Manager, Communications

Puget Sound Educational Service District; Renton (WA); On-site; USD 85,000 - 125,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, and vision through SE

24 annual leave days

12 sick days 12 paid holidays

Retirement system participation

Tax Sheltered Annuity Plan

Commuter benefits and parking in Rento

Job summary

Puget Sound Educational Service District in Renton, WA seeks a Communications Manager to lead a communications team and advance accessibility, equity, and multilingual outreach across the region. You will oversee planning, project intake, and creative production from concept to completion.

You will collaborate with school districts, manage fee-for-service projects, and mentor staff while ensuring timely, accessible, and impactful communications that support our antiracist multicultural mission.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent in communications or related field plus relevant experience.
• Experience planning and managing multiple communications projects with strict timelines.
• Knowledge of digital accessibility principles and equitable access practices.
• Experience creating and editing content across multiple formats (web, print, video, social).
• Ability to supervise staff and coordinate with external partners on fee-for-service projects.

Responsibilities

• Conduct accessibility audits of agency digital assets and stay current with accessibility laws and best practices.
• Design and produce materials across visual and multimedia formats for broad audiences.
• Develop communications plans identifying audiences, messages, and channels.
• Maintain design standards, templates, and style guides for brand consistency and accessibility.
• Lead and manage project intake and coordination across concurrent projects.
• Oversee multilingual communications projects and translation workflows.
• Supervise personnel and provide coaching to develop leaders and teams.
• Write and edit communications across formats (web, newsletters, social, etc.).

Skills

Project management

Digital accessibility

Multilingual communications

Team leadership

Communication planning

Mentoring / coaching

Education

Bachelor's degree in communications, public relations, marketing, journalism, graphic design, digital media, or a closely related field

Associate degree plus related professional experience

Tools

CPACC certification

Job description

Join Puget Sound Educational Service District as our next Communications Manager and help create just and humanizing educational communities where every student thrives and succeeds, benefiting future generations. In this role, you will lead a communications team, overseeing communications planning, managing concurrent projects from intake through completion, and directing creative production across graphic design, video, and photography. Working collaboratively, you will advance digital accessibility, manage multilingual communications, and lead fee-for-service communications projects with school districts across the region. If you are passionate about using communications to strengthen public education and serve diverse communities, we encourage you to apply.

Description

Puget Sound Educational Service District (Puget Sound ESD) is one of nine regional educational agencies serving school districts and state approved charter and private schools in Washington. Serving over 39% of Washington’s K-12 public school students, our agency provides critical services designed to ensure that our students are ready to enter school, achieve at high levels in the K-12 system, and succeed in postsecondary endeavors. We are committed to becoming an Antiracist Multicultural Organization driven by equity in education. To learn more about Puget Sound ESD, visit www.psesd.org/about-psesd.

Position open until filled; please submit application before best consideration date 8/13/2026. Interviews are tentatively scheduled on 8/19/2026.

To be considered for this position, you must provide a resume, cover letter, and communications portfolio. Your cover letter should address your experience with project management, digital accessibility, and supervising or mentoring others.

Your Communications Portfolio Must Include

• Two graphic design samples
• Two professional writing samples
• One website or social media campaign

Instructions

Include files or links to each item in your portfolio. Provide a brief three to five sentence summary for each item describing:

• Who it was created for
• What it was intended to achieve
• When it was created
• How it was distributed
• How accessibility was considered in its design and distribution

If you collaborated with others on any portfolio item, please describe each collaborator's role and responsibilities.

This job reports to Assigned Administrator.

Essential Functions

• Conducts accessibility audits of agency digital assets (e.g., websites, PDFs, presentations, social media content, videos, electronic publications, etc.) and stays current with evolving digital accessibility laws, standards, and best practices for the purpose of identifying compliance gaps, tracking remediation, ensuring conformance with federal and state requirements, and proactively updating agency practices before legal requirements take effect.
• Designs and produces materials across visual and multimedia formats (e.g., graphic design, video production, photography, infographics, print, etc.) for the purpose of communicating PSESD's programs and services to internal and external audiences in accessible and equitable ways.
• Develops communications plans for agency departments, programs, and initiatives (e.g., identifying target audiences, key messages, channels, timelines, and measures of success, etc.) for the purpose of ensuring communications work is strategic, coordinated, and aligned with program and agency goals before projects enter production.
• Develops, maintains, and implements design standards, templates, and style guides for the purpose of establishing the systems and tools that ensure brand consistency, readability, and accessibility compliance across agency communications materials and publications.
• Embodies the principles and practices that form our culture and commitment to becoming an Antiracist Multicultural Organization for the purpose of meeting the Agency’s End: We co-create just and humanizing educational communities where every student thrives and succeeds, benefiting future generations.
• Leads and manages communications project intake and coordination (e.g., tracking intake, timelines, assignments, deliverables, and completion across concurrent projects, etc.) for the purpose of ensuring all communications work is on time, within scope, and aligned with department and agency priorities.
• Maintains a variety of manual and electronic documents, files, databases, archives, and records for the purpose of providing up-to-date reference and audit trail for compliance with district, local, state, and federal public records regulations.
• Manages fee-for-service communications projects with external partners (e.g., graphic design, video, photography, accessibility remediation and training, web updates, social media, branding consultation, etc.) for the purpose of supporting district communications needs and generating revenue for the Communications Department.
• Manages multilingual communications projects and language access efforts (e.g., coordinating translation and interpretation of agency communications, overseeing quality, accessibility, and consistency of translated materials, working with translation vendors and internal multilingual staff, etc.) for the purpose of ensuring equitable access to agency information and services for staff, families, communities, and partners whose primary language is not English.
• Monitors assigned activities and program components and prepares progress reports and tracking documentation (e.g., project timelines, program reports, social media analytics, budget tracking, etc.) for the purpose of coordinating activities, tracking progress, and ensuring compliance with established financial, legal, and administrative requirements.
• Oversees event planning and production (e.g., agency events and community convenings, etc.) for the purpose of ensuring events are accessible, brand aligned, logistically sound, and effectively advance organizational needs.
• Oversees the agency's social media presence and content calendar for the purpose of maintaining consistent, accurate, accessible, and agency-aligned external communications across all platforms.
• Partners with staff to coordinate resource & budget development and oversight processes including account balance reconciliation for the purpose of maintaining accuracy of expenditures, budget appropriateness of funding requests, forecasts, and transfers that maintain consistency and compliance with agency and federal fiscal controls and policies.
• Supervises personnel (e.g., provide coaching and consultation on technical issues, adaptive challenges, personnel matters, strategic opportunities, career goals, professional development, job performance, etc.) for the purpose of advancing the development of effective leaders and high performing teams and achieving agency and departmental objectives.
• Writes and edits communications content across multiple formats and channels (e.g., web, social media, newsletters, scripts, articles, agency publications, grants, etc.) for the purpose of ensuring agency communications are clear, accurate, accessible, and aligned with the Agency's End.

Other Functions

• Assist other personnel as may be required for the purpose of ensuring an efficient and effective work environment.

Job-Specific Competencies

• Accuracy and Attention to Detail: Ensures work is thoughtfully completed, accurate, and error free to the highest degree possible.
• Customer Focus: Commits to clarifying and supporting internal and external customers’ goals and strives to meet their expectations and requirements. Consistently acts with customers in mind. Holds self accountable for providing high-quality, responsive and personable customer service.
• Developing and Empowering Others: Encourages others to work on challenging assignments that grow their skills and abilities. Supports others in identifying their own strengths and skills-gaps, and guides them in creating their own professional development plans that support current and future Agency goals.
• Managing and Measuring Work: Prioritizes and organizes work plans based on objectives and desired outcomes. Collaborates and shares responsibility for decisions and monitors progress toward goals by establishing strong feedback channels.
• Project Management: Manages all stages of a project from ideation and planning to its successful completion and implementation.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in communications, public relations, marketing, journalism, graphic design, digital media, or a closely related field, or an Associate degree combined with equivalent directly related professional experience.
• Progressively responsible professional experience developing and implementing strategic communications, marketing, public information, or related communications initiatives.
• Demonstrated experience planning, organizing, and managing multiple communications projects with competing priorities while meeting established timelines and organizational objectives.
• Experience creating and editing communications across multiple formats including websites, publications, social media, presentations, newsletters, video, graphic design, or other digital and print media.
• Demonstrated knowledge of digital accessibility principles and experience developing or reviewing communications that support accessibility and equitable access for diverse audiences.
• Certified Professional in Accessibility Core Competencies (CPACC) certification, an equivalent accessibility credential, or the ability to successfully obtain the certification within the first twelve months of employment. PSESD will support the successful candidate in completing this certification.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience leading communications within a public education, government, nonprofit, or other mission-driven organization.
• Experience developing agency or organizational communications plans that include audience identification, messaging, communication channels, implementation timelines, and evaluation measures.
• Experience conducting digital accessibility reviews or remediation of websites, PDFs, presentations, social media, or multimedia content.
• Experience managing multilingual communications projects and coordinating translation or interpretation services to improve equitable access to information.
• Experience supervising communications professionals while supporting professional growth, coaching, and performance development.
• Experience managing organizational social media strategy, editorial calendars, analytics, and digital engagement.
• Experience managing communications budgets, contracts, or fee-for-service communications projects.

We Offer Comprehensive Benefits

• Medical, dental, and vision through the School Employees Benefits Board (SEBB) Program
• 24 annual leave days per year
• 12 sick days12 paid holidays
• Participation in Washington State Department of Retirement System
• Tax Sheltered Annuity Plan
• Subsidized ORCA card, free parking, and access to EV car charging stations (Renton office)

Upon hire can you submit proof that you are legally eligible to work in U.S.?

Prospective staff, interns, and volunteers will have their records checked through the Washington State Patrol criminal identification system and through the Federal Bureau of Investigation via a fingerprint check using a complete Washington state criminal identification fingerprint process. Are you willing to submit to this process?

Are you able to demonstrate an understanding and commitment to using an equity lens?