Project Coordinator / Strategic Communications Program Manager 2026P-0633

12+ Months, Part-Time

Hybrid, Prince George's County, MD

Posted 1 week ago

Ascension is seeking an accomplished Project Coordinator / Strategic Communications Program Manager to serve as a proposed Key Personnel member supporting the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission (M-NCPPC), Montgomery Planning Department.

This individual will serve as the central management and coordination lead for strategic communications assignments, helping translate Montgomery Planning’s communications priorities into organized, executable task-order plans. The Program Manager will coordinate multidisciplinary communications professionals, manage schedules and deliverables, maintain quality and accessibility standards, communicate with client stakeholders, and ensure Ascension and its teaming partners respond efficiently to Montgomery Planning’s evolving needs.

The ideal candidate combines senior-level strategic communications expertise with disciplined project and program management capabilities. This is not solely an administrative project coordinator position. Ascension is seeking someone who understands how communications strategies, public engagement, media relations, digital communications, research, advertising campaigns, creative production, and educational outreach fit together—and who can effectively manage specialists performing that work.

The successful candidate should be a highly organized, responsive, detail-oriented professional who can operate with limited supervision, anticipate risks before they affect delivery, manage competing deadlines, communicate effectively with senior stakeholders, and bring structure to ambiguous or rapidly evolving communications requirements.

Summary of the Contractor Role

Montgomery Planning maintains an internal communications team supporting content, web and graphic design, video, marketing, promotions, community engagement, and public information. The Department is establishing an on-call bench of consulting firms to supplement that internal capacity and help communicate complex planning and land-use matters to diverse audiences through clear, accessible, equitable, and data-driven communications.

The Project Coordinator / Strategic Communications Program Manager will provide overall coordination and management of Ascension’s support and serve as a principal connection among Montgomery Planning, Ascension leadership, communications professionals, and subcontractors.

The position supports an engagement encompassing eight service categories:

Communications Strategy & Support
Public Relations Support
Website Maintenance & Technical Support
Media & Communications Training
Video & Design Support
Data Gathering & Research for Communications Support
Promotional Campaign Support
Development and Maintenance of Educational Engagement Programs

The Program Manager will not necessarily personally perform every specialized technical activity. Instead, the individual must understand these disciplines sufficiently to assign appropriate resources, coordinate their work, manage dependencies, identify risks, review progress, maintain quality, and ensure deliverables satisfy client requirements.

The role is particularly important because Montgomery Planning may issue multiple task orders of different sizes and scopes, requiring the consulting team to rapidly assemble appropriately qualified personnel, establish schedules, manage deliverables, respond to changing priorities, and maintain consistent quality across simultaneous assignments.

Key Responsibilities and Day-to-Day Activities

The Project Coordinator / Strategic Communications Program Manager will:

SERVE as Ascension’s primary task-order coordination and management point for assigned Montgomery Planning communications initiatives.
LEAD project startup activities by reviewing task-order requirements, clarifying objectives, identifying deliverables, establishing milestones, and determining required staffing.
DEVELOP task-order work plans, schedules, resource assignments, communications protocols, quality-control checkpoints, and deliverable calendars.
COORDINATE strategic communications professionals, public relations specialists, researchers, web specialists, trainers, graphic designers, video professionals, advertising specialists, and subcontractors supporting individual assignments.
TRANSLATE client objectives into clear assignments, schedules, responsibilities, and measurable outcomes for the project team.
MANAGE communications strategy activities involving audience insights, goals, messages, tactics, timelines, editorial planning, engagement strategies, and key performance indicators.
COORDINATE development and review of communications products such as campaign briefs, talking points, executive presentations, press materials, reports, editorial calendars, public-information materials, educational content, and stakeholder communications.
MONITOR task-order schedules, milestones, dependencies, risks, issues, action items, staffing requirements, budgets, and deliverable status.
ANTICIPATE schedule, staffing, quality, stakeholder, accessibility, and communications risks and implement corrective actions before they affect performance.
FACILITATE internal project meetings, client status meetings, stakeholder discussions, planning sessions, and project reviews.
COORDINATE public-facing activities and ensure appropriate subject-matter experts are prepared for presentations, engagement activities, media-related assignments, workshops, and other interactions.
OVERSEE subcontractor and specialist activities to ensure assignments are properly integrated into the overall project schedule and quality process.
MANAGE surge requirements by identifying additional qualified resources when multiple or compressed task orders occur simultaneously.
TRACK project performance against established goals, schedules, deliverables, budgets, and KPIs.
REVIEW work products for completeness, consistency, professionalism, brand alignment, contractual compliance, and readiness for client submission.
ENSURE reports, presentations, communications materials, and other deliverables incorporate accessibility requirements applicable to the assignment.
COORDINATE remediation and verification of deliverables that must comply with ADA requirements, WCAG 2.1 Level AA, and Revised Section 508 Standards.
ENSURE appropriate handling of confidential, sensitive, restricted, and client-owned information.
SUPPORT rapid-response communications assignments involving emerging, sensitive, or fast-moving issues.
MAINTAIN project documentation, meeting records, decisions, action-item logs, schedules, deliverable repositories, version controls, and lessons learned.
PREPARE concise status reports and management briefings identifying accomplishments, upcoming milestones, risks, decisions required, and corrective actions.
COORDINATE quality-control reviews and ensure client comments are resolved accurately and promptly.
SUPPORT development of task-order staffing and cost estimates using approved contractual labor categories and rates.
VERIFY that the appropriate mix of senior, junior, technical, creative, research, and administrative personnel is assigned based upon the complexity and requirements of individual task orders.
MAINTAIN sufficient availability to respond to new assignments and compressed deadlines during periods of increased Montgomery Planning workload.

Tools and Processes

The successful candidate should be comfortable working with or managing teams using tools such as:

Microsoft 365, including Teams, Outlook, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.
SharePoint or comparable document and knowledge-management platforms.
Microsoft Planner, Project, Smartsheet, Asana, Monday.com, or comparable project/work-management applications.
Project schedules, milestone trackers, risk and issue registers, action-item logs, staffing plans, and quality-control checklists.
KPI and campaign-performance dashboards.
Adobe Acrobat Pro and accessibility-checking functionality.
PAC 2021 or equivalent accessibility-validation tools where applicable.
Web, media-monitoring, survey, advertising, analytics, and campaign-management platforms appropriate to individual assignments.
Version control and structured document-review processes.

How to Apply

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Job Features

Job Category	Communications, Marketing
MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS	Bachelor's degree in Communications, Public Relations, Journalism, Marketing, Business Administration, Public Administration, Project Management, Urban Planning, or a closely related discipline
REQUIRED SKILLS	10+ years of relevant professional experience supporting communications, communications program management, project management, public relations, public engagement, marketing, public information, or closely related work. \| 5+ years of demonstrated strategic communications support experience.
TECHNICAL SKILLS	Demonstrated experience managing strategic communications projects, programs, campaigns, or multidisciplinary communications teams. \| Demonstrated ability to develop and manage project plans, schedules, milestones, resource assignments, deliverables, risks, and competing priorities. \| Experience coordinating multiple communications disciplines such as communications strategy, public relations, digital communications, research, training, creative services, campaigns, or community engagement. \| Experience managing client-facing assignments involving senior stakeholders and multiple contributors. \| Demonstrated ability to manage multiple concurrent assignments and respond effectively to compressed deadlines or changing priorities. \| Strong written and verbal communications skills, including the ability to communicate complex information clearly and concisely. \| Demonstrated ability to review communications products for accuracy, consistency, quality, and client readiness. \| Experience working independently with minimal supervision while maintaining accountability for schedules and results. \| Working knowledge of Microsoft Office/Microsoft 365 applications and common project-management and collaboration tools. \| Understanding of accessibility requirements applicable to digital documents, reports, presentations, and public communications. \| Ability to maintain confidentiality and appropriately safeguard client information. \| Ability to attend client meetings or public-facing activities within Montgomery and Prince George's Counties when required by an assigned task order.
DESIRED QUALIFICATIONS	12–15+ years of progressively responsible strategic communications experience. \| Prior experience serving as a Communications Program Manager, Strategic Communications Manager, Communications Project Manager, Account Director, Engagement Manager, or comparable client-facing leadership role. \| Experience supporting government agencies, municipalities, planning agencies, transportation agencies, parks and recreation organizations, public-sector authorities, or other community-facing organizations. \| Experience communicating complex planning, land-use, development, transportation, infrastructure, environmental, or public-policy information to nontechnical audiences \| Experience developing or managing equitable public-engagement and community-outreach strategies. \| Experience coordinating communications with elected officials, executive leadership, community organizations, residents, media representatives, and other external stakeholders \| Experience managing integrated communications campaigns spanning digital, social, print, earned media, advertising, and public engagement. \| Experience developing KPIs and using communications analytics to evaluate campaign effectiveness \| Familiarity with audience research, surveys, focus groups, listening sessions, or qualitative/quantitative communications research \| Familiarity with WCAG 2.1 Level AA, Revised Section 508 Standards, ADA accessibility considerations, accessible-document production, or accessibility remediation \| Project Management Professional (PMP), Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM), Accreditation in Public Relations (APR), Prosci/change-management credential, or comparable relevant professional certification \| Master's degree in Communications, Public Relations, Marketing, Public Administration, Business Administration, Planning, Project Management, or a related discipline \| Demonstrated experience managing subcontractors or geographically dispersed project teams. \| Experience implementing formal quality-control processes for communications deliverables.