Strategic Communications Advisor - Executive Director Division - SF Municipal Transportation Agency (1373) - City and County of San Francisco

APPOINTMENT TYPE: Permanent Exempt, Full Time not to exceed three (3) years – This position is excluded by the Charter from the competitive Civil Service examination process and shall serve at the discretion of the Appointing Officer.

Application Opening: May 1, 2024
Application Deadline to Apply: May 22, 2024
Salary: $144,456 to $175,552 annually
Recruitment ID: PEX-1373-147315

Please Note: A cover letter and resume must be attached to the online application. 

Division: Executive Office 

Section/Unit: Chief of Staff

Location(s): 1 South Van Ness, San Francisco, CA

Work Hours:  Monday – Friday, 8:00 AM – 5:00 PM 

The SFMTA, a department of the City and County of San Francisco, oversees Muni, parking and traffic, bicycling, walking, and taxis. Over one million people get around San Francisco and rely on us to ensure safe and reliable travel. 

Mission: We connect San Francisco through a safe, equitable, and sustainable transportation system. 
 
Vision: A city of diverse and vibrant neighborhoods seamlessly connected by safe, reliable, affordable transportation for all. 
The Streets Division of the SFMTA plans, designs, implements, maintains, and improves the city’s street, transit, bicycle, pedestrian, and parking infrastructure. Our mission is to help San Francisco achieve the goals of the Transit First policy, which prioritizes the use of city streets by pedestrians, bicyclists, and public transit; and the Vision Zero policy, which seeks to eliminate traffic fatalities and reduce severe injuries. Our work also supports San Francisco’s Climate Action Plan. 

The Streets Division embraces innovation. We’ve created more than 32 miles of Slow Streets — safe, low-vehicle-traffic routes that prioritize people over cars — and partnered with the San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department to create seven miles of safe, recreational streets like JFK Promenade in Golden Gate Park. San Francisco now has 467 miles of bike lanes, including 45 miles of protected bike lanes, and is the safest larger U.S. city in the U.S. for bicycling. During the pandemic, we implemented the fastest expansion of transit-priority lanes in the San Francisco’s history. Thanks to these transit lanes, Muni is faster and more reliable than ever.   

The Streets Division includes the following teams: Capital Programs & Construction; Livable Streets; Parking, Curb Management & Operations; Parking and Traffic Enforcement; Planning; Security, Investigations and Enforcement; and Transportation Engineering. 

POSITION DESCRIPTION:
The Strategic Communications Advisor is a principal advisor to the Streets Division Director and produces core messaging with and for Streets Division executives and senior management. The SFMTA is looking for a curiosity-driven, organized team player to help execute strategic communications campaigns, write compelling messages for agency leadership, create meaningful content for internal audiences, and find innovative ways to communicate with and engage employees. In collaboration with Streets leadership and communications colleagues, the Strategic Communications Advisor ensures the agency’s communications integrity, ensuring confidence in messages, communication that is supported by facts, and transparency and honesty.

The Strategic Communications Advisor will be responsible for shaping the story of the evolution of street safety and design in San Francisco and ongoing innovation in the way the SFMTA delivers on its values. The Strategic Communications Advisor will wrestle with some of the biggest issues facing the SFMTA and will need to convey both passion for our services and the employees who make our work possible.  To succeed, the Strategic Communications Advisor will have to combine creativity with organizational skills to manage multiple projects with tight deadlines, understand complex issues, break them down, and coach colleagues to communicate those issues in written and spoken forms. The successful candidate will need to be able to compellingly summarize technical and transportation concepts in writing and in person and to create digestible stories about the SFMTA’s work. 

The Strategic Communications Advisor will sit in the SFMTA Chief of Staff's Office to ensure close coordination with other agency communications advisors. 

EXAMPLES OF IMPORTANT AND ESSENTIAL DUTIES:

• Develops a Streets Division’s content strategy for web, broadcast, social media and print material that is rooted in the SFMTA’s values. Collaborates with other communicators to implement that strategy, delivering content to both internal and external audiences. 
• Leads the development of and executes proactive and strategic communication initiatives in partnership with teams across the SFMTA; continually monitors, analyzes, and refines these initiatives to maximize impact. 
• Writes internal and external communications pieces on behalf of the Streets Division Director. 
• Collaborates on the development of internal communications to help keep employees informed, inspired and connected to the SFMTA’s mission and values. 
• Develops strategy related to multimedia communications and partners with designers to help develop visuals and videos for external and internal use. 
• Supports the execution of communications related to transportation crisis events and major incidents.  
• Conceptualizes impactful, data-driven, and compelling communications collateral including messages, talking points, social media posts, video scripts and speeches. 
• Identifies emerging topics and leads the development and execution of proactive communication plans. 
• Advises and counsels executives, senior management and other agency leaders on the right messages for specific audiences, the best ways to reach those audiences and ways to measure the impact of the communications. 
• Uses data to evaluate, adjust and target communications. 
• Oversees, coordinates and monitors the work of consultants and contractors working on specific deliverables. 
• Establishes and maintains a broad and deep network at all levels across the SFMTA and other city and regional agencies. 
• Performs related duties as assigned. 

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS:

1. Possession of a Bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university; AND
2. Five (5) years of professional experience in communications, media, government, community affairs, or related experience including creating and implementing internal and external communications programs.

Substitution:

Education Substitution: Additional qualifying professional experience as described above may substitute for the required education on a year-for-year basis for a full four (4) year substitution. One-year (2000 hours) will be considered equivalent to thirty (30) semester units/forty-five (45) quarter units.

Notes:

Applicants must meet the minimum qualifications by the final filing date unless otherwise noted. One year of full-time experience is equivalent to 2000 hours. (2000 hours of qualifying work experience is based on a 40-hour work week.)  Any overtime hours that you work above forty (40) hours per week are not included in the calculation to determine full-time experience.

DESIRABLE QUALIFICATIONS:

The stated desirable qualifications may be used to identify candidates advancing to the interview process and/or to identify job finalist(s) at the end of the selection process when referred for hiring.

• Leadership role in communications for a highly visible, political agency, institution, or organization.
• Experience developing successful social change communications campaigns.
• Up-to-date knowledge of communications, media practices, technologies, trends, and opportunities.
• Excellent writing skills including experience writing for senior executives.
• Direct experience in crisis communications.
• Video production and editing skills and experience.
• Demonstrated ability to translate technical information into easily understandable and digestible concepts.
• Experience conceptualizing visual representations and infographics to communicate complex concepts.
• Excellent interpersonal skills: honesty, tact, responsiveness, emotional intelligence, and self-awareness.
• Experience and comfort working through conflict to productive outcomes; excellent facilitation skills.
• Conversant in transportation concepts, policies, and operational challenges.
• Conversant in modern concepts of equity, inclusion/belonging and social justice and how these relate to the work of a transportation agency.
• Knowledge of San Francisco neighborhoods, stakeholders and politics.
• Passion for the SFMTA’s work and mission.

Verification:
Applicants may be required to submit verification of qualifying education and experience at any point during the recruitment and selection process. More information can be found at: Information About the Hiring Process | Department of Human Resources (sfdhr.org). Falsifying one’s education, training, or work experience or attempted deception on the application may result in disqualification for this and future job opportunities with the City and County of San Francisco.

Selection Process:

Applications will be screened for relevant qualifying experience. Additional screening mechanisms may be used to determine candidates' qualifications. Only those applicants who most closely meet the needs of the Agency will be invited to move forward in the selection process. 

Information About the Hiring Process

Conviction History

Employee Benefits Overview

Equal Employment Opportunity

Disaster Service Worker

ADA Accommodation

Right to Work

Copies of Application Documents

Diversity Statement

This recruitment may be utilized to fill similar positions in this classification at SFMTA.

For questions or inquiries, please contact: Yvonne Lee, Senior Human Resources Analyst at yvonne.lee@sfmta.com.

All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.

The City and County of San Francisco encourages women, minorities and persons with disabilities to apply. Applicants will be considered regardless of their sex, race, age, religion, color, national origin, ancestry, physical disability, mental disability, medical condition (associated with cancer, a history of cancer, or genetic characteristics), HIV/AIDS status, genetic information, marital status, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, military and veteran status, or other protected category under the law.