Senior Managing Communications Associate

WHO WE ARE

Carbon180 is a new breed of climate-focused NGO on a mission to rethink carbon fundamentally. We know that our climate goals can only be met by rapidly reducing emissions and removing the carbon in our atmosphere. The good news? Carbon is much more than mere waste. We work at the intersection of science, business, and policy to champion solutions transforming carbon from a liability to an asset and fostering a prosperous, carbon-conscious economy. Our team is based in Washington, D.C., with teammates who work remotely from other cities.

Don’t meet every single requirement? Here at Carbon180, we believe there is no “perfect” candidate and want to encourage applying even if all the requirements listed aren’t met. Our goal is to build an authentic workplace by valuing diversity in our candidates. We are always looking to expand our growing team with dynamic and enthusiastic individuals. We look forward to receiving your application!

THE OPPORTUNITY

Overview

Carbon180 is seeking a Senior Managing Communications Associate to build and run the content engine behind our work. This person turns what our policy, science, and program teams know into things people actually read, watch, and share. Blogs, newsletters, social, web, short-form video, and other digital properties. They will lead execution of our first sustained public education push on carbon removal, own several of our channels end to end, support our fundraising team in telling the story of our impact to donors, and help more people outside of Washington understand why removing legacy carbon matters. They will shape strategy by identifying opportunities, conducting landscape and audience analysis, tracking trends, and engaging with key partners. In this role, the Senior Managing Communications Associate will represent Carbon180 in meetings, conferences, and advocacy efforts, including participating in in-person engagements as appropriate.

This is a role for someone who likes making things and deploying them. Carbon180 produces serious, technical work: policy roadmaps, federal recommendations, and the CORE Carbon Removal Framework to name a few. We need someone who can take that material and make it land with everyone else, from a congressional staffer's parents to a first-time donor to a high schooler who found us on Instagram. You will own the execution of work the Director of Communications sets the strategy for, which means real latitude over how it gets made, when it ships, and what changes once we see how it performs. The selected candidate must live within the DC Metro area. This role reports to the Director of Communications.

Major Roles and Responsibilities

Content production and editorial pipelines
Own the systems that get Carbon180's work out the door on a regular schedule, not just when a major report drops.

• Write and edit blogs, explainers, one-pagers, newsletter copy, and social content across our policy areas
• Manage production for our newsletters, working with program staff to source and shape content
• Own the editorial calendar for our channels, including what runs, when it runs, and in what order
• Work directly with policy, science, and program colleagues to pull out what's newsworthy in their work and translate it into plain language
• Hold the line on voice and quality across everything we publish, maintaining and improving our style guide and internal comms hub

Media and public relations support
Advance Carbon180's media program in partnership with our external PR firm.

• Draft press releases, statements, media advisories, and talking points
• Serve as a day-to-day point of contact for media inquiries and coverage tracking, keeping the team informed on what's moving in climate and carbon removal press
• Help prepare spokespeople for interviews and public appearances
• Lead communications for our events, including our presence at climate conferences and convenings

Development communications
Partner with our development team so that donors understand our impact and hear from us consistently.

• Produce fundraising emails, appeals, and campaign collateral, including design and build in our email platform
• Build and run the content pipeline that moves people from first contact into our supporter base
• Lead audience segmentation for donor communications in partnership with development
• Support funder-facing materials, reports, and webinars alongside program colleagues
• Keep donor communications consistent with the rest of our voice and visual identity

Public education and campaign leadership
Lead execution of Carbon180's public education campaign, an evergreen effort to explain carbon removal to a general audience.

• Own the weekly production cycle: one topic, explained clearly, delivered across web, social, video, and email
• Recruit and coach colleagues across the organization to contribute, on camera and on the page
• Build and maintain the campaign's home on our website
• Set measures of success with the Director of Communications, then track performance and adjust the plan yourself as results come in

Digital channels and discoverability
Own how Carbon180 shows up online and grow who finds us there.

• Own Carbon180's social channels end to end, from calendar to publishing to performance, including short-form video for Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube
• Produce and edit short-form video, either filmed yourself or coordinated with colleagues and partners
• Lead our approach to search (SEO) and AI-generated answers (GEO), an area still being figured out across our field and one you would help us define
• Maintain and update carbon180.org content, partnering directly with our design and web colleagues

Analysis and organizational learning
Help us understand whether our communications are working, and change course when they aren't.

• Conduct landscape and audience analysis to inform where we put our communications effort
• Lead a twice-yearly review of communications impact, covering what reached people, what didn't, and what we should do differently
• Build performance reporting that program, development, and leadership colleagues can actually use

WHO YOU ARE

Our ideal Senior Managing Communications Associate believes deeply in our mission. Beyond that:

• You build trust and leverage meaningful relationships to get things done. A relationship-builder at heart, the people you work with trust that you leverage relationships to get things done in a mutually beneficial, non-transactional way. You are both warm AND demanding. You do the things you say you will do, hold others to account, and support the people you engage in the pursuit of our shared goals.
• You own things, not tasks. Given a goal and a set of non-negotiables, you build the plan, run it, and come back with results rather than questions. You know the difference between a decision that needs your director in the room and one that doesn't, and you don't confuse the two.
• You excel on a small, nimble team, and are happy wearing lots of hats. Working on a small, fast-paced, and quickly growing team feels not only familiar to you - you love it. You are flexible, comfortable with ambiguity, know how to roll with the punches, have a quick bounce-back time after a setback, and get energy from building the plane as you fly it.
• You translate. You've sat with an expert who couldn't stop using acronyms and walked out with something a stranger could understand. This is the single most important thing you'll do here, and you're good at it.
• You move fluidly from strategy to execution. You appreciate the big picture and feel inspired to set a bold vision, but you know it's all in the details. You manage projects fluidly, prioritize fiercely, and track timelines, data, and information in an organized and systematic fashion. You don't drop balls, miss deadlines, or forget to respond to someone's inquiry - and you’re not afraid to roll up your sleeves to do the work.
• You’re a driver of results. You've demonstrated the ability to drive results in the pursuit of ambitious goals. You combine your exceptional strategic, analytical, and critical thinking skills with your penchant to use both data and lived experiences to drive decision-making that achieves impressive outcomes.
• You are sponge-y in your constant quest for knowledge. When the work feels ambiguous and the path forward unclear, you’re quick to dive into the research to soak up everything you can re: what’s already been done, what’s working, and what the science and communities say. You’re able to distill complex information into a synthesized set of findings and recommendations, and get feedback from your team to make them stronger. You’re constantly looking to learn, grow, and expand your skills and expertise.

Beyond that, you have:

• Six to ten years of experience in communications, marketing, content production, journalism, or advocacy, within government, NGOs, or related fields. A focus on climate or carbon removal is very welcomed, but not required. We care much more about what you've made (and its impact) than where you made it.
• Strong writing capabilities. You should be able to move between a 1,500-word blog, a 40-word Instagram caption, and a fundraising email without losing the thread. Experience in engaging with donor audiences is welcomed.
• Ability to analyze trends and challenges in the team’s focus area and contribute to the development of strategies, research, or policy recommendations, with guidance from senior team members as needed.
• Working knowledge of social media management and performance data, enough to know what to do differently next month. Comfort with email marketing and CRM platforms. We use Mailchimp and Salesforce. If you've used something similar, you'll be fine. Experience with Wordpress is welcomed, but not required. .
• Experience collaborating across teams, contributing to shared goals, and providing peer-level guidance to support team effectiveness and professional development.
• Strong communication skills, with experience translating complex topics for diverse audiences, contributing to the development of communications or materials, and representing the team in meetings and stakeholder engagements with support as needed.
• Commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, belonging, and justice (DEIBJ), with a growing track record of applying these principles in communications and public affairs work, and contributing to an inclusive team culture.
• Experience in video production and relevant tools is welcomed, but not required.

WHAT WE OFFER

Carbon180 is deeply committed to providing market-leading compensation and robust benefits to our employees. Our salaries are in the 70th percentile of the Washington, DC market. We employ an external firm to conduct market analyses every three years, and we are committed to safeguarding internal salary equity. For those reasons, we have a non-negotiation policy on salaries.

The starting salary range for this position will be $141,080 to $162,242 with opportunities for growth up to $182,404.

Carbon180 prides itself on offering benefits and perks to our employees that illustrate how we live our values, including:

• 36-hour workweeks (we close at 1 pm every Friday) and dedicated no-meeting time each week.
• A remote-first flexible work culture.
• Four weeks of PTO, three weeks of paid org-wide breaks including one week in the summer and two weeks in the winter, four weeks of sick leave, and five floating holidays/personal days.
• 100% company-covered insurance premiums for medical/dental/vision/long-term disability for you and your dependents.
• A quarterly health and wellness stipend.

TO APPLY

To apply for the role of Senior Managing Communications Associate please submit an application.

On the application, you’ll be asked to:

• Answer some basic questions about your background and experiences
• In place of a cover letter, answer a few written reflection questions to help us learn more about your interest in joining our team and in this role specifically
• Attach your resume as prompted in the application form

Interview Process and Timeline

• Applications are being accepted and reviewed on through October 16th.
• There will be three rounds of interviews with the first round beginning in October 2026.
• We anticipate extending an offer by early December 2026.

OUR VALUES

At C180, we believe in living by an internal set of core values, which we strive to embody and celebrate in moments big and small.

• One boat. We work hard to ensure that we are rowing in one direction as a team, aligning our work and resources to shared goals.
• Pencil to pen. We think critically, do our research, and weigh multiple options. Then, we commit to move to action.
• Win and lose together. When one of us succeeds, we all win. When we encounter challenges, we determine how best to redirect the energy and resources of the team to solve them.
• Person in the professional. Our team is composed of real people with real passions, interests, and needs, within and outside of our work. To be our best and most productive selves at work, we believe we need to care for ourselves and others.
• Make space, share space. We believe in making space for all voices to be heard, within our team and our broader work — particularly and especially voices historically disenfranchised and disproportionately impacted by the effects of climate change.
• Be a window, not a door. We’re committed to transparency, and to shining light on how and why decisions are made. We are honest with one another, ask for clarity, and operate with integrity to build a culture of trust.
• Grow the braintrust. We are committed to constantly learning, and to staying up to speed on the science of our field. We work to grow our knowledge, sharpen our skills, and to bring great minds to the field of carbon removal.

Carbon180 is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, gender, religion, age, sexual orientation, national or ethnic origin, disability, marital status, veteran status, or any other occupationally irrelevant criteria. Carbon180 continually seeks to enrich its staff and team culture. In particular, we’re dedicated to broadening opportunities for individuals from demographic groups that are historically underrepresented in the sciences and in environmental advocacy. We’re also committed to building an inclusive workplace culture where talented people of widely different backgrounds can thrive. We've adopted this commitment because we believe the inclusion of culturally diverse perspectives will improve our work and produce better societal and environmental outcomes for all, including historically disenfranchised communities.