Manager, Communications

Purpose Statement

Join Puget Sound Educational Service District as our next Communications Manager and help create just and humanizing educational communities where every student thrives and succeeds, benefiting future generations. In this role, you will lead a communications team, overseeing communications planning, managing concurrent projects from intake through completion, and directing creative production across graphic design, video, and photography. Working collaboratively, you will advance digital accessibility, manage multilingual communications, and lead fee-for-service communications projects with school districts across the region.

If you are passionate about using communications to strengthen public education and serve diverse communities, we encourage you to apply.

Puget Sound Educational Service District (Puget Sound ESD) is one of nine regional educational agencies serving school districts and state approved charter and private schools in Washington. Serving over 39% of Washington’s K-12 public school students, our agency provides critical services designed to ensure that our students are ready to enter school, achieve at high levels in the K-12 system, and succeed in postsecondary endeavors.

We are committed to becoming an Antiracist Multicultural Organization driven by equity in education. To learn more about Puget Sound ESD, visit (Use the "Apply for this Job" box below)..

This job reports to Assigned Administrator

• Conducts accessibility audits of agency digital assets (e.g., websites, PDFs, presentations, social media content, videos, electronic publications, etc.) and stays current with evolving digital accessibility laws, standards, and best practices for the purpose of identifying compliance gaps, tracking remediation, ensuring conformance with federal and state requirements, and proactively updating agency practices before legal requirements take effect.
• Designs and produces materials across visual and multimedia formats (e.g. graphic design, video production, photography, infographics, print, etc.) for the purpose of communicating PSESD's programs and services to internal and external audiences in accessible and equitable ways.
• Develops communications plans for agency departments, programs, and initiatives (e.g. identifying target audiences, key messages, channels, timelines, and measures of success, etc.) for the purpose of ensuring communications work is strategic, coordinated, and aligned with program and agency goals before projects enter production.
• Develops, maintains, and implements design standards, templates, and style guides for the purpose of establishing the systems and tools that ensure brand consistency, readability, and accessibility compliance across agency communications materials and publications.
• Embodies the principles and practices that form our culture and commitment to becoming an Antiracist Multicultural Organization for the purpose of meeting the Agency’s End:
  We co-create just and humanizing educational communities where every student thrives and succeeds, benefiting future generations.
• Leads and manages communications project intake and coordination (e.g. tracking intake, timelines, assignments, deliverables, and completion across concurrent projects, etc.) for the purpose of ensuring all communications work is on time, within scope, and aligned with department and agency priorities.
• Maintains a variety of manual and electronic documents, files, databases, archives, and records for the purpose of providing up-to-date reference and audit trail for compliance with district, local, state, and federal public records regulations.
• Manages fee-for-service communications projects with external partners (e.g. graphic design, video, photography, accessibility remediation and training, web updates, social media, branding consultation, etc.) for the purpose of supporting district communications needs and generating revenue for the Communications Department.
• Manages multilingual communications projects and language access efforts (e.g. coordinating translation and interpretation of agency communications, overseeing quality, accessibility, and consistency of…