Director of Strategic Communications and Public Engagement

Tricia and Jeff Raikes are Seattle-based philanthropists, advocates, and business leaders working to advance racial justice and equity in America. In this critically important time for our country, Jeff and Tricia are building programming, presence, and voice in support of their mission and invite nominations and applications for a Director of Strategic Communications and Public Engagement, a newly formed position. The Director will advance and support the Raikes’ individual and collective external profiles in service of their philanthropic, civic leadership, and policy priorities.

The Raikes enterprise consists of a range of organizations advancing the Raikes’ social impact vision and personal interests, including their executive office North Forty Group (North Forty), the Raikes Foundation (Foundation), and several other affiliates. The Raikes view the leaders and teams of these organizations as core partners working in alignment under their co-leadership of the Raikes enterprise. Housed within the Raikes Executive Office, North Forty, the Director will advise Jeff and Tricia Raikes and be responsible for developing communications and engagement strategies and infrastructure that amplify the co-chairs’ individual and collective impact goals. The Director will execute activities and tactics in collaboration with leaders across the Raikes enterprise.

The ideal candidate will be a values-aligned, strategic, and sophisticated strategic communications professional with experience building strategy and managing communications infrastructure to execute the same. In addition, the ideal candidate would also bring deep writing and messaging experience, as well as experience working in direct partnership with individuals to build brand, consistency of voice, and influence. S/he/they will be agile and adaptable to shifting circumstances as well as action and results in their work. S/he/they will have a demonstrated ability to establish and maintain trust across a variety of stakeholders in the effective design and execution of communications strategies that utilize a range of media tools, public engagement, and partnerships at the regional and national level. S/he/they will bring critical consciousness, an understanding of the history of systemic racism in America, and a commitment in their work to creating a more equitable future for all.

This is an opportunity to be part of a dynamic executive team supporting the Raikes in their philanthropy, civic leadership, and business and political engagement.

QUALIFICATIONS OF THE IDEAL CANDIDATE

The ideal candidate for this role will be in a sitting Director of Marketing, Director of Communications and/or equivalent role, with a minimum of 7-10 years of hands-on experience and progressive leadership in creating communications and marketing campaigns, including developing and managing budgets. The Director will ideally be a thoughtful storyteller, who is action oriented and can adapt to changing priorities. The right candidate is a leader with impeccable judgment and listening skills, an effective collaborator throughout the organization regardless of perceived seniority, and someone who excels in inspiring and enabling others to do their very best work. While no one candidate will embody all the qualifications enumerated below, the ideal candidate will possess many of the following professional and personal abilities, attributes, and experiences:

• Experience managing work across teams with a high degree of emotional intelligence; a leadership style that is driven by active inquiry and learning; an ability to creatively synthesize ideas and input from multiple sources; and a commitment to excellence.
• Ability to establish trust, understanding, and strong thought partnership in the development of the Raikes’ vision for their social impact combined with the adeptness to translate that vision into communications priorities and goals and align relevant resources effectively.
• Experience in the design and execution of effective communication strategies that utilize a wide range of media platforms, advocacy tools, and strategic partnerships at the regional and national level.
• Experience working with top caliber third-party strategists, creators, and analysts. Proven ability at effective team building among in-house and external partners.
• Exceptional interpersonal and writing skills, including a personal presence that is effective and inspirational across a variety of settings and stakeholders.
• Vision, expertise, and leadership advancing a multi-faceted social enterprise particularly in the development and implementation of strategic communication practices and tools that hold equity at the center.
• Experience and fluency in measurement, learning, and evaluation of their strategies and plans in motion. Practices data-led decision making when possible, and data-informed judgment at all times. Able to use data to focus discussions and align multi-disciplinary teams across organizations.
• A deep personal and professional commitment to social justice, equity and inclusion, and a sophisticated understanding of the systemic, structural, and historical challenges that impact marginalized communities.
• Proven ability to lead thoughtfully and intentionally, gathering input, acting on feedback, making appropriate yet at times difficult decisions, and demonstrating sound professional judgment, maturity, and self-awareness to know when to step into the spotlight and the humility and team orientation to know when to let others take the lead.
• Fluency in writing a variety of communications content including essays, speeches, message guidance, and briefing memos.

KEY MEASURES OF SUCCESS

The Director will be viewed as successful in her/his/their first year by pointing to accomplishments that include:

• Leadership Narrative: a narrative that captures beliefs, position on the issues and other aspects critical to building awareness, understanding, and trust in Tricia and Jeff as leaders.
• Messaging Toolkit: a suite of key messages based on the leadership narrative to be deployed consistently across channels.
• Channel Strategy: an integrated plan to reach target audiences via traditional media, digital media, and 1:1 outreach such as an email community.
• MLE / Scorecards: focused on awareness, understanding, and trust.
• Gained the confidence of Tricia and Jeff, as well as partners in the Executive Office and the Foundation