Project Specialist, Communications

We are seeking a Communications Project Specialist to join the Foundation in its mission of benefitting, supporting, and enhancing the California Community Colleges—the largest and most diverse system of higher education in the nation. The Foundation for California Community Colleges is on a mission to double its impact in the next 10 years. We are a group of relentless optimists and innovators in education, working collaboratively with public and private partners to help improve the student experience and expand pathways to economic and social mobility in communities across California.

What You’ll Do

The Communications Project Specialist is a strategic communications professional who supports the planning, development, and rollout of statewide initiatives and high-profile projects. This role is ideal for someone with strong skills in project planning, message development, stakeholder engagement, writing, and editing.

Serving as a communications connector across initiatives, this role helps organize and align messaging tied to California Community Colleges priorities in student success, workforce development, and equity. The Communications Project Specialist builds productive relationships with internal partners and initiative leads, supports coordinated communications planning, and helps translate complex work into clear, effective messaging for a range of audiences.

• Support the development and rollout of communications strategies for statewide initiatives, projects, and related efforts.
• Draft, edit, and refine messaging materials for internal and external audiences.
• Help develop communication plans, talking points, announcements, briefing materials, and stakeholder updates.
• Serve as a day-to-day communications liaison, helping align messaging, timelines, and priorities across multiple efforts.
• Coordinate communications support across multiple concurrent projects and initiatives.
• Track timelines, deliverables, milestones, and dependencies to help keep communications work moving forward.
• Support communications needs across the Communications and Marketing Services portfolio as assigned.

Attributes for Success

• Bachelor’s degree in Communications, Public Relations, Marketing, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
• 5 years of experience in communications, stakeholder engagement, public affairs, project communications, or a related field.
• Ability to support strategic communications planning and message development across multiple audiences and projects.
• Experience developing stakeholder-facing communications materials, including briefings, talking points, presentations, and rollout materials.
• Strong project coordination skills, including the ability to manage deadlines, details, and competing priorities.
• Demonstrated experience in writing, editing, message development, and project support.
• We’re recruiting for mission-driven, passionate, equity-minded individuals with a strong desire to impact and change people’s lives for the better
• Our work holds great weight and responsibility, and the opportunity to impact the lives of millions
• Innovation, creativity, collaboration, and entrepreneurship are encouraged as employees work to achieve organizational goals
• FoundationCCC blends the impact of a non-profit, the culture of an entrepreneurial start-up, and the scale of a state agency
• Team members are hired for their expertise in niche areas across our areas of impact and higher education overall, and for their knowledge of business, philanthropy, technology, communications, and more
• We have a commitment to professional development and an emphasis on shared leadership, to ensure growth for employees and the organization overall

What we Offer

FoundationCCC is fully committed to a “remote-first” philosophy, and recruits and hires talent across the state in fully remote positions, where virtual work is possible. Our headquarters are located in Downtown Sacramento, just blocks from California’s State Capitol.

Benefits

• Competitive compensation, generous PTO, holidays
• Medical, dental, and vision plans, Flexible Spending Accounts, and Health Savings Accounts (HSA), Employee Assistance Program (EAP), and Wellness offerings
• CalPERS retirement program and optional 403(b) and 457 Retirement plans
• Tuition reimbursement
• Public Service Loan Forgiveness certified employer

If you have any questions, please email us at jobs@foundationccc.org.

Budgeted Annual Salary Pay Range:

$70,000.00 - $75,000.00

Final salary and rates are based on education, experience, skills relevant to the role, and internal equity.