Strategic Communications Advisor

About Our Organization:
When you join the City of Guelph, you join a team of 2000 full and part-time employees who deliver services the community relies on every day. Together, we are bringing to life Guelph’s vision of an inclusive, connected, and prosperous city where we look after each other and our environment.

As a regional top employer, the City of Guelph values its employees and offers competitive salaries, excellent benefit packages, opportunities for professional development, a healthy work-life balance, and many roles with flexible work options. Our corporate values are integrity, service, inclusion, wellness, and learning. Guelph is consistently ranked as one of the best places in Canada to live, work, and play—all good reasons to consider a career in this beautiful city.

Job Summary:
**Hours of work**:
35 hours per week Monday to Friday between the hours of 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. Evening and weekend hours may be required. Participation in an on-call rotation may be part of this role.

**Your role**:

- Provide experience-based, judgement-driven advice, support and coaching to leaders and employees that help the businesses of the organization achieve their objectives.
- Develop, implement and evaluate strategic communications programs that are aligned with business goals and support organizational objectives.
- Build options and recommend solutions that strengthen existing partnerships and foster new relationships with both internal and external stakeholders.
- In all things, help the City articulate who we are as an organization, what we stand for, how we tell our story, and why we do what we do.
- Participate in the management of issues at the corporate level; monitor and respond to local and public sector issues that have the potential to affect trust and reputation.
- Write and edit presentations, speeches, and other communications materials for senior leadership.
- Incentivize collaboration and communication internally and advance two-way dialogue; understand and encourage organizational listening, bringing stakeholder intelligence to the solutions you devise for your internal clients.
- Help nurture an innovative, resilient, service-oriented, high-performance work culture
- Participate in media relations activities.
- Perform other related duties as assigned.

**Qualifications**:

- A critical-thinking, creative professional who delivers innovative communications solutions.
- Solid understanding of key strategic issues, corporate priorities and corporate communications objectives and imperatives.
- Advanced understanding of strategic public relations best practices with significant experience developing, implementing and evaluating comprehensive communications programs.
- Proven experience dealing with complex and sensitive issues.
- Proven ability to exercise good judgement, make data-informed decisions, think critically, and act with a client
- and citizen-first focus.
- Understanding of data analytics, especially with respect to digital communications, and ability to identify metrics to support desired outcomes.
- Strong interpersonal skills with an ability to work with individuals of all professional levels and of diverse experience.
- A skilled storyteller with an audience-first approach to content and channels.
- A strategic, systems thinker who is adept at connecting dots and integrating information.
- Ability to establish and maintain co-operative and constructive relationships with individuals at all levels of the organization, members of Council, and representatives of external organizations.
- Highly developed sense of political and business acumen.
- Excellent project management, facilitation, research, writing and editing skills
- Proven ability to write effectively and edit for a variety of mediums including Web, video, print and others.
- Ability to work well under pressure, complete multiple assignments and function effectively in a high volume workplace with tight deadlines.
- Proficient with Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook) and Word Press
- Previous experience and/or knowledge of municipal government is an asset.

**Rate**:
$87,000.00-$109,000.00

**How to apply**:
The City of Guelph is an equal opportunity employer that values diversity in the workplace. We are therefore happy to accommodate any individual needs in keeping with the Ontario Human Rights Code and the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act. If you require an accommodation in order to participate in the hiring process, please contact us to make your needs known in advance.

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