Senior Writer

The Stanford Center on Early Childhood (SCEC) seeks a full time Senior Communications Specialist to join our team. The Senior Communications Specialist will develop communication materials for the RAPID Survey Project, managing and planning the entire communications pipeline for the project.

The Stanford Center on Early Childhood brings new tools and pathways for impact to the places where early childhood development happens–early learning environments, healthcare, and community-based family support programs and services. The Stanford Center on Early Childhood is an initiative of the Stanford Accelerator for Learning.

About Us

The Stanford University Graduate School of Education (GSE) is a top-ranked school of education, known for its prestigious faculty, rigorous graduate degree programs, and its impact on the quality of education across the world. The GSE is committed to developing leaders in education research, practice and policy. Our community includes over 60 faculty, 400 students, 200 staff, 14,000 alumni and countless people from the local and global communities we work with and impact. The work environment is dynamic, deadline-driven, fast-paced, and energetic.

Position Summary

The Senior Communications Specialist will work closely as a member of the RAPID Survey team to develop, plan, and refine a communications strategy and pipeline for the RAPID Survey Project. The RAPID Survey Project is a program of ongoing surveys including 1) Place-based surveys (in cities, counties, states) to understand the experiences of families with children ages 0-5 and child care providers locally; 2) A national survey of households with children ages 0-5 to assess the needs, health promoting behaviors, and well-being of children and their families; and 3) A national survey of child care providers and other adults who care for children ages 0-5 to assess their work conditions, financial circumstance, and well-being. The goal of RAPID is to collect and disseminate actionable data from families with young children and child care providers, to inform policies and programs that help each young child and the adults who care for them thrive.

The Senior Communications Specialist will manage all communications needs and strategy for the RAPID Survey Project, including acting as the communications resource expert; developing, writing, and publishing fact sheets, blogs, social media content, and other written materials explaining and highlighting key research findings; integrating feedback and input from multiple stakeholders and advisors into communication products; coordinating work with vendors including graphic and web designers and communications and media consultants; developing and conducting communications trainings with RAPID team members as well as other members of the Stanford Center on Early Childhood team; and refining and systematizing the communications workflow for the RAPID team, ensuring timely and relevant dissemination of key data. The Senior Communications Specialist will also be responsible for curating and disseminating newsletters for RAPID audiences. Additionally, the Senior Communications Specialist will establish and maintain contacts within relevant media organizations to promote broad uptake of RAPID materials and information.

The successful candidate for this role will have experience communicating about scientific data as well as writing for and communicating with a wide range of audiences. This is a highly collaborative role and relies on close coordination between the RAPID Communications Specialist and senior leadership, as well as the RAPID research team. The person in this role will also work closely with the SCEC Communications Specialist as well as the GSE Communications Team, ensuring that Stanford brand guidelines are followed as relevant and that there is a consistent communication strategy across groups.

The RAPID team is dispersed nationally. This position is eligible for remote hire, and may require a small amount of travel, i.e. to convenings and events.

Your Primary Responsibilities Will Include

Develop communication deliverables in an area of expertise for a unit or a complex program.
Incorporate and integrate input from multiple stakeholders to develop complex communications for various content delivery channels.
Develop and design complex materials according to defined requirements using software applications and mediums.
Work with vendors to obtain information to evaluate quality, process, and costs to support vendor selection.
Maintain knowledge by attending webinars, conferences, networking etc. to remain at the forefront of current industry standards, trends and technology.
Contribute to the development of communication strategy for the unit or program
Analyze data and curate illustrations, photos, and pictures for assignments.
Work in collaboration with Institutional Communicators on media relations content and other areas.
Establish and maintain contacts with key sources (media, news services, community organizations and other targeted audiences) to identify story themes and newsworthy events to promote and disseminate information.
Assist the Project Director in evaluating workflow and make recommendations.
Develop guidelines for and conduct trainings on communications topics.

To Be Successful In This Position, You Will Bring

Bachelor's degree and five years of relevant experience or combination of education and relevant experience.
Excellent written and oral communication skills.
Demonstrated ability to work collaboratively with internal communications groups across campus.
Demonstrated excellent interpersonal skills
Demonstrated ability to synthesize complex materials and communicate information in a manner easily understood.
Experience with project management and the ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously.
Demonstrated ability to perform detailed work with high level of accuracy and attention to detail.

Preferred Education & Experience

Experience with scientific or data-informed writing
Bilingual fluency in English and Spanish
Proven success in writing for publication in print, web, and other platforms.
Excellent writing, interpersonal, and oral communication skills with proven ability to present, write, edit, and organize thoughts in a clear, concise, and well-organized manner.
Ability to change voice and writing style to fit a particular audience and purpose.
Firm understanding of web technologies and applications, including social networking, social media tools, and current communication trends.
Ability to interact effectively with a diverse array of people, including senior leaders.

Specific duties and responsibilities may vary depending on department or program needs without changing the general nature and scope of the job or level of responsibility. Employees may also perform other duties as assigned.

The expected pay range for this position is $82,000 to $122,000 per annum.