Community Outreach Lead New Orleans

Community Outreach Lead New Orleans

Imagine a place committed to offering an unmatched employee experience. Where you work on projects that are meaningful to you. Where you play an active part in shaping your career journey. Where your co-workers are invested in you and your success. Where you are encouraged and supported to do your very best and given the tools and resources to do so. Where it's a priority that the company takes good care of you and your family. Our employees are the heart of our company. As an employer of choice, our goal is to provide a challenging, progressive and inclusive work environment which fosters personal leadership, career growth and development for every employee. We value passionate individuals who challenge the norm, deliver world-class solutions and bring diverse perspectives. Join our team, and together we will make a difference and change the world.

This position is for a community engagement expert looking to use their passion to improve public health through infrastructure projects around the United States, starting in New Orleans. You will join CDM Smith's growing, cross-discipline strategic communications team, leading community outreach and engagement for municipal drinking water projects. Projects you may work on include leading vast community engagement teams comprised of different firms working towards a unified goal and approach, planning and facilitating internal and high-stakes public meetings, developing presentations for internal and external stakeholders, helping develop guidance and communication strategies for a variety of programs, and reviewing communications deliverables for consistency and accuracy.

Passionate about organizational efficiency, you think through processes to ensure the right people get the right information at the right time and you think about how to best present data for efficient understanding. With a strong sense of plain language and the ability to tailor to any audience, you dig deep into material to ensure it communicates its key message. When someone thinks something cannot be done, your first instinct is to find a solution anyway. You are comfortable jumping from one technical topic to another and applying your expertise to different scenarios. The core of your work will be directing large-scale communication and engagement efforts related to drinking water infrastructure improvements. Your tasks will generally include:

• Leading large teams of communications experts; ensuring communications tasks are executed
• Facilitating discussions within your respective programs and creating plans to promote better organizational coordination and management
• Creating and implementing communication plans to ensure stakeholders receive information needed appropriately when being asked to make a decision
• Writing and editing documents to specific reading levels while ensuring they meet brand and style guidance
• Translating highly technical textual information into a visual story that the audience can relate to and make decisions about
• Proving highly detailed quality control and readability reviews
• Managing and mentoring junior staff working on project communications
• Teaching technical staff communications best practices
• Interacting with the public, especially disadvantaged communities, via virtual and on-the-ground community forums
• Facilitating community engagement forums, like public meetings, hearings, and listening sessions
• Working with social media and electronic methods of survey and data collection; analyzing that data efficiently
• Creating forums to brainstorm and act on ideas to improve communication best practices, and/or creatively address specific client challenges
• Contributing to proposals to win more work, including writing public-engagement related scope, building up a team, and estimating cost

Some weekend and evening hours will be required to attend project public engagement events.

Bachelor's degree. 7 years of related experience. Domestic and/or international travel may be required. The frequency of travel is contingent on specific duties, responsibilities, and the essential functions of the position, which may vary depending on workload and project demands. Equivalent additional directly related experience will be considered in lieu of a degree.

An appropriate and valid driver's license is required.

Experience leading community outreach and engagement for diverse communities. Internal and public meeting facilitation training and experience, experience with controversial situations a plus. Experience writing and producing content for varied audiences at low reading grade levels. Experience with graphic design. Ability to speak Spanish or Vietnamese, is a plus.

Strong organization skills; ability to manage a project team, scope, schedule, and budget. Excellent written and oral communication skills. Ability to see the big picture, then connect disparate dots of activities to meet an end goal. Ability to build internal and external relationships. Ability to translate highly complex technical information into content the general public can understand. Ability to adapt to quickly changing technologies. Confident working in a virtual team atmosphere. Strong facilitation skills.