Senior Communications Officer, Policy

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), located in Princeton, N.J., is a leading national philanthropy dedicated to taking bold leaps to transform health in our lifetime. To get there, we must work to dismantle structural racism and other barriers to health. Since 1972, we have focused on developing and promoting innovations in health and healthcare to improve the lives of millions.

Through funding, convening, advocacy, and evidence-building, we work side‑by‑side with communities, practitioners, and institutions to achieve health equity faster and pave the way, together, to a future where health is no longer a privilege, but a right.

At RWJF, we work toward three Generational Goals to transform health in our lifetime:
Economic Inclusion for Family Wellbeing, Equitable and Accountable Public Health and Healthcare Systems, and Healthy and Equitable Community Conditions.

We take seriously our responsibilities, and we pledge to work in ways that reflect our Guiding Principles. These are rooted in equity and influence everything we do ity, diversity, inclusion, and collaboration enable our staff’s wide range of experiences, passions, and perspectives to strengthen our ability to address our nation’s most pressing health issues and support a culture of belonging. Part of this work includes actively shaping an inclusive organization where all staff members thrive as we build and use our capabilities, voice, and power to advance health equity.

RWJF offers a collaborative, collegial, and creative work environment. With a career at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, you will make a difference.

Reporting to the director, Foundation Voice, the senior communications officer, Policy, is responsible for providing strategic communications counsel that translates complex policy priorities, legislative and advocacy environments, and emerging issues into integrated communications direction that advances RWJF's One Voice approach, which guides how RWJF’s voice and those of its grantees, peers, partners, and the health equity field overall unite harmonically with maximum impact.

Core responsibilities include: (1) working collaboratively with others to develop, implement, and manage communications for and about the Foundation’s initiatives that address the root causes of structural racism; (2) initiating, interpreting, and synthesizing communications research to help the Foundation develop messaging that engages and activates audiences across political, ideological, and cultural perspectives; and (3) leading and managing teams of communications professionals, including external firms and contractors, to develop communications plans to help amplify the voice of the Foundation and our grantees and partners to achieve desired objectives.

RWJF has redesigned its Communications Department around three integrated teams:
Voice Strategy sets direction, the Communications Studio brings that strategy to life, and Operations provides the infrastructure that enables the work. The senior communications officer, Policy, role sits within the Voice Strategy team.

As with staff at all levels of RWJF, the senior communications officer is expected to demonstrate a passionate commitment to equity and to the Foundation’s mission and Guiding Principles.

RWJF is an institution in transformation. We are redefining our long-term outcomes with communities at the center and reexamining foundational questions about how and where we work.

Successful candidates will bring a track record of navigating organizations under transformation: creating clarity while new structures settle, earning trust across teams absorbing change, holding standards when the ground is shifting, and helping institutions tell the truth…