Communications Director - City of Homewood

TARGET CLOSE DATE:
09/08/2025

PAY GRADE:
Grade 34

TYPE:
Full time

JOB SUMMARY:
The City of Homewood is seeking to hire a Communications Director to serve as the City's senior leader and be responsible for developing and implementing a comprehensive communications strategy. This role oversees all internal and external communications, including public information, media relations, crisis communications, and digital engagement. Acting as the City's primary spokesperson, the Communications Director ensures that messaging is timely, consistent, and aligned with the City's mission and goals. The position also leads efforts to shape the City's brand and public image, builds strong relationships with media outlets and community stakeholders, and manages communications staff and resources to achieve meaningful, measurable outcomes.

COMPENSATION & BENEFITS:
The City of Homewood provides competitive pay and comprehensive benefits packages to include medical and dental insurance, employer-sponsored retirement plan (pension), generous paid holidays, sick and vacation leave, and more.

The pay range for this job is listed below:

Homewood $98,800 - $153,275

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS:

The following are job-related qualifications that are required for employment consideration for this position:

• Bachelor's degree in Communications, Journalism, Public Relations, or a related field from an accredited university or college
• Experience in media production, digital communications, or municipal communications, to include website content management, social media content creation, and video production.
• Experience developing and delivering communications during emergency or crisis situations, including crafting time-sensitive public messaging and managing information across multiple mediums to ensure clarity, accuracy, and public trust.
• Experience managing communications projects or programs, including setting timelines, coordinating across departments, overseeing the work of staff, consultants, or vendors, and developing, presenting, and managing a departmental budget

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS:

The following are job-related qualifications deemed desirable by Merit System agencies. These qualifications may be considered by a hiring agency when reviewing applications and inviting candidates to participate in subsequent steps in the selection processes.

• Master's degree in a Communications, Journalism, Public Relations, or a related field from an accredited university or college.
• Experience working in a government or public sector environment.
• Experience working with social media and communication metrics.
• Experience with crisis litigation and emergency communication.
• Familiarity with livestreaming technologies and content strategy.
• Knowledge of the FEMA incident command structure.

TYPICAL JOB DUTIES:

• Develops and implements comprehensive communication strategies aligned with the City's mission, values, and priorities.
• Ensures consistent messaging across all City platforms and audiences.
• Serves as the primary media contact and official spokesperson; builds and maintains strong relationships with journalists and media outlets.
• Prepares and distributes press releases; organizes and manages press conferences.
• Directs the development and execution of promotional campaigns to enhance public awareness and trust in City programs.
• Leads crisis communication planning and response efforts, ensuring timely, accurate, and sensitive messaging during emergencies.
• Engages residents, media, and community stakeholders to gather feedback, foster transparency, and strengthen relationships.
• Oversees the creation and execution of editorial calendars, messaging frameworks, and key communications deliverables.
• Maintains and enhances the City's brand identity; ensures brand consistency across all print, digital, and in-person communication channels.
• Manages media production for public meetings by operating audio, video, and lighting systems; recording, livestreaming, and archiving sessions; editing content for public platforms; and maintaining equipment to ensure high-quality, accessible broadcasts.
• Produces written and visual content for social media, websites, newsletters, speeches, and other communication materials.
• Supervises communications staff by assigning tasks, directing workflow, providing training, and monitoring performance.
• Prepares, administers, and monitors the department's budget, analyzing financial data to ensure spending aligns with annual goals.
• Manages the City's website operations, including domain hosting, content updates, and performance monitoring to ensure functionality, security, and alignment with City goals.
• Creates, posts, and curates multimedia content-graphics, videos, and written posts-across all City social media accounts.
• Responds to public comments and messages; fosters community engagement and grows channels organically without paid promotions.
• Monitors and analyzes communication metrics and public engagement data to evaluate campaign effectiveness and inform strategy.

PHYSICAL DEMANDS:
Job is primarily sedentary involving sitting for long periods of time, but may involve occasional walking or standing for brief periods.
May involve occasional light lifting of items or objects weighing up to 25 lbs.

WORK ENVIRONMENT:
Work is conducted almost exclusively indoors in an office setting.
Work involves use of standard office equipment, such as computer, phone, copier, etc.

EEO STATEMENT:

The Personnel Board of Jefferson County provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment with the Personnel Board of Jefferson County, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation and training. Each Merit System member city/agency operate its own equal employment opportunity policies available on the individual city/agency website.

ACCOMMODATION:

To request an accommodation in the application or hiring process due to your own ongoing medical condition or disability, please contact our Accommodations Coordinator at accommodationrequest@pbjcal.org or phone at 205-279-3500 (select option 1) Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Central Time. The accommodation process is reserved solely for job seekers with disabilities requesting accessibility assistance or accommodation in the job application process.

NOTE:

This job posting may close before, or be extended beyond, the listed Target Close Date based on the employment needs of the Merit System. More detail regarding this job is available by clicking Apply.

DISCLAIMER:

This job posting is not meant to be an all-inclusive list of the job duties, responsibilities, or skills and abilities required to do the job and may be changed at the discretion of the Personnel Board at any time.