Manager, Strategic Initiatives and Community Engagement at Southern Company in Virginia Beach, VA

Join Virginia Natural Gas as the Manager of Strategic Initiatives and Community Engagement, where you'll lead transformative community engagement strategies for vital infrastructure projects. In this dynamic role, you'll foster meaningful relationships with the community, ensuring their voices are heard and valued while aligning organizational goals to deliver clean, safe, reliable and affordable natural gas service. With a focus on strategic planning and collaboration, you'll drive initiatives that resonate with community needs and uphold the principles of The Virginia Environmental Justice Act, making a tangible impact on both the company and the community.

The Manager, Strategic Initiatives and Community Engagement leads and drives comprehensive community engagement strategy for infrastructure modernization and pressure improvement projects and will play an essential role fostering relationships between Virginia Natural Gas and the community. This position involves planning and implementing initiatives that enhance engagement, ensuring the community feels heard, valued and connected to Virginia Natural Gas’ mission and goals to provide clean, safe, reliable and affordable natural gas service. This role requires researching and having a deep understanding of the community’s needs and interests, as well as the ability to translate organizational objectives into community-focused programs that support growth and engagement.

This position has responsibility for and partners and collaborates with internal leaders to ensure the alignment and interdependency of the company’s infrastructure engineering, design and construction processes and community engagement and outreach, including but not limited to Front-End Engineering Design (FEED) studies. The position will lead efforts to ensure the company understands the community impact of siting projects. This role also will perform analysis and develop strategic community engagement plans consistent with the requirements of The Virginia Environmental Justice Act (§ 2.2-234 et seq. of the Code of Virginia) and section 20VAC5-205-10 for the Virginia Administrative Code.

JOB RESPONSIBILITES:

This position requires strong leadership, communication, project management and strategic planning skills. Candidates must also be adept at building relationships, understanding community needs and working collaboratively with a wide range of stakeholders.

Community Engagement

Develop and implement strategies for increasing community engagement and participation across various platforms, ensuring alignment with organizational goals related to infrastructure modernization.
Lead the development and management of community engagement programs, events, workshops and meetings, both virtual and in-person, to foster a sense of community and encourage active participation.
Monitor, track and report on feedback and online reviews from community members, leveraging insights to improve community engagement strategies and initiatives.
Collect and analyze data to measure outcomes; regularly evaluate the impact of community engagement and environmental justice (EJ) initiatives and report on progress to company leadership, stakeholders, and the community.
Support tribal coordination and consultation for relevant projects, including communicating with and gathering information from tribes, assessing impacts on cultural and tribal resources, and drafting findings in reports, settlements, or other documents
Lead and facilitate conflict resolution within the community, ensuring a respectful and inclusive environment where all members feel valued and heard.
Conduct staff training and support related to community engagement and environmental justice.
Provide technical support and develop resources for leaders on conducting environmental justice analysis.
Research, recommend and conduct appropriate community outreach.
Engage and manage external EJ and community engagement consultants.
Interact with stakeholders including state and federal agency staff, the regulated community and the general public.

Environmental Justice (EJ)

Responsible for ensuring regulatory requests have the appropriate community engagement and environmental justice analysis, testify in proceedings and respond to data requests.
Direct internal reviews of processes for effectiveness and assessments of the impact of strategic plans related to community engagement and environmental justice.
Identify and analyze potential environmental justice impacts in projects and draft environmental justice equity, diversity and inclusion provisions in reports or other documents.
Conduct environmental justice and social impact assessments to support business development and infrastructure modernization.
Assess and lead efforts to mitigate risks, explore mitigation strategies and build appropriate community engagement plans concerning environmental justice and tribal engagement.

Collaboration and Partnerships

Represent VNG in Southern Company/Southern Company Gas enterprise-wide collaboration on community engagement, environmental stewardship, and environmental justice.
Partner with Regulatory Affairs and Governmental Affairs to establish and maintain relationships with community leaders, influencers, and other key stakeholders to amplify community outreach efforts and partnerships.
Partner with Corporate Communications and other internal stakeholders to create, curate and manage published content (images, video, written) to engage community members, stimulate conversation and build brand awareness.
Coordinate with the Marketing and Corporate Communications team to integrate community relations strategies with broader marketing campaigns and leverage community insights for marketing purposes.
In partnership and collaboration with Corporate Communications, research and implement new technologies and tools for community engagement, such as social media platforms or community management software, to enhance the effectiveness of engagement strategies.
Oversee internal and external reporting.

JOB REQUIREMENTS: (Education, Experience, Knowledge, Skills)

Bachelor’s Degree from an accredited institution and at least 3-5 years of experience in community/stakeholder engagement. Energy sector experience valuable.
Knowledge of principles, practices, terms and concepts of environmental justice and environmental management, social/economic equity issues, economic analysis, legal mandates, current trends and applications in Federal, State and local planning, land use and environmental law.
Demonstrated experience in drafting reports and/or written analysis of demographic, geospatial or program data.
Demonstrated experience supporting and giving presentations for public or stakeholder outreach.

SPECIFIC SKILLS & KNOWLEDGE:

Core community engagement skills.
Ability to translate complex concepts into easy-to-understand and relatable ones for target audiences.
Exceptionally strong written and verbal skills; strong presentation skills.
Proficient use of various software applications including Word, Excel, PowerPoint.
Self-starter with exceptional follow-through skills.
Ability to prioritize and manage multiple deadlines.
Ability to hold self and others accountable for results.
Proven relationship-building skills at all levels within an organization.

WORKING CONDITIONS/PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS:

Due to nature of role, employee may occasionally work beyond traditional business hours to meet deadlines or attend events as company representative.
Works in a hybrid office environment – at least 3 days a week in our Virginia Beach office required.
Occasional Travel (5-20% travel): The incumbent will be required to travel on occasion. Trips may require air travel and/or overnight stay away from home for one or more nights.

Disclaimer: This information describes the general nature and level of work performed by employees in this job. The description is not designed to be a comprehensive inventory of duties, responsibilities and qualifications required in the job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to qualified disabled individuals for performance of essential duties and responsibilities.