Chief of Information and Public Affairs

Seeking Chief of Information and Public Affairs

Are you a highly successful communications, legislative affairs, and marketing professional?  Have you managed the communication function for a large company or a local government?  Are you interested in work that has meaning and having a societal impact? The City of Savannah offers such an opportunity as the Chief of Information and Public Affairs.

Savannah is a high-performing, diverse community with a welcoming spirit and a "can do" attitude.  The City's elected and appointed leaders are committed to taking Savannah to the next level as leaders in providing economic opportunity for all and a high quality of life. This will be accomplished through partnerships with intergovernmental stakeholders, the business sector, the faith community, philanthropic and educational institutions, and directly with the residents who call Savannah home and the millions of visitors who see Savannah as a destination.

Effective communication is critical for Savannah to fulfill its potential and realize its aspirations. We are not looking for a traditional PIO. 

• We need someone to serve as Savannah's Chief of Legislative Affairs in Atlanta and Washington, DC.
• We need someone who can brand and "sell" our City and Team Savannah, internally and externally, telling the story of Savannah through data and pictures.
• We need someone who can showcase how the City makes decisions using data and key aspects of our service delivery systems to enhance the lives of our residents and visitors.
• We need someone experienced in niche marketing who recognizes our need to reach every niche inclusively and is committed to transparency.
• We need someone experienced in all of the available tools: media placement, direct mail, video, social media, and direct face-to-face interaction.
• We need someone with a track record of building trusting relationships with a large, highly engaged, professional, independent news media.
• We need someone who can demonstrate the ability to develop an integrated "corporate" strategy while meeting the specialized marketing and communication needs of the City's diverse, individual business lines. The individual parts matter, and the whole must be more than just the sum.
• We need someone who has promoted fun and happy events and has pivoted to crisis communications that involve life and death realities.
• We need a marketing and communication expert who will be a key leader on Savannah's executive team.
• We need someone with a track record of building high-performing, cross-agency teams that are entrepreneurial, creative, and high-energy.

About the Position:

The Chief Information and Public Affairs Officer directly supervises a centralized team of 102 employees across four units: Municipal Archives, Marketing and Communications, Innovation and Technology, and Recorder's Court. The successful candidate will have diverse skills and oversee a $7M budget. However, the Chief's leadership is critical across a cadre of decentralized communicators and web content specialists embedded in City departments. The centralized and decentralized staff must be forged into an integrated, coordinated force that effectively tells our many stories, connects the public with their City, and informs and engages. This is the critical work of the Chief Information and Public Affairs Officer.

Key Priorities:

• Proactively engage in marketing and salesmanship – understanding our strengths and weaknesses and how to communicate and advance our mission with state, federal, local partners, and media, as well as leveraging internal culture.
• Working with stakeholders on fleshing out the Strategic Plan to clarify the activities needed to accomplish the plan's goals and objectives, while developing measurable outcomes to track and report to others internally and externally.
• Developing and implementing an organization-wide data management system and performance dashboard, including supporting the development of a data management policy to track strategic plan outcomes on a scheduled basis
• Advance the City's goals with state and federal officials. Raising the bar of our communications products and strategies internally and externally.