Public Affairs Manager at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Job Description

• This position assists in building strategic relationships with opinion leaders who affect the reputation of the Church, and whose actions and influence can help or hinder the Church's mission. It reports to the Associate Area Communication Director – Relationships. 

Responsibilities

• Support the effort to develop the outreach portion of the communication strategy that will build, maintain, and strengthen critical relationships with government, interfaith, media, and community leaders and their staff at national and local levels.
• Support the effort to develop, maintain, and prioritize a list of key contacts across the area with whom the Church should seek to build and maintain relationships of mutual understanding. 
• Prepare relevant and appropriate materials and gifts to be available for high-level meetings. 
• Enter all interactions into the CONNECT Customer Relations Management (CRM) tool to assure clarity in communication as well as an accurate history of interactions while assuring adherence to data privacy laws.
• Assist in training national and local communication councils to build, maintain, and record outreach efforts.
• Monitor and report key issues related to religious freedom or other legislative matters across the area.
• Assist in organizing religious freedom or other relevant events together with other organizations to build and continuously strengthen key relationships. 
• Help inform leaders and influencers on relevant key issues.
• Help to identify and develop relationships with key members of the media across the area through local communication councils to encourage the sharing of Church messages, community involvement, and inspiring actions of Church members.
• Help communication councils develop a prioritized list of key journalists.
• Assure outreach interactions are recorded in the CRM database.
• Assist the manager in: Developing public relations materials, such as brochures, leaflets, press packets, video news releases, public service programming, etc. Gathering and organizing information as assigned by the manager.
• Learning and reporting how specific audiences could be influenced.
• Assist to gather and present information for use by department leadership.
• This role or a member of their team may serve as a point of contact for some national or coordination council communication councils; the role may also work at a country level in the area (based on the size and needs of the area)

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent post-secondary education/certificate in communications-related field (i.e., public relations, communications, journalism, marketing, government relations, international relations, political science, social science).
• Two years of professional experience. A combination of education and experience for a total of 6 years may be considered.
• Experience in executing strategic outreach plans.
• Strong experience with a wide variety of communication channels.
• Ability to think critically and solve problems.
• Experience utilizing research methods and strategies to address practical problems.
• Excellent writing and editing skills in the local language.
• Ability to function in a team setting and collaborate with other members of the area team.
• Competency in the use of technology, including the Microsoft Office product suite.
• Willingness and demonstrated ability to collaborate with others in a team environment.