Salary: $105,000.00 - $111,936.00 Annually
Location : Thurston County - Olympia, WA
Job Type: Full Time - Permanent
Job Number: 2026-DIR-COM-001
Department: Dept. of Enterprise Services
Division: Director's Office - Communications Program
Opening Date: 09/18/2026
Closing Date: Continuous

Description
Public Affairs Manager

WMS BAND 1
NOTE: The hiring authority reserves the right to offer the position at any time after the required posting period, and during the recruitment process. It is to the applicant's advantage to apply as early as possible.

The position's assigned duty workstation is located at: 1500 Jefferson St. Olympia, WA.

This position is eligible for hybrid work with most daily work remote but must be able to come to the Olympia location on an as needed basis. This position requires the incumbent to be available on evenings and weekends to support the communication, public relations, and emergency response needs of the agency.

Public Affairs Manager is a trusted and confidential advisor on matters related to the public affairs and media relations activities of the agency to the communications director, division staff and leadership, and by extension the agency cabinet. This position manages the Public Affairs team that plans, implements, and measures the agency's public affairs and media relation activities. This position is a member of the Communications leadership team and helps inform communications policy. This role reports directly to the Communications Director.

For more information about this position, email the recruiter: Rachel Vaughan by emailing [email protected] and request the full job description.
Duties

Responsibilities associated with this position include:
Public Affairs

• Ensures public communication strategies and content are audience-driven, effective, build agency reputation, and support agency mission and strategic goals.
• Enhances the public awareness of DES through outreach and education efforts; including agency operations, sensitive public issues, agency and state projects, and policies, laws, and rules.
• Supports internal communications as part of public communication campaigns.
• Proactively finds and develops public communication strategies that build DES' brand and convey the value DES brings to the state.
• Finds issues of reputational risk and advises leadership on appropriate communication strategies.
• Provides tools and resources to other Communication teams to ensure aligned strategies and messaging.

Media Relations

• Manages agency media relation activities.
• Monitors and maintains relationships with news media.
• Consults with Governor's Office on media strategy and activities.
• Manages process for media monitoring, assessment, and archiving.
• Influences and directs agency media relations strategy.
• Serves as a lead agency spokesperson.
• Ensures support standards.

Crisis Communications

• Provides daily management of the agency's crisis communications plan.
• Ensures ongoing training to ensure Communications team and partners understand crisis communications plan.
• Serves as a lead on-call public information officer (PIO); manages PIO duty rotation during crisis response.

Lead Public Affairs team

• Supervises and directs work of Public Affairs team.
• Provides daily management, leadership, decision-making, coaching, issue escalation and resolution.
• Sets and measures team performance standards, connected to division and agency strategic goals.
• Manages and develops employee performance.

Leadership

• Contributes as member of Communications leadership team.
• Contributes to agency and statewide efforts.
• Assesses impacts and provides analysis.
• Informs Communications policy development.
• Provides cross-coverage for leadership absences.

Qualifications

Required Qualification/Experience/Education/ Competencies
To qualify for this position, you must have a total of five (5) years of any combination of qualifying education or qualifying experience. Experience may substitute year for year of higher education. Please note that supervisory experience does not count towards the required five (5) years of professional communication experience.

Here are ways to meet the qualifications for this position:
(OPTION 1)
Five (5) years of professional experience in communications, public information, journalism, public relations, marketing, or closely related field;
AND
Two (2) years of supervisory experience.

(OPTION 2)
Bachelor's degree with major study in English, communications, public information, journalism, public relations, advertising, marketing, or a closely related field;
AND
One year of professional experience in communications, public information, journalism, public relations, marketing, or closely related field;
AND
Three (2) years of supervisory experience.

(OPTION 3)
I meet with qualifications other than the above listed.

In addition to meeting with one of the above options, qualified candidates must possess the following professional experience:

• Leading or supervising others.
• Providing expert strategic advice to leaders and peers.
• Developing and carrying out effective communication and outreach plans, including outreach and engagement, media relations, and public education.
• Providing clear direction, performance expectations, timely feedback, and coaching.
• Deciding and measuring effective tactics using performance data.
• Ability to lead through a highly complex process of communication strategies, consensus building, and issue resolution to lead to successful outcomes.
• Ability to manage multiple conflicting priorities and quickly adjust to a changing environment.
• Ability to navigate complex and technical subject matter and quickly acquire specific sets of subject matter expertise.
• Building collaborative partnerships throughout an organization and with external interested parties.
• Experience coaching and advising top-level management on messaging and presentation delivery.
• Advising top management of audience impacts from public policy decisions.
• Producing and reviewing written, verbal, and visual communication materials for a variety of audiences to meet brand, quality, readability, and accessibility guidelines.
• Experience creating, editing, writing, and delivering effective presentations to diverse audiences in a high profile, public setting.

Preferred/Desired Education and Experience:

• Demonstrated ability to write and edit to meet the standards of the Associated Press style guide.
• Experience supporting or leading legislative and policy analysis, development, and implementation.
• Familiarity with FEMA National Disaster & Emergency Management framework and public information officer (PIO) basics.
• Experience in crisis or emergency incident situations.
• Accredited in Public Relations designation (APR).
• Familiarity with user-centered design, graphic design, web content and management principles.

Required position competencies:

• Communication and interaction with interested communities:
• Group facilitation skills necessary to lead productive and efficient discussion.
• Communication skills necessary to effectively share knowledge with diverse audiences including coworkers, contractors, customers, and special-interest communities to foster informed decision-making.
• Ability to work with staff at all levels to receive feedback and buy-in on communication materials.
• Demonstrated ability to work with external partners and communities and within the political environment (media, state agencies, vendors, and private-sector parties).

Leadership and decision-making:

• Demonstrated ability to work effectively within the public arena through effective interested community and partner interactions, interagency teamwork, and sensitivity to public attitudes and concerns.
• Demonstrated ability to function in an environment that requires concurrent management of multiple complex activities, flexible work hours, tight timelines, frequent periods of high stress, and resource limitations due to being a public-sector program funded by tax dollars.

Leadership and management:

• Demonstrated ability to form and lead a cohesive team in an environment necessary to develop a broad base of institutional knowledge and opportunities for internal career advancement.
• Leadership skills necessary to guide and inform others in a manner that enables them to reach successful completion while keeping ownership of their assigned responsibilities.

Equity Competencies:
State of Washington Employees contribute to ensuring services, programs, workplaces, and interactions are responsive, respectful, accessible, and effective to the people and communities we serve. Employees are expected to:

• Take action to learn and Grow: Demonstrate a willingness to learn from new experiences, seek feedback, consider different perspectives, and continuously improve knowledge, skills, communication, and approaches to work.
• Take action to meet the needs of others: Seek to understand the needs and experiences of customers, coworkers, and communities. Identify barriers to access and participation and address them before they become obstacles for the people we serve, providing support that is respectful, timely, and effective.

Leadership competencies
Incumbents at DES in a supervisory or leadership position must show the following Washington State Enterprise Leadership Competencies:

• Models and champions our culture and values
• Cultivates a shared, strategic vision
• Develops people; drives results
• Fosters learning
• Builds relationships
• Fosters teamwork and collaboration
• Communicates effectively
• Makes things happen as a public servant
• Leads and navigates change
• Embraces and embeds inclusion in decision making.

Read the full Washington State Enterprise Leadership Competencie (PDF document).

Communication Competencies:
To build the culture we want to see in our division, all Communications staff commit to upholding the following
competencies:

• Clarity: We are honest and upfront about our needs and expectations. "Clear is kind. Unclear is unkind."
• Collaboration: We stay curious and listen to learn. We understand our strengths complement each other, and we are working toward a common purpose.
• Growth: We approach each moment as an opportunity to develop our abilities, encouraging curiosity and a love of learning, and evaluating failures and mistakes without shame.
• Accountability: We do what we say, we own our mistakes, and we take steps to do better.
• Empowerment: We take ownership of our work and contribute to meaningful decision-making.
• Respect: We value the qualities, skills and experience of the "whole person" for all our team members.
• Empathy: We extend the most generous interpretation possible to the intentions, words, and actions of others. We are curious and brave when a colleague is behaving in a way that is perplexing or not typical for them. We meet people where they are.
• Courage: We have tough conversations, take risks, and are vulnerable with each other, even when the outcome is uncertain.
• FUN: We are intentional to celebrate, play, and find joy together. We take time to connect to other team members in such a way that allows for laughter and shared humor.

Supplemental Information
Special Requirements / Condition of Employment
Due to the nature of the position, the incumbent must be able to travel to Washington's Capitol Campus at any time when on-duty or on-call.

How to Apply: Interested? We would love to hear from you! Click "Apply" at the top of this page to start your application. You can save the application and come back to it, if needed. Be sure to complete the application fully to include a full work history and responses to the supplemental questions.

Please provide the following documents in order to be considered; failure to do so may result in you not being considered for the positio