Communications Associate full-time

The Communications Associate develops and maintains relationships with faculty and departmental leads across the university. The Associate prepares SFU faculty and administration members for interviews and serves as the first point of contact for inquiries related to faculty and student communications. The role is responsible for developing and executing strategic communications plans, developing communications content, providing communications and media relations consultation and advice for university staff and faculty, and performing project facilitation activities to deliver communication strategies.

The Associate develops and maintains relationships with faculty and departmental leads across the university. The Associate proactively prepares content, develops and executes strategic communications plans for various projects and initiatives in support of institutional priorities.

Working with SFU administrative units, faculties, VPs and deans across the University, the Associate develops content to support online storytelling and new media engagement, researches and interviews story subjects and stakeholders as required and rewrites content into concise and informative digests.

Serving as an expert in the Communication and Marketing team, the Associate provides content advice and channel guidelines to support faculty and administrative unit communicators.

The Associate performs project facilitation activities to deliver communication strategies and produces all related content or works with project team to ensure delivery, acts as part of crisis communications team during large-scale events such as severe weather, and works on special projects, such as campaigns; evaluates and analyzes content performance; and delivers reports.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in Communications, Marketing, or other relevant discipline and two years of related experience interacting with media and key stakeholders or an equivalent combination of education, training, and experience.
• Ability to rewrite news media and social media content into concise and informative digests.
• Ability to maintain a professional manner when interacting with external media partners as well as faculty and staff contacts.
• Ability to function effectively in a fast-paced, deadline driven environment.
• Excellent interpersonal and communication (verbal and written) skills.
• Good knowledge of communication, promotion, and marketing principles, practices, and strategies.
• Good knowledge of current social media and online communication channels (i.e., blogs, Twitter).
• Good organizational, problem-solving and project facilitation skills.
• Ability to implement communications plans for strategic priorities.
• Ability to write a variety of communications content for print and web publication and to adapt writing style for various audiences.
• Ability to interact productively and professionally with a wide range of internal and external stakeholders.
• Proficient in the use of standard office software, email, and desktop operating systems (e.g., Windows, Mac O/S).