Career Opportunity

Senior Communications Manager- External Affairs - SFPUC (9251) - (138912)

Recruitment: RTF0138386-01106858

Published: January 05, 2024

Apply using SmartRecruiters, the City and County of San Francisco's application portal.

About:

• Application Opening Date: December 14, 2023
• Application Filing Deadline: January 5, 2024 11:59PM (PDT) extended until January 10, 2024.
• Annual Salary: $141,908-$172,536
• Recruitment ID: RTF0138386-01106858/ PBT-9251-138912

This is a Position-Based Test conducted in accordance with CSC Rule 111A.

WHO ARE WE?
San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC)
Headquartered in San Francisco, we have 2,300 employees operating across eight counties serving more than 2.7 million customers in the San Francisco Bay Area – 24 hours per day, 365 days per year.

Our Mission: To provide our customers with high quality, efficient, and reliable water, power, and wastewater services in a manner that values environmental and community interests and sustains the resources entrusted to our care.

Our Vision: We are an innovative utility leader, recognized for excellent results in service, safety, stewardship, and inclusiveness.

We are an award-winning and industry-leading utilities organization committed to our customers, community interests, and the environment. To learn more about our organization, please visit our website at https://www.sfpuc.org/.

We are proud of our infrastructure and programs, but most importantly, we value our highly qualified and dedicated workforce which ensures that this vision becomes a reality.

To learn more about working at the SFPUC, visit our career site at https://www.sfpuc.org/about-us/careers-sfpuc

Role description

External Affairs: The External Affairs Bureau at the SFPUC oversees the agency's local, state and federal legislative and policy activities, communications, community engagement, community benefits, and environmental justice program. The Communications Division guides the SFPUC’s brand and promotes the agency’s programs, initiatives, and services to internal and external stakeholders.  Our goal is to build trust and engagement among our employees, partners, customers, and the communities we serve through equitable, open, and timely communication.       

Position Summary: Under general direction, this position is responsible for the planning, implementation, and coordination of departmental communication programs. These programs include creating, updating, editing, and publishing content and messaging using multiple channels (i.e. print, electronic, social media, web, intranet, mobile, broadcast, etc.) for different audiences (i.e. internal and external). It includes tracking the performance of these communications to determine their effectiveness. The goals are to create broad awareness and understanding in our target audiences, and to effectively communicate the department’s policies and programs.

Our Senior Communications Managers supervise a team, think creatively to solve problems, and design effective strategies to reach our audiences. We are an award-winning and industry-leading public utility committed to our customers, community interests, and the environment.

Senior Internal Communications Manager

This position will work closely with executive leadership and senior management to develop and execute effective communications strategies for special projects, primarily for internal audiences. This position will also oversee/maintain intranet content, including the regular publishing of internal stories and newsletters. This position will independently plan, organize, supervise, coordinate, and create events relating to agency activities, such as quarterly all-staff conversations with the General Manager, honoree events, tenant grand openings, and special events.

Senior Communications Manager, Water Programs

This position will support the SFPUC’s Water Enterprise and be responsible for developing and executing programs that elevate perception, increase awareness, and drive strategic messaging for the agency’s water programs, projects and initiatives, both internally and externally. Responsibilities include brand public relations, support of agency internal and external communications across the enterprise, and leadership of the Water Communications Team. 

This recruitment may also be used to fill multiple 9251 positions in External Affairs, including, but not limited to:

Senior Digital Communications Manager

Senior Communications Manager, Power

Senior Community Engagement Manager

Essential duties and responsibilities will include, but are not limited to:

• Works closely with the department head, Commissioners and senior management to develop and execute effective communications strategy for special projects, internal campaigns and/or external audiences.
• Independently plans, organizes, supervises, coordinates, and creates events relating to departmental activities, such as construction groundbreaking, honoree events, tenant grand openings, agency-wide meetings or special events.
• Supervises and/or prepares speeches for upper management and answers public complaint letters specific to an incident, event or activity.
• Creates, produces, oversees, and edits documents related to Department services and policies for public or internal distribution; may function as publications editor in writing, reviewing, and supervising updates of all publications.
• Supervises and/or participates in the preparation and composition of publications and other documents such as press releases, social media, budget reports, fact sheets, and handouts, including coordinating all aspects of the publication process from editing, style, and reproduction.
• Revises and updates departmental publications regarding changes in departmental services and facilities, as necessary.
• May represent the Department, including the department head, to the media as well as before the Board of Supervisors, various community groups, non-profit agencies, and delegates from other cities and countries.
• Develops and coordinates communications strategies with other City departments, partner agencies, and community groups; negotiates and makes commitments on department's behalf with a variety of partners and organizations.
• Coordinates outreach/inreach or marketing for department programs and operations.
• The Class 9251 performs other related duties as required.

How to qualify

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

If you are interested in this job, we are looking for people that have the following minimum qualifications:

Education: Possession of a baccalaureate degree from an accredited college or university. AND

Experience: Five years of experience in public affairs, public/media relations, community relations, international relations, or a related field.

Substitution: Additional qualifying work experience may be substituted for the required education on a year-for-year basis. (30 semester / 45 quarter units equals one year)

Applicants must meet the minimum qualification requirement by the final filing date unless otherwise noted.

Desirable Qualifications

The stated desirable qualifications may be used to identify job finalists at the end of the selection process when candidates are referred for hiring.

• Experience working in a large organization
• Fluency in Cantonese or Spanish

Verification of Education and Experience
Applicants may be required to submit verification of qualifying education and experience at any point during the recruitment and selection process. Education verification information on verifying foreign education credits or degree equivalency, can be found at here.

Note: Falsifying one’s education, training, or work experience or attempted deception on the application may result in disqualification for this and future job opportunities with the City and County of San Francisco.

All work experience, education, training and other information substantiating how you meet the minimum qualifications must be included on your application by the filing deadline. Information submitted after the filing deadline will not be considered in determining whether you meet the minimum qualifications. Applications completed improperly may be cause for ineligibility, disqualification or may lead to lower scores.

Experience claimed in self-employment will only be accepted if supported by documents verifying income, earnings, business license and experience comparable to minimum qualifications above. Copies of income tax papers or other documents listing occupation and total earnings must be submitted.

Resumes will not be accepted in lieu of a completed City and County of San Francisco application.

What else should I know?

SELECTION PROCEDURES

After application submission, candidates deemed qualified must complete all subsequent steps to advance in this selection process, which includes the following:

Minimum Qualifications Supplemental Questionnaire (MQSQ - Weight: Qualifying): Candidates will be required to complete a MQSQ as part of the employment application. This MQSQ is designed to obtain specific information regarding an applicant's experience in relation to the Minimum Qualifications (MQ) for this position. The MQSQ will be used to evaluate if the applicant possesses the required minimum qualifications.

Behavioral Consistency Questionnaire (BCQ) (Weight: 100%): Candidates will be prompted to complete a BCQ as part of the recruitment process. The BCQ is designed to measure applicant’s relative knowledge, skills and abilities in job-related areas, identified as critical for successful performance. These may include but are not limited to: knowledge of communications principles and practices; ability to exercise independent judgment; knowledge of industry regulations; interpersonal skills; written and oral communications ability.

All responses to the BCQ are subject to verification and must be consistent with the information provided in your application.

Passing Score: Candidates must obtain a passing score on the Behavioral Consistency Questionnaire in order to be placed on the score report for positions in this job class. Candidates will be placed on the eligible list in rank order according to their final score. Candidate scores on this examination may also be applied to other announcements involving other job titles, when directed by the Human Resources Director.

The department may administer additional position-specific selection procedures to make final hiring decisions. 

Eligible List/Score Report: A confidential eligible list of applicant names that have passed the civil service examination process will be created, and used for certification purposes only. An examination score report will be established, so applicants can view the ranks, final scores and number of eligible candidates. Applicant information, including names of applicants on the eligible list, shall not be made public unless required by law. However, an eligible list shall be made available for public inspection, upon request, once the eligible list is exhausted or expired and referrals resolved. The eligible list/score report resulting from this civil service examination process is subject to change after adoption (e.g., as a result of appeals), as directed by the Human Resources Director or the Civil Service Commission.

The duration of the eligible list resulting from this examination process will be twelve (12) months, and may be extended with the approval of the Human Resources Director.

Certification: The certification rule for the ranked eligible lists resulting from this examination will be Rule of the List. Additional selection processes may be conducted by the hiring department prior to making final hiring decisions.

To find Departments which use this classification, please see here.

Terms of Announcement and Appeal Rights: Applicants must be guided solely by the provisions of this announcement, including requirements, time periods and other particulars, except when superseded by federal, state or local laws, rules or regulations. Clerical errors may be corrected by the posting the correction on the Department of Human Resources website at here.

The terms of this announcement may be appealed under Civil Service Rule 111A.35.1. The standard for the review of such appeals is ‘abuse of discretion’ or ‘no rational basis’ for establishing the position description, the minimum qualifications and/or the certification rule. Appeals must include a written statement of the item(s) being contested and the specific reason(s) why the cited item(s) constitute(s) abuse of discretion by the Human Resources Director. Appeals must be submitted directly to the Executive Officer of the Civil Service Commission within five business days of the announcement issuance date.

Additional Information Regarding Employment with the City and County of San Francisco: 

• Information About the Hiring Process
• Conviction History
• Employee Benefits Overview  
• Equal Employment Opportunity 
• Disaster Service Worker
• ADA Accommodation
• Veterans Preference
• Seniority Credit in Promotional Exams 
• Right to Work
• Copies of Application Documents
• Diversity Statement

HOW TO APPLY

Applications for City and County of San Francisco jobs are only accepted through an online process. Visit https://careers.sf.gov/ and begin the application process.

• Select the “Apply Now” button and follow instructions on the screen

Applicants may be contacted by email about this recruitment and, therefore, it is their responsibility to ensure that their registered email address is accurate and updated. Also, applicants must ensure that email from CCSF is not blocked on their computer by a spam filter. To prevent blocking, applicants should set up their email to accept CCSF mail from the following addresses (@sfgov.org, @sfdpw.org, @sfport.com, @flysfo.com, @sfwater.org, @sfdph.org, @asianart.org, @sfmta.com, @sfpl.org, @dcyf.org, @first5sf.org, @famsf.org, @ccsf.edu, @smartalerts.info, and @smartrecruiters.com).

Applicants will receive a confirmation email that their online application has been received in response to every announcement for which they file. Applicants should retain this confirmation email for their records. Failure to receive this email means that the online application was not submitted or received.

Exam Analyst Information: If you have any questions regarding this recruitment or application process, please contact the exam analyst Jessica Wong at jeswong@sfwater.org.

The City and County of San Francisco encourages women, minorities and persons with disabilities to apply. Applicants will be considered regardless of their sex, race, age, religion, color, national origin, ancestry, physical disability, mental disability, medical condition (associated with cancer, a history of cancer, or genetic characteristics), HIV/AIDS status, genetic information, marital status, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, military and veteran status, or other protected category under the law.