Communications Manager

About the New Practice Lab: The New Practice Lab (NPL) works to improve family economic security and wellbeing – through the way social policy is designed and delivered. We believe good policy design focuses on families’ lived experience and prioritizes making a difference in people’s daily lives. 

About New America: New America is dedicated to renewing the promise of America by continuing the quest to realize our nation's highest ideals, honestly confronting the challenges caused by rapid technological and social change, and seizing the opportunities those changes create.

Role Description: The Communications Manager is responsible for shaping and sharing the New Practice Lab’s highly complex qualitative and quantitative policy and human-centered design research in compelling, impactful, and creative ways with interested groups, including funders, friends, and media outlets outside of the organization. This includes a combination of writing and editing, brand building, content generation, content strategy, stakeholder engagement, and relationship building.

At a high level, we see this Communications Manager working in collaboration with New Practice Lab teammates and New America’s central communications team to:

• Create and execute the Lab’s content and communications strategy;
• Serve as communications lead of the Lab, working closely with Lab teammates to hone, translate and distill program takeaways into compelling stories and timely media that reach both public and policy-making audiences;
• Maintain and oversee an editorial calendar for the Lab, tracking content outputs across channels to communicate the Lab’s goals and findings;
• Guide the story of not only the Lab’s programmatic work, but also the way we practice, to both the public and our funders.

The Ideal Candidate

The ideal candidate will be passionate about intentionally building a creative and effective strategy for sharing the work of the New Practice Lab with partners and organizations interested in supporting equitable outcomes for America’s low-income and marginalized communities. They will be a strong writer and a strategic thinker with a voracious appetite for news who is well-versed in politics and can help drive the New Practice Lab’s various projects and reports. The candidate will have worked in a public affairs or public relations agency, political campaign, think-tank, nonprofit, or have issue advocacy experience, and can combine strategic analysis with campaign hustle. They will also have a network of relationships with national media, possess excellent writing skills, and be resourceful, enthusiastic, and able to thrive in a fast-paced, deadline-driven environment. Finally, this person will be independently motivated, proactive, creative, and resourceful, while also seeking to collaborate and share their work with the uniquely talented members of the Lab.

Responsibilities

• Develop and collaborate on the Lab’s big-picture content strategy, including developing audience-centric outreach plans, identifying opportunities for timely articles related to the Lab’s work;
• Write and produce of range of different materials such as press releases, op-eds, reports, memos, and presentations, and craft original short-form digital content to promote the Lab and its people;
• Instigate and execute communications methods and platforms that align with the stated goals and objectives of the Lab, including developing and pitching original story ideas to a diverse range of media and working on digital campaigns to amplify a message;
• Develop and cultivate a wide network of media and stakeholder relationships, segmented for different program needs;
• Consult on and edit briefs, policy papers, grant reports, funder check-ins, the Lab’s organizational strategy deck, newsletters, and other deliverables written by teammates at the Lab;
• Create and implement the web content strategy for the Lab’s program presence on newamerica.org—including editing, proofreading, and posting content, as well as developing and maintaining standards around tagging and organization of our content;
• Coordinate the Lab’s internal communication efforts with New America’s central communications team, building and maintaining relationships that support, maintain, and strengthen cross-programmatic work and information-sharing.

Compensation and Benefits: This position is a full-time role with benefits. The annual salary will be between $60,000 – $90,000 depending on experience. New America offers a highly competitive benefits package that includes health care, dental, and vision coverage; a generous retirement plan; paid time off; observes all federal holidays; and an office-wide closure between Christmas and New Year’s Day.

Location: The position is remote and available to those who can work in time zones that align with the continental U.S. and Puerto Rico.

Requirements

• Three to five years of experience as a journalist or in-house communications manager, or in a political campaign, public affairs or public relations agency
• Superb written and verbal communication skills, and comfort serving as the final reviewer.  

Application Process

Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis. Along with your resume, please submit:

• A cover letter that describes your qualifications to apply
• Three short writing samples that demonstrate your experience with any of the described skills and responsibilities. These could include pitches, press releases, strategic plans, talking points, communications/content/social media strategies, or any combination.

Please no phone calls, no emails

New America is an equal opportunity employer committed to hiring a diverse workforce at all levels of the organization thereby creating a culture that allows us to better serve our clientele, our employees, and our communities. We value and encourage the contributions of our employees and strive to create an environment where everyone can reach their full potential and drive outstanding results. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, national origin, age, sex, religion, disability, sexual orientation, marital status, veteran status, gender identity or expression, or any other basis protected by local, state, or federal law. This policy applies with regard to all aspects of one’s employment, including hiring, transfer, promotion, compensation, eligibility for benefits, and termination. This is a bargaining unit position.