Career Opportunity

1314 (PEX)-Public Relations Officer, Dept. of Early Childhood

Recruitment: RTF0142085-01122814

Published: January 11, 2024

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

About:

Application Opening: January 11, 2024
Application Deadline: January 19, 2024
Compensation Range: $109,434-$133,016
Appointment Type: Permanent Exempt
The individuals who are appointed to Exempt Positions are appointed at the pleasure of their appointing officer and are considered to be "at-will". This means that exempt employees are not protected by the same grievance and job protection rights as Permanent Civil Service employees.

About the San Francisco Department of Early Childhood 
The Department of Early Childhood (DEC) is a City and County of San Francisco Department dedicated to our young children's healthy development. As the City’s largest funder of early childhood, DEC is committed to creating a system that ensures every child can thrive and learn. We provide public investment, expertise, and leadership to put resources into the hands of those who care for our City’s youngest children. 

DEC is the result of a merger of two existing city departments, First 5 and the Office of Early Care and Education. Both First 5 and OECE have long histories of supporting young children and families in San Francisco through innovations in early care and education, family support services, and programs to support children’s healthy development. They merged to expand their capacity and funding and to better integrate the City’s early childhood services.

Racial Equity Commitment 
The Department of Early Childhood condemns all forms of racism, sexism, homo/biphobia, transphobia, ableism, xenophobia, and other forms of discrimination; and affirms that all people including Black, Indigenous, and People of Color – have a right to be in our City and have a right to safe and affordable housing, neighborhoods free from pollution and violence, opportunities for educational advancement and wealth creation, healthy births, early childhoods with abundant opportunities to thrive free from the toxic effects of racism, and access to essential services such as parks, transportation, health care, and child care. The Department of Early Childhood is committed to the principles of racial equity and continues to implement new strategies to ensure that every child can learn and thrive.

Role description

The Public Relations Officer plays a central role in shaping and executing the communication strategies to promote DEC.

The Public Relations Officer position plans key announcements, launches key moments and identifies storytelling opportunities; drafts press releases, press statements, messaging guides, and other communications materials; prepares and reviews news releases, newsletters, talking points, executive communications, internal communications, website content and articles. They may produce digital communications content to promote DEC activities, programs, and personnel; supports cross-functional activities including videos, social media campaigns, website refreshes, presentations and annual report. They also manage DEC’s social media presence, maintain the department’s website, and coordinate internal communication efforts.

Important and essential functions of this position include:

• Develop comprehensive communications strategies and plans to support DEC’s goals and initiatives.
• Identify key target audiences and tailor content messaging to effectively reach and engage them.
• Manage consultant in co-designing, planning and execution of communications strategies, brand identity, and campaigns.
• Serve as the primary contact for media inquiries and interview requests.
• Draft press releases, media advisories and other media materials to promote DEC’s brand, program initiatives, and milestones.
• Prepare talking points, briefing materials for the Executive Director and Department spokespersons.
• Manages and coordinates responses to public records requests.
• Research, write, and edit articles, stories and blog posts that highlight DEC’s impact and success stories.
• Collaborate with internal cross-functional teams and subject matter experts to gather information and ensure relevant information and compelling storytelling.
• Manage and maintain DEC’s social media platforms, including content creation, scheduling, and monitoring.
• Oversee management and maintenance of DEC’s website, ensuring content accuracy and relevance.
• Monitor website analytics and identify opportunities for improvement and optimization.
• Serve as project lead for developing and implementing DEC style guide. Create protocols and train staff to apply DEC visual identity, templates, and following guidelines.  
• Develop and implement internal communication tools to keep staff informed and engaged.
• Supervise subordinate staff to implement public relations and marketing projects.
• Serve as primary lead for Department’s COIT policy – cybersecurity, privacy, risk management – compliance to City/County of San Francisco.
• May perform other duties as assigned.

How to qualify

Minimum Qualifications

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

Experience
Four (4) years of verifiable full-time professional experience in public relations, communications, social media, digital engagement, or advertising. This experience must be equivalent to job code 1312 Public Information Officer for the City and County of San Francisco and must include at least one (1) year of experience in planning and conducting a public relations, public information, or public education program.

Substitution
1) Additional experience as described above may be substituted for the required degree on a year-for-year basis (up to a maximum of 2 years). Thirty (30) semester units or forty-five (45) quarter units equal one year.

2) Possession of a Master’s degree from an accredited college or university in public relations, journalism, mass communications or a closely related field may substitute for up to one (1) year of the required experience.

Desirable Qualifications

• Excellent time management, project management, organizational and communications skills, ability to influence and coordinate the efforts of multiple divisions and leaders in support of early childhood communications initiatives.
• Proven ability to take direction and input and to develop effective and engaging communications that achieve organizational goals.
• High level of verbal and written communications skills, ability to present and propose ideas effectively.
• Demonstrated success with media relations including proactively sourcing and pitching stories around programs and activities, and fielding inquiries from reporters.
• Superior writing skills; ability to understand complex concepts and translate them into clear and compelling narratives. 
• Experience overseeing the development and execution of public relations and public information campaigns (e.g., pitching stories to media, designing communications for local and state elected officials), events (e.g., staff informational meetings, develop presentations) and digital communication (e.g., website and social media)
• Experience with website content management, maintenance, and analytics for search optimization.
• Demonstrated experience working in a complex environment with cross-functional teams.
• Experience with style guide and brand management.
• Working knowledge of the Adobe Suite (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign)
• Knowledge of early childhood and DEC’s mission.

Verification: Applicants may be required to submit verification of qualifying education and experience at any point during the recruitment and selection process. If education verification is required, information on how to verify education requirements, including verifying foreign education credits or degree equivalency, can be found at https://sfdhr.org/how-verify-education-requirements

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.

Resumes will not be accepted in lieu of a completed City and County of San Francisco application. Applications completed improperly may be cause for ineligibility or disqualification.

What else should I know?

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
• 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 careers.sf.gov and begin the application process.
• Select the “I’m Interested” 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 kept up-to-date. 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, @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.

HR Analyst Information: If you have any questions regarding this recruitment or application process, please contact the HR Analyst Lynn Tran at lynn.tran@sfgov.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.