Manager, Communications & Design

Position: Manager, Communications & Design

Location: Remote; or Los Angeles, CA (all candidates should be based in the United States)

Employment Type: Full-time, Salaried, Exempt

Compensation Range: $75,000/year-$90,000 DOE

Level: Manager I

Reports To: Vice President, Communications

Manages: None

Supported By: Communications team, Program team, Development team, Operations team

Education/Experience Preferences: Bachelor's Degree, or equivalent professional experience preferred

Start Date: ASAP, open until filled

We Are DigDeep

The DigDeep Right to Water Project is a WASH (water, sanitation, and hygiene) organization committed to closing the water access gap for the 2 million + people in the U.S. who still don’t have a tap or a toilet at home.

DigDeep believes access to clean water is a human right. We run several nationally recognized programs that empower communities to build their own water and sanitation systems. We won the 2018 US Water Prize for our Navajo Water Project, which has brought clean, running water to hundreds of Native families across New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah. DigDeep launched the Appalachia Water Project in 2020, in McDowell County, WV. It has since brought clean, sustainable running water to hundreds of families in Southern West Virginia through public - private partnerships with the McDowell County PSD and East Logan PSD in Wyoming County. In addition to clean running water, the project is installing septic systems and connecting households to centralized sewer. The AWP is now expanding into neighboring states of Kentucky and Virginia to continue its quest of clean water for every Appalachian family. Our water projects expanded in 2022 when we launched our Colonias Water Project. This project works to bring clean, running water to the residents living in communities along the Texas-Mexico border. The Texas colonias are largely unincorporated, low-income communities that fall just outside city limits and often lack basic infrastructure. Our work began in Cochran colonia near El Paso. DigDeep partnered with residents, housing nonprofits, and county officials to innovate a new model for public-private-partnership that brings these basic services to families for the first time. Now we're getting the water flowing in 5 more communities.

The Opportunity

DigDeep is seeking an experienced Communications Manager to join our growing team. Reporting to the Vice President, Communications, the Communications Manager will lead strategic communications initiatives that advance water equity and amplify community voices. This role combines creative leadership, strategic thinking, and a deep commitment to ethical storytelling. The ideal candidate will bring both vision and hands-on expertise in managing communications projects while mentoring team members and fostering cross-departmental collaboration.

Key Responsibilities

Strategic Leadership & Team Management

• Develop and execute comprehensive communications strategies aligned with organizational goals
• Collaborate with communications team members, providing clear and timely ideation, support, and feedback
• Lead the planning and implementation of communications campaigns across multiple channels
• Foster collaboration between communications team and other departments
• Ensure all communications align with DigDeep's values and ethical storytelling principles

Content Strategy & Development

• Drive content strategy across all channels, ensuring consistency and impact
• Oversee the development of compelling narratives that center community voices
• Guide and support the creation of reports, presentations, and other key communications materials
• Establish and maintain editorial standards and processes
• Lead innovation in storytelling approaches while maintaining ethical guidelines
• Build and maintain relationships with community partners and stakeholders

Project & Resource Management

• Manage communications budget and resources
• Develop and track project timelines, deliverables, and outcomes
• Implement systems for efficient workflow and asset management
• Oversee communications request process and prioritization
• Monitor and evaluate communications impact through metrics and feedback

Department Operations

• Lead communications planning and strategy sessions
• Develop and maintain departmental processes and procedures
• Manage vendor and contractor relationships
• Ensure effective cross-departmental collaboration with fellow Manager
• Support VP in strategic planning and department growth

This job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties, or responsibilities that are required of the employee for this job. As the organization continues to evolve, duties or tasks may change without impacting the overall job description.

Competencies

• Change Management: Task/strategy orientation. Seeks out opportunities for task /team/ functional area growth and innovation. Anticipates obstacles from both team members and active projects, beginning to forecast and prepare contingencies. Collaboratively establish structures and processes to plan and manage the orderly implementation of change. Collaborate on the project goal and provide guidance on how to get there, especially under novel circumstances. Effectively navigates uncertainties and incomplete information with a problem-solving mindset to identify appropriate strategies, creatively apply solutions, and uses a community-driven, sustainable approach. Champions new policies/ procedures/ strategies. Are a focal point for driving adoption within functional area.
• Professional Communication: Professional presence, strong written and verbal communications skills, has the ability to appropriately represent both oneself and the company in external facing situations, able to adapt and react appropriately to novel circumstances. Tailors communications and presentations to effectively reach the desired audience and with maximum impact, both internal and external to the organization. Debates opinions, effectively clarifies ambiguities and judgments. Handles conflict empathetically. Converses with, writes reports for, and creates/delivers presentations to all levels of colleagues and peer groups in ways that support understanding, problem solving and planning. Explains the context of multiple interrelated problems/challenges, asks searching, probing questions, and solicits expert advice prior to taking action and making recommendations.
• Influence: Oversees relationships and alliances within functional area with support from supervisor (internal and external). Uses extensive industry and team knowledge to help guide teams outside of functional area. Able to synthesize and triage various project needs in order to best achieve goals within functional area. Challenge directives when appropriate and, with evidence, propose alternative solutions.
• Judgement & Decision-Making: Able to identify the information needed to clarify situations, when necessary, seeks information from appropriate resources, and uses skilled reasoning and questioning to draw out information in order to make sound decisions. Should be able to implement all solutions independently. Effectively navigates uncertainties and incomplete information with a problem-solving mindset to identify and propose appropriate strategies and creatively apply solutions using a community-driven, equitable approach. Can make systematic comparisons between two or more alternatives, noticing discrepancies and using them to inform decision-making.
• Ownership: Beginning to fully own projects along with limited guidance from supervisor. Demonstrates commitment to delivering on all promises as a credible, trusted organizational representative. Establishes agreements with others as to how success will be measured. Accepts the consequences of own performance. Able to work independently with limited guidance and exercise independent judgment, knowing when to elevate concerns or issues.
• Personal Development: Shifting toward professional development from personal development. Continual development of self. Become a better leader through feedback and consistent collaboration. Developing for team. Identifies own learning needs and areas for development based on self-initiated need analysis as well as in response to others’ feedback and suggestions for improvement. Maintains fluency in appropriate work applications, software, or tools. Beginning to identify and share information regarding key technologies and best practices to team.
• Technical Expertise: Has demonstrated ability and depth of knowledge with the technology in the desired technical area. Effectively uses and applies technical knowledge, and uses knowledge to identify solutions to existing problems. Basic understanding of data security best practices.

Skills and Qualifications

We want to hear from you if you have:

• Bachelor’s degree, or equivalent professional experience preferred
• At least 4 years of applicable professional experience required; experience in design field required
• Proficiency in MS Office Suite, Google Workspace required
• Proficiency in MS Office Suite and/or Google Workspace required
• Experience with Slack, Asana, Canva, Figma, Zoom, Expensify preferred
• Experience with Adobe Creative Suite preferred; Premiere Pro is a plus
• Understanding of ethical storytelling principles and practices
• Basic design sensibility and ability to provide visual feedback
• High computer literacy, and tech savviness required
• Able to focus in the face of pressure, deliver against timelines and not be intimidated by tasks/time limitations
• Organized, trustworthy, dependable, and detail oriented
• Comfortable with autonomy, able to work independently and complete assigned tasks within established time frames required
• Comfortability and readiness to apply a social justice and equity lens to communications and content creation
• Willingness to travel, including but not limited to: Navajo Nation (AZ/NM/UT), West Virginia, Kentucky, Texas, DigDeep HQ, and additional locations as needed

Compensation and Benefits

At DigDeep, we believe that great work requires a great job. We understand that people thrive with rest and holistic support, which is crucial for our long-term success. We take pride in offering top-notch benefits to our team across the United States, prioritizing their health and wellbeing, as well as providing additional support for our employees' families. If you join us, here’s how we’ll support you in your work:

• Competitive wage to commensurate with level of position
• Generous vacation and sick leave
• 23 weeks paid Parental Leave
• Annual Professional Development Stipend
• Annual Wellbeing Reimbursement
• BrightPlan membership (Financial Wellness Benefit)
• Health Benefits
  • Employee Offering: Medical, dental, vision insurance, 100% employer paid
  • Spouse/Children/Family Offering: Employer covers up to $500 of the monthly cost for medical insurance for spouse/children/family; Employer covers 100% of the cost for dental and vision insurance for spouse/children/family
• One Medical membership
• Life insurance, 100% employer paid
• Work laptop
• Monthly cell phone use allowance
• Monthly internet use allowance
• 15 paid holidays (including one week closure for Labor Day)
• Domestic travel
• 401k retirement plan, with employer match