Responsibilities

• Leads the City’s communications across print, digital, and multimedia platforms, ensuring alignment with City policies, professional standards and communications best practices.
• Develops and manages a Citywide communications strategy, editorial calendar, and campaign workflow that supports timely, coordinated, and audience-first content across departments.
• Leads the City’s tourism and destination marketing strategy, including brand positioning and visitor communications campaigns, and collaborates with regional agencies such as the Olympic Peninsula Visitor Bureau, Olympic Peninsula Tourism Commission and Sequim-Dungeness Valley Chamber of Commerce, to ensure a coordinated approach to marketing the area.
• Handles or advises on high-profile, sensitive, confidential, or complex media issues and develops strategic communications approaches for emerging public policy matters, community concerns, and issues of significant public interest in coordination with City leadership and appropriate stakeholders.
• Manages or advises on stakeholder outreach, community engagement, building productive relationships with residents, businesses, media, community organizations and public-sector partners.
• Manages the Lodging Tax, tracks and maintains financial and budget information for the lodging tax dollars; provides staff support to the Lodging Tax Advisory Committee (LTAC); compliant with state requirements.
• Supports innovation and continuous improvement by responsibly testing and using emerging tools, including AI-assisted research, content development, workflow automation, and social listening, while maintaining accuracy, privacy, transparency, and human judgment.
• Leads digital-first storytelling and public-information campaigns related to City services, programs, events, infrastructure, development, and community priorities, using accessible website content, newsletters, social media, visual media, and other tools to make City information understandable.
• Provides communications guidance and recommendations to the City Manager and departments on communication needs, emerging issues, key messages, target audiences and appropriate distribution and engagement methods.
• Develops and monitors annual work plans, budgets and performance measures for communications, public engagement and tourism marketing programs.

Requirements

• A bachelor’s degree in journalism, communications, marketing, public relations or a closely related field, along with at least five years of progressively responsible experience in communications, public engagement, tourism destination marketing, digital media, content development, or a related area. A combination of education and experience that provides the applicant with the desired skills, knowledge and ability may be considered.
• Demonstrated experience developing communications and outreach materials across print, digital, social, video or other media platforms is required. Applicants must submit a portfolio or links to relevant work samples that demonstrate their creative process, communication abilities, range of work, and approach to problem-solving. Examples may include campaigns, writing samples, websites, social media content, photography, video, public engagement projects, marketing materials, strategic plans, or other applicable work.
• Minimum knowledge and abilities: Advanced knowledge of strategic communications, public information, community engagement, media relations, destination marketing, and municipal government practices.
• Knowledge of digital and traditional communications platforms, including websites, social media, newsletters, print, photography, video and graphic design.
• Knowledge of accessible, inclusive and plain-language communication practices.
• Knowledge of brand management, editorial standards and quality control across print and digital materials.
• Knowledge of research, public opinion methods, analytics and performance measures used to evaluate communications and engagement efforts.
• Knowledge of budgeting, work-plan development, contract administration, requests for proposals and consultant oversight.
• Excellent writing, editing, presentation and verbal communication skills, with the ability to adapt core messages for different audiences, platforms and outcomes.
• Ability to translate complex, technical or sensitive information into clear, accurate and engaging public communications.