Communications Director Job Description

Location: New York, NY or Washington, DC

Goal: Fight for a progressive America, bring people into politics, win big issue fights, and take the White House in 2008.

Description: MoveOn.org Political Action is seeking a Communications Director to shape our communications strategy on our advocacy campaigns and going into the Presidential election in 2008.

We’re looking for someone who’s got great judgment, who’s quick on their feet and ready to seize the opportunities that the news cycle provides, who’s excited about the promise of online democracy and the mission of giving MoveOn’s 3.2 million members a voice.

We welcome applicants with business backgrounds as well as non-profit or politics.

Responsibilities:

• Manage message and press outreach to advance MoveOn’s national advocacy campaigns on issues like the Iraq war, health care coverage for everybody, and the climate crisis.
  
• Develop press materials for our advocacy campaigns that help local volunteers get our message out.
  
• Engineer rapid response to attacks and opportunities – defending our brand, and injecting our members’ voices into important debates.
  
• Manage development of TV advertisements that are hard-hitting, provocative, and effective for campaigns and elections.
  
• Act as an effective spokesperson and face for the organization, in TV, print, and on the radio
  
• Elevate the voices of MoveOn members as spokespeople whenever possible.
  
• Shape MoveOn's brand strategy – making sure that “MoveOn” stands for democracy, people-powered politics, and a new pragmatic populist progressivism.
  
• Monitor and intervene in the news cycle -- watching constantly for risks and opportunities and focusing organizational attention on them.
  
• Build relationships with key reporters and our media consultants at Fenton Communications.
  
• Build relationships with new media (blogs, etc.) and use them to get the word out about MoveOn campaigns. Manage the MoveOn.org front page.

Required skills:

• Excellent writing skills -- writing both for press and for popular audiences. Your writing is sharp, personable, and memorable.
  
• Excellent detail-oriented project management. You’re experienced at triage, and can handle a lot going on at once.
  
• Strong self-starter, entrepreneurial. But you’re also good at working with a team of peers to get things done.
  
• Good marketing sense. You’re great at coming up with messages, slogans, and tactics that draw attention to policy points.
  
• Calm in a crisis, with great instincts.  When the RNC’s attacking, you’re cool as a cucumber and know what needs to be done.
  
• Fast – you enjoy working on a deadline and can turn things around quickly.
  
• Strong judgment on what kinds of tactics and campaigns will attract press attention. You can tell a genius, out-of-the-box idea from something that’s just crazy.
  
• Excellent political and strategy judgment.  You’re good at seeing the path to victory, particularly in terms of communications.
  
• Good framing chops – you understand how to talk about a campaign or a media moment in the most advantageous terms.
  
• Willing to do what it takes to make a project come off. Low ego, high focus on getting stuff done.
  
• Hard worker, can do flexible hours and manage your time independently. You know that saving the world doesn’t always happen between 9 and 5.
  
• Handy with a sound bite.  As a spokesperson, your quotes are always clear and on message.
  
• Comfortable with a virtual office. You can work with colleagues from Tokyo to Atlanta.

Preferred (but not required) skills:

• Management experience. You’re good with people, and good at focusing a team.
  
• Experience with online politics and technology.  You’ve messed around with HTML and SQL, and know what a good online campaign looks like.
  
• Good TV skills.  You’ve acted as a spokesperson before and know how to place a sound bite.
• Experience in organizing.  You know how to work with volunteers to make change happen.

Salary: Salary is highly competitive and benefits include health & dental insurance, 4 weeks vacation, and a 401K program.

To Apply: Email a resume attached as a Word or PDF document, plus three references with phone and email, to jobs@moveon.org. Position will be filled as soon as possible.

MoveOn.org Political Action is an equal opportunity employer.  Women, people of color, LGBT people and others are strongly encouraged to apply.