Tag: DC

The Organization

Kearns & West’s Washington, DC Office has an opening for a Project Coordinator. Kearns & West is a national collaborative problem solving, dispute resolution, and strategic communications firm with offices in Washington, DC, Sacramento/Davis, Los Angeles, San Diego, and San Francisco, CA, and Portland, OR. We provide a spectrum of services including project management; outreach and engagement; process and meeting design, conflict resolution including mediation; collaborative decision making; and strategic planning. We work extensively – but not exclusively – on public policy decision-making, conflict resolution, and citizen engagement across a broad spectrum of issues. Our collaborative programs are designed to identify and organize a range of issues, opinions, goals, and interests into clear, productive processes that lead to successful conclusions for diverse parties and key stakeholders.

Kearns & West’s mission: Organizations impacting society operate within a complex framework of needs, policies, interests, and markets. Kearns & West navigates this framework to help clients collaborate, communicate vision, and create productive connections with their stakeholders, employees and customers.

For more information please visit: https://kearnswest.com/

The Position

This is an entry-level position that provides project management support to an IDIQ contract with the Department of Interior along with supporting our broader Collaborative Solutions practice. The position involves coordinating, tracking, and maintaining project management systems in support of multiple projects and project teams conducting work across the collaborative problem solving, strategic planning, dispute resolution, public outreach and engagement, and communications processes with private sector and federal government clients.

Key responsibilities for this position include the following:

• Maintaining project tracking systems with updated information garnered from project sources
• Leading administrative and logistical tasks for the contract management team
• Ensuring accuracy of contract information across several databases and trackers
• Coordinating and communicating project information across several teams and entities
• Processing contract changes and project invoices
• Maintaining client and practitioner relationships
• Scheduling and facilitating client and project calls
• Undertaking new business development proposal processes
• Supporting project teams to track scope, budget and schedule of several projects
• Note-taking for key meetings
• Synthesizing project performance data for reporting and improvement purposes
• Contributing to monitoring and evaluating of projects
• Supporting public involvement planning and execution
• Proofreading reports and other documents
• Virtual and in-person meeting logistical and technical support

Qualifications

We are looking for someone who is:

• Highly organized and analytical
• Adaptable and flexible
• Ethical, collegial, and committed to seeking positive outcomes for clients and stakeholders
• Self-motivated and comfortable working independently, yet successful at balancing working as part of a team
• Comfortable taking direction and being empowered to take the initiative
• Able to reliably set priorities, manage multiple tasks, and meet task deadlines for multiple  
• Self-motivated and comfortable working independently with limited supervision
• An effective and reliable communicator
• Able to reliably set priorities, manage multiple tasks, and meet project deadlines
• Comfortable learning on the job
• Able to balance work across multiple projects for multiple clients
• Proficient and comfortable working in Excel and closely tracking data
• Fluent with virtual meeting technologies such as zoom, WebEx, Miro, Poll Everywhere, etc.

This position:

• will require regular presence in our Washington, DC office and may require some travel (local, regional, national)
• is a non-partisan, “neutral” position in relation to subject matter, not an advocacy position

IMMEDIATE HIRE: We plan to fill this position as soon as possible.

Education, Certifications and Experience

MINIMUM EDUCATION: Bachelor of Science or Bachelor of Arts degree or equivalent. Advanced degree or education is valued.

REQUIRED SKILLS/EXPERIENCE: Proficiency in MS Office (Outlook, Word, PowerPoint, and Excel), particularly in Excel, is required. Demonstrated project management experience is required.

PREFERRED SKILLS/EXPERIENCE: Strong candidates will have a minimum of two years of employment experience. Proficiency with basic contract management tools including budget tracking is preferred and a recognized project management certification is valued. Demonstrated understanding of federal government contracting is desired. An interest across any or all of the following is desired: project management, data management, monitoring and evaluation, facilitation and stakeholder engagement.

PRIOR DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR EXPERIENCE: We value a demonstrated prior connection to and professional relationships with the Department of the Interior.

How to Apply

Please e-mail a resume and cover letter to personnel@kearnswest.com. We ask that you not call K&W staff or send telecopies. Resumes will be accepted until the position is filled.

THE ORGANIZATION

Kearns & West specializes in designing and implementing technology solutions that help groups achieve more when they are together (in person or virtually) and between meetings. We blend technology considerations with group dynamics, outreach, and communications expertise. The work within our ever-evolving technology practices ranges from deploying virtual decision-making tools during a pandemic, facilitating collaborative development of an interactive requirements database for a visioning process, or conducting user research to advance, deploy, and evolve a full range of technology and program resource deployments in project environments.

We provide a spectrum of services including facilitation; public involvement; project management; digital engagement and collaborative technology; process and meeting design, conflict resolution including mediation; outreach and engagement; collaborative decision-making; and strategic planning. We work extensively – but not exclusively – on public policy decision-making, conflict resolution, and citizen engagement across a broad spectrum of issues. Our collaborative programs are designed to identify and organize a range of issues, opinions, goals and interests into clear, productive processes that lead to successful conclusions for diverse parties and key stakeholders.

Kearns & West’s mission: Organizations impacting society operate within a complex framework of needs, policies, interests, and markets. Kearns & West navigates this framework to help clients collaborate, communicate vision, and create productive connections with their stakeholders, employees and customers.

THE POSITION

We are seeking an energetic Collaborative Technology Consultant to join our Washington, DC office. The position will collaborate with staff in offices across Charleston SC, Denver CO, Sacramento/Davis CA, Los Angeles CA, San Diego CA, and San Francisco, CA, and Portland, OR.

This position is a good fit for those with process- and people- focused user experience interests. In this role you will navigate among internal agency partners to identify challenges, troubleshoot, and improve process efficiency in using a wide range of technology tools from webinars to polling to collaborative document editing, support process and technology design and deployment in complex data-driven decision-making processes, and assess interests and synthesize data to develop decision-flows and analysis of technology options to inform prioritization, strategic planning, selection, and roll out activities.

If you have “fluency in technology” and are able to quickly assess technology challenges, consider individual and team human elements, and research and lead project and internal technology deployments, then this is the position for you! Experience across a breadth of collaborative technology platforms is ideal – including webinar tools (e.g., Zoom, MS Teams, WebEx), database and CRM tools (e.g., Insightly, SharePoint, Airtable), website development (e.g., WordPress, SharePoint, HTML); visualization and graphic design (the Adobe Creative Suite, Miro, word clouds, etc.) and more!

The Collaborative Technology Consultant will be responsible for:

• Event technology design and support and troubleshooting,
• Webinar management and technical facilitation,
• User research and user-centered design including interviews and focus group planning and execution,
• Requirements gathering and data synthesis,
• Digital engagement research and support,
• Social media and digital communications support,
• Team onboarding and technology adoption support for growing collaborative technology toolkit, technical writing, and support documentation creation (developing user guides, leading technology trainings.)

EXPERIENCE

• 4+ years of experience.
• Demonstrated interest in technology deployment and adoption, collaborative processes and team support, facilitation, and stakeholder/customer/user engagement strongly preferred. Demonstrated interest in conflict resolution, environmental issues, natural resource management, and/or energy is beneficial.

SKILLS

• Ability to manage multiple tasks and projects simultaneously
• Ability to be flexible and resourceful and handle pressure/tight deadlines gracefully
• Ability to interact and perform in a team-based environment
• Ability to accessibly communicate technical matter, including written communications (user guides), 1-on-1 user troubleshooting support across all levels of technology acumen, and technology trainings
• Capacity to rapidly distill core strengths and constraints of technological platforms
• Strong writing skills
• Strong knowledge of Microsoft Office – Outlook, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint
• Strong knowledge of Adobe Creative Suite – Acrobat, Illustrator, InDesign, Dreamweaver
• Strong knowledge of webinar and synchronous technology platforms – Adobe Connect, Zoom / Ring Central Meetings, WebEx, MS Teams
• Knowledge of GIS platforms and deployment requirements
• Knowledge of charts, graphs, and visuals / graphic design a plus
• Knowledge or interest in graphic design including document layouts, charts, graphs, infographics
• Experience or interest in social media

WHAT WE OFFER:

Generous 401k Matching

Full benefits

Companywide bonus program

HOW TO APPLY

Please e-mail a resume and cover letter to personnel@kearnswest.com with the subject “Washington DC Collaborative Technology & Team Coordinator.” We ask that you do not call or email staff directly. Resumes will be accepted until the position is filled.

For more information please visit: https://kearnswest.com/contact-us/careers/

Business Development/Marketing Director
Permanent Position
Washington, DC

The Organization

Kearns & West is a national collaborative problem solving, dispute resolution, and strategic communications firm with offices in Sacramento/Davis, Los Angeles, San Diego, and San Francisco, CA, Portland, OR and Washington DC. Considered a leader in the stakeholder engagement and collaborative solutions field, Kearns & West’s collaborative programs are designed to take a diverse range of issues, opinions, goals and interests and organize them into clear, productive processes that lead to successful conclusions. We work extensively – but not exclusively – on public policy decision making, conflict resolution, and citizen engagement across a broad spectrum of issues.

Kearns & West’s mission: Organizations impacting society operate within a complex framework of needs, policies, interests, and markets. Kearns & West navigates this framework to help clients collaborate, communicate vision, and create productive connections with their stakeholders, employees and customers.

Kearns & West’s high-stakes projects include work at local, state, regional, and national levels and cover a variety of sectors including energy, water, marine resources, land use and natural resources, government, business and academia, community and regional planning and technology and Internet.

For more information about the company, please visit: http://36c.cd0.mwp.accessdomain.com/.

The Position

Kearns & West seeks a Business Development/Marketing Director to work from our Washington, DC office. We are always open to hearing interest from exceptional people from other locations interested in working with Kearns & West in this other and roles. The role of the Director is to be a firm-wide leader and presence in coaching, leading, identifying opportunities, encouraging strategic Business Development activity, and building appropriate and efficient systems.

Job duties include:

• Developing, implementing, and coordinating internal marketing systems
• Creating, updating, and maintaining marketing materials such as social media, announcements, fact sheets, firm qualifications, project description databases, and more
• Tracking prospects and opportunities, including RFPs in local, state, and federal government and non-governmental organizations
• Proposal management for high-value proposal responses from RFP notification to winning submission (e.g., internal team coordination, compliance matrix development, RFP deconstruction, creating win themes, proposal outlines, partner data calls, content development, budget development, copy editing, preliminary and final review, formatting and design, and production/submission.)
• Proposal support for other opportunities
• Leading prep for interviews and pitches, including developing presentations and coaching interview teams
• Conducting internal debriefs and evaluating lessons learned following high-value pursuits
• Increase the number of opportunities identified and pursued in sector teams and firm-wide
• Track and evaluate results of pursuits and recommend improvements, as needed
• Develop protocols and increase efficiencies in the Go/No-Go and proposal development processes
• Build staff capacity in Business Development firm-wide by coaching and training sector and office teams

• Increase level of marketing activity firm-wide
• Improve profitability through better contracting practices by coaching administrative team and project managers

Qualifications

The ideal candidate will be someone with a proven track record in marketing for Professional Services consulting firms.

In addition, the ideal candidate will be:

• Well-organized and prepared to contribute to the team organization
• Committed to business development and growing Kearns & West’s practice
• Adaptable and flexible
• A strategic and effective communicator
• Able to reliably set priorities, manage multiple tasks, and meet project deadlines
• Able to work and balance multiple projects at one time
• Successful at balancing working as part of a team with working independently
• Comfortable collaborating virtually with inter-office teams
• Pro-active leader
• Systems design and management capabilities
• Strong writing, copy editing, and spreadsheet skills

Lastly, as Kearns & West continues to expand its presence, the selected candidate will be someone who embraces this unique opportunity to help grow and build the Firm.

Education, Certifications and Experience

• Requires a Bachelor of Science or Bachelor of Arts degree.
• Advanced degree or education a plus but will not change job duties.
• Successful candidates will have 3-5 years of experience in a marketing role in a firm providing services in aligned markets such as federal government communications and policy development, environmental planning and permitting, urban design and planning, water, energy, transportation and mobility, etc.
• Experience navigating prime contractor and subcontractor relationships and teaming dynamics
• Led or supported numerous successful proposal efforts for federal, state, and local government agency procurement processes.
• Comfort leading and coaching others to be successful in the full-range of Business Development activities, including relationship management, capture management, proposal development and contract negotiation.

Compensation

The salary for this position is open, and will be dependent upon the qualifications and experience of the selected candidate. In addition, benefits are provided which include: profit-sharing; 401K; bonuses; health, dental and disability insurance; vacation and holidays; and more.

How to Apply

Please e-mail a resume and cover letter to personnel@kearnswest.com. We ask that you not call K&W staff or send telecopies. Resumes will be accepted until the position is filled.

Permanent Position
Washington, DC

The Organization

Kearns & West’s Washington, DC Office has an opening for a senior facilitator or public engagement/communications expert or small firm with a focus on the federal government sector, interested in joining the Washington DC office. Kearns & West is a national collaborative problem solving, dispute resolution, and strategic communications firm with offices in Washington, DC; Portland, OR; and Riverside, Sacramento/Davis, San Diego, and San Francisco, CA. We provide a spectrum of services including project management; outreach and engagement; process and meeting design, conflict resolution including mediation; collaborative decision making; and strategic planning. We work extensively – but not exclusively – on public policy decision making, conflict resolution, and citizen engagement across a broad spectrum of issues. Our collaborative programs are designed to identify and organize a range of issues, opinions, goals and interests into clear, productive processes that lead to successful outcomes for diverse parties and key stakeholders.

Kearns & West’s vision: Working together to make an impact in an environment of opportunity, respect and diversity.

Kearns & West’s mission: Organizations impacting society operate within a complex framework of needs, policies, interests, and markets. Kearns & West navigates this framework to help clients collaborate, communicate vision, and create productive connections with their stakeholders, employees and customers.

Kearns & West offers a collegial work environment and a partnership track for qualified and interested professionals.  Kearns & West strives for a culturally diverse and inclusive workplace.  We offer a full benefit package including a very generous 401k match program.

For more information please visit: http://36c.cd0.mwp.accessdomain.com/

The Position

The individual or group/firm would have an existing and complementary federal government client base and experience facilitating collaborative processes involving stakeholders from state and federal agencies, tribes, environmental organizations, industry, and local interests and/or assisting organizations to develop and implement public policy and public engagement/strategic communications programs.

The Kearns & West Federal Government Practice includes natural resources and environmental work across the Department of Interior, Department of Energy, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and Department of Commerce (NOAA.) In addition to strong federal government work, it is hoped that the individual or group/firm also brings direct energy sector experience and qualifications. There will also be opportunities to support our broader collaboration and communications practices, in addition to the energy sector with other sectors including water, marine, land management and others. This position and the firm culture require individuals to be self-starters and leaders as well as strong team players working in teams within and outside the firm.

The successful candidate will align with and expand our Federal Government practice in these areas. Preference may be given to candidates that have active practices and experience in the energy space, including renewable and traditional generation and siting, transmission, grid and energy demand, and projects that blend across energy, environmental, social, and cultural issues and impacts. Our work seeks to manage conflict and collaboration in finding and developing energy, addressing changing community and public values, and meeting future needs with aging and innovative infrastructure. Kearns & West is excited about the opportunity to continue evolving our decades of experience working with energy stakeholders – on hydro, offshore renewables (marine and wind), wind, solar, and oil and natural gas issues – to address needs of society and communities.

This position will be responsible for business development, including federal contract management and teaming with technical partnering firms, project management, meeting facilitation, collaborative problem solving, strategic planning, dispute resolution, public outreach and engagement, and communications processes with federal government clients and private sector clients.

Qualifications

The candidate individual or group/firm will be: 

• An experienced, effective facilitator or public engagement and communications expert with a reputation for integrity, fairness, and achieving results.
• 10 or more years of relevant experience (facilitation, dispute resolution, public engagement, communications, collaborative processes).
• A client base or the ability to develop a client base that complements and expands K&W’s existing practice areas
  • Preference for federal government clients/expertise; and
  • Preference for environmental and energy experience, for example, hydro, offshore renewables, wind, solar, and oil and natural gas issues, energy planning and policy, and environmental management.
• A proven ability to develop business.
• An existing national, mid-Atlantic and/or East coast practice and client base.
• A proven ability to manage a team of professionals assigned to collaboration/facilitation/public engagement projects.
• Proven experience at managing, retaining, training, and growing staff at all levels to move into more senior roles and responsibilities.
• A proven ability to design and lead collaborative processes with senior-level stakeholders.
• A proven ability to analyze and explain complex environmental issues and regulations particularly those related to energy, and also water, land management, transportation issues in the east and nationally.
• A proven ability to provide clients with strategic counsel on public engagement/collaboration and environmental/natural resource regulatory processes (NEPA, state-NEPA, ESA, Wild and Scenic Rivers, etc.).
• A style that fits with the Kearns & West positive team culture, both within the firm and with the stakeholder teams.

This position:

• Will require presence in our Washington, DC office and likely will require travel (local, regional, national).
• Is a non-partisan, impartial position in relation to subject matter, not an advocacy position.

IMMEDIATE HIRE: We plan to fill this position as soon as possible.

Education, Certifications and Experience

MINIMUM EDUCATION: Bachelor of Science or Bachelor of Arts degree or equivalent. Advanced degree or education is valued.

PREFERRED SKILLS/EXPERIENCE: Strong candidates will have a minimum of 10 years of experience. It would be helpful to know the candidate’s familiarity with various federal government prospect tracking tools.

How to Apply

Please e-mail a resume and cover letter to personnel@kearnswest.com. We ask that you not call K&W staff. Resumes will be accepted until the position is filled.