Sports Public Relations Jobs in Silver Spring, MD

Department: Communications

Position: Director of Communications

Reporting To: Vice President of Communications

Location: Remote for continental U.S. residents; (Office is Located in Washington DC)

Travel: Up to 10% domestic travel to RAINN’s Washington, DC headquarters as needed.

Position type: Full-Time, Exempt

Compensation Range: $130,000 – $145,000 (commensurate with experience).

About This Role

RAINN is looking for a Director of Communications who knows how to develop and land the story, build the editorial relationship, maximize PR in a partnership and relishes the chase in all three.

This is a role for a sharp, instinctive PR and media leader who reads the news in the morning and sees five places RAINN should be in by the afternoon. Someone who picks up the phone after sending a follow-up email. Someone who can spot the cultural or media moment, find the angle, make the ask, and place RAINN's expertise where it matters — on the front page, in digital pubs, on the podcast everyone is talking about, in the writers' room, in the artist's lyrics, in the athlete's post-game interview.

As the nation's largest anti-sexual violence organization, RAINN is leading some of the most consequential conversations in American life about prevention, justice and healing. The director of communications of Public Relations leads RAINN's earned media strategy and is the connective tissue between our programmatic work and the public conversations where it belongs.

You will report to the VP of Communications and partner closely with the Director of Marketing, our Content Strategist, Creative Director and external PR partners. You'll supervise the Entertainment Partnerships Manager and you'll be a builder and coach of RAINN's spokesperson bench. If you've spent your career building a contact list you're proud of and a reputation for getting yes when other people get no, this is the job.

What You'll Do

Meet the Story Where It Lives

The job isn't to land in any one kind of outlet,  it's to know which outlet matters for which audience, which moment, and which goal, and to be in the right one at the right time. A Times placement or a Sunday op-ed in the Post establishes credibility with lawmakers, funders, and institutional partners. A long, smart podcast conversation might do more to shift how a younger audience actually thinks about consent. A well-timed Reddit AMA, a Mashable explainer, a 19th newsroom feature, a viral TikTok from a creator we've briefed, a thoughtful Vox piece, a sharp segment on The Daily, a quote in The Athletic during a sports accountability moment, a Teen Vogue feature on Take It Down, an appearance on Pod Save America or Armchair Expert or The Read, an interview with a YouTuber whose audience trusts them in a way no anchor ever could — each of these earns RAINN credibility somewhere different, and each requires a different kind of pitch, a different relationship, and a different read of the moment.

From your seat on our education and community pillar, build RAINN’s PR profile across our three other impact areas and help sift through the noise of activity to find the actual opportunity. Our topics include victim support and services and our role as a secure and healing destination for survivors and allies; public policy and justice and our role as a legislation leader and generator at the state and federal level; consulting and training and our role as an expert in the space of organizational and industry prevention and response. But sexual violence touches all communities and building awareness wherever change is needed is part of the role. 

• Identify which platforms move which audiences toward which behaviors, and build coverage strategies that match.
• Hunt for and land earned media wherever it serves the mission — legacy print and broadcast, digital-native publications, the podcast ecosystem, YouTube and creator channels, talk radio, newsletters with real subscriber loyalty, Reddit and Discord communities where the conversation is already happening, and the next platform none of us has heard of yet.
• Build a real, working press list — not a database but a relationship-base. Know reporters, producers, hosts, and creators by beat, by deadline pressure, by what they're chasing. Be the call they take.
• Identify the news pegs and cultural moments where RAINN's expertise is the missing piece, and move fast enough to be in the story while it's still the story.
• Place op-eds, ghostwrite for leadership, and pitch original story ideas that journalists actually want to write about sexual violence, its challenges, and our solutions in prevention, justice and healing.

Build the Entertainment Strategy in Team Partnership

RAINN's entertainment work runs as a true three-way partnership, and the director of communications of Public Relations is the connective tissue in the middle.

The VP of Communications owns the high-level strategy, sets the goals that go to the Board, and plays the active senior role in the room — the executive who secures the marquee partners, makes the calls only an exec can make, and aligns entertainment work with RAINN's integrated organizational strategy. The Entertainment Partnerships Manager owns the program as the issue-area expert and the ultimate executor — the one with the day-to-day relationships, the program playbook, and the talent-side hustle.

The director of communications of Public Relations sits between them: turning the VP's strategy into concrete, executable objectives, supporting the higher-level tactical work, and serving as a partner and sounding board to the Entertainment Partnerships Manager as they execute.

• Translate the VP of Communications' entertainment vision into clear strategic objectives — annual priorities, quarterly targets, signature moments — and partner with the Entertainment Partnerships Manager to build the execution roadmap that gets us there.
• Support the higher-level tactical work alongside the VP: helping shape the asks to top-tier partners, sitting in on the meetings where the Director's presence sharpens the strategy, and making sure earned media muscle is ready to amplify whatever the partnership produces.
• Consult closely with the Entertainment Partnerships Manager on the day-to-day execution — strategy refinement, message alignment, navigating tricky moments, evaluating cross-departmental talent requests, and providing the air cover and guardrails that let them build a program with real autonomy.
• Identify culturally resonant moments — premieres, album drops, awards seasons, championship runs, viral conversations — and partner with the Entertainment Partnerships Manager on how RAINN shows up. 
• Connect entertainment partnerships to earned-media outcomes: making sure a talent partner's moment with RAINN gets the press, podcast, and platform coverage it deserves, and that the story travels well beyond the activation itself.
• Offer strategic guidance for the work of the Entertainment Partnerships Manager as they work directly with talent, managers, agents, publicists, studios, leagues, labels, and creator networks. Help them get the meeting, make the ask and close the partnership.

Drive Special Projects That Make People Pay Attention

• Conceive and lead signature editorial projects — reports, original research narratives, documentary collaborations, podcast series, landmark moments — that make RAINN's expertise unmissable and give media a reason to come to us.
• Translate RAINN's programmatic work, public policy advocacy, survivor services data, and research into compelling stories that inform, engage, and inspire action.
• Partner closely with RAINN's Public Policy team to elevate federal and state legislative priorities, policy initiatives, and advocacy efforts through timely, strategic communications that advance RAINN's mission and public impact.
• Support the Vice President of Communications with internal communications and crisis communications. 

Prep RAINN's Spokespeople — and Be Ready Yourself

• Build and run RAINN's spokesperson bench: train, prep, and coach the CEO, senior leadership, victim service and policy experts, and survivor advocates to be sharp, confident, and on-message across broadcast, print, podcast, and digital.

• Develop talking points, message frameworks, and rapid-response materials that hold up under pressure and sound like a human being — not a position paper.

• Run pre-interview prep, mock Q&A, and post-interview debriefs. Build the muscle so RAINN's experts get better with every hit.

• Be media-ready yourself, comfortable on the record, on camera, and on a hot mic and step in as a spokesperson when the moment, the outlet, or the topic calls for it.

• Support the VP of Communications in crisis communications management when coordination and cool heads make all the difference. 

Expand Editorial and Content Capacity

• Add to the organization's editorial muscle in close partnership with the Senior Manager of Content and Community and Marketing Director — sharper press releases, faster rapid response, better op-eds, smarter long-form, and a unified voice across every platform.

• Translate complex programmatic, legal, and clinical material into language that lands with reporters, lawmakers, and the public.

• Develop and execute integrated communications strategies that advance the visibility and impact of RAINN's federal legislative priorities, state policy advocacy efforts, and survivor-centered initiatives through earned media, executive messaging, strategic thought leadership, digital storytelling, and localized media engagement.
• Federal policy work (Congress, federal agencies, national legislation)
• State policy work (state legislatures, governors, attorneys general, state-specific survivor laws)

Lead the Team

• Lead, mentor, and manage performance expectations for the Entertainment Partnerships Manager. 

• Engage across the Comms team to measure, report and elevate our work in our owned channels and within the organization.

• Mentor team members on strategic instinct, relationship building, and the craft of getting things placed.

• Build collaborative relationships across programs and support teams so the communications shop is a force multiplier, not a service desk.

What You Bring

A PR Operator's Track Record

• 10+ years of progressive communications experience with a demonstrable record of placed coverage — not impressions, not reach decks. Stories that ran, in places that matter, because of you.
• Bachelor's degree in Communications, Public Relations, Journalism, Marketing, Political Science, English, or a related field; advanced degree preferred.
• Existing, active relationships with reporters, producers, podcast hosts, and editors.
• A reputation in the room before you walk in.
• Experience managing PR firms and getting more out of them than the SOW promised.

An Appetite for the New Media Landscape

• Fluency across the full earned-media surface area: legacy print and broadcast, of course, but also podcasts (where the long, smart conversations happen), YouTube and creator channels, Substack and independent journalism, TikTok and short-form, and the talk-show, late-night, and streaming entertainment ecosystem.
• A point of view on which platforms move which audiences, and the judgment to know when Pod Save America matters more than the Today show — and when it doesn't.

Entertainment, Sports, or Influencer Chops

• Experience cultivating partnerships with celebrities, athletes, musicians, creators, or entertainment industry professionals — or a track record that makes clear you would be exceptional at it.
• Comfort working with publicists, agents, managers, and talent, and the discretion and judgment to be trusted in those rooms.

A Writer Who Can Really Write

• Outstanding writing across formats — pitches that get opened, op-eds that get placed, press statements that journalists quote, talking points that survive contact with a hostile interview.
• An editor's eye and a reporter's nose. Knows what the story is, often before the reporter does.
• Can take dense programmatic, legal, or research material and make it land.

Media Presence and Coaching Instinct

• On-camera and on-mic confidence — comfortable as a spokesperson when needed, and able to step in credibly during high-volume news moments.
• Demonstrated experience media-training executives, experts, or advocates — and the instinct to know what makes someone good on air versus what makes them safe.
• Steady under pressure, including in crisis communications and rapid-response moments where minutes matter.

Mission Alignment

• A respect for RAINN's mission and a sophisticated understanding or fast-study of sexual violence as a public issue — including the care, sensitivity, and competency required to communicate about trauma and with survivors with integrity.
• The judgment to know when not to chase a moment, and the spine to say so.

Technology & Digital Fluency

• Demonstrated technical proficiency in G Suite, including the ability to effectively use and manage tools such as Google Drive, Google Docs, Google Sheets, and Google Calendar.
• Comfortable learning and leveraging new communications technologies, collaboration platforms, and digital tools.

Why You'll Love This Role

If you got into this work because you love the chase — the cold call, the late-night text from a reporter, the moment the segment airs and your phone lights up — this is the job for you.

You'll have a real platform: RAINN's expertise is sought by Congress, by major newsrooms, by Hollywood, by athletic leagues, and by the public every time sexual violence breaks into the national conversation. Your job is to make sure that when those moments come, RAINN's voices are in the story and to create the moments when they don't come on their own.

You'll work alongside policy advocates,...