Campus Communications Specialist

Caltech is a world-renowned science and engineering institute that marshals some of the world's brightest minds and most innovative tools to address fundamental scientific questions. We thrive on finding and cultivating talented people who are passionate about what they do. Join us and be a part of the diverse Caltech community.

Caltech's Office of Strategic Communications (OSC) works to define, promote, and protect Caltech's image, reputation, and brand. We create and distribute a wide range of content across multiple formats and platforms to tell the story of Caltech's people, their research, and how they create knowledge and advance discoveries that impact the world. Within OSC, the Institute Communications and Special Projects (IC&SP) team is responsible for internal communications as well as communicating about the internal community to an external audience; for the publication of Caltech magazine, in both its print and online formats; for developing, implementing, and maintaining the Institute's visual identity and editorial style guide; for envisioning and producing print and online materials that communicate about the Institute's unique contributions to our world; and for supporting our OSC colleagues in a variety of ways, through graphic design, copyediting, and more.

Justification for Hiring:

To support the development and deployment of content and vehicles focusing on campus life (from student life to academics to Institute events, lectures, and more), which will support in equal measure Caltech's comprehensive internal communications strategy.

Job Summary

Reporting to the Director of Institute Communications and Special Projects, the Campus Communications Specialist will have the opportunity to support the development and deployment the Institute's internal communications strategy and help shape coverage of campus life. The successful candidate for this position will be a technically savvy strategic thinker with demonstrated ability to develop cross-campus relationships and to both find and tell the stories, through a variety of outlets and vehicles, that reflect and build on the Institute's culture of innovation and societal impact.

Essential Job Duties

Specifically, the Campus Communications Specialist will be responsible for and/or work with colleagues in OSC and across campus to:

• Both discover (pitch) and cover (as assigned) stories on:
  • Campus life (e.g., student stories, construction updates, post event coverage).
  • Academics.
  • Campus community members (e.g., profiles, Q&As, #SoCaltech social media posts).
  • Campus/Institute-level events (e.g., commencement), lectures, town halls, and more.
• Oversee the updating of IC&SP print publications such as the This is Caltech and Walking Tour brochures.
• Oversee the creation of new print and online publications as assigned.
• Support the curation and updating of the internally focused Ion Caltech Today website in collaboration with the Communications Editor.
• Manage and update the This is Caltech, Awards and Honors, and At a Glance web pages.
• Develop relationships with colleagues across campus in order to uncover and tell Caltech's untold stories.
• Manage Caltech's Communicator's Council (with the support of the Director of IC&SP) through
  • Scheduling meetings.
  • Creating the meeting agenda.
  • Facilitating the meeting.
  • Emailing updates and/or follow-ups to the Council.
• Partner with OSC colleagues to support campus communications efforts around internal issues and other types of messaging. This may include creating and/or distributing Mailchimp memos as requested.

Basic Qualifications

• 3-4 years' experience in campus communications or a similarly broad- and person-based beat required, with experience in or demonstrated understanding of a higher education setting preferred.
• Demonstrated writing and interviewing skills.
• General computer literacy, including proficiency with MS Word and Adobe Acrobat.
• Demonstrated initiative to both seek and propose solutions to problems.

Preferred Qualifications

• Demonstrated interest in science and related fields.
• Demonstrated proofreading and/or copyediting skills.
• Experience working with Mailchimp or similar email marketing platforms; Wagtail or similar content management systems; Trello or similar project management systems.
• Demonstrated project management skills and ability to handle multiple priority projects at various levels of completion.
• Excellent interpersonal skills; ability to work across teams.

Required Documents

• Resume
• Cover Letter