COMMUNICATIONS SPECIALIST

Req #: 204130

Department: OFFICE OF RESEARCH INFORMATION SERVICE

Posting Date: 03/10/2022

Closing Info: Open Until Filled

Salary: Salary is commensurate with experience and education

Shift: First Shift

Notes: As a UW employee, you will enjoy generous benefits and work/life programs. For detailed information on Benefits for this position, click here. (https://hr.uw.edu/benefits/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2018/02/benefits-professional-staff-librarians-academi-staff-20210208.pdf)

As a UW employee, you have a unique opportunity to change lives on our campuses, in our state and around the world. UW employees offer their boundless energy, creative problem solving skills and dedication to build stronger minds and a healthier world. UW faculty and staff also enjoy outstanding benefits, professional growth opportunities and unique resources in an environment noted for diversity, intellectual excitement, artistic pursuits and natural beauty. The University of Washington is one of the leading public research universities in the country with researchers pioneering innovative and groundbreaking discoveries daily. There is an ever-growing complexity in administration and regulation of the grants management lifecycle for researchers. Our goal in the Office of Research Information Services (ORIS) is to accelerate research and advance innovation through reducing administrative burden. We leverage technology, automation, data and information to support the research enterprise at the University of Washington. The Office of Research Information Services (ORIS) has an outstanding opportunity for a Communication Specialist. Reporting to ORIS’s Assistant Director for Customer Experience, the Communications Specialist will use their communications expertise to share critical information about improvements to research-related systems with researchers, research administrators, and stakeholders across campus to improve product adoption, facilitate change and enhance the research enterprise. The ideal Communications Specialist will be a multimedia content producer with strong writing skills, an understanding of the needs of a diverse audience, and the ability to translate complex technical information into customized messaging. The person in this position will be instrumental in developing content for the Office of Research website providing information to other institutions, federal sponsor agencies, technology companies, and other external parties who look to the UW for the expertise of research performed at this institution. The ORIS Communications Specialist will play a key role in the implementation of the UW Finance Transformation (UWFT) (https://finance.uw.edu/uwft/about-uwft) project, an enterprise-wide, multi-year initiative to replace existing financial systems with a modern, integrated system, providing functionality to support financial business needs across a complex institution. ORIS products, such as SAGE and MyResearch, support enterprise research and must seamlessly integrate with the new financial system to prevent any disruptions to the research work at the University. The Office of Research supports a culture of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Recognizing and valuing all of our differences makes our office stronger and enhances our support for researchers; it will enrich the research carried out at the UW. Read more about DEI in the Office of Research on our website: https://www.washington.edu/research/or/office-of-research-diversity-equity-and-inclusion. The Communications Specialist will collaborate with team members across and outside ORIS to contribute to documentation of current to future state systems and communicate changes to end users through a variety of channels. The position requires the ability to understand complex software, business process and data model changes and translate these into easy-to-understand language for a diverse group of researchers, research administrators and other staff. This work includes communicating effectively with ORIS software development teams, the UWFT organizational change management team, stakeholders and end users in a highly complex environment. The Communications Specialist will identify and segment customers of ORIS’s product lines in order to effectively reach users and independently create communication and outreach plans that align with ORIS’s overall product adoption and change management strategy goals. Deliverables include independently creating, publishing and distributing online and print content for system and product documentation. The Communications Specialist will be responsible for managing communications and editorial processes to ensure deliverables are completed on time and to a high standard of quality. They will need to exercise good judgement when developing and disseminating messages, ensuring messages address the broad diversity of our audiences. This position requires a willingness to learn new software tools, media production skills and content strategy approaches. Experience with WordPress, Adobe Creative Suite, and multimedia production techniques, as well as an understanding of communications strategy, website analytics and other metrics, is beneficial to success in the role. The ORIS Communications Specialist will also liaise with project partners and represent ORIS in meetings with partners and stakeholders from a broad range of campus departments. The ideal candidate will be comfortable partnering across units and with the research community to provide clear, concise and timely messaging. The position will also engage regularly with subject matter experts, user experience designers, business analysts and software developers in ORIS and across the University. The work of the ORIS Communications Specialist is critical to minimizing disruption and enabling transformation of the $1.9 billion-dollar research enterprise at the University of Washington. The position supports the mission of ORIS to accelerate research and advance innovation, and the University’s mission of discovery, innovation and advancing knowledge, through ensuring a seamless research administration experience and adoption of new tools to improve efficiency for research teams transitioning to new software, business process and data model changes. Housed in the Office of Research Information Services, the position impacts research and research teams at all 280 university research centers and enables greater efficiencies in the application and processing of the thousands of award applications processed and awarded annually to university researchers. Federal sponsor agency personnel, researchers and faculty at other institutions, technology vendors, etc. will view web content created and maintained by the Communications Specialist. RESPONSIBILITIES Communications • Work collaboratively across ORIS and with project partners to build and execute communications plans and deliverables in alignment with change management and communications strategy. Deliverables include: website content, marketing brochures, email campaigns, online tutorials and e-learning modules, screencasts, videos, job aids, product documentation, release notes, PowerPoint presentations, newsletter content, style guides and templates • Manage communications projects and editorial processes to ensure deliverables are completed on time to a high standard of quality • Contribute to communications and content strategy development and execution, creating content and materials to support ORIS outreach to the research community and which will inform those from external institutions, federal agency sponsors, and others • Independently develop communications plans that align with the overall communications strategy • Participate in product releases, ensuring audiences are informed, communications are delivered on time, and success is measured • Represent ORIS at cross-departmental communications meetings • Manage communications projects using ticket tracking and Agile project management methods and tools • Use website and email campaign analytics and other tools to measure success of communications initiatives Technical Writing • Work with business analysts, technical editors and other staff to understand technical information about ORIS systems and translate that information into easy-to-understand language for our diverse audiences • Write or contribute to technical documentation for products, eLearning scripts, release notes and other internal or end-user facing documentation or instructional material • Edit existing product documentation at the direction of the ORIS Technical Editor • Follow and contribute to ORIS style guides; ensure writing meets all relevant guidelines • Edit and proofread own and others work to ensure high-quality and error-free copy is published Multimedia Content Development • Develop digital and print content for website and other marketing campaigns to meet ORIS and FT strategic objectives • Work closely with Instructional Designer to develop eLearning content for ORIS products. Deliverables include copy writing and editing; audio recording; creating mockups, screenshots and developing other graphics; video editing; creating original graphic elements and themes; proofreading; and QA • Use or adapt existing templates to create digital content that conforms to UW and UW FT brand standards • Use digital production tools and content management systems to publish work that will be consumed both internally and externally to the University of Washington • Manage content review processes for deliverables produced • Measure success of campaigns through use of metrics, such as website or email campaign analytics. Contribute to our analytics program and report building in order to make and support data-driven decisions for content delivery Other Change Management Team Tasks • Serve as backup for Customer Support as needed • Serve as backup trainer for in-class trainings as needed • Other duties as assigned This position will primarily be expected to work standard working hours with some product release and other communication responsibilities outside of standard working hours. MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS • Bachelor’s degree in marketing, design, communications, English, content strategy or related field • Minimum of 4 years in a communication or writing role, ideally within an IT services or software development environment. Experience should include: o Planning, developing and publishing article-length content, such as email campaigns, website content, brochure or other marketing content, technical product documentation or curriculum o Experience with editorial processes, such as working with a senior editor or communications team and adhering to style and design guidelines o Determining audience needs and developing communications and digital content tailored to specific audience needs o Experience putting together a final product using digital production tools such as Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator) o Experience working with technical roles, such as software developers, data analysts or technical editors • Technical aptitude and willingness to learn new software and skills • Excellent written and verbal communications skills • Strong editing, language, spelling, and grammar skills • Ability to work collaboratively across functional teams, projects teams, and with partner units • Ability to prioritize and manage time effectively. • Excellent attention to detail • Excellent organizational skills DESIRED • Formal training or certification in writing or technical editing • Experience with HTML and content management systems, especially WordPress • Experience with email campaign software such as MailChimp • Expertise with Adobe Creative Suite, in particular InDesign • Graphic design experience • Experience marketing products and establishing brand recognition • Experience creating communications strategy and communications plans • Familiarity with audio and video editing techniques and software, such as Camtasia, Adobe Premiere, Audition or similar • Experience with Lean/Agile software development principles • Experience working with ticket tracking, project management, and document management systems, such as Jira and Confluence • Experience using Google Analytics or other communication analytics tools Office of Research Executive Statement on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion • The Office of Research shares President Cauce’s commitment to combat inequities and racism. The values of diversity, equity and inclusion are integral to the success of our research enterprise and are embedded in the culture of who we are as an institution and employer. • We will honor different and unique identities and nurture an accessible, welcoming and respectful environment for all staff, students and faculty in the Office of Research and for all members of the UW research community. We will regularly review our services and systems and adapt them to reflect the evolving environments and work styles of our employees and those we serve. • We are ALL responsible for confronting bias and inequities, both individual and institutional, that persist here and throughout our society. Our call is to remove barriers and promote access, opportunity, and justice for all. We all must commit to this ongoing work. • Recognizing and valuing diversity will make the Office of Research and the University stronger, and enrich the stellar research carried out at the UW. Application Process: The application process for UW positions may include completion of a variety of online assessments to obtain additional information that will be used in the evaluation process. These assessments may include Workforce Authorization, Cover Letter and/or others. Any assessments that you need to complete will appear on your screen as soon as you select “Apply to this position”. Once you begin an assessment, it must be completed at that time; if you do not complete the assessment you will be prompted to do so the next time you access your “My Jobs” page. If you select to take it later, it will appear on your "My Jobs" page to take when you are ready. Please note that your application will not be reviewed, and you will not be considered for this position until all required assessments have been completed.

University of Washington is an affirmative action and equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to, among other things, race, religion, color, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, sex, age, protected veteran or disabled status, or genetic information.