Director of Communications

Director of Communications

Priority application deadline is Friday, December 12th, 2025, at 5 pm PST.

About UnCommon Law

UnCommon Law fights to ensure that all people incarcerated for violent crime have access to healing, justice, and effective legal representation.

Through our unique, trauma-informed model of advocacy, we provide the space currently missing in the system for healing, accountability, and safe pathways home from prison. In developing new self-narratives, the people we serve are able to more effectively disrupt violence inside and outside prison and become leaders who change negative societal narratives about those incarcerated for violent crime. Our groundbreaking approach is changing policy and outcomes, driven by the voices and experiences of system-impacted communities.

UnCommon Law’s values include accountability, audacity, authenticity, collaboration, community, empathy, imagination, joy, liberation, and sustainability.

About the Role

The Director of Communications will shape, lead, and implement UnCommon Law’s communications, storytelling, and brand strategy to elevate the organization’s visibility and impact. This role will oversee the communications team and collaborate closely with development, program, and policy teams to advance UnCommon Law’s mission and strategic priorities. This role will shape how UnCommon Law tells its story both internally and externally, and it will play a key role in ensuring the success of the organization’s 20th Anniversary campaign in 2026.

This exempt position reports directly to the Deputy Director and offers an annual salary range of $126,400 to $154,050. As a mission-driven organization, we strive to balance competitive pay with our values. New hires are typically placed between the minimum and midpoint range. Final salary offers are determined based on the candidate’s job-related skills, experience, and expertise, as assessed during the interview process and aligned with our structured salary schedule.

Our office is based in Oakland, CA, and we offer a hybrid work model to our employees, with the possibility of full-remote options for qualified candidates. Applicants who submit cover letters that are not tailored to the position or the organization will not be considered.

Key Duties and Responsibilities:

Brand and Communications Strategy

• Develop, refine, and drive UnCommon Law’s communications strategy to strengthen organizational visibility, credibility, and engagement to advance our mission.
• Create and shape consistent topline messaging and brand identity that reflect the organization’s mission, values, and voice.
• Develop and oversee storytelling and earned media strategies that center the voices of people impacted by incarceration and elevate UnCommon Law’s role as a local and national expert and leader in parole reform, including monitoring and analyzing the current media and policy landscape to identify opportunities for engagement and proactive media plans to support organizational priorities.
• Manage the creation of high-quality content including, but not limited to social media, earned media, newsletters, blog posts, campaign calls to action, website content, reports, and communication collateral, across multi-media channels (social, email, web, blog) to advance organizational policy advocacy, fundraising, and programmatic goals.
• Oversee relationships with media outlets, partners, and collaborators to increase the organization’s local and national presence, including pitching to media, managing media contacts, and tracking media coverage.
• Support other departments and teams to ensure cohesive communications for external campaigns and events, including those related to UnCommon Law’s upcoming 20th Anniversary celebration.
• Monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of communication efforts and adjust strategies as needed to achieve desired outcomes, including compiling regular reporting of strategy or tactic performance and results.
• Support staff and spokespeople in preparing for interviews, op-eds, and public speaking opportunities.

Internal Communications and Collaboration

• Strengthen internal communications systems and resources that promote transparency, alignment, and information flow across teams, including organizational talking points, training, procedures, and templates.
• Collaborate with leadership to develop communication norms and systems that support organizational growth and cohesion.
• Partner with other departments and team members to support campaigns, volunteer engagement, and events through unified messaging and storytelling.
• Translate complex policy and legal work into accessible narratives for a range of audiences and ensure cohesive messaging across fundraising, policy advocacy, and program communications.
• Provide strategic, technical, and logistical support for large and small-scale organizational events and activities, including but not limited to webinars, events, convenings, and conferences.

Leadership, Management, and Project Oversight

• Lead and manage the Communications Team, including identifying priorities, setting goals, providing clear direction, and coaching individuals to ensure high-quality, values-aligned work.
  
• Serve as project manager for major internal and external communications initiatives, which includes identifying goals, setting realistic timelines, and creating accountability structures while tracking progress toward outcomes.
• Collaborate closely with consultants, staff, and leadership to ensure alignment across communications, development, and programmatic efforts, maximizing impact.
• Anticipate challenges, identify risks, and provide proactive recommendations and solutions to leadership as organizational communication priorities evolve.
• Develop and manage an internal communications department budget.

Organization-Wide

• Participates in bimonthly staff meetings. Remote employees are required to attend at least one in-person staff meeting per month.
• Occasionally participates in in-person team building activities and retreats.
• Occasionally assists in other cross-team collaborative opportunities.

Experience:

• 2-7 years of experience in communications, media, or related fields, ideally in nonprofit or advocacy settings.
• Strong experience building effective communications strategies that combine various tactics including but not limited to content and storytelling, earned media, media relations, digital media, and digital presence.
• Proven ability to lead complex and/or large-scale events, including event strategy, event design, and content curation.
• Experience producing or managing content and content calendars across multiple platforms.
• Strong writing and copyediting skills for various types of communications, including news stories, media pitches, internal communications, and crisis communications.
• Demonstrated success leading communications strategies that significantly increased awareness, visibility, engagement, and/or narrative change.
• Evidence of volunteer or work experience supporting the core values of UnCommon Law’s mission.
• Experience working in policy, advocacy, or legal service contexts, particularly related to parole reform, decarceration, criminal legal reform, and/or reentry landscapes.

Skills and Attributes:

• Effective project manager who can balance strategic vision with hands-on execution.
• Strong leadership skills with the ability to manage, mentor, and build a high-performing communications team, including strong experience managing teams and consultants.
• Collaborative, adaptable, and comfortable working across teams in a fast-paced environment.
• Deep commitment to racial equity, healing, and the dignity of people impacted by incarceration.
• Strategic and creative communicator with excellent writing, editing, and storytelling skills.

Benefits and Support:

Currently, UnCommon Law offers 100% paid Medical, Dental, and Vision insurance for employees and covers 75% for dependents. To support our team’s mental well-being, we also provide a Health Reimbursement Account (HRA) of $200/month in reimbursable funds for therapeutic expenses. We have a flexible time off policy and a full organizational closure for two weeks from late December to early January each year. We offer a generous family leave policy, flexible hours, FSA and Retirement plans, regular access to training and clinical support, and generous sick leave. In addition to the formal benefits, we are committed to building and maintaining an equitable culture that is sustainable and joyful, and where each team member can thrive. You’ll see this in the acknowledgements in weekly staff meetings, in-office lunches, and community gatherings.

COVID Protocol:

UnCommon Law currently requires COVID vaccination (we consider exceptions for religious or medical purposes). A complete list of UCL’s COVID protocols can be provided upon request.

Application Instructions:

Please submit a resume and a cover letter describing your interest and relevant experience for the role, along with contact information for two professional, academic or other relevant references to our hiring portal (https://uncommonlaw.bamboohr.com/jobs/). Applicants who submit cover letters that are not tailored to the position or the organization will not be considered.

Please note that all correspondence in the hiring process will be through the BambooHR portal. Following the submission of your application, you should receive an automatic response (via email) thanking you for your application. If you do not receive this, please check your spam folder.

As part of our hiring process, we may request references. UnCommon Law staff will let a candidate know when to provide references, and we will reach out to references ourselves. While we appreciate the wonderful support many of our community members wish to provide for one another during the hiring process, unsolicited references via social media or other unofficial channels will not be considered in a candidate's application.

UCL is committed to providing an inclusive, welcoming, and culturally responsive environment for all members of our staff, volunteers, subcontractors, vendors, and clients. UCL does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion (creed), gender, gender expression, age, national origin (ancestry), disability, marital status, sexual orientation, military status, or prior contact with the criminal justice system. We strongly encourage applications from people impacted by incarceration as well as from traditionally underrepresented communities.