Senior Manager, Communication Strategy and Editorial

The Church Communication Department (CCD) seeks a strategic communication professional with exceptional writing capabilities to help shape, steward, and scale messaging for the global Church. This role translates enterprise priorities into clear message architecture, persuasive communication briefs, and actionable plans for departments, areas, and external partners.

The role carries a second, equally central charge: stewardship of the Church Communication Guide — its content, governance, use and integration, and training — and accountability for seeing its principles implemented throughout the global Church.

STRATEGIC FOCUS

The Senior Manager, Communication Strategy and Editorial leads communication strategy from planning through implementation: developing messaging frameworks and hierarchies, writing the briefs and talking points that guide others’ work, managing plans and approvals, and assessing outcomes against measurable objectives. The ideal candidate thinks strategically, writes with precision, and synthesizes research, audience insight, and leader direction into clear message hierarchies and delivery approaches.

STEWARDSHIP OF THE CHURCH COMMUNICATION GUIDE

The Church Communication Guide establishes the voice, tone, and design standards that allow the Church to speak with one voice across departments, areas, languages, and platforms. This role is responsible not only for what the Guide says, but for whether it is known, understood, used, and reflected in the communication the Church produces.

COLLABORATION AND ALIGNMENT

This role coordinates with team members to strengthen existing tools and processes and introduce new approaches where needed. It also works across departments and areas to articulate the organization’s core experience and communication principles, helping ensure that products, events, and communications consistently reflect the standards found in the Church Communication Guide.

PERSONAL ATTRIBUTES

This person is a skilled writer, listener, communicator, and leader who is faithful, positive, culturally competent, persistent, accountable, high-achieving, and entrepreneurial. The candidate demonstrates exceptional professional integrity, communicates clearly when sharing challenging or complex information with leaders and colleagues, and helps center every aspect of the work on Jesus Christ. Because this role teaches and represents the Church Communication Guide, the candidate’s own work must model its principles.

Messaging strategy and editorial

• Develop and maintain enterprise messaging frameworks and message hierarchies that unify communication across the organization.
• Write and refine high-quality communication briefs, message frameworks, talking points, and narratives that give departments, areas, and vendors a clear foundation for their work.
• Lead the planning and project management of enterprise communication plans — scope, timelines, milestones, approvals, and delivery — ensuring alignment with an integrated approach.
• As assigned, serve as primary collaborator and point of contact for departments, area offices, and external agencies; manage vendor engagements from briefing through quality review, holding work to strategy and standards.
• Define success measures with research and analytics partners; assess outcomes and translate findings into recommendations that strengthen future messaging.
• Counsel leaders and colleagues on messaging implications, risks, and opportunities, and contribute to employee understanding of enterprise communication initiatives and objectives.

Church Communication Guide

• Contribute to the development, use, and awareness of the Church Communication Guide that includes voice, tone, and design standards for the global Church.
• Understand, internalize, demonstrate, and promote the principles in the Church Communication Guide.
• Prepare and provide presentations and trainings, in-person and virtually, on the Church Communication Guide.
• Implement, measure, and refine awareness efforts for the Church Communication Guide.
• Oversee the Guide’s content, keeping its standards accurate, current, doctrinally sound, and clearly written for a global audience.
• Administer governance of the Guide — how revisions are proposed, reviewed, approved, and versioned — and serve as a resource on interpreting and applying it.
• Build the Guide into enterprise briefing, creation, review, and approval processes, partnering with departments, area offices, and localization teams so its principles are implemented throughout the global Church.
• Develop training curriculum and reference resources, and establish measures of awareness, adoption, and alignment that inform refinement of the Guide and its training.

• Minimum seven years of communication experience, including large-scale projects in the communication, branding, or marketing fields.
• Minimum seven years of strategic planning for or within a complex organization, including working in a senior, supervising role.
• Demonstrated experience developing messaging strategy for a multi-audience, multi-platform organization.
• Exceptional writing experience, including the ability to draft, edit, and refine strategic messaging, executive communications, briefs, talking points, and public-facing materials for diverse audiences.
• Demonstrated experience managing complex projects and external agencies or vendors from brief through delivery.
• Demonstrated experience owning or governing a brand, voice, or communication standards resource for a large organization, and delivering training on standards to distributed audiences.
• Bachelor’s degree in public relations, communications, business, branding, advertising, marketing, or related field (or equivalent experience); master’s degree in a related field preferred.

DEMONSTRATED SKILLS & ABILITIES

• Exceptional writing, editing, verbal communication, and presentation skills, with the ability to make complex ideas clear, concise, persuasive, and aligned with audience needs.
• Skilled at building message architecture and maintaining consistency across audiences, cultures, and platforms.
• Strong project management and collaborative skills; able to plan, sequence, track, and drive work to completion across departments, areas, and vendors.
• Adept at articulating awareness vision and including all stakeholders in achieving it.
• Able to hold work to a standard with candor and goodwill, giving direct feedback on alignment without discouraging the people doing the work.
• Analytical and adaptable; comfortable using data to guide decisions, manage competing priorities, and work in ambiguous situations.