Position Overview
The Pembina Institute is seeking a politically astute strategic thinker with demonstrated media savvy and strong writing and editing skills to join our communications and engagement team. This highly collaborative position, based in Calgary, Alberta, requires a team player with strong interpersonal and leadership skills, positive energy, high degree of organization and ability to thrive in a fast-moving environment. The ideal candidate is someone who shows initiative by using their skills to advance the goals of the organization as a whole, while providing communications leadership, ideas and support for various program areas and specific projects.
Creating and executing strategy is an essential part of this role, and the ideal candidate will excel at big-picture thinking while also being detail-oriented. The senior communications lead is a key contact for journalists and members of the public for assigned regional and national goals, as well as a key instigator of mainstream, social and digital media efforts on priority issues, while interacting with other members of the communications team, the Alberta region staff, and staff across the organization on a regular basis.
The role, reporting to the associate communications director and working closely with the Alberta regional director, requires demonstrated strategic planning and project management skills, strong writing/editing ability, media experience, strategic communications experience, fluency in social media, and familiarity with emerging communications trends and digital publishing. The role also involves overseeing one direct report.
The ideal candidate will be passionate about Canadian energy and climate issues, have a strong understanding of federal and provincial politics, be familiar with Alberta and national media markets, and have a strong interest in our programs focused on responsible fossil fuels, clean energy and economy, and depolarizing climate conversations.
Why the Pembina Institute?
The Pembina Institute is a national non-partisan think tank that advocates for strong, effective policies to support Canada’s clean energy transition. Through research, consulting and convening, we employ multi-faceted and highly collaborative approaches to change to reduce the environmental impacts of energy production and use.
Our people are passionate about sustainability and dedicated to enabling positive social change. Our organizational culture encourages creativity and collaboration, and we offer a flexible and fast-paced work environment that rewards honest character, personal initiative and innovation. The successful candidate will join our dynamic team of nationally recognized professionals working on delivering clean energy solutions into the hands of Canada’s decision makers and key influencers.
Our core values
Climate change threatens everyone. We must come together to evolve how energy is created and consumed through solutions based on equity, curiosity, evidence-based thinking and practicality.
Roles and Responsibilities
In this role, you’ll have the opportunity to apply a wide range of communications skills and approaches to help staff communicate effectively and strategically with the Pembina Institute’s core audiences, which include government and business decision-makers, policy influencers, journalists, stakeholders and the public. You will be asked to develop and execute communications strategies for national, regional and program goals, help design and manage projects, and develop and deliver communications tactics. You’ll mentor technical writers to help them hone their style, messaging, focus and social media presence. You’ll do a lot of reading, writing, editing and planning for our publications, blogs, social media, emails, website and other materials. You’ll work with our strategic partnerships team on proposal development and cases for support. You will have one direct report and will be responsible for co-ordinating, advising and supporting on day-to-day work and outputs, signing off on timesheets and expenses, as well as conducting the annual performance review and advising on and tracking professional development in co-ordination with the associate communications director.
You’ll monitor media coverage, co-ordinate interviews, and develop relationships with journalists, communicators and social media influencers following climate, energy and environmental policy issues. You’ll coach spokespeople on their performance skills and provide support on message development and media outreach. Ultimately, you’ll have a variety of tools at your disposal — including traditional and digital media, social media, webinars, publications, popular writing, infographics, multimedia projects and commentary pieces — to help the Pembina Institute shape the debate around and make meaningful advancements toward Canada’s transition to clean energy.
The full-time position may require some travel and occasional work on evenings and weekends.
Skills and Qualifications
Candidates must clearly reflect the following skills and experience in their application:
Three or more years of work experience in journalism
Seven or more years of work overall in journalism, communications, marketing or a related field
Experience developing and executing communications strategy and/or plans
Familiarity with provincial and federal policy and politics, particularly with respect to Canadian energy and environmental issues
Familiarity with the Edmonton, Calgary and rural Alberta media markets
A deep interest in Canadian energy and environmental policy issues
Attention to detail and a commitment to personal excellence
A superb command of the English language (reading, writing and speaking)
Proven skills and experience in media relations, digital engagement, popular communications, technical and copy editing, social media, online publishing and multimedia
Excellent editing and popular writing skills in English
Demonstrated knowledge of CP style and academic grammar and style conventions
Demonstrated familiarity with various social media tools, platforms (e.g. Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube) and strategies
Working knowledge of Microsoft Office programs and Adobe Creative Suite
Familiarity with basic HTML editing, blogging and online publishing
Strong interpersonal skills, including the ability to exercise tact, discretion and sound judgment at all times
Other valuable qualifications
Experience using social media to build community and/or advocacy campaigns
Experience developing, editing and producing multimedia products (audio/video podcasts, audio slideshows, YouTube videos, etc.).
Ability to evaluate projects based on desired outcomes and develop strategies for improving results in the future
French language proficiency (speaking and writing)
Familiarity with Salesforce, Pardot or similar CRM software
Experience working in the non-profit sector
Post-secondary education in communications, marketing, media relations or journalism
The ideal candidate will be:
An independent and confident self-starter
A creative, critical and strategic thinker
A positive and collaborative team player
Adept at tailoring communications approaches to suit the intended audience and platforms
Able to juggle competing priorities and deadlines in a fast-paced environment
Capable of engaging effectively with remote colleagues (via virtual tools)
Willing to learn
Good at managing stress and personal resiliency
Someone with a great sense of humour
Compensation and Benefits
The salary rate is competitive for a communications professional in the non-profit sector and will be based on skills, experience and qualifications of the successful candidate.
Benefits include:
extended health and dental
four weeks of holidays per year
flexible work hours
RRSP plan
training and development opportunities
Further terms of employment will be discussed with candidates during the interview process.
To apply
Email your cover letter and resume to careers@pembina.org . Please ensure the following:
Subject line includes Communications Lead, Calgary and your last name
Cover letter (max. two pages) explains why you are interested in working with the Pembina Institute and how your skills and qualifications meet the criteria outlined for this position
Resume outlines your relevant skills, education and experience
Cover letter and resume are saved as one PDF document using the naming convention lastnamefirstletter-application-position-year.pdf
example: smithm-application-CommsLead-Calgary-2020.pdf
Application deadline: 11:59 p.m. on Sunday, May 12, 2020.