Imagine a place committed to offering an unmatched employee experience. Where you work on projects that are meaningful to you. Where you play an active part in shaping your career journey. Where your co-workers are invested in you and your success. Where you are encouraged and supported to do your very best and given the tools and resources to do so. Where it’s a priority that the company takes good care of you and your family.

Our employees are the heart of our company. As an employer of choice, our goal is to provide a challenging, progressive and inclusive work environment which fosters personal leadership, career growth and development for every employee. We value passionate individuals who challenge the norm, deliver world-class solutions and bring diverse perspectives. Join our team, and together we will make a difference and change the world.

Job Description

This position is for a community engagement expert looking to use their passion to improve public health through infrastructure projects around the United States, starting in New Orleans. You will join CDM Smith’s growing, cross-discipline strategic communications team, leading community outreach and engagement for municipal drinking water projects.

Projects you may work on include leading vast community engagement teams comprised of different firms working towards a unified goal and approach, planning and facilitating internal and high-stakes public meetings, developing presentations for internal and external stakeholders, helping develop guidance and communication strategies for a variety of programs, and reviewing communications deliverables for consistency and accuracy.

Passionate about organizational efficiency, you think through processes to ensure the right people get the right information at the right time – and you think about how to best present data for efficient understanding. With a strong sense of plain language and the ability to tailor to any audience, you dig deep into material to ensure it communicates its key message. When someone thinks something cannot be done, your first instinct is to find a solution anyway. You are comfortable jumping from one technical topic to another and applying your expertise to different scenarios.

The core of your work will be directing large-scale communication and engagement efforts related to drinking water infrastructure improvements. Your tasks will generally include:

Leading large teams of communications experts; ensuring communications tasks are executed

Facilitating discussions within your respective programs and creating plans to promote better organizational coordination and management

Creating and implementing communication plans to ensure stakeholders receive information needed appropriately when being asked to make a decision

Writing and editing documents to specific reading levels while ensuring they meet brand and style guidance

Translating highly technical textual information into a visual story that the audience can relate to and make decisions about

Proving highly detailed quality control and readability reviews

Managing and mentoring junior staff working on project communications

Teaching technical staff communications best practices

Interacting with the public, especially disadvantaged communities, via virtual and on-the-ground community forums

Facilitating community engagement forums, like public meetings, hearings, and listening sessions

Working with social media and electronic methods of survey and data collection; analyzing that data efficiently

Creating forums to brainstorm and act on ideas to improve communication best practices, and/or creatively address specific client challenges

Contributing to proposals to win more work, including writing public-engagement related scope, building up a team, and estimating cost

Some weekend and evening hours will be required to attend project public engagement events.