COMMUNICATIONS SPECIALIST - University of Washington : Job Details

As a UW employee, you have a unique opportunity to change lives on our campuses, in our state and around the world. UW employees offer their boundless energy, creative problem-solving skills, and dedication to build stronger minds and a healthier world.

UW faculty and staff also enjoy outstanding benefits, professional growth opportunities and unique resources in an environment noted for diversity, intellectual excitement, artistic pursuits, and natural beauty.

UW Medicine Strategic Marketing and Communications has an outstanding opportunity for a Communications Specialist to join their team.

At UW Medicine, we work to improve health for all people through excellence in clinical, research, and education and training programs. As the only comprehensive clinical, research and learning health system in the five-state WWAMI (Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, Idaho) region, UW Medicine provides the most up-to-date care for each individual patient, leads one of the world's largest and most comprehensive medical research programs, and provides innovative learning programs for students, trainees, and practitioners in the health professions.

The UW Medicine's Strategic Marketing and Communications (SMC) team plays a unique and vital role in advancing UW Medicine's mission to improve the health of all people. We advance UW Medicine's mission by creating connections to the discoveries, knowledge, and care that improve people's lives. Our team is comprised of 50+ dedicated professionals who work across a variety of marketing and communications disciplines for both the health system and UW School of Medicine, including brand and marketing strategy, news and media relations, internal and crisis communications, web development, UX/DX strategies, social media, writing, and graphic design. Our success lies in our core values: respect, teamwork, creativity, continuous improvement, and focus on diversity, equity and inclusion, that are reflected in all that we do.

The Communications Specialist is responsible for managing communications and communications projects for the UW Medicine Strategic Communications team. Projects may include a variety of communication deliverables supporting the team, supporting our communications across the organization or supporting external outreach to members of the media, patients, community partners or the general public.

The successful candidate will have experience in creating a variety of content, ensuring quality and accuracy and managing multiple aspects of communications. They have experience in providing guidance to operational leaders and project team members on communications channels and tactics for various audiences. They will possess strong organizational, project management and relationship building skills to collaborate with many cross-functional teams across UW Medicine. They must be able to prioritize and juggle multiple projects and deliverables, adhere to deadlines and brand guidelines, and drive outcome-focused, collaborative results.

This position interacts with leadership, faculty and staff across multiple UW Medicine entities including Harborview Medical Center, UW Medical Center, Valley Medical Center, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, UW Neighborhood Clinics, UW Physicians, Airlift Northwest, and the UW School of Medicine. The position reports to the Director of Communications Planning. The role collaborates closely with members of the internal communications, media relations, social media, hospital communications, digital, content and marketing teams.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Communications Project Management - 35%:

Flexibly deployed across various projects.

Executes communications projects in a timely and effective manner.

Develops and executes strategies and leads communications planning efforts for assigned projects/programs.

Integrates and leads work among various communication professionals to ensure strategies and plans are implemented effectively.

Ensures project alignment with overall communications strategy.

Oversees and provides guidance to project resources for assigned projects.

Advises operational leaders or partners on communication best practices, channels, tactics, etc.

Drives project communications deliverables to completion.

Manages intake of requests and documentation of projects in Wrike project management tool, clarifies responsibilities and documents deadlines and deliverables.

Identifies opportunities for streamlining processes and workflows to improve productivity and efficiency.

Content Development - 30%:

Develops content as needed, including intranet posts, copy for email announcements, articles for employee platforms, talking points, signage, FAQs, and other collateral.

Supports requests to edit and send email messages to the workforce.

Integrates, fills gaps and leads work among various communication professionals to ensure strategies and plans are implemented effectively.

Strategic Communications Support - 35%:

Support the strategic communications team by organizing work efforts for internal communications, media relations, hospital communications, communications planning and social media teams (including developing work schedules, tracking analytics, submitting requests etc.).

Maintains Teams, SharePoint, Wrike, and Marketo organizational structure and documentation, including templates, files, standard operating procedures, etc.

Supports organization-wide and strategic communications distribution lists. Gather requirements for, identify source information, coordinate with partners and update distribution lists. Train others and manage approvals for distribution lists. Develop and manage documentation related to distribution lists.

Coordinates and schedules meetings, drafts action items, assigns and routes, with appropriate follow-ups to ensure on-time deliverables and forward progression of projects.

Supports onboarding of new employees.

Runs meetings, gathers agenda items, follows up on projects and deliverables, maintains and executes communications plans.

Helps develop SOPs and other internal documents.

Identifies areas where process improvements are needed to increase communications team collaboration.

Other duties as assigned.

CONDITITONS OF EMPLOYMENT

Ability to occasionally work outside of typical business hours as needed to address urgent situations.

As an essential and hybrid position, the individual is required to work remotely when the University is under suspended operations due to inclement weather, etc.

Hybrid - Approximately one day per month at South Lake Union office (with the option for more days in-office as desired).

MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS

Bachelor's degree in communications or related field.

Four years of successful communications and writing experience with three of those years focusing on communications planning and communications strategy development and execution.

Equivalent education/experience will substitute for all minimum qualifications except when there are legal requirements, such as a license/certification/registration.

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS

Possesses a fluent understanding of, experience in and commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion.

Demonstrated and outstanding organizational, time management and project management skills.

An authentically and consistently good listener.

Exceptional skills in relationship building and collaboration.

Knowledge and understanding of communication best practices.

Experience working across and delivering content for internal and external communication platforms.

Experience with organizing projects across multiple platforms and tools, such as standardizing naming conventions, streamlining processes and workflows, establishing and socializing SOPs, and more.

A strong writer and oral communicator, able to quickly and accurately write and edit content.

Ability to adhere to AP and brand guidelines.

Experience using analytics to assess the impact and effectiveness of communications deliverables.

Proven ability to work in a fast-paced, high-change environment with demonstrated ability to manage multiple projects and have the flexibility to perform within an environment of changing needs and priorities.

Ability to anticipate program needs, discern work priorities, and work cross-functionally.

Ability to occasionally work outside of typical business hours as needed to meet deadlines and address urgent situations.

Ability and willingness to create strong results with limited resources.

High level of computer literacy skills, including experience with MS Office Suite and key project management and presentation tools.

Demonstrated commitment to integrity.

DESIRED QUALIFICATIONS

Prior experience working in a large, complex organization.

Prior work in an academic or health system setting.

Proficient in posting to web platforms.

Familiarity with the AP style, SharePoint and Marketo.

Application Process: The application process may include completion of a variety of online assessments to obtain additional information that will be used in the evaluation process. These assessments may include Work Authorization, Cover Letter and/or others. Any assessments that you need to complete will appear on your screen as soon as you select Apply to this position . Once you begin an assessment, it must be completed at that time; if you do not complete the assessment, you will be prompted to do so the next time you access your My Jobs page. If you select to take it later, it will appear on your My Jobs page to take when you are access ready. Please note that your application will not be reviewed, and you will not be considered for this position until all required assessments have been completed.