Communications Specialist

Salary : $60,789.00 - $66,867.50 Annually Location : City Hall, 18 North Jackson Street, Janesville, WI Job Type: Full Time Job Number: 2026.30.115 Department: City Manager's Office Division: City Manager Opening Date: 06/22/2026 Closing Date: 7/12/2026 11:59 PM Central FLSA: Exempt Benefits Earning Potential: $92,106.24 Objective & Relationships CITY OFJANESVILLE DIVERSITY STATEMENT: The residents of Janesville choose this community, not just as a place to live, but as a place to realize life's opportunities. We strive to sustain a community culture where differences are recognized, understood, and appreciated. As such, the City of Janesville recognizes the importance of developing an environment where diversity is not merely accepted but embraced and celebrated. As public servants, we believe everyone has the right to be treated with dignity and respect. To this end, we will diligently recruit and retain the most talented employees in an environment that fosters maximizing one's potential. Therefore, we encourage individuals from all backgrounds, perspectives, and experiences to consider employment with the City of Janesville and serve the residents of "Wisconsin's Park Place". OBJECTIVE: Under the general direction of the Assistant to the City Manager, this position leads and coordinates the City's communications and public information program. The Communications Specialist develops and implements comprehensive communications strategies to foster effective engagement between the City and its stakeholders with particular emphasis on supporting communication between the City Manager's Office and City employees, residents, media representatives, elected and appointed officials, business leaders, and community organizations. This position is responsible for managing a broad range of communication and public outreach initiatives, including the development and execution of social media campaigns, website content design and maintenance, strategic marketing efforts, branding and messaging initiatives, and public engagement activities intended to enhance transparency, awareness, and community involvement. RELATIONSHIPS: Reports to: Assistant to the City Manager Supervision Exercised: Has no regular supervisory duties but may delegate work to Intern or Executive Assistant. Maintains regular and effective working relationships with appointed and elected officials; Department, Division, and Office Heads; City employees, business representatives; community organizations; media representatives; and the general public. Essential Duties To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.Essential duties are not necessarily listed in priority order. Develops, executes, and refines, as necessary, a public communication strategy that is aligned with the City's mission, goals, and strategic objectives. Manages the development and maintenance of the City's website, Intranet, and other information platforms as the City deems appropriate to ensure an efficient, effective, and user-friendly information source. Manages and coordinates the City's main social media presence to include regular monitoring, posting, and timely response to citizens' questions or concerns, and oversees the social media presence of other City departments. Serves as a liaison between the City and news media; develops press releases for distribution; monitors and informs City Administration of pertinent media coverage; and responds to media inquiries, including providing interviews. Develops and implements the City's annual legislative program, including establishing a legislative agenda; monitoring legislative issues; and communicating the City's interests to Federal, State, and other local policymakers and administrators. Coordinates the writing and development of surveys, newsletters, informational brochures, messages, videos, and presentations for distribution to the public. Updates existing and new brochures/letters/forms, as needed. Develops and executes a strategy for collecting and utilizing community feedback. Maintains open lines of communication with all community organizations and provides prompt responses to requests for public information about the City. Serves as the City's Public Information Officer (PIO), and as such, responds to activations of the City's Emergency Operations Center and works in conjunction with other City leaders to coordinate crisis management communications for the City. Plans special events and assists with the successful execution of the City Manager's Office events. Prepares agendas, policy statements, reports, and other materials for City Council meetings and meetings of other governing bodies, as required. Adheres to all departmental and City safety policies, practices, and procedures; reports any unsafe activities to supervisor or the Human Resources Office. Attends professional development workshops and seminars to keep abreast of trends and developments of municipal government. Maintains knowledge of emerging modes of communication and assesses their applicability to, and/or inclusion in, the City's communication program. Serves as a member of various staff committees, as assigned and may serve as a member on various community boards or committees. Follows all safety regulations, policies, and procedures; reports all unsafe conditions and acts to supervisor; reports all accidents to the supervisor immediately whenever possible; follows recognized safe work practices. Performs other special projects and other duties as assigned or required during regular and non-business hours, including providing support as a part of any City response to essential or emergency operations. Minimum Position Requirements/Qualifications The requirements listed below are necessary to perform the essential duties of the position. Graduation from an accredited college or university with a bachelor's degree in public administration, communication, journalism, marketing, or closely related field is required. A minimum of two (2) years' municipal experience or communications/marketing experience is required. Possession of a valid state-issued driver's license at time of hire. OTHER QUALIFICATIONS The qualifications listed below are preferred, but not required to perform the essential duties of the position. The absence of these qualifications on a candidate's application does not preclude them from consideration. A master's degree is preferred. A combination of equivalent experience and/or education as determined by the Human Resources Office may be considered in lieu of the stated minimum requirements. Knowledge: Working knowledge of municipal community relations, public relations, marketing, public/governmental affairs, and/or journalism principles and practices. General knowledge of the development and implementation of organizational communication strategies. General knowledge of digital communication analytics, including interpreting website and social media performance metrics to inform strategy. Through knowledge of the use of technology for communication purposes. Thorough knowledge of applicable state and local laws, codes, and ordinances. Working knowledge of strategic planning, change management, process improvement, and budget preparation and administration. General knowledge of basic video production and editing tools commonly used by public-sector communications team. Skills: Organizational and time management skills to prioritize duties and accomplish a high volume of work product while adapting to constant changes in priority. Exceptional written and verbal communication skills, both verbally and in writing, paired with a strong customer service background, and effective interpersonal skills. Collaboration skills to effectively work with others to achieve common goals through communication, teamwork, and problem-solving. Skill in utilizing social media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Nextdoor, Snapchat, and TikTok, with the ability to tailor content to each channel's style and audience Skill in using analytics tools (such as website dashboards or social media insights) to monitor engagement and adjust communication tactics. Excellent analytical, judgment, and problem-solving skills. Strong ethics base built upon integrity, honesty, and respect. Exceptional professionalism and decision-making skills. Intermediate proficiency in Microsoft applications, including Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Publisher, and Outlook. Proficient in Adobe Creative Acrobat. Proficiency in basic content creation software (e.g., Illustrator, InDesign, Canva, video editing tools). Abilities: Good ability to organize, plan, and research projects and programs, make recommendations, write reports, and successfully implement, once approved. Considerable ability to tactfully, yet persuasively, enforce City policies and embrace change with employees and the general public. Effectively handle negative comments and public feedback and identify and respond to public issues and concerns. Effectively and timely respond to inquiries and complaints of the general public. Good ability to adapt to the changing needs of the organization. Adapt content and style of communications to a variety of audiences and in a variety of forms. Speak and make presentations effectively before groups of employees, elected officials, community groups, the media, and residents. Work under pressure in a fast-paced environment with fluid priorities, frequent interruptions and multiple, sometimes competing work assignments, with accuracy and attention to detail; must be able to organize work, adapt to changing priorities, meet critical deadlines, and follow-up on assignments with minimum of direction. Communicate effectively, both in verbal and written form, and to follow verbal and written instructions with minimum supervision. Multi-task and manage multiple projects simultaneously; ability to adapt to changing priorities and to work smoothly and cooperatively on a variety of projects. Compose routine correspondence and routine reports in a clear, concise, logical, and effective manner, utilizing proper grammar, spelling, punctuation, sentence structure, and tone. Make decisions in accordance with laws, regulations, ordinances, and established procedures. Represent the City in a positive and professional fashion to the public and other community stakeholders. Conduct all business and working relationships in an accurate, fair, equitable and highly ethical manner. Ability to complete National Incident Management System (NIMS) training as required. Ability to comply with all safety policies, practices, and procedures, and report all unsafe activities or conditions to supervisor. Ability to learn and apply new technology in order to fulfill the requirements of the City Manager Office and the duties of the role. Behaviors: Work with others in a positive, supportive fashion to solve problems, generate ideas, and accomplish department, division, and City goals; have a positive record of team-building, including a reputation for dealing fairly and effectively with all employees. Establish and maintain effective working relationships with City elected and appointed officials, City Council and Committee members, Department and Division heads, staff, employees, business leaders, community groups, outside governmental agencies, local media, program clients, and the general public. Maintain confidentiality, possess a high level of integrity, adopt a professional work ethic, demonstrate tact and decorum, and exemplify a positive, welcoming, friendly attitude to all. Embrace and actively promote an inclusive and equitable work environment. Work with the public in a fair and consistent manner; maintaining objectivity and excluding personal bias while performing job duties. Interact positively with a diverse group of individuals, and work effectively both as part of a team and independently. Perform duties with considerable judgment, resourcefulness, and initiative under very limited supervision and within the boundaries of responsibility. Supplemental Information EQUIPMENT, INSTRUMENTS, AND MACHINES: Machinery and equipment including personal computer, printer, telephone, fax machine, copier, scanner, 10-key calculator, camera, and other standardized or specialized office equipment. WORKING CONDITIONS AND PHYSICAL FACTORS: The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. Work Environment: The employee will spend the majority of the working day inside speaking with other employees or members of the public. The working conditions in the office are comfortable. The noise level is generally quiet to moderately noisy. Physical Demands: While performing the duties of this job, the employee regularly works in an office environment. An individual in this position is frequently involved in sedentary work, which requires sitting for the majority of the time. This position occasionally walks, stands, stoops, kneels, crouches, crawls and exerts up to 25 pounds of force by lifting, carrying, pushing, pulling, or otherwise moving objects. The employee is frequently required to see/observe, talk/speak and listen/hear; use their hands to finger, handle, feel or operate objects and equipment; repetitive arm, wrist, hand and eye movements are included. There is frequent twisting, reaching, wrist turning and grasping. The employee may be required to climb or balance. Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, distance vision, color vision, peripheral vision, depth perception and the ability to adjust focus. Hand-eye coordination is necessary to operate computers and various pieces of equipment. Employee is required to use cognitive ability to reason, analyze and verbalize thoughts and ideas. Requires the ability to recognize and identify similarities or differences between characteristics of colors, shapes and sounds associated with job-related objects, materials or tasks. Work Schedule and Additional Requirements: The position has a regular Monday- Friday, 40-hour work week schedule. Attendance at meetings and special events before and after regular business hours may be required. DISCLAIMER The above statements are intended to describe the general nature and level of work being performed by people assigned this job. They are not intended to be an exhaustive list of all responsibilities, duties and skills required of personnel so classified. The omission of specific statements of duties does not exclude them from the position if the work is similar, related or a logical assignment to the position, or is responsive to the needs of the City of Janesville. The job description does not constitute an employment agreement between the employer and employee and is subject to change by the employer as the needs of the employer and requirements of the job change. The City of Janesville, Wisconsin is an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer. In compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, the City will provide reasonable accommodations to qualified individuals with disabilities and encourages both prospective and current employees to discuss potential accommodations with the employer.