Job Description

Job Category: Communications
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Salary: $30-$34
Job Overview
Performs professional public relations duties by providing timely, accurate, and tactful information in writing and in person for County programs and projects. Ensures the quality of information provided to Hillsborough County Communications & Digital Media customers by performing fact checking, writing, editing, and research. Serves as editor for own work and the work of others with attention to detail and superb editorial judgment. Presents the County in the best possible light while avoiding risk to the County's image by complying with policies and procedures.
Ideal Candidate:
The ideal candidate will be an adept storyteller who can take diverse, complex topics and simplify them in ways that are both easily understood and enjoyable for audiences. This individual will be self-motivated, inquisitive, and passionate about connecting residents with their local government's resources, highlighting public service, and finding new and innovative ways to tell Hillsborough County's story.
Experience and expertise: The ideal candidate will have 5 years of storytelling experience with large audiences at major media outlets, including numerous examples of professional writing clips across an array of topics. They will demonstrate deep experience utilizing metrics to proactively guide content and drive measurable audience growth. They will show a thorough understanding of public relations, have exceptional interpersonal skills, and a long list of trusted contacts of diverse professional backgrounds.
Skills and Competencies: This individual will be adept at building positive relationships within their own team, across numerous diverse County departments, and with the residents and businesses that the County serves. The ideal candidate will be passionate about public service. They will be strongly motivated to serve during emergencies such as hurricanes, when their work has the greatest impact and when residents and businesses rely on Hillsborough County for important resources and accurate information. They will thrive in a newsroom that embraces challenges and unpredictability. They will demonstrate adaptability and excel as a professional writer in environments that can be fast-paced, high pressure, and not ideal for writing.
Core Competencies

• Customer Commitment - Proactively seeks to understand the needs of the customers and provide the highest standards of service.
• Dedication to Professionalism and Integrity - Demonstrates and promotes fair, honest, professional and ethical behaviors that establishes trust throughout the organization and with the public we serve.
• Organizational Excellence - Takes ownership for excellence through one's personal effectiveness and dedication to the continuous improvement of our operations.
• Success through Teamwork - Collaborates and builds partnerships through trust and the open exchange of diverse ideas and perspectives to achieve organizational goals.

Duties and Responsibilities
Note: The following duties are illustrative and not exhaustive. The omission of specific statements of duties does not exclude them from the position if the work is similar, related, or a logical assignment to the position. Depending on assigned area of responsibility, incumbents in the position may perform one or more of the activities described below.

• Employs adept creative writing through storytelling and skills in utilizing metrics to inform content choices and identify opportunities that drive subscriber growth and increase viewership.
• Conceive, develop, write, edit, produce, and deliver public relations and marketing materials to support County departments and initiatives.
• Retain expert command of all forms of the English language that meets or exceeds professional publishing industry standards and share that expertise with County staff to improve the skills of County employees and the internal-and external-facing products they produce.
• Employ analytical ability and inductive thinking to prevent or resolve highly intricate, technically complex, and politically sensitive communications challenges.
• Develop new and innovative approaches to provide timely, accurate, and tactful information in writing and in person for County programs and projects.
• Ensure the quality and veracity of all information provided to customers by performing fact checking, editing, and research.
• Maintain effective, positive relationships with County leadership, staff, elected officials, local organizations, businesses, vendors, and all other customers of Hillsborough County and its Communications & Digital Media department.
• Plays a vital role in ESF 14 support.
• Employ the utmost tact, discretion, and courtesy in all interactions with internal and external customers to provide stellar customer service at all levels.
• Performs other related duties as required.

Job Specifications

• Mastery of English language with superb written communications skills.
• Knowledge of how new and traditional media outlets function and how media interact with government.
• Mastery of editing and proofreading skills and best practices.
• Understanding of current events.
• Superior writing, proofreading, research, and fact-checking abilities, along with analytical editorial judgment.
• Quickly learn and adapt to new technologies.
• Excellent time management and organizational skills.
• Ability to use considerable initiative, think independently, and exercise sound judgment.
• Ability to establish and maintain effective working relations with others within and outside own organization.
• Ability to deal courteously and effectively with the public.
• Ability to manage multiple tasks.

Physical Requirements

• Frequent sitting, typically in office environment.
• May be required to stand for long periods of time during events.

Work Category

• Light work - Exerting up to 20 pounds of force occasionally, and/or up to 10 pounds of force frequently, and/or a negligible amount of force constantly to move objects. If the use of arm and/or leg control requires exertion of forces greater than that of sedentary work and if the worker sits most of the time, the job is considered light work.

Minimum Qualifications Required

• Bachelor's degree in communications, English, Journalism, Public Relations, Marketing, or related field; AND
• Two years of experience in mass communications; OR
• An equivalent combination of education (not less than a high school diploma/GED), training and experience that would reasonably be expected to provide the job-related competencies noted above; AND
• Possession of a valid Florida Driver's License.

Emergency Management Responsibilities
In the event of an emergency or disaster, an employee may be required to respond promptly to duties and responsibilities as assigned by the employee's department, the County's Office of Emergency Management, or County Administration. Such assignments may be for before, during or after the emergency/disaster.

Skills Required