Communications Coordinator

The Knight Science Journalism Program at MIT runs several programs, including its premier academic-year fellowship, to support science journalists around the world as they document and investigate the often-complex intersection of science, technology, and human culture. The KSJ program is housed in the Program in Science, Technology & Society, a division of the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences.

The communications coordinator serves as a storyteller for KSJ, developing social media content, implementing marketing and outreach campaigns for KSJ fellowship and awards programs, overseeing and writing items for the program’s webpages, maintaining and nurturing our alumni network, promoting, attending, and documenting KSJ events and trips, and building relationships both within and outside the Institute with the goal increasing audience awareness of KSJ and its role in science journalism.

Principal Duties and Responsibilities (Essential Functions):

1. Create and manage news content on the KSJ website, including creating write-ups of KSJ special programs, fellow profiles and Q&As, fellowship announcements, and other newsworthy events. Write, design, and implement external email communications, including a recurring newsletter. Maintain, nurture, and improve KSJ’s social media presence, including creating content, posts, and videos for social channels.
2. Oversee informational aspects of, and regularly maintain, KSJ websites and related pages.
3. Organize, oversee, and build up KSJ’s multimedia library for use on social media and KSJ websites, including capturing photography and video at KSJ events and field trips.
4. Monitor, interpret, and report on website and social media traffic analytics and use that data to improve KSJ’s marketing and promotional strategies.
5. Write, design, and implement external email communications, including a recurring newsletter and the Alumni Notes, a collation of the achievements of former KSJ fellows.
6. Design posters, cards, promotional materials, invitations, and curate email invitation lists for the program, its initiatives, and events. With the KSJ Strategic Event Specialist, help promote KSJ events, and assist during those events as needed.
7. Develop and maintain an up-to-date alumni database and email lists.
8. Cultivate relationships with and provide content for SHASS and other MIT communications offices to promote awareness of KSJ activities within the MIT community and beyond. Collaborate with KSJ team to advance relationships with science writing associations, journalism organizations, and other stakeholders in the science journalism community to increase KSJ outreach.

Supervision Received:

This position is supervised by the KSJ Associate Director, who will also serve to oversee and edit materials written by the communications coordinator. Position requires the ability to be highly organized, make autonomous decisions, think and act professionally and strategically, and perform functions independently.

Supervision Exercised:

No formal supervisory duties. The communications coordinator may work closely with interns. They may also manage contractors and freelancers for specialized content development as needed.

Qualifications & Skills:

MINIMUM REQUIRED EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE:

Bachelor’s degree with a minimum of three years work experience creating social media and marketing content across all media, including web, social media, email, and print; strong writing, editing, and storytelling skills with the ability to produce clean copy on deadlines; experience with social media content creation, monitoring, and analysis; strong graphic design skills; strong analytical, communications, and project-management skills, and a willingness to work in a flexible small team environment.

May be required to work on nights and weekends. Travel may also be required. This job is not eligible to be fully remote, but a hybrid schedule may be possible.

PREFERRED EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE:

Knowledge of and passion for science, health, environmental, or tech journalism is desirable; bachelor’s degree in journalism, communications, or science; experience planning and implementing social media strategies; prior experience within a journalism environment is highly desirable; a creative, enthusiastic, and innovative approach to work.

Experience with or ability to learn software platforms for: 

• Web development (e.g., WordPress) 
• Writing (e.g. Google Office Suite and Microsoft Word)
• Project management and organizing (e.g., Asana and Microsoft Excel) 
• Design (e.g., Adobe InDesign, Illustrator, and Photoshop) 
• Newsletter distribution and mailing (e.g., Mailchimp) 
• Customer relationship management (e.g., Salesforce) 
• Generative AI agents (e.g., Claude, Gemini, ChatGPT)
• Website and social media analytics (e.g. Google Analytics, Metricool)
• Website coding (e.g. HTML, CSS)

Employment is contingent upon the completion of a satisfactory background check.

Instructions for Applicants:

Applicants must apply through the MIT Human Resources online system: https://hr.mit.edu/jobs/search.

Applicants must upload to their application one (1) PDF that includes:

• a cover letter, addressed to Search Committee;
• a resume; and
• three (3) samples of previous journalistic or communications work or links to such work (news or feature stories, newsletters, video reels, social media posts, etc.).

Each finalist, chosen after a preliminary interview, will be asked to complete the same writing test with instructions and a set deadline provided by the search committee.