28 hours/week
Wage rate: $35.03/hr with benefits
Starting date: November 8th, 2021
This is a unionized position with CUPE 3338.

Application deadline is Tuesday October 12th, 2021, at 11:59PM.

The Simon Fraser Public Interest Research Group (SFPIRG) is a student-funded and student-directed resource centre dedicated to engaging students in social and environmental justice. Established in 1981, the organization is a registered non-profit governed by a student board of directors and managed by a unionized staff collective (CUPE Local 3338, Unit 7). SFPIRG strives to be non-hierarchical in its structure and consensus decision-making is used at all levels of the organization.

Position Overview:

The Director of Engagement is one of the three co-Executive Directors that make up SFPIRG’s staff collective. (The other two are the Director of Research & Education and the Director of Administration). The three co-executives are jointly responsible for the overall management of SFPIRG, including operating in accordance with SFPIRG’s values, strategic planning, fiscal management, personnel management, policy development, board relations, and member welfare. The Director of Engagement’s specific responsibilities include campaign organizing, volunteer recruitment and engagement, and developing, managing, and implementing the overall communications strategy for SFPIRG. The position involves extensive work with volunteers, the SFPIRG board, temporary staff, and students. Applicants must be able to balance heavy workloads across multiple tasks, work efficiently in a busy environment, and provide a strong leadership role in organizing and mentoring SFPIRG’s communications systems and the organization as a whole. Applicants must value process, collective work, and consensus decision-making within an intersectional anti-oppression framework. SFPIRG is currently undergoing an internal review of its organizational structures, so flexibility and willingness to support long-term visioning and projects is an asset.

Duties and Responsibilities:

Position Specific Duties

Campaigns: coordinate SFPIRG campaigns, and be a key representative for SFPIRG in on-campus coalitions and projects. Develop campaign materials and statements as appropriate.
Communications strategy: develop and maintain a cohesive communications strategy, branding style, and organizational voice. Act as the key spokesperson representing SFPIRG on campus, in the community, and in the media, using tact and strategy.
Organizational outreach: coordinate on- and off-campus outreach, such as through volunteer fairs and orientations, classroom talks, postering, tabling, and campus orientations, with the purpose of promoting SFPIRG’s programs, resources, events, and governance activities, and more.
Volunteer Recruitment and Coordination: recruit and onboard new volunteers for SFPIRG campaigns and projects.
Student Organizing Support: support student organizers by providing resources and mentorship for their movements. Support with development of new SFPIRG action groups.
Social media and newsletter: coordinate and maintain SFPIRG’s social media (Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter) and online presence. Promote online awareness of and engagement with SFPIRG and SFPIRG’s events. Represent the organization online by writing posts, updating content, and maintaining an appropriate presence online consistent with communications strategy. Coordinate social media volunteers. Coordinate email newsletters with workstudy students
Graphic design: design posters, leaflets, booklets, website and social media images, and other outreach materials. Update signs, forms and print materials.
Website: maintain organizational website, including: updating and coordinating content; maintaining systems; training staff and workstudy students; and arranging for maintenance as necessary.
Networking and relationships: build and maintain relationships with student societies, on-campus NGOs, student groups and clubs, labour unions, SFU administration, and other on-campus groups.

Organizational and Collective Duties

Work with the other staff to manage SFPIRG: staff and maintain the office; respond to requests from students and the public; participate in SFPIRG organizational work, initiatives and events; mentor and advise the Board of Directors.
Contribute to ongoing organizational development of SFPIRG including strategic planning, hiring staff and workstudy students, working with volunteers, Action Group support, and staff collective development.
Collaborate with the staff collective to determine and prioritise the goals for each semester and to delegate the day-to-day management of the organization.

Skills and Experience Required:

Commitment to social and environmental justice and progressive social change. Strong intersectional anti-oppression analysis and practice, grounded in transformative justice principles, including: compassionate accountability, non-disposability, and making space and opportunity for learning and growth.
Experience with on-campus student and/or grassroots community organizing. Knowledge of broader student movements and their histories is helpful.
Experience with campaign organizing and volunteer mobilization.
Interest and experience working in a mentorship capacity with young adults.
Experience in progressive non-profit/community organizations: ability to translate vision into action, understand long-term communications and networking strategy, prioritize and delegate tasks.
Education and/or work experience doing communications in a community or non-profit setting.
Excellent communication skills: clear written and verbal communication, conflict resolution, facilitation, ability to dialogue with diverse parties, ability to openly give and accept feedback.
Human Resources experience: hiring, coordinating, working with student workers and volunteers.
Experience and interest in working in a collective setting using consensus.
Experience with website maintenance, including WordPress.
Experience with graphic design software, including Photoshop and Publisher.
Extremely well-organized, attention to detail, excellent time-management skills.
Love of social media, creative and persuasive writing, and community engagement.
Excellent knowledge of MS Office, Windows, excellent computer and technical skills.
Ability to be self-directed and efficient in a hectic environment.
A sense of humour and a commitment to compassion.

Application Procedure:

SFPIRG is an affirmative action employer. In order to increase the range and diversity of skills, perspectives and experience presently existing within SFPIRG, hiring preference shall be given to qualified applicants from groups who face systemic barriers to employment, including systemic barriers that often go unnamed and unacknowledged. Applicants who wish to be considered for affirmative action are encouraged to discuss this in their cover letter. We also encourage applicants to include other skills and experiences in addition to those outlined above. SFPIRG is committed to accommodating people with mental and physical disabilities, including, for example, obtaining necessary adaptive technologies.

Please submit cover letter and resume by email to:

Email: hiring-committee@sfpirg.ca

Attention: Director of Engagement Hiring Committee

Please include cover letter and resume in ONE attached document, with your name as the title of the file.

Application deadline is Tuesday October 12th, 2021, at 11:59PM.

No phone or email inquiries please. Late applications will not be accepted.

Only short-listed applicants will be contacted. This will happen by Friday, October 15th, 2021.

Important – Please note: Short-listed candidates should be prepared to share a portfolio briefly highlighting your previous communications work. This could include posters, artwork, blog posts, written calls-to-action, websites, screenshots from social media campaigns, or other campaigning work.

Interviews will be scheduled between October 18th and 22nd, and will be conducted with the hiring committee virtually through Google Meet.