Engineering Communication Specialist

The Princeton University School of Engineering and Applied Science seeks a talented science writer to lead communications for two of the School’s prominent academic departments. Princeton Engineering is in a period of major growth. Creative and strategic communications are critical to maximizing the impact of our activities. This is a full-time position with a hybrid schedule and a competitive salary and benefits package.

 

Reporting to the Office of Engineering Communications and working within a collaborative team, the Engineering Communication Specialist will focus on the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE), one of the largest and fastest growing departments on campus, and the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (MAE), a small yet dynamic department home to some of Princeton’s most prominent researchers and most exciting interdisciplinary initiatives.

 

The incumbent will craft a range of cohesive messages and create content across traditional and digital media, working to advance the ECE and MAE strategic missions by promoting their research priorities, teaching activities and brands. The incumbent will also act as liaison for ECE and MAE with broader campus communications networks and interact regularly and closely with faculty, postdocs, staff, administration and students.

 

With a journalistic approach, the successful candidate will excel at making technical information exciting to a non-specialist audience, including broad non-scientific audiences.

 

Editorial duties will include reporting and writing research news and feature items; brief stories highlighting awards and other accomplishments; and profiles of students and researchers. The incumbent will also help manage and maintain websites and other digital and print materials; direct or produce video content; arrange and art-direct photo shoots; and create, edit and manage social media content. The role may require the skills to hire and supervise freelance content creators.
The incumbent will work in a cross-functional team environment with communication specialists serving other departments and centers. We share ideas and best practices and collaborate and support each other’s work as opportunities arise. The incumbent must be extremely well organized, exhibit exceptional attention to detail and be able to troubleshoot and multitask.
Responsibilities include content strategy, content generation and curation, project management and social media management.

 

Please include 3-5 relevant work samples of published writing that demonstrates your ability to convey technical information to a broad audience.

Content strategy (30%):
Publicize the departments’ activities around research, teaching, news and events, partnerships, and outreach. Evaluate the departments’ inventory of existing content. Benchmark peer websites, newsletters and social media. Work with faculty leadership and staff to create workflows that efficiently harness faculty- and student-generated content and other sources of content. Work collaboratively with faculty and staff to produce high-quality written and visual content that reaches key audiences and raises the visibility of departmental activities. Oversee visual communications (posters, banners etc.) in ECE and MAE areas.

 

Content generation and curation (30%):
Report and write news items and other web content, or hire freelance to do so. Coordinate with the Office of Engineering Communications on the assignment, use and dissemination of longer research news and feature items. Monitor campus-wide websites for related content and adapt and post to departmental sites as appropriate. With direction from the the Engineering Communications Director, pitch news stories to media outlets and science journalists.

 

Project Management (20%):
Oversee print and email publications (via platforms such as MailChimp), website design, annual reports, select multimedia projects, arrange photography and attend photo shoots to enhance web content, manage and direct work of external writers, videographers, graphic artists, web specialists and photographers. Sample projects include senior thesis videos, hallway media displays, departmental graphic identity, and photography archives.

 

Social Media Management (20%):
Develop and maintain up-to-date social media content and foster engagement with stakeholders, with a focus on storytelling. Promote news stories on the social media accounts (LinkedIn). Monitor related institutional accounts and faculty accounts to amplify relevant department news and posts. Propose and develop department-related content for engineering school and University social media accounts.

Essential qualifications:

-Bachelor's degrere + 3+ years of work experience

-Writing - journalistic approach to making complex topics accessible and engaging to multiple audiences
-Manage and edit/create social media content
-Ability to work cross-functionally within broad applied science and technology space
-Extremely well organized. Ability to work independently while demonstrated team player
-Project management experience
-Website design and management
-Strategic visionary for media creation

 

Preferred qualifications:

-Directing / producing video content
-Photoshoots / art direction
-Management of freelancers
-Science or Engineering degree

 

Princeton University is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. KNOW YOUR RIGHTS

36.25

No

Yes

180 days

No

No

No

Mid-Senior Level

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