Chief Communications Strategist

Chief Communications Strategist

Service Employees International Union (SEIU) – Washington, DC. Reports to the Chief of Staff.

Organizational Overview

SEIU is a union of about 2 million members in healthcare, the public sector, and property services. We fight for a Vision for a Just Society where all workers are valued and all people respected, no matter where we come from or what color we are. We are an anti‑racist union determined to check corporate power and uproot structural racism through unions, worker power, collective action, and government, legislative, and political action.

Purpose

The Chief Communications Strategist provides executive leadership for SEIU’s transformation into a modern, digitally fluent, and culturally resonant communications operation that builds political power, shapes public narratives, and centers workers’ voices.

Primary Responsibilities

• Develop and execute comprehensive communications strategies that advance SEIU’s campaigns, organizational goals, and political priorities.

• Serve as a core member of SEIU’s leadership, translating the vision of the Chief of Staff and Design Committee into clear, executable communications priorities.

• Lead the modernization of SEIU’s communications infrastructure, including transition to video‑first production, enhanced digital capacity, creative standards, and data‑informed decision‑making.

• Support organizational change management, ensuring communications capacity aligns with organizing, political, and campaign priorities and functions coherently across the union.

• Establish innovation frameworks that encourage creative experimentation, cultural relevance, and rapid iteration while maintaining message discipline, accountability, and strategic coherence.

• Oversee press, media relations, and external communications, ensuring consistent, values‑aligned, and strategically targeted messaging across traditional and emerging platforms.

Digital Strategy & Audience Development

• Build institutional capacity for video production and creative content, including studio infrastructure, production standards, talent development, and training systems that position SEIU as a video‑first organization.

• Lead comprehensive digital strategy across owned, earned, and paid channels, prioritizing audience ownership, engagement, and long‑term movement‑building rather than reliance on traditional media intermediaries.

• Integrate research, data analytics, and audience insights into communications planning, establishing systems for message testing, content performance tracking, and impact measurement.

• Expand narrative reach beyond core membership to include potential members, younger workers, culturally influential communities, diverse geographies, and values‑aligned publics.

• Craft compelling narratives grounded in race‑class analysis that center workers’ lived experiences, advance SEIU’s values, influence public debate, and articulate a bold vision for a just society.

• Embed racial equity and justice into all communications strategies, practices, narratives, and team culture, advancing SEIU’s commitment to becoming an anti‑racist organization.

• Ensure message discipline across decentralized operations empowering authentic, member‑led storytelling within shared strategic narratives.

• Lead crisis communications planning and rapid response operations with clarity, humanity, and political acuity, protecting marginalized communities while maintaining strategic focus.

• Monitor media trends, cultural shifts, political developments, and public opinion to inform proactive strategy and anticipate narrative opportunities and threats.

Cross‑Functional Integration & Partnership

• Partner with hub directors, organizing leaders, and political teams to integrate communications into union‑wide initiatives from inception, ensuring communications functions as a strategic driver rather than tactical support.

• Collaborate across communications, digital, organizing, research, and political functions to break down silos and create integrated, efficient workflows.

• Serve as a strategic advisor to senior leaders, helping frame decisions, anticipate narrative implications, and align…