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Communications and Marketing Director
Heal the Bay
Marketing & Communications
Santa Monica, CA, USA
USD 100k-120k / year
Posted on Jun 5, 2025
Communications & Marketing Director
Los Angeles, CA / Development / Full-Time / Hybrid / 2024
About the Organization
Heal the Bay is celebrating its 40th Anniversary this year and has been LA’s leading environmental nonprofit since 1985. We are dedicated to keeping Southern California’s coastal waters and watersheds safe, healthy, and clean for people and marine life. Through science, advocacy, education, and community action, we raise awareness and drive solutions to tackle pollution, climate change, and biodiversity loss.
Heal the Bay’s advocacy has dramatically improved water quality at LA’s beaches, ensuring the safety of beachgoers, lifeguards, and surfers. We actively challenge polluters, hold decision-makers accountable, and take a leadership role when government agencies fail to protect public health.
We engage thousands of volunteers in beach and community cleanups each year and have successfully removed over 2 million pounds of trash from LA’s beaches and waterways. Our real-time water quality data covering over 700 West Coast beaches makes us a critical resource for the public and local agencies. We also operate the award-winning Heal the Bay Aquarium at the Santa Monica Pier, inspiring visitors to become environmental stewards.
About the Role
As Heal the Bay, one of Greater L.A.’s most beloved environmental organizations, celebrates its 40th year, we’re seeking a communications and marketing expert to help us deepen and expand the impact of our brand as we enter a new era of safeguarding our region’s water, climate, and marine life. The ideal candidate is a sharp storyteller and innovative marketer who can expand our visibility, engagement, and support. We need a leader who balances strategic vision with hands-on execution and can drive dynamic communications and marketing initiatives that build brand awareness, mobilize supporters, and amplify our message across diverse platforms. Are you the leader who can help us build a new wave of watershed warriors through bolder and more culturally relevant engagement?
What You Will Do:
- Spearhead the creation of high-impact communications and marketing campaigns that drive awareness, fundraising, volunteerism, and public advocacy for ocean and water protection efforts.
- Lead staff in creating compelling content—website updates, blog posts, social media, email marketing, infographics, videos, fundraising appeals, event programming, and press materials—that communicates our mission and inspires action.
- Drive media outreach strategies. Pitch media outlets to place water, ocean, and climate issues higher up on their priority lists and generate local and national press coverage of our issues and activities. Foster and manage relationships with media, influencers, and high-profile partners.
- Collaborate with senior leadership to integrate cutting-edge and “out of the box” marketing efforts into the organization’s broader strategic goals.
- Research, segment, and analyze key audiences (donors, volunteers, partners, media) to ensure targeted and effective messaging.
- Analyze marketing performance using tools like Google Analytics, email tracking, and social media metrics to refine strategies and achieve objectives. Create a marketing culture of learning and iteration.
- Manage and mentor the communications team. Cultivate and manage external contractors.
- Oversee communications marketing budget and ensure resources are allocated effectively to maximize ROI across channels.
- Serve as a member of HTB’s senior leadership team, liaising with other directors and HTB board members to shape organizational strategy and drive executional excellence.
What You Bring to the Table:
- At least 10 years of experience managing written and visual storytelling for mission-driven organizations and distilling complex scientific and policy content into clear, compelling, and motivating content for broader audiences
- Strong strategic thinking with the ability to pivot quickly, prioritize initiatives, and manage tight deadlines
- Creative problem-solving skills with a proven track record of bringing innovative, bold ideas to life
- Exceptional leadership skills, with experience managing and developing a team, ensure your team is motivated and empowered to achieve their best work
- Excellent media relations skills and the ability to engage journalists, bloggers, and influencers to amplify our work
- Experience in managing fundraising, marketing, or revenue-driving campaigns
- Proven ability to prioritize and create an annual communications plan/calendar and set/meet all deadlines in a fast-paced organization
- Proficiency or strong familiarity with digital marketing, social media, and design tools (Google Analytics, Aptitude in WordPress, Shopify, Adobe Suite, Canva) and project management platforms (Asana, Trello), and social media best practices
- A sharp editor’s eye that ensures all disseminated content is clear, consistent, on-brand, and free of grammatical errors, jargon, etc..
- A creative mindset and writer’s instinct that can make wonky policy debates and science-based initiatives more relatable to the general public
- A take-charge work style that’s comfortable receiving guidance/direction from the leadership team and then executing independently
- An understanding of L.A.’s changing demographics and a commitment to better engage diverse audiences authentically and relevantly
Why You’ll Feel Good Doing It:
- You’ll inspire the next generation of environmental stewards. Your work will educate and galvanize hundreds of thousands of Angelenos each year by giving them the knowledge, tools, and engagement opportunities to bring about meaningful change in their communities, both inland and coastal
- You’ll fight for Mother Earth. Your efforts will help build climate-resilient communities, clean polluted waterways, and protect the wildlife that call greater Los Angeles and the Santa Monica Bay home
What You Might First Sink Your Teeth Into:
- Brand relaunch through all Heal the Bay communication touchpoints, including a reskin of HealtheBay.org
- “Ashes to Action” campaign, demonstrating Heal the Bay’s commitment to protecting public health in the aftermath of the devastating Palisades Fire and building new climate resilience solutions for the community
- Beach Report Card: Promote and pitch our annual water-quality ranking of the most polluted beaches in the state of California
- “Bring Back the Beach” Gala: Help drive attendance and awareness of our annual casual-chic party under the stars at the Jonathan Club
- Earth Month: Educate and encourage residents to volunteer and take direct action to create a more resilient Southland
- Heal the Bay Speaker Series: Expand influencer network by collaborating with Big Idea + Big Impact individuals on quarterly events
- LA28 Olympic Initiative: Define a clear “MVP” goal that grows relationships and milestones with elite athletes to amplify HTB's mission as the region prepares for the Olympics.
How You Will Measure Success:
- More volunteer sign-ups
- More visits to our Santa Monica Pier Aquarium
- More members acquired/donations made
- More actions taken by the general public to support specific advocacy campaigns
- More visits/engagement on our public-facing communication platforms
- More strategic high-impact collaborators/influencers/cultural partners
- Overall, you’ll create community and camaraderie. You will catalyze a network of like-minded change agents across the region to share information and provide support
Expectations from the Culture:
- Care and respect from over 40 fellow staffers working from HTB headquarters in Santa Monica, the Santa Monica Pier Aquarium, and in-home offices across the region
- A commitment to helping employees find sustainable work-life balance, support for their families, and professional and personal growth opportunities
- A recognition that while our advocacy work is serious business, we can always have fun doing it
- A fast-paced environment in which you will collaborate closely with a detail-oriented CEO to achieve ambitious goals
Compensation & Work Environment
- Salary: $100,000 – $120,000 (commensurate with experience)
- Benefits: Comprehensive benefits package, including health, dental, and retirement contributions
- Location: Los Angeles County, CA (hybrid role, with at least two in-office days per week)
- Schedule: Full-time (exempt), with occasional evening and weekend events
Heal the Bay is committed to creating a diverse environment and is proud to be an equal-opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, disability, age, or veteran status, and we strongly encourage applications from individuals who reflect the diversity of Los Angeles County. If you don’t meet all of the preferred skills above, you are still encouraged to apply and will be considered based on diverse and equivalent skills and experience.
Heal the Bay complies with AB 1008, the Fair Chance Act, during the hiring process. Once a conditional job offer has been made, the candidate will be asked to complete a Live Scan criminal background check. A thorough assessment of conviction history will be considered, including the nature and gravity of the criminal history, the time that has passed since the conviction, and the nature of the job the candidate is seeking.