Company overview
With an annual budget of $2.3 billion and more than 7,000 employees throughout the five boroughs, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (NYC DOHMH) is one of the largest public health agencies in the world, serving 8 million New Yorkers from diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds. We're tackling a broad range of public health issues with innovative policies and programs and getting exceptional results, but our work is never finished. The breadth of our innovative programs provides the widest range of choices for every member of our team.

With grant funds from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), DOHMH is undertaking a new initiative that will meet critical infrastructure needs and make possible strategic investments that will have lasting effects on public health. Investments and improvements through this initiative will help modernize DOHMH’s foundational capabilities and data infrastructure, enabling it to partner in complex health and health care environments and, in turn, support better public health outcomes, including COVID-19. This initiative supports larger efforts to rebalance investments in public health and more equitably serve communities and populations.

The selected candidate will be an employee of Public Health Solutions, a nonprofit organization which is the fiscal and administrative manager of the grant but will work be supervised by DOHMH. This is a grant-funded position ending in November 2027.

Job description

The Bureau of Communications is seeking to hire a Deputy Speechwriter who will report directly to the Executive Communications Manager.
NYC Health Department strives to address the prevailing causes of life expectancy, excess and premature deaths, and quality of life in New York City, to make it the healthiest big city in the world.
Our Agency's cross-cutting strategic priorities that bring together work from across the agency, building off a recently completed strategic planning process emerging from the COVID-19 emergency, are:

• To re-envision how the Health Department prepares for and responds to health emergencies, with a focus on building a "response-ready" organization, with faster decision-making, transparent public communications, and stronger surveillance and bridges to healthcare systems.
• Address and prevent chronic and diet-related disease, including addressing rising rates of childhood obesity and the impact of diabetes and cardiovascular disease, and transforming our food systems to improve nutrition and enhance access to healthy foods Address the second pandemic of mental illness including: reducing overdose deaths, strengthening our youth mental health systems, and supporting people with serious mental illness.
• Reduce black maternal mortality and make New York a model city for women's health Mobilize against and combat the health impacts of climate change.

Duties

• Work directly with the Executive Communications Manager to generate ideas, shape arguments, and craft language, staffing the Commissioner and helping prepare for high-profile events.
• Provide primary research support for the Executive Communications Manager, crafting background memos, generating stories and statistics, combing through data, and testing key arguments.
• Draft speeches, remarks, talking points, op-eds, and other written materials in the Commissioner's voice, as needed.
• Curate high-level messaging to promote the Department's health agenda and elevate the Commissioner's voice.
• Edit materials across the Department to ensure message consistency, as needed.
• Prepare brief and practice scenarios ahead of public appearances and media interviews, including remarks, panels, broadcast media, radio, and other formats.
• Work with the social media team to craft content in the Commissioner's voice for digital materials.
• Provide logistical support for the internal events, media interviews, and public appearances.

Qualifications:

A baccalaureate degree from an accredited college and two years of satisfactory, full-time experience related to the projects and policies to be studied in the position.

Salary: $90,00.00- $90,000.00.

Additional Desired Qualities

• An innovative thinker, dogged researcher, and excellent writer with a knack for communicating complicated ideas in clear, persuasive language.
• Written for others or edited their work, whether in government, consulting, advocacy, academia, or another sector.
• An avid consumer of the news and care about public health and is able to step outside of yourself to consider how different audiences will receive messages, tailoring your writing accordingly.
• Have the ability to prioritize and execute multiple projects on tight deadlines and contribute thoughtfully and respectfully in team setting. You have experience designing slide decks in common formats such as PowerPoint or Google Slides.
• A respectful but confident editor who can deliver feedback that your colleagues want to take.

Additional Information:

• This is a temporary grant-funded position ending in November 2027.
• This individual must reside in the tri-state area (NY, NJ, CT) by their confirmed start date.
• Preference may be given to individuals residing in New York City (5 boroughs) or surrounding New York State counties.
• This individual will be expected to work non-business hours during emergencies.

PHS is proud to be an equal opportunity employer and encourages applications from women, people of color, persons with disabilities, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals, and veterans.