Our friends at Public Citizen are hiring a Press Officer for their Austin, TX office. Public Citizen represents and protects public interest within the legislature, advocating for clean environment, clean environment, and accountability in corporations and elected leaders. We have worked hand-in-hand with them on various legislative and advocacy campaigns for years.
The position will be open until December 1, 2018.
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Position: Press Officer – Public Citizen’s Texas Office
GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF POSITION: The Press Officer will work with the Director, Texas office staff, and D.C. communications staff to develop and execute media strategy for the Texas office. The Press Officer will be responsible for daily social media engagement, press releases and traditional media outreach, rapid response to current events and requests, blog and website maintenance, and engagement with the D.C. communications team and the Houston media collaborative.
Issues covered include climate change, air quality, renewable energy, fossil fuels, nuclear waste, and ethics. Most messaging is statewide, although some campaigns focused on specific regions, including Houston, Austin, San Antonio, and Dallas. One campaign concerns media coverage and public attitudes surrounding air quality and public health in Houston.
SPECIFIC RESPONSIBILITIES:
1. Work with the Texas office team to develop media strategies including both traditional and social media to reach a larger audience and help us achieve our organizational and campaign goals.
2. Work with program staff to develop white papers, fact sheets, and social media tools for educating the public, elected officials, and the media.
3. With the director and other staff, write press releases, op-eds, letters to the editor, and blog posts to promote our positions.
4. Develop and maintain a list of media contacts in Texas.
5. Develop and maintain relationships with key reporters and work with them to get coverage of our issues.
6. Organize and conduct press conferences and events; provide live coverage on social media.
7. Daily engagement on social media, including Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
8. Work with staff on weekly content creation and promotion of blog posts.
9. Design and execute paid social media campaigns.
10. Work with the Texas office member of the national office’s Online Team to design and promote petitions and “action pages.”
11. Work with partner organizations, including the Houston collaborative, to coordinate media outreach and facilitating proactive media strategy.
12. Maintain analytics on media activities for reporting to funders.
13. Supervise the Texas office’s participation in the upcoming migration of Citizen.org from Drupal to WordPress. Migrate content from the Texas blog (TexasVox.org) to the new citizen.org site.
14. Some graphic design and layout work.
15. Other duties as assigned.
REQUIREMENTS:
Education: College degree preferred. Degree in communications preferred.
Knowledge: Strategy in the following areas: traditional/earned media, paid/promotional media, social media. Knowledge of the issues we work on is beneficial, but not required.
Work Experience: At least two years’ experience including both traditional and social media. Nonprofit experience beneficial, but not required.
Skills: Fluency in Spanish strongly preferred. Excellent written and oral communication skills, including editing skills. Fluency with software including Adobe InDesign, Microsoft Office, WordPress, Drupal. Strong social media skills. Preferred skills include graphic design, web design, and video production.
Capabilities: Self-motivated, works well with a wide range of people in a fast-paced environment, works independently or as part of a coalition, manages multiple projects and work under pressure, adapts to changing situations on a daily basis; desire to learn about and advance progressive causes. Occasional travel throughout Texas and beyond is expected.
SALARY AND BENEFITS: Competitive salary commensurate with experience. Excellent medical and dental coverage, three weeks paid vacation for new employees, paid leave, 401k, student loan plan and more. This is a grant contingent position.
TO APPLY:
Send a letter of interest, resume, two writing samples and samples of social media content to ashelley@citizen.org.
Public Citizen is an equal opportunity employer. People of color, women, LGBT candidates are encouraged to apply.
About Public Citizen’s Texas Office:
Public Citizen is a national, nonprofit advocacy organization founded in 1971 to represent the public interest in Congress, the executive branch and the courts. We fight for openness and democratic accountability in government; for social and economic justice in globalization and trade policies; for clean, safe and sustainable energy; for strong health, safety and environmental protections; for safe, effective and affordable medicines and health care and for the right of consumers to seek redress in the courts. We have six divisions based in our Washington, D.C. offices and an office in Texas.
The mission of Public Citizen’s Texas office is to empower citizens to be effective advocates for the environment and against corporate and governmental irresponsibility. Since 1984, the Texas state office has worked to combat global climate change, promote the use of clean renewable energy, reduce the use of coal, and get environmental policies enforced to reduce air and water pollution. We work with numerous partner groups, including other national nonprofits and local organizations. Public Citizen has achieved important victories in Texas on energy efficiency, renewable energy and air quality issues over the past 31 years. Among recent victories, we were involved in legislation that led to Texas’ wind boom; we helped draft energy efficiency legislation that led to Texas being the first in the nation to have an efficiency portfolio standard; we helped pass Texas building energy codes in 2001 and we have developed programs to reduce toxic and diesel emissions.