Sr. Communications Specialist

Markel•Richmond, VA

6d•Hybrid

About The Position

The Communications Specialist creates, manages, and delivers clear, engaging, and audience-specific communications that support business and technology change initiatives. This role partners with Change Managers, business leaders, Product, IT, and subject matter experts to ensure stakeholders understand what is changing, why it matters, and what actions are required. The Communications Specialist develops and maintains change communications, leadership messaging, release communications, knowledge articles, and employee-facing content that build awareness, readiness, and adoption. The role also supports training and enablement efforts and provides general operational support to the Change Management Office.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Communications, Marketing, Journalism, Public Relations, Business, Organizational Change, or a related field.
3+ years of experience in employee communications, corporate communications, change management, or a related role.
Exceptional writing, editing, proofreading, and verbal communication skills.
Ability to tailor messaging for leadership, manager, and employee audiences.
Ability to manage multiple priorities, partners, and deadlines.
Proficiency with Microsoft 365 tools, including Teams, Outlook, PowerPoint, SharePoint, and Word.
US Work Authorization required. Markel does not provide visa sponsorship for this position, now or in the future.

Nice To Haves

Experience supporting organizational change, technology implementations, or business transformation programs.
Familiarity with change management methodologies such as Prosci or ADKAR.
Experience developing training materials, job aids, or other enablement content.
Experience creating and managing recurring release communications.

Responsibilities

Develop and execute communication plans for business and technology initiatives.
Create, edit, update, and publish clear communications across email, Teams, SharePoint, presentations, videos, and other channels.
Translate complex business and technical information into concise content tailored to specific audiences.
Ensure communications align with organizational goals, messaging standards, and change strategies.
Support campaigns that build awareness, readiness, adoption, and sustained behavior change.
Draft leadership communications, presentations, manager toolkits, talking points, and team-ready messages.
Partner with leaders and Change Managers to tailor communications for executives, managers, and employees.
Recommend communication timing, channels, audience segmentation, and message sequencing.
Support two-way communication and stakeholder feedback.
Coordinate, review, edit, update, and publish weekly and monthly release notes.
Partner with Product, IT, and business teams to gather and organize release information.
Ensure release content is accurate, clear, business-focused, and action-oriented.
Maintain standards and reusable templates for release communications.
Assist in developing training materials, presentations, job aids, FAQs, quick reference guides, and other learning assets.
Collaborate with trainers and Change Managers to align communications and learning materials.
Support training communications and post-training reinforcement activities.
Provide communication planning and execution support across multiple change initiatives.
Maintain communication templates, standards, calendars, and best practices.
Track communication engagement metrics and recommend improvements.
Contribute to CMO processes, tools, reusable assets, and special projects.
Provide general administrative and operational support to the Change Management Office as needed.