Communications and Engagement Specialist

Responsibilities

• 30%: Strategic Communications and Change Management - Develop and execute integrated communication, engagement, and change-management strategies that support RAC initiatives, service launches, process changes, technology implementations, pilots, and service expansion. - Translate complex research administration, technology, policy, and service-delivery information into clear, actionable, audience-specific communications. - Advise RAC leadership and project teams on communication strategy, stakeholder concerns, messaging, timing, sequencing, and communication risks. - Anticipate and address stakeholder uncertainty, resistance, information gaps, and change impacts through proactive communication and engagement approaches. - Coordinate communications across initiatives and channels, evaluate effectiveness, and refine strategies based on stakeholder feedback and implementation outcomes.
• 25%: Stakeholder Engagement and Partnership Development - Develop stakeholder engagement strategies, communication networks, feedback mechanisms, and implementation approaches that support RAC initiatives. - Build and maintain productive partnerships with faculty, research administrators, institutional leaders, Office of Research partners, and other stakeholders. - Plan and facilitate meetings, listening sessions, forums, demonstrations, briefings, and other stakeholder engagement activities. - Gather, synthesize, and communicate stakeholder feedback, concerns, and implementation needs to inform service and process design. - Promote transparency and two-way communication throughout service design, implementation, evaluation, and expansion efforts.
• 20%: Content Development and Communications Management - Develop, write, edit, and manage a broad range of communications materials, including web content, newsletters, presentations, briefings, FAQs, stakeholder updates, and leadership communications. - Research and translate complex operational, technical, and organizational topics into clear, accessible, audience-appropriate content. - Establish and maintain consistent messaging, terminology, editorial standards, templates, and communication practices across RAC initiatives. - Coordinate review, approval, and dissemination of communications involving multiple stakeholders and institutional partners. - Maintain communication resources and identify accomplishments, innovations, outcomes, and lessons learned for internal and external audiences.
• 15%: Training, Service Adoption, and Implementation Support - Assess stakeholder readiness and identify communication, training, and implementation-support needs for new or redesigned services and processes. - Develop and implement service-adoption, onboarding, and training strategies that support successful transitions to RAC services and practices. - Coordinate development and delivery of training sessions, demonstrations, office hours, job aids, FAQs, reference materials, and related resources. - Translate process documentation and technical requirements into user-focused guidance and knowledge resources. - Monitor adoption challenges, recurring questions, and user feedback and collaborate with service teams to improve implementation outcomes.
• 10%: Communications Assessment, Continuous Improvement, and RAC Development - Develop and monitor measures of communication, engagement, training, and service-adoption effectiveness. - Analyze participation, feedback, adoption trends, communication reach, and other indicators to identify improvement opportunities. - Conduct after-action reviews and capture lessons learned from significant initiatives, implementations, and engagement activities. - Recommend and implement improvements to communication channels, engagement methods, training approaches, and supporting materials. - Contribute to RAC evaluation, service refinement, scaling efforts, and the development of a culture of transparency, collaboration, learning, and continuous improvement.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in communications, public relations, journalism, marketing, organizational communication, public administration, higher education, or a related field, or an equivalent combination of education and professional experience in communications, public relations, journalism, marketing, or organizational communications.
• Three years experience in communications, public relations, journalism, marketing, or organizational communications.

Preferred

• Demonstrated experience developing and implementing strategic communications, stakeholder engagement, outreach, or change-management initiatives for diverse audiences and complex organizational environments.
• Exceptional written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to synthesize and translate complex operational, technical, or policy information into clear, accessible, and audience-appropriate content.
• Experience building collaborative relationships with leaders, subject matter experts, and stakeholder groups; facilitating meetings and engagement activities; and gathering and incorporating stakeholder feedback.
• Strong organizational, project-management, and problem-solving skills, including the ability to manage multiple priorities independently, exercise sound judgment, and deliver high-quality work in a fast-paced environment.
• Experience working in higher education, research administration, academic healthcare, government, or other large, complex organizations with diverse stakeholder communities.
• Experience supporting organizational change initiatives, business process improvements, service implementations, technology deployments, or shared services transformations.
• Demonstrated expertise in strategic stakeholder engagement, facilitation, group process design, and building consensus across organizational boundaries.
• Experience developing and delivering training, knowledge-management resources, implementation support materials, and adoption strategies for new services, systems, or programs.
• Experience using communication, collaboration, analytics, or content-management platforms to measure engagement, evaluate effectiveness, and continuously improve communication and stakeholder engagement practices.

Benefits

• Benefits Other Compensation: For information about benefits for this position, visit https://www.washington.edu/jobs/benefits-for-uw-staff/