coordinator/Specialist

DOWL•Helena, MT

6d•Onsite

About The Position

The Project Communications Specialist is a versatile, firm-wide “arc” role supporting projects across all DOWL market sectors. This position leads public involvement, stakeholder engagement, and strategic communications for transformative community planning and infrastructure projects. Acting as a bridge between technical teams, clients, and communities, the role translates complex project information into clear, accessible content. Responsibilities include coordinating outreach activities such as public meetings, stakeholder communications, and digital storytelling. Our team includes professionals at a range of experience levels, enabling career development opportunities and alignment with project needs. Together, the team contributes to consistent messaging, strong client and community relationships, and successful project delivery across the full breadth of DOWL’s services.

Requirements

Advanced Microsoft Office (Outlook, Word, Excel) skills.
Advanced Market Sector Software (Adobe Creative Suite) skills.
Advanced understanding of technical fundamentals.
Demonstrates expertise to others within and beyond market sector.
Provides unique solutions to complex technical challenges.
Leads internal mentoring.
Performs quality control of complex deliverables.
Ability to be a team player and team leader with the ability to follow on large or complex projects.
Ability to provide clear communication and direction, set expectations, and take responsibility for results of the team.
Strong understanding of scopes, schedules, and budgets.
Able to predict and deliver individual tasks within a set level of effort.
Able to develop budgets and schedules for complex tasks and projects.
Able to break down complex projects into logical tasks.
Able to consistently meet budget and schedule expectations on projects.
Able to prioritize multiple assignments to successfully deliver all assigned projects on time and on budget.
Ability to mentor others on budget and schedule management.
Expertly interprets, selects, and employs appropriate tactics and strategy to enable effective public involvement and communication support.
Frequent direct communications with clients on large/complex projects.
Leads technical client project meetings.
Understands appropriate messaging and legal risks.
Participates in project interviews.
Primarily performs advanced technical tasks on complex, demanding projects for the market sector.
Operates with a high level of autonomy.
Reviews the work of others.
Mentors others with less experience.
May provide some project management services.
High School Diploma or GED required.
Ability to add, subtract, multiply, and divide in all units of measure, using whole numbers, common fractions, and decimals.
Ability to create and interpret graphs and understand statistical analysis.

Nice To Haves

Bachelor’s Degree in communications, planning, or journalism preferred.

Responsibilities

Leads public involvement, stakeholder engagement, and strategic communications for transformative community planning and infrastructure projects.
Acts as a bridge between technical teams, clients, and communities, translating complex project information into clear, accessible content.
Coordinates outreach activities such as public meetings, stakeholder communications, and digital storytelling.
Leads the production of and provides quality control for fact sheets, presentations, posters, boards, and other visual aids.
Develops StoryMaps and graphic storytelling.
Creates meeting agendas, minutes, notes, and summaries.
Develops event plans and associated event materials.
Interprets, selects, and employs appropriate tactics and strategy to enable effective public involvement and communication support.
Engages in frequent direct communications with clients on large/complex projects.
Leads technical client project meetings.
Understands appropriate messaging and legal risks.
Participates in project interviews.
Performs advanced technical tasks on complex, demanding projects.
Reviews the work of others.
Mentors others with less experience.
May provide some project management services.
Oversees team operations and the daily workflow of the team (if a supervisor).
Organizes workflow and ensures that employees understand their duties or delegated tasks (if a supervisor).
Recruits and hires new employees (if a supervisor).
Implements training for new hires and identifies training opportunities for current staff (if a supervisor).
Communicates information from leadership to employees and vice versa (if a supervisor).
Monitors employee productivity and provides constructive feedback and coaching (if a supervisor).
Sets goals for performance and deadlines in ways that comply with company’s plans and vision and communicates them to employees (if a supervisor).
Provides constructive and timely performance evaluations (if a supervisor).
Decides on reward and promotion based on performance (if a supervisor).
Handles discipline and termination of employees as needed and in accordance with company policy (if a supervisor).