Community and Public Engagement Lead

M&C Saatchi World Services is a full-service marketing company renowned for using commercial advertising to solve the world’s toughest challenges. World Services is a specialty branch of M&C Saatchi Group, and we provide strategic communications, behavior change, and marketing support to Public Sector clients with special emphasis on the US Federal Government and State, Local, Tribal, & Territorial leaders.

M&C Saatchi World Services US is seeking a Community & Public Engagement Lead to oversee enterprise-level community outreach, public engagement strategy, and stakeholder-facing activities within a federal and DoD-aligned mission environment. This leader will develop and maintain the Community & Public Outreach Plan, manage community engagement KPIs, maintain outreach directories and calendars, and ensure engagement activities are strategic, measurable, and aligned with program priorities.

ABOUT THE ROLE:

The Community & Public Engagement Lead provides strategic direction to ensure outreach initiatives are coordinated across communications, digital strategy, policy, and analytics teams. This role requires a senior-level practitioner with expertise in public engagement, messaging alignment, and cross-channel community coordination.

This is a hybrid role; however, the ideal candidate will live in the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia (DMV) region.

What you'll do:

• Lead all activities related to public and community engagement across the program.
• Develop, maintain, and execute the Community & Public Outreach Plan, including goals, messaging, and annual engagement strategy.
• Oversee the creation and maintenance of engagement KPIs, performance dashboards, and continuous improvement metrics.
• Maintain community directories, outreach calendars, and engagement tracking systems.
• Coordinate outreach activities across multiple internal teams, ensuring alignment with digital, content, and strategic communications functions.
• Manage engagement workflows, ensuring timely coordination with stakeholders, partners, and program offices.
• Build and maintain relationships with community groups, installation programs, service branches, and family support organizations.
• Ensure messaging consistency, audience alignment, and policy-informed engagement approaches.
• Provide executive-level reporting, summaries, and recommendations to leadership.
• Coordinate with analytics teams to integrate measurement frameworks into dashboards and reporting tools.
• Support event planning, public engagement campaigns, and community-focused communications.
• Ensure all materials meet accessibility, compliance, and quality standards.
  
  
  

You’ll bring:

• Fluent written and spoken English required.
• Minimum 10 years of experience in public engagement, community outreach, stakeholder relations, or strategic communications.
• BA/BS in Public Relations, Communications, Public Affairs, Marketing, or a related field.
• Strong leadership and organizational skills with the ability to manage complex engagement programs.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to build and sustain relationships with diverse audiences.
• Strong analytical skills to develop, track, and report on engagement metrics.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities, deadlines, and stakeholder needs in a dynamic environment.
• Knowledge of stakeholder mapping, segmentation, and engagement modeling.
• Understanding of measurement frameworks, KPI development, and performance tracking.
• Familiarity with digital engagement tools, CRM systems, and community platforms.
• Experience developing enterprise-level engagement plans and frameworks.
• Demonstrated success managing outreach programs, calendars, KPIs, and engagement metrics.
• Experience managing cross-functional coordination across communications, digital, and analytics teams.
  
  
  

What You Get

We offer a competitive salary ($130,000-$155,000) and a benefits package designed to support your health, family life, financial wellbeing, and growth.

Family & parental support

• 12 weeks’ full pay for Primary Carers and 6 weeks for Secondary Carers (after one year of service; return requirements apply for subsequent leave)
• Applies to birth, adoption, and surrogacy
• Up to 10 days’ paid fertility leave per year (5 per cycle)
• 2 days’ paid leave for new grandparents
• $2,500 annual interest-free parental loan
• $6,000 interest-free fertility treatment loan
  
  
  

Healthcare & wellbeing

• Three medical plans (HSA at $0 cost; EPO 75% employer funded; PPO 65% employer funded)
• $0 employee-cost dental and vision
• 10 days’ health leave per year (mental and physical)
• 24/7 mental health support through Self Space
• Wellhub subscription
  
  
  

Financial & practical support

• 401(k) match (3% after 3 months; 4% after 1 year)
• Pre-tax commuter benefits
• 10 days’ paid military leave
• Full pay for jury duty (state/city payments declined)
• Uber/taxi home after 9:30pm
  
  
  

Time off & flexibility

• 23 days’ PTO (with 3 discretionary carryover days; CA/CO policies follow state mandate)
• 10 federal holidays, plus the day after Thanksgiving
• Option to swap 2 federal holidays (excluding Thanksgiving and the day after)
• Office closed between Christmas and New Year
• 10 days’ special emergency leave (including bereavement)
• 10 days’ volunteering leave (5 paid, 5 unpaid)
• Half-day for blood donation
• Work from anywhere for up to 2 weeks per year (subject to approval)
  
  
  

Culture & development

• $300 annual cultural stimulation allowance (accrued monthly; available after 90 days)
• Weekly Thursday happy hour
• Mentorship and Buddy programmes
  
  
  

ABOUT M C SAATCHI WORLD SERVICES

M&C Saatchi World Services is a specialist division of M C Saatchi Group, the world’s largest independent communications network. Our specialists work in office hubs across six continents, grounding our global expertise in local nuance.

We offer award-winning commercial communications capabilities, which are utilized by global organizations to address the world’s most complex problems across defence, development, diplomacy, homeland and national security, law and order, health, education, and the environment.

We work with clients that want to help the hardest-to-reach, hardest-to-influence audiences. This includes a range of Western Government departments, such as DOS and USAID; partner governments, including the U.K. and Australia; and prominent IGOs/NGOs such as the U.N.

We are a comms agency that works on behaviour change projects typically focused on issues related to Security, Defence and Stabilization. Whether it’s producing critically acclaimed feature films in Africa, to TV shows in the Middle East, to pop music videos in Asia, we have a record of leveraging creativity to access communities anywhere in the world.

M C Saatchi Group was founded in 1995 and is now the biggest Independent creative agency group in the World. Founded on one core principle, Brutal Simplicity.