Overview
The Senior Manager, Internal Communications, serves as the Library’s primary lead for internal communications. Reporting to the Communications Director, this role develops and executes internal communications plans, manages the Library’s principal employee communication channels, and advises leaders on communications for strategic priorities, including the Library’s Five-Year Strategy, as well as other major initiatives, operational changes, and complex or sensitive matters.
This role also serves as the prime Communications contact for the implementation of the new Intranet platform and leads its content migration, ongoing editorial strategy, content governance, and adoption in partnership with IT and departmental content owners. Proficiency with content management systems, email distribution platforms, and common workplace collaboration tools required.
While based within the Communications & Marketing team, the Senior Manager also works closely with Human Resources, the President’s Office, IT, and colleagues across the Library to coordinate messaging on institutional priorities.
Success requires an understanding of the Library’s culture and employee audiences, strong relationships across the organization, and the ability to create communications that are clear, timely, credible, and engaging. The Senior Manager also develops practical ways to understand how internal communications are being received and uses employee feedback to improve future communications.
This is a hands-on senior individual contributor role requiring excellent writing, editorial judgment, project management, and interpersonal skills. The Senior Manager serves as the primary champion of the Five-Year Strategy, driving staff alignment and excitement through consistent updates, celebrating wins, and sharing successful tactics to keep everyone working toward the same goals.
We are looking for someone we can count on to:
Learn: Develop a strong understanding of the Library’s mission, culture, organizational structure, strategic priorities, and employee audiences. Listen carefully and build the relationships needed to understand how communications are likely to be received.\
Own: Take responsibility for the day-to-day internal communications function, including its primary channels, editorial calendar, content standards, and communication planning processes. As the primary Communications contact forLair (NYPL intranet), this role leads its ongoing editorial strategy, content governance, and adoption in partnership with IT and departmental content owners.
Improve: Use analytics, employee feedback, communications best practices, and sound judgment to strengthen the clarity, usefulness, coordination, and reach of internal communications.
Advise: Provide practical and credible internal communications counsel to leaders on organizational priorities, major initiatives, operational changes, and sensitive matters.
Some expectations for this role are that within:
1 month, this person will:
- Learn the Library’s mission, organizational structure, strategic priorities, and current internal communications practices.
- Become familiar with Lair (NYPL intranet), The Roar (staff newsletter), other departmental newsletters, all-staff email processes, and the plans for the new intranet.
- Begin building relationships with key partners in Communications & Marketing, Human Resources, the President’s Office, IT, and other departments.
- Assume responsibility for recurring internal communications and the editorial calendar.
3 months, this person will:
- Develop the content migration and communications strategy needed to support the implementation of the new Lair.
- Establish productive working relationships with key leaders and partners across the Library.
- Assess existing communication channels, processes, and content and identify practical opportunities for improvement.
- Develop an internal communications plan and refine the editorial calendar to align with institutional priorities.
- Establish baseline measures and a practical approach for gathering employee feedback on the clarity, usefulness, accessibility, and reach of internal communications.
6 months and beyond, this person will:
- Implement improvements to internal communication processes, standards, and channels.
- Provide consistent communications counsel to leaders and departments.
- Advance the implementation and adoption of the new Lair in accordance with the project timeline.
- Establish sustainable processes for intranet content governance and ongoing content management.
- Begin to demonstrate measurable improvements in the clarity, coordination, reach, and usefulness of employee communications.
Responsibilities
- Develop and execute the Library’s internal communications strategy in partnership with the Communications Director and in alignment with the Library’s Five-Year Strategy and other institutional priorities.
- Advise leaders on messaging, audience, tone, timing, sequencing, and communication channels for strategic priorities, major initiatives, operational changes, and complex or sensitive matters.
- Build relationships across the Library to understand its culture, employee audiences, communication needs, and the most effective approaches.
- Manage the Library’s primary internal communications channels, including Lair, The Roar, all-staff emails, and the internal editorial calendar, with particular attention to reaching both frontline and office-based employees.
- Serve as the primary Communications contact for implementing the new NYPL intranet, partnering with IT and other stakeholders on content planning, migration, governance, launch communications, and employee adoption.
- Oversee Lair’s ongoing editorial direction and content management, working with departmental content owners to keep information accurate, useful, and current.
- Write, edit, and produce executive messages, newsletters, intranet content, announcements, talking points, FAQs, presentations, manager toolkits, and other employee communications.
- Partner with Communications & Marketing, Human Resources, the President’s Office, IT, and other departments to coordinate institution-wide communications and contribute communications expertise to employee engagement initiatives,
- Coordinate internal communications during emergencies, operational disruptions, and other time-sensitive situations in partnership with the Director of Communications and appropriate stakeholders.
- Gather and analyze employee feedback through targeted pulse surveys, channel analytics, and other practical listening methods to assess whether communications are reaching employees, are understood, and are useful, and use those findings to improve content, channels, and processes.
