Director of Community Relations & Strategic Engagement

Our VisionA world where no resource is wasted.

Our Mission To ensure that no resource goes to waste by empowering people to redeem every container easily, efficiently, and effectively.

Our Values We are loyal, resilient, trustworthy, creative, competent, and engaged.

Summary The Director of Community Relations & Strategic Engagement advances the organization’s community engagement, stakeholder relations, strategic partnership, philanthropic, and public trust-building efforts in close coordination with the Vice President of Strategy and Outreach. This role is responsible for strengthening community relationships, building public support for Oregon’s Bottle Bill and Bottle Drop programs, enhancing OBRC’s reputation and visibility across Oregon, and ensuring leadership is informed about emerging community issues, opportunities, and stakeholder perspectives.

The position works closely with the Director of Government Relations to cultivate local relationships, align outreach efforts, and support organizational priorities.

Primary

Duties & Responsibilities
• Advance a proactive community relations and strategic engagement strategy developed in collaboration with and guided by the Vice President of Strategy and Outreach.
• Educate the public and build trust in Oregon’s Bottle Bill, Bottle Drop network, and OBRC programs.
• Activate and support local Bottle Bill advocates, ambassadors, nonprofit partners, and community champions.
• Build and maintain strong relationships with community organizations, nonprofit leaders, local retailers, businesses, local governments, neighborhood groups, and other stakeholders.
• Work closely with the Director of Government Relations to strengthen local relationships and coordinate external engagement activities.
• Monitor community sentiment and identify opportunities or risks that may affect organizational priorities, reputation, or operations.
• Collect, analyze, and communicate community feedback and stakeholder intelligence to leadership.
• Lead survey, research, and stakeholder assessment initiatives and translate findings into actionable recommendations.
• Support community engagement and relationship-building activities related to Bottle Drop network expansion and operational initiatives.
• Develop, manage, and evaluate philanthropic and community investment programs.
• Identify and cultivate strategic partnerships that advance organizational priorities and community impact.
• Partner with communications staff to amplify community impact stories and stakeholder success stories.
• Manage complex cross-functional projects involving internal and external stakeholders.
• Prepare briefing materials, stakeholder profiles, presentations, and engagement strategies for leadership.
• Track, document, and report community relations activity, stakeholder engagement outcomes, and partnership development efforts.

Education/Experience
• Bachelor’s degree in communications, public relations, marketing, public policy, or a similar field of study.
• Minimum of 5 years of high-level leadership experience in communications, public relations, marketing, or community relations.
• Knowledge of and relationships with community organizations, environmental organizations, and members of the media.
• Experience supervising employees and managing teams.

Requirements – Skills, Job Knowledge & Abilities
• Demonstrated track record of success working in a leadership role in strategic community outreach and public trust-building
• Experienced in reputation management and issue identification.
• Solutions Focused, with the ability to look at the big picture.
• Exceptional verbal and written communication skills; ability to communicate effectively at all levels with both internal and external partners, especially writing and editing internal and external documents.
• Must be a adept at building relationships and working through others.
• Ability to translate technical and/or complex information into easily understood formats.
• Proven leadership experience with ability to work well independently and as part of a team and demonstrated ability to create cross-department approaches and solutions.
• Demonstrated ability to…