Position: Content and Engagement Director (Full Time, Remote)
Organization: civicIQ
Reports to: VP of Community Engagement, Dana Schultz
Direct Reports: TBD
Location: Full-time, 100% remote position in the United States (from home or co-working space) with occasional travel once every 2-3 months
COVID-19: We take Covid-19 safety very seriously. Employees must follow our Covid safety protocols and be fully vaccinated and boosted. Accommodations are provided to the extent required by law. For employees based in the state of Florida and Texas, the COVID-19 vaccine is encouraged but not required due to Florida and Texas state laws.
About civicIQ
To decarbonize at scale and address the urgency of the climate crisis with action we must rapidly build clean energy infrastructure in rural America, with the backing of the communities who live there. civicIQ is a nonprofit founded to accelerate the clean energy transition by helping renewable energy projects succeed in two critical locations: the hearts and minds of their host communities. We build real, lasting local support, inspired by community organizing principles, rooted in hard data, fueled by direct human connection, and designed to move clean energy projects forward. We help developers succeed— community by community— in order to protect a future where our kids and future generations can thrive by replacing fossil fuels with clean energy infrastructure. We also work strategically with media partners to shift America’s clean energy story and the champions who define it to create the social license we’ll need to transition off of fossil fuels before it’s too late.
civicIQ is a digital media venture within Accelerate Change (AC), which is a nonprofit media lab dedicated to catalyzing new scalable and sustainable digital media models for citizen engagement. See “The Secret of Scale” for more on AC’s model for scalable citizen organizing read and see “The Promise of Lean Experimentation” for AC’s approach to experimentation using Lean Startup methodologies and other business strategies, both from the Stanford Social Innovation Review.
About the Position
civicIQ is seeking a Content and Engagement Director to design and lead our digital content strategy that educates and mobilizes supporters for clean energy projects—including solar, wind, transmission, battery storage, and community benefits. This is a role for a strategic thinker and detail-oriented doer who’s excited to build systems, collaborate across departments, and craft high-impact content that drives public action in rural communities.
You’ll shape narrative and testing strategy alongside the VP of Community Engagement, with significant autonomy over content creation, experimentation, and platform execution. This is a chance to influence how hundreds of thousands of people across the U.S. learn about and take action for clean energy.
The ideal candidate is a storyteller, strategist, and systems builder—someone who understands how to move people from curiosity to conviction to action. You might come from a background in digital organizing, creative strategy, clean energy advocacy, grassroots communications, or content marketing—and be eager to stretch across all of them.
Here’s what you could expect to do as Content and Engagement Director (key responsibilities):
Content System Design and Execution:
Content Creation: Create and publish multimedia content including copy, GIFs, visuals, and short-form videos. This includes writing, editing, and directing high-quality, engaging content across SMS, email, video, and social, for a rural audience. Build and manage a repeatable content calendar across SMS, email, Facebook Messenger, and organic digital platforms.
Strategic & Systems Thinking: Build a content system and spot high-leverage points to improve performance. Develop and test “evergreen” flows, content pillars and high-performing templates to streamline operations.
Audience Research and Testing:
Launch High-Impact tests: Design and run A/B and multivariate tests across platforms to increase engagement and drive conversion.
Results Orientation: Deliver on outcomes; learn quickly from what works and what doesn’t. Extract actionable insights to iterate on strategy and inform messaging.
Analytical Curiosity: Eager to test ideas, study what others are doing, and adapt creative strategies.
Campaign Activation:
Multi-campaign Management: Coordinate content across 10–12 high-leverage campaigns each year, including petitions, story shares, comment collection, and other calls to action at the local and state level.
Activating Content: Craft content that not only informs and inspires but also moves supporters to take meaningful, real-world action—such as making phone calls, attending public hearings, submitting public comments, or engaging with local stakeholders.
Campaign Optimization: Strategically time and tailor these messages for optimal response and impact.
Project Management: Stay on top of deadlines, coordinate with internal and external collaborators, and deliver consistently.
External Partnerships and Landscape Scanning:
Partnership Oriented Approach: Work with allied organizations (e.g., Accelerate Change, Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, Rural Climate Partnership, Clean Grid Alliance) to adapt emerging best practices and cross-promote high-performing content.
Trend-spotter: Monitor communications trends in clean energy and local campaigns to keep our strategy fresh and responsive.
Collaborate: Co-create or adapt content with local partners, grassroots organizers, and stakeholders to ensure cultural and geographic relevance, and to amplify local voices in ways that strengthen campaign credibility and trust.
Cross-Team Collaboration:
Strategic Collaborator: Partner with civicIQ’s ads team, organizing team, data and tech team to align content with tests, target audiences, and campaign moments.
Clear and Goal-driven Messaging: Ensure messaging is clear, cohesive, and supports both engagement and project goals.
Mission Alignment: Deep interest in local clean energy solutions and empowering communities to lead the transition.
We’ll also look for the Content and Engagement Director to:
TBD. As part of a rapidly growing organization, you’ll need to embrace change and that your responsibilities will shift over time. Pitching in to help with the needs of your department and the overall Central Team is an important part of your role.
Help advance our goal of becoming an anti-racist organization. Within your role, apply equitable work practices, challenge white supremacy, and help make our programs more inclusive. Center our understanding that multiple systems of oppression intersect with racism and be an active part of our values work.
Take an entrepreneurial approach to their work and learning new skills. In our fast-paced, unstructured environment, we love it when staff first try to figure things out on their own and then ask for help if they’re stuck.
Seek out opportunities to deepen their skills on current/emerging platforms and with lean startup methodology. We take an individualized approach to growth where staff have the chance to explore and propose development opportunities that align with their interests and the team’s priorities.
What We’re Looking For
Commitment to social change. civicIQ is a mission-driven organization focused on social change and social justice. You have a demonstrated commitment to this work and you’d like to be part of a team of people who do, too. You believe in clean energy, local community power, and bringing more honesty and intelligence into how we communicate with the public.
3+ years experience with key responsibilities: We’re looking for someone who has at least 3 years of experience with:
Managing cross-channel digital campaigns: Ideally across email, SMS, and paid social platforms, with an emphasis on driving measurable actions
Translating complex policy or infrastructure topics into simple, compelling narratives: Whether through short videos, explainers, visual content, or campaign copy
Content testing and performance analysis: Including designing A/B tests and drawing insights from platform analytics
Comfort working across multiple content formats: You feel comfortable creating content in multiple formats including short-form video, GIFs, carousel posts, audio clips, SMS scripts.
Background in mission-driven communications: Ideally with rural audiences, in climate, clean energy, civic engagement, or public interest work
Strong stakeholder management experience: You welcome collaboration with campaigners, designers, advertising specialists, and/or organizers to co-create content and adapt for different audiences.
Eager to work independently and as part of a remote team: You’re known as someone who gets things done and pays attention to detail. You prefer a mix of working independently to complete your tasks and checking in with colleagues and your direct reports from diverse backgrounds. You’d be comfortable working remotely with team members based all over the country and you’re no stranger to video calls.
Proactive, learning mindset: You have a bias for action, deep curiosity, and a love of experimenting to find what works.
Eager to further develop editing skills: Hands-on experience with video editing tools and content production software (e.g., CapCut, Adobe, Canva animations) is a plus.
Contractor and influencer relationship management: Experience managing freelancers, recruiting and managing microinfluencers or temporary talent is a plus.
Benefits
$75,000-$84,000 salary range, with exact salary depending on experience and new staff rarely starting at the top of the range.
Flexibility for work and life: Unlike a lot of places, we actually believe that people should only work 40 hours each week, except for occasional sprints that require more time in a week. We also trust everyone to make a schedule that works for them, as long as you’re able to join all necessary meetings. Want to work more one day and less the next? Fine by us. Work better in the middle of the night than during the afternoon? Go for it. Need to shift your hours to be able to pick up your kid from school? All good.
Health care at the beginning of your employment with individual premiums fully covered and cost-share for dependents. Vision and dental plans are available at-cost to the individual.
15 paid vacation days, 6 paid holidays, 3 paid floating holidays each year and 7.5 paid sick days each year
Professional development funds, with renewal of funds each fiscal year
Cell phone and internet reimbursement (or co-working reimbursement): We acknowledge that working from home requires using your own internet and phone for work purposes so we offer a set reimbursement amount for cell phone and internet usage. If working from home isn’t for you, we also have the option for folks to rent a co-working space and get reimbursed for their monthly costs.
Need-based educational loan assistance after 3 months
401K contributions and matching program available at the beginning of your employment
Annual office closure during the last week in December
Apply
To apply, please upload your resume and tell us more about your experience on the application on our website.
civicIQ is incubated by Accelerate Change; Accelerate Change is an equal opportunity employer. We believe that people of color, people from working class backgrounds, women, and LGBTQIA+ people must be centered in the work we do. Hence, we strongly encourage applications from people with these identities or who are members of other marginalized communities.
