Marketing & Communications Manager

Marketing & Communications Manager

A thriving future for California's environment and communities requires bold vision, creative problem-solving, and relentless determination. This is a critical decade for action and River Partners is growing our team of talented, dedicated change-makers to meet the challenge head on. Join us!

A tenacious nonprofit founded in 1998, River Partners brings life back to California rivers. We advance an innovative model of conservation that harnesses the power of restored riverways to create a thriving future for the state's environment and communities.

Blending modern farming practices, cutting-edge science, and diverse alliances, River Partners reforests and reconnects river landscapes and critical wildlife corridors at an unprecedented pace and scale. We've restored more habitat along impaired California rivers than anyone else in the western U.S., having led hundreds of projects across nearly 20,000 acres throughout California. Our efforts result in a suite of tangible wins for struggling wildlife, flood safety, climate resiliency, water conservation, healthy communities, and strong local economies.

We are growing fast and looking for passionate team members to help us increase our pace and scale of restoration.

River Partners offers competitive salaries and benefits, including comprehensive health care insurance, flexible spending accounts, a 401(k) plan with immediate employer matching, paid time off, life insurance, disability coverage, employee assistance programs, other well-being benefits.

We're proud of our supportive culture and focus on work-life balance.

River Partners has built the largest on-the-ground riverway restoration program in the western United States, and the organization's communications program must keep pace with growing scale and impact. The Marketing & Communications Manager will take substantive ownership of a broad, high-output MarCom program—executing across a wide range of functions, audiences, and organizational priorities in close partnership with the Director of Communications & Marketing.

The Marketing & Communications Manager is responsible for executing River Partners' MarCom program across its full range of functions—restoration program storytelling and marketing, fundraising communications, digital and content strategy, media relations, brand management, and partner and coalition communications. The position requires strong judgment and the ability to move work forward across multiple teams and external partners independently.

River Partners is seeking a communications professional with a demonstrated track record of managing a broad, fast-paced workload with initiative, reliability, and impact. The successful candidate will support an organization of more than 100 employees that has grown significantly each year for the last nearly decade; collaborate across more than a dozen internal programs and teams addressing California's most pressing natural resource, ecosystem, community, and economic challenges; and help amplify the work of more than 100 public and private allies working together to achieve landscape-scale for people and ecosystems throughout the state.

Supervisory Responsibilities: This position supervises internal Communications team leads and external vendors.

Essential Functions and Responsibilities of This Position Include:

MarCom Program Management

• Lead execution of River Partners' MarCom strategy, including brand positioning, audience segmentation, annual communications planning, and budgeting
• Set, track, and report on program-level goals and KPIs; use performance data to drive continuous improvement in content strategy, platform mix, and execution
• Maintain a master editorial calendar that integrates content, campaigns, and priorities across all channels and audiences
• Coordinate and manage freelancers and vendor relationships and hold vendor work to high standards
• Build and maintain workflows and project management systems that keep a dynamic and ever-evolving program running reliably and on schedule
• Conduct landscape and audience analysis to inform positioning, messaging evolution, and organizational narrative strategy in partnership with leadership

Brand, Content & Storytelling

• Steward River Partners' visual identity, brand voice, and organizational messaging across all internal and external communications touchpoints
• Direct creative work—design, video, photography, and multimedia—to high editorial and brand standards
• Drive editorial planning and production across long- and short-form content: blogs, thought leadership, impact reports, case studies, video, and other interactive formats
• Translate complex scientific and program content into compelling, accessible narratives for donor, policy, public, and private-sector audiences; maintain a robust story pipeline for deployment across channels
• Help develop executive communications and thought leadership content for River Partners leadership, including op-eds, speeches, speaking briefs, board-facing materials, and digital/social media

Digital & Channel Management

• Oversee River Partners' website including content, SEO, user experience, and CMS management
• Execute social media strategy across platforms, including organic and paid campaigns
• Manage the email marketing program including audience segmentation, editorial planning, and performance reporting
• Administer and optimize digital advertising, including Google Ad Grants and display campaigns
• Maintain and evolve River Partners' digital asset library and content management systems

External Relations, Media & Policy

• Lead proactive and reactive media outreach including press outreach, relationship management, story placement, and crisis communications planning and response
• Draft and edit press releases, media pitches, talking points, op-eds, and other external-facing communications; prepare and brief leadership for media appearances and interviews
• Lead or coordinate joint communications with agency partners, coalitions, and collaborative programs; develop messaging and materials that position River Partners effectively within these frameworks
• Develop messaging, policy briefs, backgrounders, and public-awareness content for legislative, regulatory, and advocacy contexts in collaboration with program and government affairs staff

Fundraising, Funder & Institutional Communications

• Partner with the Advancement team to develop donor-facing communications across major gifts, annual giving, funder stewardship, and end-of-year appeals
• Lead production of annual reports and milestone communications
• Develop and maintain communications materials targeting private funders, institutional investors, and ESG-aligned private-sector partners
• Support board and governance communications as needed

Essential Knowledge Skills and Abilities:

• Exceptional writing and editorial judgment across a range of formats and audiences—from short digital content to long-form strategic documents
• Demonstrated ability to manage a multi-function MarCom program with substantial independence, including coordination of vendors and cross-functional collaborators
• Strong strategic communications instincts, including audience analysis, message development, and campaign planning
• Fluency in digital marketing platforms including CMS (WordPress or similar), email marketing tools, and social media management
• Ability to absorb and translate complex technical and scientific content into credible, engaging communications for non-specialist audiences
• Direct experience building and running editorial systems, content calendars, and cross-channel content pipelines in an organizational setting
• Strong project management and organizational skills, with the ability to manage multiple high-priority projects simultaneously
• Experience with media relations, including pitching, press releases, and interview preparation/training
• Collaborative working style with the ability to build strong relationships across internal teams and with external partners
• Demonstrated capacity to exercise independent judgment across editorial, operational, and content-delivery decisions
• Working knowledge of California's water, conservation, and environmental policy landscape—including key agencies, legislative frameworks, and funding mechanisms—is required; candidates without this background will not be considered

Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in communications, journalism, English, marketing, environmental science, or related field
• Five or more years of progressive marketing and communications experience, with a demonstrated track record of managing a broad communications workload across multiple functions and audiences
• Experience managing vendors and project contributors, with the ability to coordinate external partners effectively and hold work to high organizational standards
• Demonstrated record of independently developing and executing multi-channel communications strategies across varied audiences
• Demonstrated experience managing competing priorities, vendor relationships, and cross-functional stakeholder needs with limited oversight in a fast-paced organizational environment
• Commitment to River Partners' mission and the urgency of large-scale conservation in California

Compensation:

Salary is commensurate with experience, anticipated to range between $95,000 and $100,000 annually.