Head of Communications

About Rewiring America

Rewiring America is the leading electrification nonprofit, focused on electrifying our homes, businesses, and communities. We develop accessible, actionable data and tools, and build coalitions and partnerships to make going electric easier for households and communities. Rewiring America helps Americans save money, tackle nationwide emissions goals, improve health, and build the next generation of the clean energy workforce. We believe in an abundant, flourishing, climate-safe future, and know that, together, we can realize one.

Position Summary

We are seeking a passionate and resourceful Head of Communications to create and communicate our message to a diverse array of media stakeholders, from policy to general interest audiences, and across various sectors, geographies, and demographics. This individual will craft and articulate both policy and broader narratives to Rewiring America’s vast constituencies. You will play a key role in spreading the electrification gospel — to anyone and everyone — with skill and passion, humor and energy! You must be able to tell our story a dozen different ways to a dozen different audiences, so everyone can see their role in this work, and access our message and tools.

The Head of Communications will join a rapidly expanding and highly collaborative organization, building out a best-in-class team, at a pivotal moment in our growth. This position reports to our Vice President, Communications and Creative Strategy, and collaborates closely with our founder & CEO, research & policy teams, communities team, marketing and growth, and product, as well as external advisors, partners, and coalition.

Experience in advocacy, politics, and/or climate is required, and the Head of Communications must be able to quickly gain fluency in our space, as we work to articulate nuanced policy, data, and electrification goals with ahead-of-the-curve agility and knowledge. You must understand this environment, and how to strategize, pitch, and write compellingly for it.

The ideal candidate will have an intuition for content that draws in an audience, while simultaneously achieving measurable business goals. You will be detail-oriented, collaborative, and ready to make connections and champion our partners, as these traits are core to Rewiring America’s brand. You must also be able to build and contribute to our engaging and ambitious team. We get things done, and have fun doing it. We’re looking for someone who wants to do big, ambitious things, creatively, with us.

What You’ll Do

Own and oversee a wide-ranging communications function, and take responsibility for tasks including but not limited to:

• Translating the organization’s values, vision, and mission into a best-in-class communications strategy, lead initiatives that raise the organization’s profile, foster strategic partnerships, and expand relationships with key influencers and stakeholders.
• Finding media hooks, pitching stories, and managing relationships with reporters and media partners.
• Establishing and driving a multi-channel communications strategy.
• Preparing and managing all communications material.
• Maintaining brand integrity across all platforms.
• Manage media relations and develop contacts with media members, influencers, and community leaders.
• Supporting team with media briefs, talking points, key messages, media training and presentation decks.
• Leading and managing a strong team of communicators, including writers, creators, and consultants, as necessary.
• Track engagement across various platforms and make data-driven decisions.
• Managing presence at industry events and conferences.

Requirements

Who You Are

The incoming Head of Communities will be driven by a commitment to Rewiring America’s values, vision, and mission. The successful candidate embraces the idea that we can do big things, and demonstrates humility, curiosity, and a learner’s mindset. They recognize that the stakes of what we are trying to accomplish depend on a passionate, high-functioning, and reliable team.

Qualified Head of Communications candidates will have a blend of the following experience, knowledge, skills and ability. Please consider applying even if you don’t think you fit all the criteria:

• Strong commitment to the mission, policies, and goals of Rewiring America.
• 15-20 years experience as a communications strategist for a political or advocacy organization, or transferable.
• Strong understanding of the political landscape, including how to leverage communications to set the terms and impact policy.
• Experience in a fast-paced, scaling organization, or company, and the ability to evolve strategic plans in a rapidly changing environment.
• Solid climate and lifestyle communications know-how.
• Strategic media relations instincts, a robust network of media contacts, and a successful track record of placing stories with top-tier media.
• Powerful executive presence and proven experience as a trusted communications advisor to executive leadership.
• Experience managing relationships with reporters and speaking on-the-record.
• Experience building and managing a team.
• Advanced knowledge of HTML and online publishing.
• Keen understanding of the digital media landscape and how to build a nimble comms team accordingly.
• Experience managing social media channels, and comfort across all platforms.
• Outstanding oral and written communications skills.
• Ability to find new ways of telling stories, and clever ways to make complex information as succinct and interesting as it can be. Ours is a compelling narrative. Help us make it sing.
• Detail-oriented work style.
• Outstanding project management abilities to ensure that Rewiring America works in a highly collaborative, cross-functional, and synergistic manner.
• Ability to collaborate with a small and growing team with competing demands; able to execute on a high volume of activity and projects, with speed, excellence, and humor.
• Sets and achieves high-performance expectations that are motivating and results-oriented.
• Seeks out and delivers timely and direct feedback that contributes to the ongoing development of oneself, team members, and a positive organizational culture.
• Promptly resolves problems through timely consultation in an environment of mutual respect.

The successful candidate demonstrates enthusiasm for making electrification easy, and models excellence and integrity in all they do. The selected candidate will also possess the following Core and Preferred qualifications and characteristics:

Core

• Strong commitment to the mission, policies and goals of Rewiring America.
• Deep strategic communications expertise and the ability to write fluently to all audiences and stakeholders, with our brand and place in the ecosystem duly considered.
• Experience managing a growing team in a remote environment, across multiple time zones. Facility with technology to support remote team work.
• Ability to marry message and measurement, with experience in optimizing for the needs of various audiences, objectives, and teams.
• Strong project management skills, and a collaborative approach to process and product.
• Up-to-date knowledge of relevant nonprofit, agency, and/or political engagement best practices.
• Working knowledge of content management systems, HTML coding, and digital graphics production.
• Familiarity with social media platforms, best practices, and digital reporting.

Preferred

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent work experience.
• Excellent references demonstrating a strong track record.

• Content knowledge in climate, renewable energy, and/or building electrification.
• An understanding of our ecosystem, partners, stakeholders, and their needs.

• Experience in a hyper-growth organization, campaign or company.
• A portfolio of work to demonstrate how you’ve communicated with others, across disciplines and media.

• Bonus: basic fluency in publishing and design programs, project management tools, and comms programs.
• Double bonus: Creative energy, enthusiasm for custom Slack emoji and a willingness to try new things, always.

Benefits

Commitment to Racial Equity, Diversity and Inclusion

Rewiring America values diversity in all its forms and is committed to inclusive and transparent recruitment, hiring and promotion processes. Candidates of diverse backgrounds and lived experience are strongly encouraged to apply.

Hiring Statement

Rewiring America is a project of Windward Fund, a 501(c)(3) public charity that incubates new and innovative public-interest projects and grant-making programs. Windward Fund is committed to attracting, developing and retaining exceptional people, and to creating a work environment that is dynamic, rewarding and enables each of us to realize our potential. Windward Fund ‘s work environment is safe and open to all employees and partners, respecting the full spectrum of race, color, religious creed, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, political affiliation, ancestry, age, disability, genetic information, veteran status and all other classifications protected by law in the locality and/or state in which you are working.

Compensation and Benefits

The salary range for this role is $200,000 - $250,000 USD, commensurate with experience. Comprehensive benefits package that includes 100% employer-paid health, dental, and vision insurance for employees (and their families). Employees are able to enroll in 401k retirement plan and are eligible for a 3% automatic contribution and up to a 3% employer match on 401k contributions. Employees are also eligible for pre-tax transportation benefits. Employees will receive 160 hours of vacation time, 80 hours of health leave, up to 2 days of casual leave, and 20 hours of volunteer leave annually. Employees will also receive 13 paid holidays throughout the calendar year (15 days during Presidential and Congressional elections). We have an office closure between Christmas and New Year. Employees are eligible for 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave after 90 days of employment. Regular, full-time employees and part-time employees are eligible to take up to sixteen weeks of parental leave, in all cases related to birth, adoption, or foster care starting from the first day of employment. We offer access to professional development resources.

Application Procedure

To apply or nominate a candidate, please submit an application and resume via the Rewiring America page at Workable.This position is open until filled, and we are moving quickly to fill this position -- apply as soon as possible. Candidate review and phone screens begin immediately and will be conducted throughout the search period.

E-Verify

Windward participates in E-Verify and will provide the federal government with employees’ Form I-9 information to confirm authorization to work in the United States. Job candidates and employees authorized to work may not be discriminated against on the basis of national origin or citizenship status.