Communications Manager

**Join one of Victoria's leading not for profits and be a part of something big**

**Competitive Salary + Tax reducing salary package**

**Full time | Ongoing Role | Location: Box Hill | Monday to Friday**

**About St Vincent de Paul Society**

For more than 170 years we have been providing practical and compassionate support to people across Victoria whose daily struggles can include putting food on the table, paying essential utilities and ensuring their children remain at school to obtain an education.

Our organisation provides many services and programs, including soup vans, education programs, home visitation programs and VincentCare Victoria (VCV), which assist some of Victoria’s most vulnerable communities, such as people experiencing homelessness, the housing crisis and family violence and the elderly.

**Little bit about the role**

The Communications Manager is responsible for shaping the voice, reputation and public positioning of the St Vincent de Paul Society Victoria Group. The role builds awareness, advocacy, trust and support for our mission, while amplifying the impact of our programs and services. It operates at both a strategic and operational level, delivering clear, consistent messaging across the organisation. The role works across multiple sectors and closely with the Government Relations Manager to drive our advocacy program.

**Your responsibilities**
- Lead the development and delivery of organisation-wide communications strategies to support service delivery, advocacy, fundraising, retail and community engagement, while providing strategic advice to senior leaders and tracking team performance.
- Lead crisis communications and issues management by proactively monitoring risks, developing mitigation strategies, overseeing communications during critical events and collaborating with senior leaders to deliver timely, accurate and compassionate messaging that protects the organisation’s reputation.
- Drive proactive media engagement and manage reactive media enquiries by working closely with external agencies to prepare media materials, build strong relationships with journalists and key partners and support senior leadership with media training and preparation.
- Lead communications for major fundraising appeals, public campaigns and community events that support people experiencing homelessness, food insecurity and educational barriers.
- Oversee the organisation’s storytelling approach by leading the team to source and develop authentic, respectful content that shares stories of resilience, community, care and impact, ensuring the voices of people with lived experience are represented ethically and authentically.
- Lead targeted communication strategies that engage diverse audiences, build strong stakeholder relationships, support internal communications and collaborate across teams to deliver aligned, audience-specific messaging.
- Provide leadership, guidance and support to team members to build capability, foster collaboration and deliver high-quality communications outcomes.

**About you**

You are an experienced communications professional with strong expertise in strategic communications, media relations and crisis management, ideally within the not-for-profit, community or social impact sectors. You bring exceptional storytelling skills, project management capabilities and a strong alignment with the values of compassion, dignity and social justice.

You will have:

- 7-8+ years of experience in communications, public relations or a related field, ideally within the not-for-profit, community or social impact sectors.
- Demonstrated expertise in developing and implementing integrated communications strategies.
- Proven experience managing crisis communications, particularly during natural disasters or issues impacting vulnerable communities.
- Strong track record in media relations, including experience working with PR agencies and managing sensitive media issues.
- Exceptional storytelling skills with a focus on ethical, human-centred narratives and outstanding written and verbal communication skills.
- Bachelor Degree in Communications, Public Relations or Marketing.

**Why work for us? We offer**
- Salary packaging, sometimes called salary sacrificing is a huge attraction here It is a popular way of providing employees in the community sector with tax benefits over and above their salary. It means the real value of a salary package can be significantly higher than the nominal value.
- We make an incredible difference in the lives of over 300,000 people every year.
- We believe in families, so we like to provide a family-friendly environment in which to work.
- We offer a place where you know you are contributing to a firm committed to helping others. We are passionate about #SocialJustice.
- Hybrid working model.

**Where good happens #Goodworks**

If this opportunity sounds perfect to you and you meet our essential requirements, we can’t wait to hear from you Please s