Responsibilities

• Leads a multi-year effort to evolve public understanding of Girl Scouts, bringing the organization's brand platform to life through and strengthening relevance with new generations of girls, families, volunteers, and supporters. Sets the direction, the milestones that mark progress, and the measures that show whether it is working.
• Designs the national external communications strategy, setting the narrative, priorities, and calendar that determine what Girl Scouts says publicly and when.
• Directs national media relations, overseeing the organization‘s public relations agency and building relationships with reporters, editors, and producers and earning coverage that reaches girls, families, volunteers, donors, and decision-makers.
• Develops executive visibility and thought leadership for the Chief Executive Officer and senior leaders, and leads talent and influencer relations, identifying, securing, and stewarding relationships with public figures, cultural voices, and key opinion leaders who can carry the Girl Scout story to new audiences.
• Owns Girl Scouting’s thought leadership research agenda, planning regular research releases about topics central to girls’ lives, designed to drive relevance and media coverage.
• Guides communications for signature national moments, including the annual Girl Scout Cookie Program, corporate partnerships, and major anniversaries and milestones.
• Supports the organization’s sensitive issues lead by directing the external communications response to reputational issues, working within the established issues management structure and in partnership with key stakeholders
• Manages a team of communications professionals, the department budget, and agency partners — setting priorities, coaching staff, and measuring what the work achieves.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree (BA, BS, BBA, etc.) from four-year college or university or equivalent
• Minimum of 12+ years demonstrated experience developing and executing long-term communications strategies that shape public perception of a brand, organization, or cause.
• Proven ability to build and sustain an external narrative and earned media strategy for a brand platform, repositioning, or multi-year communications initiative.
• Established national media relations experience, including relationships across news, consumer, and business press and a track record of securing coverage for a recognized brand, organization, or cause.
• Experience directing external public relations or communications agencies against clear goals, timelines, and performance expectations.
• Experience developing executive visibility and thought leadership strategies for a chief executive or comparable senior leader.
• Experience translating national brand communications strategies for local execution across a franchise, chapter, affiliate, membership, or similarly distributed network.
• Experience managing talent, influencer, or ambassador relationships, including identifying appropriate voices, securing participation, and stewarding relationships over time.
• Sound judgment in assessing reputational fit and risk when associating an organization with public figures, partners, or public-facing initiatives.
• Experience leading and developing communications teams, including managing priorities, performance, and departmental budgets.

Preferred

• Experience leading communications for a federated, chapter-based, franchise, membership, or similarly networked organization.
• Experience in youth development, education, advocacy, or mission-driven work focused on girls and women.
• Experience supporting communications for documentary, entertainment, technology platform, or comparable high-visibility partnerships.
• Experience launching national research, reports, or thought leadership as public-facing moments.
• Experience in consumer product or food and beverage communications, particularly in relation to large-scale seasonal or cause-driven campaigns.
• Experience working alongside volunteer leaders, community-based organizations, or local market stakeholders.

Benefits

• Paid Time Off: 20+ days of paid time off, 2 floating holidays, as well as 9 workplace holidays per year. GSUSA staff also enjoy a paid holiday year-end office closure between Christmas and New Year\'s.
• Medical and Behavioral Health Coverage
• Plan options with individual and family coverage which includes wellness, hospitalization, and fertility assistance.
• Both plans include GSUSA partial subsidy of premium costs
• Dental and vision coverage
• Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) and Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs) including Health, Dependent Care, and Limited FSA for those with Health Savings Accounts
• Company-paid life insurance
• Flexible work arrangements
• 12 weeks of paid parental leave
• 401(K) with company match