SENIOR COMMUNICATIONS ADVISOR Full-time Job

• Posting Period:  05-Jul-2024 to 26-Jul-2024

•  

 

The Strategic Public and Employee Communications (SPEC) Division delivers effective marketing and communications to the public and City staff. Through a centralized, centres of excellence approach that nurtures growth and opportunities for its staff, SPEC will focus on proactive storytelling that puts the City, and its divisions – as partners – at the centre. Integrated communications and marketing activities will align with the broader

organizational strategy and drive measurable impact.

 

SPEC, a high-performing and fast-paced division, is currently seeking a highly-skilled Senior Communications Advisor to join the division’s Public Education, Marketing & Creative Centre of Excellence. Successful candidates are seasoned communicators with a track record that clearly demonstrate creative communications approaches, are comfortable leading teams and have experience with issues management strategies and emergency communications. They will not shy away from challenges, will build and maintain strong relationships, have high political acumen, seek out unique communications opportunities, anticipate and manage risk, advocate for continuous improvement, be passionate storytellers for Toronto and commit to going above and beyond in service delivery and innovation.

 

Applicants interested in other Centres of Excellence are encouraged to apply for future opportunities. You will be prompted to indicate your preference in your application.

 

Major Responsibilities for all Senior Communications Advisor positions across SPEC Centre of Excellence Teams:

• Builds collaborative relationships with senior management, partner divisions, other interested parties, and staff across SPEC division to ensure effective implementation of communication tactics and to have oversight over emerging issues.
• Provides timely and knowledgeable strategic communications leadership and counsel as well as direction to City divisions on both a proactive and reactive basis.
• Provides strategic communication leadership after hours while on standby, after business hours and on weekends as directed.
• Responds in a timely manner to media and other requests for information on City programs and services and provides communications leadership when incidents or emergencies take place after hours.
• Monitors Council and Committee agendas and directives, interested parties, other municipalities, federal and provincial government announcements and legislation and media coverage to determine impact on the City and provides counsel to divisional management.
• Creates benchmarks and adopts a strategic approach that considers industry best practices to ensure communications are rooted in measurement and strategy.
• Manages and oversees the delivery of strategic communications/issues management services for highly sensitive, high-profile and contentious matters that have city-wide implications.
• Mentors and supervises staff within the division to promote best practices, provide advice and to establish a professional and well-respected communications service.

 

 

Public Education, Marketing and Creative Centre of Excellence team:

The Public Education, Marketing and Creative Centre of Excellence is responsible for creating compelling narratives to inform and educate the public through traditional, paid social and digital advertising campaigns and creative treatments to achieve strategic objectives. The Senior Communications Advisor needs to be a creative, out of the box thinker and storyteller.

 

Major Responsibilities:

• Embraces innovation and excels at visual storytelling while working to reach diverse audiences.
• Writes strong and compelling headlines and messaging.
• Creates and executes integrated marketing campaigns including measuring results
  and reporting.
• Brings complex ideas and information to life in accessible ways.
• Leads and collaborates to drive forward team’s annual objectives and special projects.
• Digital content creation, as well as working with third-party creatives and/or videographers, photographers or other vendors.
• Strengthens the City’s brand voice and identity.

 

 

Media Relations and Issues Management Centre of Excellence team:

The Media Relations and Issues Management Centre of Excellence is responsible for developing and delivering media relations and issues management strategies and activities for the City. The Senior Communications Advisor will provide leadership and counsel to the City including leading communications responses for reputational issues, providing crisis communications expertise, leading in rapid response situations and developing collaborative relationships across the organization.

 

Major Responsibilities:

• Leads a variety of complex programs and projects.
• Identifies and anticipates reputational risks, monitors and advises on emerging issues that can affect the City's brand and the achievement of its goals.
• Develops and operationalizes communication strategies that protect and/or enhance the City's reputation and ensures senior City officials are prepared in advance to respond to challenges.
• Provides communications leadership when events, major incidents, rapid response situations or declared emergencies as directed, working quickly and effectively across all platforms in challenging conditions.
• Serving as a spokesperson and conducting media training for key spokespeople.

 

 

Strategy and Relationships Centre of Excellence team:

The Strategy and Relationships Centre of Excellence is responsible for providing strategic, expert communications leadership to City staff including leading proactive and innovative strategy development and planning, project management, anticipating and coordinating strategic communications needs against corporate objectives and priorities, developing collaborative relationships, and monitoring and measuring results.

 

Major Responsibilities:

• Identifies, develops, and implements strategic and innovative, large-scale, multi-channel communications plans that detail results-oriented action plans that consider both internal and external proactive and reactive strategies, issue management, digital and media strategies and tactics that are rooted in measurement and strategy.
• Leads the development of overall strategy, the execution of communications campaigns and the management of budget to ensure corporate-wide issues are effectively managed.

• Project manages and measures and evaluates work while reporting out regularly to senior leaders.
• Leads and co-ordinates project teams to ensure that all communications strategies and corporate-wide issues are managed effectively.
• Works closely with senior City leaders and staff to build strong relationships and establish clear priorities.

 

Key Qualifications of all Senior Communications Advisor positions across SPEC Centre of Excellence Teams:

1. Post-secondary education in a discipline pertinent to the job function, such as Journalism, Communications, Marketing or combined equivalent of education and experience.
2. Extensive experience in a Corporate Communications, Public Affairs or Marketing environment in a major public or private sector organization.
3. Extensive experience in proactive and responsive strategic communications, media relations, issues management and crisis communications and experience providing advice to senior staff and officials in these areas.
4. Extensive experience in developing effective strategies to make data and evidence informed decisions for ongoing media, social media and issues monitoring, research, and analysis, pivoting as necessary and capturing lessons learned.
5. Proven ability to provide leadership to communications, staff and other interested parties.
6. Proven ability to influence and build collaborative relationships across a broad spectrum of stakeholders, both internal and external to the organization.
7. Ability to handle sensitive and confidential information with a high degree of discretion and professionalism.
8. Excellent organizational skills and attention to detail, with the ability to work in a high-volume, high-stress and politically sensitive environment, while delivering a high-volume of projects under tight deadlines.
9. Superior oral and written communication skills along with proven and excellent writing and editing skills for media and other audiences.
10. Knowledge of outreach techniques for diverse audiences including multilingual and specialized media and community organizations, applying an inclusive and culturally sensitive lens to communications.
11. A team player, with a passion for serving the people of Toronto and telling the City’s stories.
12. A proven storyteller who has passion and experience for bringing together compelling narratives that resonate with people.
13. Training in Incident Management System (IMS) and knowledge of emergency management best practices is considered an asset.
14. Experience as a media spokesperson an asset.

Toronto, the capital of the province of Ontario, is a major Canadian city along Lake Ontarios northwestern shore. It's a dynamic metropolis with a core of soaring skyscrapers, all dwarfed by the iconic, free-standing CN Tower. Toronto also has many green spaces, from the orderly oval of Queens Park to 400-acre High Park and its trails, sports facilities and zoo.