Job Description

Location: Tahoe Office, Dartmouth Office, Foord St. Office, King St. Office

Postal Code:

Our family of 134,000 employees and franchise affiliates share a collective passion for delivering exceptional shopping experiences and amazing food to all our customers. Our mission is to nurture the things that make life better - great experiences, families, communities, and our employees. We are a family nurturing families.

A proudly Canadian company, we started in a small town in Nova Scotia but we are now in communities of all sizes across this great country. With over 1500 stores in all 10 provinces, you may know us as Sobeys, Safeway, IGA, Foodland, FreshCo, Thrifty Foods, Lawtons Drug Stores or another of our great banners but we are all one extended family.

All career opportunities will be open a minimum of 5 business days from the date of posting.

Ready to Make an impact?

We are looking for a dynamic teammate to support our public affairs and government relations team, collaborating with key stakeholders across the organization to engage government officials at varying levels. The Specialist, External Communications will also apply regulatory insights to adapt strategic narratives for diverse audiences, providing consult, training, and support to corporate spokespeople for government relations and public affairs.

Note: This is a 6 (six) month contract role.

Here\'s where you\'ll be focusing:

The External Communications Team focuses on protecting and advancing corporate reputation and supports key business priorities. Working directly with internal teams, external strategic partners and the media, the Specialist, External Communications will support day-to-day media relations activities and issues management. Contributing to the advancement of key business priorities, the Specialist will partner with internal project teams to define and advance stakeholder, government and media relations planning.

• Develop and manage communications for external audiences
• Acting as a company spokesperson, they will manage and respond to media and social media activity as it relates to day-to-day operations, including support for stores and distribution centres nationally
• Contribute to planning and writing for communications outreach to key external audiences including customers, government and stakeholders
• Provide media and public relations support for community-sponsored events and store openings
• Partner with the business and Marketing to identify, plan and execute proactive PR based on business activity and consumer PR opportunities
• Support the creative development, writing and production of external communications materials, including news content, speeches, presentations and corporate videos
• Support crisis and issues management to protect corporate brand and reputation
• Assemble and distribute daily news clippings and maintain media database
• Support issues and Customer Care in responding to customer questions and stakeholder requests
• Support the ongoing management and maintenance of the corporate website

What you have to offer:

• Post-secondary degree in Journalism, Communications, Public Relations or related field
• Minimum 5 years of previous communications experience - preferably in media relations and issues management
• Solid team player with expertise in developing and implementing proactive media relations and integrated communications plans
• Knowledge of media relations best practices including media material development, process, and coverage analysis
• Ability to act quickly and multi-task in a fast-paced, deadline driven environment
• Superior research, writing and editing skills
• Ability to align and write with corporate tone and voice
• Self-starter with strong interpersonal skills and an ability to work across all levels in an organization
• Confident on-camera media spokesperson
• Exceptional public speaking and presentation skills
• Familiarity with social media tools
• Proficient in Microsoft Office

Note: Bilingual candidates preferred (French/English)

We offer teammates competitive total compensation packages that will vary by role and location. Some websites share our job opportunities and may provide salary estimates without our knowledge. These estimates are based on similar jobs and postings for general comparison, but these numbers are not provided by or monitored for accuracy by our organization. We look forward to discussing the specific compensation details relevant to this role with candidates who are selected to move forward in the recruitment process.

Sobeys is committed to accommodating applicants with disabilities throughout the hiring process and will work with applicants requesting accommodation at any stage of this process.

While all responses are appreciated only those being considered for interviews will be acknowledged.

We appreciate the interest from the Staffing industry however respectfully request no calls or unsolicited resumes from Agencies.

Sobeys