The Role

This is a unique opportunity for a talented senior level executive and communications professional to play a key role in framing the debate over civil liberties, civil and human rights and in enhancing the effectiveness of the most prominent national organization dedicated to preserving these liberties and rights. The rights of the accused, free speech, and the right to dissent, due process, privacy, religious freedom, reproductive rights, LGBT equality, racial profiling, immigrants’ rights, and voting rights, among others, are all at risk. In response to this threat, the ACLU has garnered the support of a broad coalition of progressives, moderates, and conservatives to protect these freedoms and build on this strong foundation.

The ACLU recognizes the critical role that integrated communications strategies play in the success of its overall mission. Although much of the ACLU’s work has taken place in courtrooms and in federal and state legislative bodies, the organization is also placing increased emphasis on mobilizing people to gain more political power. The ability of the ACLU to communicate a clear message and effectively frame issues in the press impacts public opinion and builds support among members, policymakers, and key influencers (particularly in the current political environment). This opportunity occurs at a time of an unparalleled change in the speed and methods of communicating ideas across many platforms (e.g., online, publications, media coverage, social media, and video), including direct and indirect channels to audiences.

Given all of this, the Deputy Chief Communications & Marketing Officer (“Deputy CCMO”) will lead, direct, and supervise the work of the communications team, making decisions on the day-to-day operations, determining short- and long-term communications strategies, deciding key priorities, crafting messaging, organizational crisis responses and allocating staff resources to support communications efforts for legal, advocacy and institutional work. They will also set the strategies and workplans for the Communications department – directing integrated processes to align organizational resources on priority issues, and manage the day-to-day operations of the national Communications team located in New York City and Washington, D.C.

Reporting to and working closely with the CCMO, the Deputy CCMO will play a critical role in the leadership of a team of approximately 60 to effectively infuse communications and marketing into every aspect of the organization’s work, so that it can most effectively and efficiently achieve its objectives. Beyond direct responsibilities, this Deputy CCMO will also partner with the cross-organizational fundraising, affiliate support, legal, and advocacy team leaders in ensuring message and brand consistency, effective media responses and coordinated content development that elevates the organization’s external profile.

Strategic Organizational Leadership

• Work closely with the CCMO to advance the organization’s agenda as established by senior leadership.
• Reinforce strong working relationships and enhance systems throughout the Communications and Marketing department and with other national staff on key organizational goals, objectives, and outcomes.
• Establish strong relationships with and provide guidance to ACLU affiliates to ensure they are kept aware of communications and marketing strategies and have access to materials necessary to reach relevant stakeholders and audiences in their states/territories.
• In partnership with ACLU’s affiliate support and nationwide initiatives department, provide advice, counsel, and direction to ACLU affiliates on issues affecting the entire organization or national audiences.

Communications & Marketing Expertise

In partnership with the CCMO, the Deputy CCMO will:

• Integrate sophisticated and innovative communications and marketing strategies to maximize its influence on attitudes, policies, and behaviors.
• Develop increasingly proactive brand building and storytelling strategies, tying efforts to broader ACLU strategic plans, while being responsive to the external environment; ensure a positive messaging and marketing cadence, even when issues and crises arise.
• Ensure a robust, proactive digital and social media presence that maintains brand integrity and message consistency.
• Strengthen the ACLU’s media presence and ensure the deepening of relationships with key print, online, and broadcast journalists and editors.
• Ensure consistency in the messages conveyed and the means and methods employed to convey them.
• Evaluate the influence and impact achieved by the communications strategies of the ACLU, including using benchmarking and data metrics, to continually refine and improve.

Team & Departmental Leadership

• Supervise the Communications & Marketing Department staff and manage the day-to-day departmental operations.
• Ensure coordination between and integration of the departmental teams, including institutional communications, program communications, marketing channels, digital engagement, and the brand studio.
• Determine and manage staff resources to ensure that priority issues, rapid response moments and institutional needs have appropriate strategic communications support; Mobilize the department’s resources to respond rapidly and effectively to emerging civil liberties issues.
• In collaboration with the CCMO, develop and manage the departmental budget.
• Foster an environment consistent with the values and mission of the organization.
• Direct and monitor communications vendors, consultants, and freelancers within allocated budget for the department.
• Demonstrate a commitment to diversity within the office, using a personal approach that values all individuals and respects differences regarding race, ethnicity, age, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, religion, ability and socio-economic circumstance, record of arrest or conviction.
• Work collaboratively and respectfully toward resolving obstacles and/or conflicts.

Candidate Profile

The ACLU seeks a highly skilled individual with outstanding strategic communications experience, ideally at the intersection of communications, marketing, advocacy, and policy. The leader should have a deep understanding of and passion for civil liberties and civil rights and the ACLU’s unique mission.

The successful candidate should have a proven ability to frame and promote the ACLU’s work and to translate high level strategy into tactical implementation in the areas of communications, marketing, and public affairs and bring experience in overseeing integrated multi-channel campaigns across multiple audiences. The individual should be steeped in crisis management with demonstrated experience working in a fast-paced environment. The ideal candidate will be a successful professional with a demonstrated track record of success in fast-paced brand building, media relations and advocacy settings, and with leadership experience in both PR and marketing strategy development and implementation.

In terms of the performance and personal competencies required for the position, we would highlight the following:

Functional Expertise

• Significant demonstrated experience in the areas of strategic communications and marketing with expertise in brand positioning, media relations, advocacy communications and content production.
• The ability to implement advocacy communications strategies for a large, complex organization.
• Exposure to, or at least strong awareness of public policy issues, particularly those involving civil liberties, civil rights, human rights as well as a solid understanding of how communications may be used to promote a legislative agenda.
• Demonstrated ability to communicate complex and controversial issues and to convey information about the issues to both narrow and broad audiences.
• Exceptional writing and editing skills.

Leadership Experience

• Prior management experience with the ability to establish priorities that will fully utilize the staff’s time and the department’s resources.
• Excellent interpersonal skills necessary to operate effectively in a large, multi-office national organization and with state-based affiliates and active volunteers.
• Management and team-building skills that inspire staff to work collaboratively in pursuit of a common mission and the ability to manage staff on the successful execution of objectives.
• A management style that is accessible, flexible, decisive, and supportive with the ability to provide clear direction and delegate where appropriate.
• Strong personal diplomacy, including a highly professional temperament and the ability to work in a collaborative team environment.

Compensation

The annual target salary for this position is $295,196. This salary is reflective of a position based in New York, NY. This salary will be subject to a locality adjustment (according to a specific city and state), if an authorization is granted to work outside of the location listed in this posting.

Equal Opportunity Statement

The ACLU is an equal opportunity employer and values a diverse workforce and an inclusive culture. The ACLU encourages applications from all qualified individuals without regard to race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, national origin, marital status, citizenship, disability, veteran status and record of arrest or conviction, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law. Black people, Indigenous people, people of color; lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex people; women; people with disabilities, protected veterans, and formerly incarcerated individuals are all strongly encouraged to apply.

The ACLU is committed to providing reasonable accommodation to individuals with disabilities. If you are a qualified individual with a disability and need assistance applying online, please email benefits.hrdept@aclu.org. If you are selected for an interview, you will receive additional information regarding how to request an accommodation for the interview process.

Contact

The ACLU has exclusively engaged Russell Reynolds Associates to manage this search process. To express interest, please email your resume and cover letter to this address: acluccmo@russellreynolds.com. Please do not apply directly through the ACLU portal, as we will not be monitoring that.