Communications Coordinator

This competition is open to all applicants however internal candidates and applicants who were former employees of the University of Alberta in the past 18 months will be given priority consideration before external candidates. Please indicate your internal status using the "Advertisement" drop down menu when applying.

This position has an end date of 1 year from hire, with the possibility of extension. This position offers a comprehensive benefits package which can be viewed at: www.hrs.ualberta.ca .

The Women and Children’s Health Research Institute (WCHRI) was founded in 2006 as a partnership between the University of Alberta and Alberta Health Services, with core funding from the Stollery Children’s Hospital Foundation and the Alberta Women’s Health Foundation. WCHRI is the only research institute in Canada—and one of the few in the world—to focus on women’s and children’s health, including perinatal health. The institute is considered to be a national authority and leader in women’s and children’s health issues. The scope and complexity of WCHRI is extensive—supporting over 430 members from 14 faculties across the University of Alberta.

The Communications Coordinator must provide strategic support in stewardship, marketing and communications efforts that will increase awareness of not only of WCHRI, but also community awareness of research supported through WCHRI/the University of Alberta. This increased awareness raises donor dollars from WCHRI’s supporting Foundations, which in turn builds funding support to the University. The incumbent will help foster WCHRI’s objectives in the digital space—developing and implementing tools and strategies that will help bring WCHRI closer to realizing our long-term strategic goals. The incumbent will also provide key administrative and graphic design support within the communications department—intended to increase WCHRI’s profile among key internal and external target audiences.

Duties

Web and digital support

• Develops, suggests and executes strategies for web content and engagement. This includes creating, designing and updating webpages, liaising with web contractor and other updates that enhance the institute’s digital presence.
• Analyzes analytics and makes improvements where necessary.
• Develops and oversees social media presence, identifies and reports on metrics, and recommends areas for improvement.
• Collaborates with partnering social media teams, finding synergies and collective areas of growth/impact.
• Manages internal electronic communications initiatives for WCHRI members and staff.

Communications planning and editing

• Develops communications plans for strategic initiatives and executes on plans.
• Researches, edits, writes, fact-checks, reviews and publishes communications material for internal and external sources.
• Writes lay-friendly content in the appropriate format (in accordance with style guide) for use in print and online platforms.

Event support

• Manages and maintains WCHRI’s event strategy, including development of comprehensive event plans, executing on plans, reporting on results and recommending areas of improvement.
• Managing and executing on all promotions for events.
• Coordinates logistics with internal and external stakeholders (eg. Presenters, partnering faculties and departments, other supporting organizations).

Operational communications/administrative support

• Supports the communications team with communications and marketing requests from other WCHRI staff.
• Administers graphic design changes on promotional materials.
• Other administrative communications support as required.

Qualifications

• Communications or marketing-related diploma or degree. (Such as a Public Relations diploma, Bachelor of Arts degree, or Bachelor of Commerce degree.)
• Minimum of two or more years of demonstrated experience within communications or a communications-related field, such as marketing.
• Familiarity with University of Alberta, Alberta Health Services and/or a health research environment and hospital foundations a definite asset.
• Exceptional verbal and written communications skills, composition, editing and proofreading.
• Ability to multi-task while maintaining attention to detail.
• Strong digital marketing skills, including web content management (ideally with WordPress),  SEO, social media, email marketing software (ideally Campaign Monitor), Google Analytics.
• Proficiency in a Windows platform computer environment and a working knowledge of various programs and information skills, including Microsoft Office applications (Word, Excel, PowerPoint).
• Basic graphic design skills, using the Adobe Creative Suite (Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign).
• Strong writing and editing skills applicable to a variety of media.

COVID-19 Vaccination: Proof of full vaccination against COVID-19 in compliance with the University’s COVID-19 Vaccination Directive. Fully Vaccinated means a status an individual achieves 14 days after having received the recommended number of doses of a COVID-19 vaccine approved by Health Canada or the World Health Organization, and requires the individual to maintain the recommended number and type of vaccine doses as updated and required by Health Canada thereafter.

Note: Online applications are accepted until midnight Mountain Standard Time of the closing date.

We thank all applicants for their interest; however, only those individuals selected for an interview will be contacted.