Vice President, Public Outreach - Transportation

About the role

Bodewell Group is seeking a full-time Vice President and Transportation Business Line Lead to join our Southern California team. This role is instrumental in guiding client strategy, advancing business development efforts, and shaping the firm’s transportation vision.

Responsibilities

• Forecast staffing needs for all transportation business line projects and contracts, regularly reporting fluctuations in staffing needs to the SVP, Client Excellence, Chief People Officer and VP of Finance
• Support key company initiatives and promote company positions and needs with junior staff
• Manage all budgeting and invoicing for transportation business line clients as well as forecast costs for proposed strategies
• Show strong project management skills, which is defined as the ability to oversee all aspects of a project at a detailed level and leading client interactions independently, without requiring additional oversight from senior leadership (SVP and above)
• Build and maintain meaningful relationships with targeted, high-level external audiences, contributing to the company’s overall engagement and business development efforts in various industries and markets
• Serve as a positive role model who actively coaches junior staff by providing constructive feedback and coaching discussions
• Coach supervisorial staff (Managers and Directors) towards maximizing performance, and ensure they have the resources needed to provide the best possible product to the client. This includes coaching staff towards internal utilization targets
• Maintain an understanding of current transportation industry-related public outreach, public affairs, engagements and communications best practices, tactics and tools to provide strategic direction to clients
• Work closely with Executive Committee members to develop and drive strategic direction in order to meet organizational communications goals
• Develop and manage a team towards execution of strategic communication programs that could include community relations, public outreach, public affairs, social media, media relations, CEO positioning, etc.
• Oversee a mix of small to large-scale communication-related projects, managing deliverables, budgets, timelines and teams to ensure expected outcomes are delivered on time and on budget
• Review collateral such as fact sheets, maps, eblasts, press releases, etc. and ensure the best product is being put forth to the client
• Experience managing and supporting transportation industry communications and public outreach across all phases of an infrastructure project – planning, design, environmental review, construction, and operations
• Deep understanding of key policy issues in the transportation industry and ability to translate highly technical jargon into 3rd grade comprehension level
• Familiarity with construction outreach management and demonstrated experience collaborating with contractors and other third-party organizations to support transportation project development
• Experience managing complex, multilingual public outreach campaigns and understanding of how to reach traditionally underserved populations through culturally conscious strategies and tactics
• Develop and manage all transportation business line proposals, leading all stages of the process. This may include qualifications, strategy and approach development, proposal planning, interview preparations and execution and more
• Actively search for business opportunities by attending networking and community events, participating in professional associations and meeting informally with government contacts and other potential referral sources

Requirements

• 15+ years of relevant experience in transportation public outreach/public affairs or a related field
• 10+ years of agency experience OR 5+ years of agency experience and 10+ of in-house experience with a local or state transportation agency
• Bachelor's degree in a related field
• Proven ability to manage large projects as well as small teams on one or more sizable accounts
• Continued management of an account for a minimum of 3 years
• Experience managing both retainer and hourly billable projects
• Experience supporting transportation infrastructure projects
• Demonstrated active efforts to better the business rather than focusing on individual advancement
• Average monthly utilization of 85% or higher (internal applicants only)
• Management of two or more significant client accounts, with a combined minimum revenue target between combined accounts
• Supervision of a team of staff members on major accounts
• Experience as a direct supervisor of more than three staff, including participating in regular review cycles for direct reports
• Willingness to work on any company project, including projects across verticals, as asked
• Generation of three or more quality business leads per year that result in submitted proposals or add to monthly revenue targets
• Regularly serve on at least one high profile community or industry-specific board or commission
• Attends a minimum of six non-client community events per year
• Available to work weekends or extended hours as needed
• Meetings with non-client contacts (i.e., business referral sources) in government, business or media a minimum of six times per year
• Travel is required up to 20-30% of the time. Additional travel may arise to accommodate project demands and conference participation