Manager, Communications and Public Affairs

Responsibilities

• Respond to community, public and media inquiries.
• Build and maintain relationships with cities, counties and other stakeholder groups in Metrolink's service area to ensure timely, appropriate and accurate information is provided to stakeholders.
• Serve on Metrolink’s 24/7 public affairs on-call team, providing crisis communications support, participating in the team rotation (typically one week as backup and one week as lead each month), and training new team members to ensure a consistent, disciplined response during incidents.
• As directed, collaborate across departments, member agencies, and industry partners to surface, shape, and package proactive storylines and develop appropriate responses to community, public, and media inquiries about Metrolink services and projects.
• Through a variety of sources, monitor emerging capital, state-of-good-repair, and maintenance project issues, including construction impacts, environmental concerns, or political resistance, and coordinate timely strategic outreach plans to mitigate risk to project delivery or public perception.
• Represent SCRRA at special events, community group meetings, etc.
• Create presentations, community notices, communication plans, press releases, media advisories, talking points, fact sheets, video scripts, newsletter articles, board notices, and other high-quality internal and external communications materials.
• Maintain up-to-date, targeted community database and/or contact lists. Manage, expand and, as necessary, distribute an up-to-date contact list.
• Direct and oversee the work of contractors performing communications, public affairs, and community relations activities; establish clear expectations and ensure quality compliance.
• Support the administration and oversight of departmental budgets, contracts, and procurements.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s Degree in Public Relations, Communications, English, Marketing or related field.
• A minimum of five (5) years of experience in communications, government relations, public relations, journalism, community outreach, or a similar field.
• A combination of training, education and/or experience that provides the required knowledge, skills and abilities may be considered when determining minimum qualifications.
• Advanced relevant coursework may also substitute for a portion of the required experience.
• Knowledge of: Project management and coordination; Principles of graphics and layout; Transportation issues; Communications in government agencies; Political sensitivities; Community relations; Media relations.
• Skilled in: Writing and editing; Customer service; Microsoft Office; Verbal and written communication; Organization and time management.
• Ability to: Organize work and handle multiple requests and priorities; Adapt to effectively meet changing customer expectations; Demonstrate an analytical skill set that will support the reporting and analysis of data or trends related to stakeholder inquiries and comments; Establish and maintain effective relationships; Maintain composure under stress; Work weekends and extended hours.

Preferred

• A minimum of two (2) years of experience in a public or governmental agency as an employee, contractor, or consultant with a Class 1, intercity passenger, major commuter railroad, or transit provider in a 24/7 operations environment.

Benefits

• HEALTH INSURANCE: SCRRA offers a choice of health plan options provided through the California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS).
• DENTAL: SCRRA offers two dental options provided by Delta Dental.
• VISION: SCRRA offers two vision plans through Vision Service Plan (VSP).
• FLEXIBLE SPENDING ACCOUNTS: Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA) allow for the deferral of pre-tax dollars to be used for reimbursement of eligible medical, dependent care, and commuter parking expenses related to commuting to/from work.
• GROUP TERM LIFE INSURANCE: SCRRA provides for an amount equal to one (1) time your annual salary, rounded to the nearest $1,000, to a maximum of $350,000.
• ACCIDENTAL DEATH & DISMEMBERMENT: SCRRA provides for an amount equal to one (1) time your annual salary, rounded to the nearest $1,000, up to a maximum of $350,000.
• SHORT TERM DISABILITY: You are covered under the California State Disability Insurance (SDI) Program.
• LONG TERM DISABILITY: SCRRA provides for income replacement of 60 percent of monthly earnings subject to a maximum benefit of $10,000 per month up to age 65.
• INDIVIDUAL DISABILITY INSURANCE (IDI): SCRRA provides Individual Disability Insurance (IDI) for employees earning more than $200,000 per year.
• VOLUNTARY BENEFITS: SCRRA offers employee-paid voluntary benefits, provided by Aflac.