Managing Director, Communications

Job Description

Reports To: Chief Operating Officer

Direct Reports: Manages a Team of 3-4

Location: Onsite 4 days/week; Washington, DC or San Juan, PR

About Flamboyan Foundation

Guided by the belief that all children deserve the opportunity to live a fulfilling life, the Flamboyan Foundation works to ensure every child in the US and Puerto Rico receives an outstanding education. In Puerto Rico, we are focused on improving reading proficiency for students in the early grades and revitalizing the island by making strategic investments in arts, culture, and education. Our work in Washington, D.C. centers on strengthening family engagement in schools and school systems across the country through trainings, fellowships, and school- based partnerships.

Role Overview

Please note that this role requires full bilingual proficiency in English and Spanish. Candidates will be asked to demonstrate oral and written proficiency in both languages throughout the course of the interview process.

The Managing Director (MD), Communications leads the execution of Flamboyan’s digital-first communication strategy, ensuring high-quality, consistent and timely delivery across all channels. This role manages a small communications team and is responsible for turning organizational priorities, programmatic work, and leadership perspectives into compelling, audience-centered content that advances Flamboyan’s priorities in Washington, DC, Puerto Rico, and across the country. The MD works to grow Flamboyan’s profile and expands engagement efforts by strengthening the local and national brand and broadening the visibility of Flamboyan’s impact. The Managing Director ensures that our external communications priorities are equity-driven, strategically coordinated, reflective of local context in both Washington, DC and Puerto Rico, expansive in their reach to existing and potential partners, and align with Flamboyan’s organizational strategic priorities and influence strategy.

The MD, Communications is a hands-on people manager and operational leader who knows how to build systems, manage workflows, and monitor accountability to ensure that communications plans meet high standards of excellence. The MD, Communications will collaborate with team leads across both offices to help create a cohesive, digital first communications approach to promote the impact of our work in Washington, DC, Puerto Rico, and influence stakeholders across the country. This role is responsible for growing social media reach for the organization, including advancement of Flamboyan’s executive thought leadership in the fields of education, early literacy, family engagement, and philanthropy. The MD will partner with stakeholders across the organization to cultivate productive relationships and execute communications and marketing priorities across internal teams. While the role closely collaborates with senior leaders, the primary focus of the MD is on delivery, coordinator, and execution of Flamboyan’s digital-first strategy.

Job Responsibilities

Digital First Communications Execution

• Develop and oversee the implementation of a comprehensive social media and digital communications presence for Flamboyan aligned at reaching our educator and partner audiences grounded in Flamboyan’s core values.
• Ensure execution of social media campaigns that are timely, targeted to appropriate audiences, and tied to program milestones and initiatives.
• Translate data and programmatic work into compelling storytelling to expand the reach and impact of the organization, locally and nationally, including producing platform-appropriate content.
• Oversee all content creation, review, and publishing workflows.
• Lead efforts to publicly convey our story of impact, particularly for students most affected by systems of inequity, and ensuring it is amplified and leveraged widely.
• Monitor performance metrics (reach, engagement, growth) and adjust execution tactics as needed.

Communications Operations

• Lead the day-to-day operations of Flamboyan’s communications function across both regions, including planning and overseeing the execution of the communications editorial calendar.
• Build and maintain systems for planning, tracking, and delivering communications in partnership with the Director, Communications Operations.
• Proactively plan and implement end-to-end workflows for all digital content
• Oversee the Communications budget, delivering communication and marketing initiatives within established budgets and identifying opportunities to reduce spending or increase value at all times.

Executive Communications Support

• Ensure social media and digital communications plans for Flamboyan’s executive leadership are developed and implemented, including drafting, scheduling, and publishing content.
• Develop talking points and supporting materials for external events such as webinars, panels, and speaking engagements.
• Partner with senior leaders to ensure messaging is clear, consistent, and aligned with organizational priorities.

People Management & Team Leadership

• Manage, coach, and support a team of 3-4 communications professionals and contractors (as needed) to help deliver high-quality communications deliverables on deadline.
• Maintain a strong understanding of best practices, key trends, and industry changes in the digital communications space to help inform future communication strategies.
• Track and report out on annual measurable success metrics for Flamboyan’s communications strategy in partnership with regional Senior Managing Directors of program.
• Improve workflows, tools, and processes to increase efficiency, quality, and consistency of communications outputs.
• Foster a collaborative, accountable team culture aligned with Flamboyan’s values.

Organizational Stewardship

• Serve as an ambassador for Flamboyan’s organizational brand.
• Model and foster the Flamboyan core values of People, Impact, Catalytic Action, and Equity
• Responsibly steward financial and human resources
• Continuously deepen your expertise and readiness to be an equity-centered team member and contributor in our programmatic efforts, self-awareness, inclusivity in your work, and serve as an agent of change for Flamboyan.
• Other duties as assigned.

Organizational Equity + Culture Responsibilities

In addition to the responsibilities of the role detailed above, as a member of the Flamboyan team, you will be expected to carry high standards, contribute to a positive workplace culture, and exercise a deep and active commitment to equity and inclusion. As a member of the staff, you will be expected to:

Self Awareness + Maturity

• Carry a strong sense of your authentic self.
• Carry high self-efficacy and ownership of goals.
• Acknowledge and correct mistakes without ego.
• Maintain a willingness to learn and grow.
• Understand where your strength and growth areas are.
• Manage upward proactively and with confidence.
• Be discrete and trustworthy, able to handle confidential information with care and grace.
• Have high emotional intelligence and be able to navigate nuance.

Anti-Racists + Bias Competence

• Actionably live your commitment to social justice.
• Confidently speak openly and courageously about your own equity journey.
• Be willing to confront your own biases and hold yourself accountable for disrupting them.
• Ask who is not at the table.
• Build time into projects to prioritize the voices that are not historically heard or valued.

Collaboration + Influence

• Be a skilled collaborator and look for ways to include internal and external stakeholders in your work.
• Know how to get results by leveraging the power of your expertise and informal authority to influence internal and external stakeholders, and discern which to use, and when.

Qualifications + Interview Process

• Bachelor’s degree in strategic communications, marketing, or public affairs
• 5-7+ years of related professional experience in communications, marketing, or digital media
• 1-3 years of people management or team-lead experience, either formal or informal
• Fully bilingual in Spanish and English (written and spoken)
• Proven ability to execute digital communications plans across multiple channels.
• Experience building highly engaging owned media platforms
• Track record of developing strong, collaborative partnerships with colleagues
• Excellent writing and presentation skills, experience developing and delivering external presentations
• Proven ability to break down silos and promote cross-functional communication and collaboration
• Fluency in digital communication platforms such as SproutSocial, Cision, Meta Business Suite, etc.

Candidates can anticipate a multi-step interview process that will include opportunities to demonstrate oral and written proficiency in both languages.

Compensation

The starting salary range for the Managing Director, Communications role is $91,000 - $125,970. At Flamboyan, our starting salaries are based on four beliefs: we are competitive, we maintain internal equity across functions, there is room to develop, and salaries are aligned with the market. We avoid negotiating starting salaries to create equity across our team, and we set our salaries in such a way that staff can increase their compensation as they develop over time within their role.

Total rewards include an excellent benefit package including employer-sponsored health, dental, vision, life, and disability insurance, Employee Assistance Program (EAP), access to FSA and HSA plans, a retirement plan that includes employer matching, and a generous paid-time-off policy.

Work Location + Schedule

• This position is based out of either our Washington, DC office or our San Juan, Puerto Rico office. All staff are required to live a commutable distance to our offices located at 1730 Massachusetts Avenue, NW (if based in Washington, DC) or 800 Avenida Roberto H Todd, San Juan, PR (if based in San Juan, PR) .
• Flamboyan has a hybrid work schedule which is 4-days in the office (Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday) and 1-day remote (Wednesday) each week along with 1 fully remote week quarterly. Our in-person workplace design is based on our belief that being physically present with colleagues internally and partners externally is essential to building relationships and optimizing our ability to achieve our individual and collective goals.
• Local and national travel may be necessary.