Director of Advocacy Communications

Organization: The Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC)

Title: Director of Advocacy Communications

Position type: Full-time

Location: Charlottesville, VA; Chapel Hill, NC; Asheville, NC; Atlanta, GA; Birmingham, AL; Charleston, SC; Nashville, TN; Richmond, VA; Washington, DC (hybrid)

Salary: $122,500- $144,100

The Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) is seeking a Director of Advocacy Communications in any of our nine offices: Asheville, Atlanta, Birmingham, Chapel Hill, Charleston, Charlottesville, Nashville, Richmond, and Washington, DC. This individual will join our Communications team and report to our Director of Communications. The Director of Advocacy Communications leads our Program Communications team and its efforts to advance our programmatic objectives, strategically deciding how to best invest our resources into communications strategies and content development that will help influence decisions and reach new audiences. This is an excellent opportunity to join a highly successful, nationally recognized organization that is effectively addressing some of the most pressing and challenging environmental issues throughout the South and the nation.

The ideal candidate will have robust experience in people management and strategy development, and a proven ability to lead and collaborate effectively toward complex, strategic goals.

SELC has a hybrid work model that offers employees the flexibility to work remotely up to two days per week. This is a full-time, exempt position.

Primary Responsibilities

• Manage a team of 8.5, including direct management of 7 full-time communications managers. Lead, motivate, set objectives, and manage team performance.
• Develop and execute a comprehensive communications strategy, including evaluating and determining priorities across program communications, ensuring alignment with broader SELC strategic initiatives that support SELC’s programmatic and organizational goals.
• Serve as part of the Communications leadership team and work with other directors (digital, geospatial, marketing, and design) to set team direction and ensure coordination and strong collaboration across communications team areas.
• Manage program communications budget and resources, ensuring projects, priorities, and timelines are consistently and effectively met.
• Provide leadership, strategic direction, and proactively identify opportunities for efficiency, streamlined operations, and continuous improvement.

Required Qualifications

• A bachelor’s degree, or equivalent combination of education and experience.
• 10+ years of communications experience – preferably a deep understanding of advocacy-oriented communications – and significant experience working with the media, including local, state, or national politics, and how to engage with members of the media for both rapid response and long-lead stories. Experience developing and overseeing integrated campaigns that leverage public affairs, media, and digital tactics to reach key audiences is a plus.
• 5+ years of people leadership experience, with a consistent track record of success managing and mentoring individuals in-person and remotely and developing high-performing teams.
• Commitment to, and knowledge of, environmental, climate, and environmental justice issues. Familiarity and experience communicating about climate change and energy issues is a plus, or a willingness to quickly learn and develop knowledge on these issues, if you haven’t previously done in-depth communications work on environmental issues.
• Demonstrated expertise with budget and resource management, coordinating needs across SELC state offices and program teams to allocate comms staffing resources.
• Creative and strategic thinker. You love thinking through strategies of how to reach people and move them to action, and you’re creative in considering new approaches to make change.
• Excellent communicator and writer. You will manage the team, by reviewing and providing strategy, to ensure SELC’s messages engage target audiences and that materials – from web, to social, to email, to ads – adhere to the overarching narrative and appropriately package complex legal and policy issues for a range of platforms.
• Strong commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. You have a genuine interest in and commitment to helping SELC create and foster a more diverse, inclusive, and equitable workplace. You engage in ongoing personal learning and are eager to contribute to our organizational efforts to be a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive workplace.
• Highly organized. You are self-driven and have excellent time management skills. You can move from drafting a rapid response press statement, to ensuring digital campaign components are designed and delivered on time, to tracking the budget for a communications project. You feel confident shifting priorities in a fast-paced environment, including managing several communications efforts at once.

Desired Qualifications

• Experience successfully engaging with diverse audiences, including tailoring communication and outreach strategies that resonate with a wide range of individuals to ensure our organization's message is effectively communicated across various demographics and viewpoints.

About SELC

The Southern Environmental Law Center is one of the nation’s most powerful defenders of the environment, rooted in the South. With a long track record, SELC takes on the toughest environmental challenges in court, in government, and in our communities to protect our region’s air, water, climate, wildlife, lands, and people. Nonprofit and nonpartisan, the organization has a staff of over 200, including more than 100 attorneys, and is headquartered in Charlottesville, VA, with offices in Asheville, Atlanta, Birmingham, Chapel Hill, Charleston, Nashville, Richmond, and Washington, DC.

At our core, we are place-based, rooted in our region, and connected with the communities and clients we serve. We believe in an equitable and inclusive workplace that reflects the rich racial and cultural diversity of our region and allows diverse perspectives to come to the forefront. We approach our work with the highest level of integrity, holding ourselves to high standards with an emphasis on honesty, accountability, and thoughtfulness. We value collaboration and camaraderie, realizing we are strongest when we work together and knowing that everyone has a critical role to play. We strive for impact through a strategic, bold, pragmatic, and ambitious outlook that is dedicated to achieving powerful results. We believe in these values and in the power of SELC. We hope you consider joining us. Learn more at https://www.southernenvironment.org/.

Compensation & Benefits

SELC offers salaries competitive with other leading environmental nonprofits nationally and provides an excellent benefits package. The starting salary range for this position is $122,500- $144,100, commensurate with experience. For more details about our benefits package, please visit our Careers page.

SELC is a PSLF ( Public Service Loan Forgiveness ) eligible employer.

SELC will also provide relocation reimbursement for those relocating for an SELC position, up to a specific dollar amount and contingent on the move being at least 50 miles from the current primary address.

To Apply

Submit a cover letter and resume here.

SELC is an Equal Opportunity Employer committed to fostering an inclusive workplace environment. We are eager to welcome new team members who share this commitment. We still have much progress to make, but our goal is to create and maintain a staff that, at every level, reflects the rich racial and cultural diversity of the communities where we work and the clients that we serve. Persons of all backgrounds—including people of color, women, people with disabilities, veterans, and LGBTQ candidates—are strongly encouraged to apply.

About Brightmode Talent

This search is supported by Brightmode. Brightmode is part of Orchestra, the first communications company built for today’s media landscape. Since early 2022, it has grown into a network of eight strategic communications and marketing agencies including BerlinRosen, Derris, Glen Echo Group, Inkhouse, M18, Message Lab, Onward and Brightmode.

Note: Candidates who apply to this role will be added to our candidate pool and may be considered for current and/or future similar positions. By providing your information, you are consenting to allow us to keep your information on file and to contact you regarding job opportunities, recruitment events and other related updates.