Strategic Communications Specialist

ABS is seeking a Communications Lead to support strategic initiatives in a technical sector that brings together capabilities across ABS Bureau and ABS Group. This role will serve as a central communications resource for high‑visibility programs and business priorities, including support to a large program management office, executive communications, stakeholder communications, and project‑related messaging. The Communications Lead will work across technical and non‑technical teams to develop, coordinate, and deliver clear, accurate, and timely communications for internal and external audiences. The role requires strong judgment, strong writing and editing skills, and the ability to translate complex technical and business information into concise, audience‑appropriate messaging. The successful candidate will help drive communication alignment across leadership, technical workstreams, governance forums, and external stakeholders, including support for communications related to regulatory compliance, stakeholder outreach, and public‑facing narratives where needed. What You Will Do Lead communication efforts for strategic programs, initiatives, and business priorities involving cross‑functional teams across ABS Bureau and ABS Group. Develop and deliver clear, accurate, and audience‑specific communications for internal and external stakeholders, including updates, key messages, presentations, briefing materials, and talking points. Support program and project communication needs, including communication cadences, leadership updates, governance materials, and meeting support. Partner with technical leaders, project managers, and business stakeholders to ensure messaging is aligned, timely, and consistent. Contribute to stakeholder outreach, regulatory‑facing communications, and public relations support as needed. Help shape communication plans, messaging frameworks, and communication protocols to support coordination and alignment across teams. Provide technical expertise on project tasks under the supervision of a project manager to ensure quality services are delivered on schedule and within available budget to meet customer requirements. Participate in client and project team meetings. Assist with research and data analysis, to include but not limited to assisting with conducting customer or stakeholder analyses. Prepare written documents, reports, and presentations, and assist with giving presentations to clients. Track and accurately report hours spent on projects. Work with individuals at all levels, provide input to reports and other deliverables, execute multiple assignments, meet agreed deadlines, and adjust to changing client demands. Perform quality assurance on project deliverables. Demonstrate a firm understanding of business and implement opportunities for enhancing effectiveness and efficiencies on assigned projects and amongst team members. Develop relationships with existing customers to facilitate development of new business opportunities for current and/or additional services. Understand and be conversant in ABS Group products and services. Meet with new and existing clients and actively listen to their needs. Communicate client needs to project managers. Review published reports and news articles about existing and potential new clients to identify customer intelligence. Participate in proposal development. Represent ABS Group and participate in promoting our products and services. Participate in marketing activities, conference presentations, technical whitepapers. Networking to meet new potential clients. What You Will Need Education and Experience Must have a bachelor's degree or equivalent experience (degree in Communications, Public Relations, Journalism, English, Marketing, Business, Public Affairs, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience). 6+ years of relevant professional experience Professional certification preferred Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities Ability to gain, retain, illustrate comprehension of learned communications knowledge, and transfer knowledge to other members of the team. Ability to mentor/coach entry‑level consultants and hone technical skills in others. Ability to actively listen to the needs of our clients by receiving shared information, determining context of the information provided and generating probing questions to better understand, retaining the information for future access, engaging and collaborating with sales team on potential opportunities, and responding with solutions. Openly accept change as part of business evolution to meet the needs of our clients, provide recommendations to enhance business, and drive change amongst colleagues and on assigned projects. Possess a firm understanding of key performance indicators and their significance to the business and take action to drive results amongst their department. Ability to utilize established rapport and role as a subject matter expert with existing clients to facilitate development of new business through identifying and consistently generating new business opportunities. Ability to coach others on development of customer intimacy and new opportunities. Must take responsibility for their actions, behaviors, decisions, and results and those of the team they lead. Ability toutilizeroot cause analysis to improve performance. Must understand departmental goals and holds self and team members accountable for keeping commitments and high standards. Must acknowledge and learn from mistakes. Must be dependable and consistent. Must actively participate in daily activities. Ability to demonstrate independent, objective, open‑minded thinking with strong attention to detail and sound judgment. Demonstrate a proficient level of time management skills. Working knowledge of the ABS Health, Safety, Quality and Environmental Management System. Reporting Relationships Reports to a manager, director, or executive level position. Country Requirements US Citizenship required for roles supporting government contracts. Salary $110k -$115k #J-18808-Ljbffr