Public Relations Professional

Under the direction of the area communication & publishing director and the area manager of public relations, the public relations professional supports the effort to build relationships of mutual understanding with leaders, influencers, and organizations to help the area presidency and Church leaders across the area. The professional accomplishes this by:

• Supporting the efforts to define the relationship building portion of the communication strategy, including plans to establish relationships with people, communities, and organizations to help achieve area priorities and the mission of the Church.
• Assisting in the effort to establish and strengthen the reputation of the Church and promoting religious freedom.
• Creating activities and events focused on connecting Church leaders across the area with key opinion leaders to lift and bless this area of the world.
• May lead out in the effort to build relationships in a region or a country in the area.

This is a career level professional role.

• Assist the effort to develop the outreach portion of the communication strategy that will build, maintain, and strengthen critical relationships with government, interfaith, media, and community leaders and their staff at national and local levels:
  • Support the effort to establish relationships between key opinion leaders and Church leaders that align with the priorities of the First Presidency and the area presidency (such as strengthening families and youth or protecting religious freedom).
  • Together with the area manager of public relations, develop, maintain, and prioritize a list of key contacts across the area with whom the Church should seek to build and maintain relationships of mutual understanding.
  • Assure that relevant and appropriate materials and gifts are available for high-level meetings.
  • Assure that all interactions are captured in the CONNECT Customer Relations Management (CRM) tool to assure clarity in communication as well as an accurate history of interactions while assuring adherence to data privacy laws.
  • Assist in training national and local communication councils to build, maintain, and record outreach efforts.
  • Assure that the necessary permissions to visit with heads of state are received from Church headquarters well in advance of outreach visits.
• Manage the effort to monitor and report key issues related to religious freedom or other legislative matters across the area. This should be done in close collaboration with the area legal counsel, director for temporal affairs, and partners such as the International Center for Law and Religion Studies at Brigham Young University:
  • Help identify key opinion leaders for the annual International Law and Religion Symposium or regional religious freedom symposia together with the area legal counsel to propose to the area presidency.
  • Assist in organizing religious freedom or other relevant events together with other organizations to build and continuously strengthen key relationships.
  • Help inform leaders and influencers on relevant key issues.
  • Help communication councils develop a prioritized list of key journalists.
  • Work closely with HQ to assure messaging alignment on global issues.
  • Provide spokesperson training to councils and Church leaders and develop relevant speaking points that align with the overall global and area communication plan.
  • Ensure outreach interactions are recorded in the CRM customer relations database.
• Serve as a point of contact for some national or coordination council communication councils, based on the size and needs of the area
• Lead the development of materials used in public affairs efforts, together with the public affairs and production teams, including:
  • Press releases, news and feature articles, position papers, training materials, speeches, etc.
  • Responses to journalists, newspapers, magazines, radio, television, inquiries.
  • News and feature stories for release to the worldwide media.
  • Research and evaluation for pre- and post-public relations initiatives.
  • Reviews/analyzes social, political, and economic trends.
  • Develops materials to train priesthood leaders, public affairs directors, and missionaries.
  • Develops crisis management plans

Required:

• Must be an active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and worthy of a temple recommend.
• Bachelor's degree or equivalent post-secondary education/certificate in a communication-related field (i.e., public relations, communications, journalism, marketing, government relations, international relations, political science, social science).
• 4 years of public relations experience.
  • A combination of education and experience for a total of 8 years may be considered.
• Experience in executing strategic outreach plans.
• Strong experience with a wide variety of communication channels.
• Ability to think critically and solve problems.
• Experience utilizing research methods and strategies to address practical problems.
• Excellent writing and editing skills in the local language (Professional Verbal and Written English competencies will be added advantage)
• Ability to function in a team setting and collaborate with other members of the area team.
• Competency in the use of technology, including the Microsoft Office product suite.
• Willingness and demonstrated ability to collaborate with others in a team environment.
• Should be an active driver with a valid driver's license.
• Should have a valid passport and be willing to travel.

Preferred:

• Master's degree.
• Advanced level English skills.