HR Communications Specialist- 3633564

Job Title: HR Communications Specialist

Location: Washington DC

Salary/Payrate: $75K-$100K Dependant on experience

Work Environment: Hybrid 2 days on-site

Term: Contract – long term with potential for conversion

Bachelor’s degree required: Preferred

Referral Fee: AMS will pay $500 should the person you refer gets
hired

Job Description:

POSITION SUMMARY:

* The HR Communications Contractor serves as a communications
specialist supporting internal communications, partnering with
business units to design, develop, and execute communication
strategies that align with organizational priorities and enhance
the employee experience. The HR Communications Contractor will
work in close partnership with the Communications division’s
organization-wide internal communications function.
* This role focuses on consultation, content development,
coordination, and execution support, ensuring messaging is clear,
consistent, timely, purposeful, and aligned with the needs of
employees, managers, leaders, and stakeholders.
* This position is focused internally to help ensure messaging
supports purpose, reinforces priorities, and engages employees.
Final program, policy, and business decisions remain with
designated PS&S leaders and business owners. Organization-wide
internal communications strategy resides within the
Communications division.

ROLE GOAL AND ALIGNMENT WITH HR NEEDS:

* The primary goal of this contractor role is to improve HR
communication planning, execution, and follow-through, in
coordination with the Communications division’s internal
communications function, so employees, managers, leaders, and HR
stakeholders receive clear, timely, and useful information.

The role supports PS&S by:

* Creating structured communication plans, calendars, templates,
and trackers for recurring initiatives, deadlines, and leadership
updates.
* Developing consistent, audience-specific messaging for
employees, managers, senior leaders, and HR stakeholders.
* Improving coordination across SharePoint, Teams, email,
presentations, Pulse articles, and meeting materials.
* Supporting change communications for HR programs, annual
processes, compliance activities, and manager enablement
resources.
* Reducing communication gaps caused by dispersed information,
unclear timing, inconsistent content, and competing inputs.
* Partnering with the Communications division’s organization-wide
internal communications function to ensure HR-specific
communications are aligned with the organization’s internal
communications strategy.
* The contractor will report to the Senior Advisor, HR Operations
Management, and collaborate with HR leaders, subject matter
experts, and internal stakeholders to plan, review, and deliver
communications.

JOB DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

* Business partnership: Partner with HR units to understand
business goals, initiatives, audiences, timing, stakeholder
needs, and communication priorities.
* Communication strategy and planning: In partnership with the
Communications division, develop and support execution of
communication strategies and plans, including audiences,
messages, channels, timing, approvals, owners, dependencies, and
follow-up actions.
* Content development: Draft, edit, and review HR -specific
internal communications, including employee emails, manager
toolkits, intranet content, leader messaging, FAQs, articles,
reminders, process updates, and presentation copy.
* Message effectiveness: Provide recommendations to improve
clarity, tone, timing, consistency, accessibility, and
effectiveness of messaging across audiences and initiatives.
* Alignment and consistency: Ensure communications are aligned
with the Communications division’s organization-wide internal
communications strategy, organizational priorities, PS&S
standards, stakeholder expectations, and related initiatives.
* Cross-functional coordination: Coordinate communications across
PS&S cross-functional teams, subject matter experts, business
owners, leaders, and stakeholders to support timely review,
approval, and delivery. Collaborate closely with the
Communications division’s internal communications function.
* Stakeholder advising: Advise HR stakeholders on communication
best practices, audience engagement, plain-language messaging,
channel selection, sequencing, and employee-centered delivery.
* Project and stakeholder coordination: Coordinate subject matter
expert input, review cycles, approvals, delivery, status updates,
and follow-up actions while maintaining quality, confidentiality,
and discretion.
* Tracking and continuous improvement: Support message tracking,
feedback loops, communication calendars, issue identification,
and continuous improvement efforts to strengthen HR communication
effectiveness.

CLARIFICATION OF ROLE BOUNDARIES:

* Business owners and HR leaders retain decision-making authority
for programs, policies, business strategy, priorities, and final
messaging approvals. The Communications division retains
decision-making authority for organization-wide internal
communications.
* This role provides communications guidance, recommendations,
content development, coordination, and execution support. It does
not carry directional authority over PS&S programs, policies,
business decisions, or stakeholder-owned initiatives, nor
directional authority over organization-wide internal
communications.
* Communication plans are developed in partnership with the
Communications division, business owners, HR leaders, subject
matter experts, and appropriate stakeholders, rather than driven
independently by the contractor.

KEY DELIVERABLES:

Communication calendar and cadence plan that improve visibility,
timing, sequencing, and proactive planning.

* Communication plans for priority initiatives and recurring HR
activities, including audiences, messages, channels, owners,
deadlines, dependencies, and approval steps.
* Employee, manager, leader, and stakeholder messages that are
accurate, audience-specific, plain-language, and ready for review
or distribution.
* Updated internal communication and resource content that makes
PS&S guidance, deadlines, meeting materials, templates, and
process information easier to find and use.
* Reusable templates, FAQs, talking points, reminders, one-page
guides, timelines, process summaries, and slide content.
* PS&S Communication tracker that increases accountability by
showing status, owners, deadlines, approvals, dependencies,
risks, and follow-up actions.
* Gap analysis with recommendations to improve structure,
consistency, timing, accessibility, content governance, and
knowledge management.
* Transition documentation with key files, templates, process
notes, open items, recurring communication needs, and recommended
next steps.

QUALIFICATIONS AND SKILLS:

* The ideal candidate combines HR communications judgment, strong
writing and editing skills, project coordination discipline, and
experience managing internal communication channels.
* Required Work Experience: 5+ years of experience in HR
communications, internal communications, organizational
communications, or a related field. Experience in project
coordination, stakeholder engagement, and managing internal
communication channels required.
* Required Degree / Educational Background: Bachelor’s degree in
Communications, Human Resources, Organizational Development,
Business Administration, or a related field, or equivalent
experience.
* Experience in HR, employee communications, internal
communications, organizational communications, change
communications, knowledge management, or project coordination.
* Strong writing, editing, message development, and
plain-language communication skills.
* Ability to develop communication plans for multiple audiences,
channels, initiatives, timelines, and deadlines.
* Experience organizing or publishing internal content in
collaboration platforms, intranet spaces, shared resource sites,
or similar internal communication tools.
* Strong project coordination skills, including deadline
management, approval tracking, stakeholder coordination,
dependency tracking, and follow-through.
* Ability to synthesize input from multiple stakeholders and
translate it into clear, consistent, audience-ready
communications.
* Ability to work with confidential or sensitive HR-related
information with discretion, sound judgment, and professionalism.
* Strong attention to detail, accuracy, tone, formatting, version
control, and consistency.
* Proficiency with Microsoft 365 tools, including Word,
PowerPoint, collaboration platforms, presentation materials, and
spreadsheet or tracking tools.

PREFERRED EXPERIENCE:

* Experience supporting HR communications in a mission-driven,
professional services, healthcare, research, nonprofit,
government, or similarly complex environment.
* Experience with performance management, annual staffing,
employee engagement, compliance, learning programs, onboarding,
offboarding, manager toolkits, employee relations resources, or
workforce planning.
* Experience developing communication governance processes,
templates, intake/request workflows, editorial calendars, review
processes, or knowledge management structures.
* Experience preparing executive-level presentations, leadership
updates, meeting materials, talking points, or employee-facing
communications.
* Experience supporting cross-functional projects that require
coordination across HR, operations, technology, legal, finance,
communications, or other internal stakeholders.
* Experience using project management or tracking tools to
monitor deliverables, deadlines, approvals, dependencies, risks,
and completion status.
* Experience creating practical resources such as checklists,
process maps, FAQs, toolkits, guides, and readiness materials.

SUCCESS MEASURES:

Success in this role will be demonstrated by:

* Improved clarity, consistency, timeliness, and usefulness of
PS&S communications.
* Increased visibility into communication timing, priorities,
owners, dependencies, approvals, and deadlines.
* Clearer review steps, approval timelines, escalation points,
and delivery expectations.
* More current, accessible, and useful PS&S internal resource
content for employees, managers, leaders, and PS&S stakeholders.
* Stronger alignment between PS&S communications, department
priorities, project timelines, and audience needs.
* Reduced duplicate, outdated, hard-to-access, or unclear
content.
* Positive stakeholder feedback on accuracy, usefulness,
readiness for distribution, and ease of finding information.
* Documented practices that help PS&S sustain communication
improvements after the contractor engagement ends.