Deputy Director, Events & Partnerships

Job Code: PRO-CM-05X

Location: Ripple Effect Headquarters – Rockville, MD 

Employee Type: Exempt, Full-Time Regular

Telework: Partial - in office at Ripple Effect Headquarters 1-2 days/week

Salary Range: $111,078.00 - $138,848.00 per year

Clearance: Public Trust

Manager: Yes

Are you passionate about using communication to advance a mission that matters?

As the Deputy Director of Events and Partnerships within Ripple Effect's Communications Division, you will use your communications and engagement background and ability to lead to manage and execute communications, engagement, and event activities for a variety of government clients. Your work will directly impact the day-to-day work of high-visibility communications-related deliverables and events to ensure that projects are delivered on time and produce the desired result for our clients, including tracking progress on deliverables, timelines, budgets, and resource-allocation. While not an exhaustive list, the key duties for this position include:

Responsibilities

• Lead and participate in client meetings, including agenda and slide development, meeting facilitation, note taking, and assigning action items. Develop and maintain excellent relationships with clients and vendors, focusing on delivering high-quality service.
• Spearhead communications projects by identifying opportunities, developing plans, obtaining appropriate approval, initiating action, and closing out projects. Contributes to business development by evaluating company capabilities, drafting proposals, communicating Ripple Effect's brand, and identifying opportunities.
• Lead audience engagement initiatives and activities to strategically broaden client networks and amplify messaging reach.
• Provide supervision and mentoring on task management, and communications, engagement, and outreach techniques and tools.
• Build monthly and quarterly content plans, including email marketing campaigns, newsletters, and other collateral. Determine the need for materials to support agency programs including talking points, presentation and engagement plans, feature stories, speeches, etc.
• Oversee the preparation and distribution of conference materials in digital and hard copy format, such as program books, agenda, briefing materials, PowerPoints, travel, and hotel information, etc.
• Oversee and contribute to the management of all components of the event lifecycle (pre-, day-of, and post-event) to include managing event budgets, creating and monitoring registration sites, uploading website content, drafting event-related emails, plans, and social media, developing RFPs, sourcing, negotiating, and selecting vendors, securing room blooks, making travel arrangements, responding to attendee and client questions, providing day of support, reviewing and analyzing survey responses, drafting and reviewing meeting summaries, and reconciling invoices.
• Perform data analysis on communication strategies and campaign success, identifying KPIs and metrics, and tracking over time. Perform other duties related to the core functions of the role.
• Delivers proactive and effective communications even in complex or high-risk situations and mentors others on communications best practices by conducting reviews to implement lessons learned, sharing knowledge, fostering team collaboration, and encouraging professional growth.
• Develops and monitors budgets, manages costs, reallocates hours, and ensures efficient resource use and accurate invoicing, by enforcing quality standards, identifying quality issues and solutions, and reviewing key deliverables to organize information, and ensure accuracy.

Requirements

 Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree (BA/BS) with 9+ years of relevant professional experience
• 4+ years of project management experience
• 2+ years supervisory experience

• Must have current or previous experience working at Ripple Effect and be familiar with company work style and processes.
• Highly organized, efficient, and extremely detail-oriented with ability to see the big picture with advanced experience leading projects and teams, tasking, implementing a quality review process for all deliverables, and following up on others’ work to ensure deliverable deadlines are met.
• Advanced experience leading governmental, non-profit, and/or corporate in-person, virtual, and hybrid event planning projects, including the use of event software.
• Advanced experience developing communications strategies, tactical implementation plans, and content in a range of voices, styles, and formats.
• Excellent verbal and written communications skills for face-to-face interactions with clients, co-workers, and leadership including recommending strategies for effective customer outcomes and preparing high quality, client-ready deliverables.
• Ability to learn quickly, perform complex tasks following established procedures, and condense complex information from diverse sources into concise, attractive, and user friendly formats.
• Intermediate experience with Microsoft Office productivity software and collaboration tools such as Microsoft Teams and SharePoint.

Skills That Set You Apart

• Master's Degree or other advanced degree
• PMP or other project management certification; Certified Meeting Professional (CMP) and/or Certified Government Meeting Professional (CGMP)
• Experience in federal government contracting, especially with CMS and/or NIH experience; including experience in health, science, and healthcare projects
• Advanced experience with policy communications, marketing techniques, and/or crisis communications
• Intermediate experience with AI tools, including their limitations and risks, and how they can be applied to support project management tasks. 

About Ripple Effect

Ripple Effect is a woman-owned, 200-person company of communicators, scientists, researchers, and analysts. Established in 2003, and named as one of the “Best and Brightest Companies to Work For” in 2024 and 2025 by the NABR, Ripple Effect has earned acclaim for delivering unparalleled consulting services and top-tier talent across federal, private, and non-profit sectors.

Benefits

At Ripple Effect, we reward our employees for their contributions to our mission. Our comprehensive total rewards package includes competitive pay, exceptional benefits, and a range of programs that support your work/life balance and personalized preferences.

Learn more about our benefits and culture here.