Manager, Digital Communications

Office:

Office of External Affairs

Date Posted:

11/7/2025

Salary Range:

1-5 / $98,423 - $111,058

NTE Date:

N/A

Position Overview

The mission of the Office of External Affairs to improve outcomes for every student in DCPS by fostering strong connections between and among schools, families, the greater DC community, and other stakeholders. Through effective communication, meaningful family and community engagement, and collaborative partnerships, we shine a light on the inspiring stories of the students and schools within DCPS and work to ensure our district is an inclusive environment in which all voices are heard.

All our work is designed to accelerate student success by:

• Building and sustaining relationships between and among DCPS, families, communities, and partners that increase trust;
• Increasing transparency and access to information, resources, and DCPS leadership and staff;
• Building capacity in schools and Central Services to enhance communication and engagement with staff, families and communities to improve student outcomes; and
• Ensuring DCPS’s stakeholders are well-informed about our priorities and our successes and have context about our challenges.

Divisions/Teams

• Strategic Communications
  • Builds and executes communications systems to ensure clear and informative messaging to stakeholders.
  • Supports district-wide branding and marketing through photography, videography, graphic design, social media and newsletter engagement, website management, and more.
  • Works cross-functionally to transform district initiatives into effective communications campaigns.
  • Monitors progress of projects, based on changes in direction, priorities, and resources.
• Operations Communications:
  • Develops and leads overall school-based or district-level incident response communications strategy.
  • Approves and writes operations communications on issues including facilities, building modernizations, health, school climate, and other crisis communications.
  • Identifies key ways to turn crisis communications into opportunities to reverse existing narratives about DCPS.
  • Works across several Central Office teams to manage crisis communications, often outside of the school day.
• Press:
  • Manages reactive and proactive engagement with local and national media stories to share the stories of DCPS students, staff, and schools.
  • Devises media outreach strategies to support strategic communications objectives.
  • Supports crisis communications work by ensuring media are accurately reporting on developments.
  • Ensure that key messaging, talking points, and other media materials align with priorities and guidelines set by the Executive Office of the Mayor.
• Family and Community Engagement:
  • Aims to build the capacity of Central Services, school administrators, and educators to partner with families to drive student success.
  • Listens to and engages our families and community at the district and school level to build trust, using stakeholder feedback to inform the work of DCPS.
  • Builds and sustains strategic relationships with key stakeholders.
  • Directly supports schools in their parent and community engagement efforts, including with Local School Advisory Teams (LSATs) and parent teacher organizations (PTOs).
• Partnerships:
  • Serves as the district’s central team for identifying and managing strategic partnerships that promote student achievement, build school capacity, and advance district priorities.
  • Enhances the capacity of Central Services, school administrators, and teachers to maximize the impact of partnerships on key organizational goals.
  • Develops and maintains systems and policies that ensure school-based and district-level partnerships are high-quality, compliant, and aligned with the strategic priority to ensure students feel connected to their schools.

The Manager, Digital Communications, will serve as the strategic and operational lead for DCPS digital content. In this capacity, they will actively manage the district’s social media and digital presence, setting a strategy for how the district engages with families and other stakeholders through social media, email outreach, and websites. The head of digital media will identify and implement tactics to increase audience growth and engagement across our platforms, improve social listening efforts, integrate digital platforms into new and existing communications and marketing efforts, and improve coordination with social media and web account managers across Central Services and DCPS schools.

The Manager, Digital Communications will report to the Deputy Chief, Communications.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

The below statements are intended to describe the general nature and scope of work being performed by this position. This is not a complete listing of all responsibilities, duties, and/or skills required. Other duties may be assigned.

• Manages day-to-day digital content operations, including drafting, developing, and curating content for use across all DCPS digital channels (social media, email, newsletters, and websites).
• Designs and executes comprehensive digital campaigns that elevate districtwide programs and initiatives, coordinating with Central Service program teams to ensure accurate messaging and captivating visuals.
• Maintains the district’s editorial calendar, ensuring alignment between communications campaigns and key district priorities, observances, awareness days and months, and operations communications needs.
• Maintains and updates the district’s central website—dcps.dc.gov—collaborating with Central Services program team POCs to ensure consistent updates, accuracy, accessibility, and user-friendly navigation.
• Oversees the work of the Film Specialist and other creative staff to ensure video and photography assets are timely, high-quality, and effectively integrated across digital platforms.
• Manages contracts and relationships with digital communications vendors, including translation services and email marketing platforms on behalf of Central Services, facilitating training and best practices guidance to program area POCs.
• Produces and distributes a regular districtwide newsletter featuring DCPS events, initiatives, student and staff highlights, and timely updates, using multimedia content to increase open rates and engagement.
• Develops and monitors the efficacy of communications campaigns across all digital platforms, reporting out on digital media analytics, stakeholder feedback, and performance metrics to inform content strategy, audience growth, and ongoing improvements to engagement tactics.
• Leads digital brand management and consistency efforts, performing regular audits of central and school-based digital platforms to ensure compliance with DCPS visual and messaging standards.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree and four to six years of related work experience.
• Master's degree preferred.
• Previous exposure to or experience in the education sector a plus.
• Demonstrated experience in managing digital media channels, graphic support staff, and vendors.
• Proven expertise in building and engaging a digital audience (SEO, SEM, paid social ads).
• Excellent copywriting and copy editing skills.
• Highly organized and detailed-oriented.
• Works under tight deadlines, while executing at high levels.
• Flexibility to staff occasional events on weeknights and weekends.

DCPS Values

• STUDENTS FIRST: We recognize students as whole children and put their needs first in everything we do.
• COURAGE: We have the audacity to learn from our successes and failures, to try new things, and to lead the nation as a proof point of PK-12 success.
• EQUITY: We work proactively to eliminate opportunity gaps by interrupting institutional bias and investing in effective strategies to ensure every student succeeds.
• EXCELLENCE: We work with integrity and hold ourselves accountable for exemplary outcomes, service, and interactions.
• TEAMWORK: We recognize that our greatest asset is our collective vision and ability to work collaboratively and authentically.
• JOY: We enjoy our collective work and will enthusiastically celebrate our success and each other.

We are an equal opportunity employer and are committed to creating an inclusive, accessible workplace. We welcome and encourage applications from individuals with disabilities. Accommodation and/or application assistance is available upon request at all stages of the application and employment process. To request accommodation, please contact dcps.eeo-ada@k12.dc.gov.