Digital Communications and Social Media Specialist (Government Research)
US Citizenship Required; must clear federal background investigation.
Location: Boulder, CO 80305 (on-site 100%)
The Digital Communications and Social Media Specialist will support a federal government’s publication office with public-facing communications, social media, digital content, graphics, and multimedia products that communicate research and activities to technical and general audiences. The role will focus primarily on creating and refining website content, social media posts, blog articles, informational videos, presentations, event collateral, and other owned media; developing visual assets and communications materials using Adobe Creative Suite; and coordinating content through publication-ready workflows. The position will also provide secondary and backup technical writing and editing support for manuscripts, reports, policies, procedures, and other Publications Office products as needed.
Digital Communications, Social Media, and Multimedia Content
- Create, edit, and help coordinate public-facing content for websites, social media, blog articles, informational videos, technical news, and other owned media channels.
- Translate information provided by scientists, engineers, analysts, and other technical staff into clear, engaging, accurate content for non-technical and general audiences.
- Create and refine graphics, visual assets, social media content, video-related materials, and other digital communications using Adobe Creative Suite tools, including Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign, and Acrobat, as appropriate.
- Assist in developing communication plans, content packages, promotional materials, and coordinated messaging for dissemination of media assets through approved public channels.
Graphics, Presentation, and Event Support
- Create, refine, and format graphics, diagrams, illustrations, layouts, and other visual elements for presentations and public-facing communication products.
- Support senior managers, event organizers, and committee chairs in developing conference collateral, presentation materials, communication plans, graphics, and promotional content.
- Support scientific conferences and events as needed, which may include on-site assistance such as registration desk support, event photography for social media, microphone support, or related event-support tasks.
Technical Writing and Publication Support (Secondary / Backup)
- Provide backup and complementary manuscript editing support, including developmental editing, line editing, copyediting, and proofreading, as Publications Office workload requires.
- Support preparation of technical papers for internal and external publication, including IEEE journal articles and other scientific or technical materials, when needed.
- Maintain internal records of incoming manuscripts, publication status, deliverable deadlines, and deadlines met or missed using established Publications Office tracking methods.
- Support Editorial Review Board records and publication pipeline tracking so publication status remains visible to senior managers.
Templates and Application Support
- Support the Publications Office lead in maintaining or creating Microsoft Word and PowerPoint templates in response to changing technology, requirements, or publication needs.
- Help troubleshoot document formatting, template, and publication-preparation issues in a federal enterprise IT environment.
Technical Report Archives and Publications Repository Support
- Support maintenance of the technical report archives and publications indexing database.
- Enter new publication records and proofread, normalize, update, and maintain existing records.
- Support cataloging, metadata review, digitization, scanning, upload, and repository/document-preparation workflows.
- Work closely with technical leads to ensure electronic archive records meet required standards for free, immediate, and equitable access to federally funded research.
- Help ensure catalog records, metadata, citations, report numbers, abstracts, publication dates, technical contacts, DOI information, funding/publishing agency information, and related archive elements are complete and accurate.
Policies, Procedures, and Editorial Support
- Provide secondary editorial support to leadership in preparing, editing, and maintaining policy and procedure documents as needed.
- Coordinate with points of contact on procedure updates and incorporate final policy changes into official documentation.
- Support Publications Office editorial and publishing policies, processes, procedures, style guides, and internal guidance.
Requirements:
- Bachelor’s Degree in a related field (or equivalent)
- Minimum of 4 years of relevant experience, including hands-on experience with digital communications, social media, graphics, multimedia content, public-facing communications, or closely related work.
- Ability to work collaboratively with highly technical subject matter experts.
- Experience working with Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and Excel.
- Hands-on experience with Adobe Creative Suite, including:
- Advanced skills with Acrobat
- Intermediate or greater skills with content creation and design software, particularly Illustrator, with experience using InDesign and Photoshop
- Knowledge of HTML.
- Knowledge of Section 508 requirements for public-facing government websites and documents.
- Knowledge of WCAG 2.0 standards and how to apply or test them for websites and public-release documents.
- Strong writing, editing, proofreading, formatting, and quality-control skills for digital and public-facing content, with the ability to provide technical editing support as needed.
- Demonstrated ability to create social media, web, blog, presentation, video-related, or other public-facing content based on technical information provided by scientists, engineers, analysts, or other subject matter experts.
- Strong attention to detail and ability to maintain accurate publication, archive, and workflow records.
- Ability to provide responsive, professional customer service to authors, presenters, senior managers, event organizers, and other stakeholders.
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience in a highly technical research and development environment.
- Advanced Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and Excel skills.
- Experience providing technical writing or editing support for scientific, engineering, telecommunications, spectrum, federal, or research-related content.
- Experience managing or contributing to official social media channels, content calendars, digital approval workflows, audience engagement, or communications analytics in a federal, scientific, technical, or research environment.
- Experience with video editing, graphics integration, captioning, transcripts, short-form video content, upload/publishing support, or review of existing video footage.
- Experience with digital archives, records repositories, publication databases, catalog records, metadata, scanning, digitization, and document upload workflows.
- SharePoint experience.
- Familiarity with The Chicago Manual of Style and use of authoritative editorial/reference sources.
- Experience supporting publication workflows, editorial review boards, style guides, templates, policy documents, or procedure documents.
- Ability to work in a federal or enterprise IT environment where Microsoft Office, Adobe products, templates, and workflows may be affected by IT updates or security controls.