Communications Specialist job in St. Paul

Attention professional communicators! Do you believe in sustainability and want to make a positive social impact? Would you like to apply your writing and editing skills to help socially responsible, independent, and community-owned grocery stores thrive? Do you excel at crafting compelling stories for a variety of audiences? Do you enjoy being part of a highly motivated and supportive team?

National Co+op Grocers (NCG) is a member-owned business service cooperative providing a variety of services to retail food co-ops in 37 states. NCG helps unify food co-ops in order to optimize operational and marketing resources, strengthen purchasing power, and offer more value to food co-op shoppers everywhere.

We are seeking an energetic and experienced individual with a passion for effective, dynamic and targeted communications that motivate intended audiences to action. This position will create, implement and oversee communications projects that effectively describe and promote NCG’s programs and services to stakeholders including NCG staff, NCG co-ops, consumers and industry.

This is an ideal position for content creators and copyediting experts interested in having a direct impact on the success of food co-ops, their suppliers, and their communities. This position will be based in NCG’s Saint Paul, MN office or Iowa City, IA office, and requires up to 10% business travel.

Primary Responsibilities:
• Provide communications services including planning, copyediting and writing to assist NCG staff in communicating with other staff, NCG co-ops and industry partners.
• Develop and edit a variety of content for informational and outreach purposes, such as articles, reports, fact sheets, newsletters, brochures, social media and blog posts, web content, correspondence, scripts and press releases.
• Manage communications projects including developing timelines, working with graphic designers and printers, understanding budgetary requirements, etc.
• Work in conjunction with other marketing department staff to research and recommend strategies, systems and procedures to improve NCG's internal and external communications.

Qualifications:
• Bachelor's degree in business communications, English, journalism or related field; and/or a minimum of five years progressively responsible communications experience.
• Demonstrated knowledge of effective communications strategies and systems.
• Demonstrated strong interpersonal, verbal and written communication skills.
• Ability to prioritize, organize and manage multiple tasks, and deliver results under tight deadlines with minimal supervision.
• Strong attention to detail.
• Ability to create effective messaging for specific audiences, and consolidate contributions and feedback from multiple sources.
• Ability to plan and execute presentations for large groups of people a plus.
• Familiarity with natural foods and consumer cooperatives desirable.
• Proficiency in MS Office and presentation software (PowerPoint, Prezi, etc.).
• Experience with web communications and social media.
• Willingness and ability to learn and grow to meet the changing requirements of the job.

Our people are our assets; we offer a generous salary and benefits package including 4 weeks PTO at hire, medical, dental, vision, company paid Life/ Disability/ Long Term Care insurance, HSA/FSA with company contribution, a matching 401K plan with profit sharing and much more.

About NCG:
National Co+op Grocers (NCG), founded in 1999, is a business services cooperative for retail food co-ops located throughout the United States. We represent 147 food co-ops operating over 200 stores in 37 states with combined annual sales over $2 billion and over 1.3 million consumer-owners. NCG helps unify natural food co-ops in order to optimize operational and marketing resources, strengthen purchasing power, and ultimately offer more value to natural food co-op owners and shoppers everywhere. By providing a variety of purchasing, management, development, marketing and other services, our co-ops are able to gain many of the advantages large grocery chains enjoy, while still reflecting the unique qualities of their local communities. For a map of NCG member and associate co-ops, visit our Find-a-Co-op page. To learn more about co-ops, visit www.strongertogether.coop.

Apply By: February 23, 2018