Position Title: Manager, Strategic Services Department
Posting Type: Internal and External
At the heart of a vibrant urban/rural community of 103,000, Strathcona County Library (SCL) encourages literacy and lifelong learning, fosters community connections, and offers programs and services that inform, engage, and entertain. SCL provides excellent and accessible services from our Central Library in the Community Centre and our award-winning Bookmobile. We offer a strongly collaborative team-based environment, good benefits and the flexibility to maintain a good work/life balance. We are committed to fostering the principles of equity, diversity, and inclusion within our workforce and community. We welcome and encourage all qualified applicants to apply.
Employment Terms
This is a permanent, full time, 35 hours/week, position with benefits. This position involves primarily office hours, with some meetings and events on evenings and weekends.
Rate of Pay: The pay range is $58.96 - $73.69 ($107,307 - $134,115 per year) paid on a bi-weekly basis
Start Date: December 7, 2026, or a date to be determined in consultation with the successful applicant.
Reports to: Chief Executive Officer
Who We Are Looking For
Are you a proven leader who supports creativity and sustainable innovation to meet community needs and can transform processes with the goal of improving user experiences? As a self-starter who enjoys working collaboratively with other departments and teams, are you energized by making a difference for Strathcona County residents? Then Strathcona County Library has an opportunity for you.
Duties and Responsibilities
- Recruits, hires, trains, supervises, evaluates, coaches and mentors a staff of five, including three librarians.
- Develops and leads implementation of communication and marketing strategies that enable the library to reach its strategic goals and objectives.
- Contributes to the planning and implementation of digital service tools and processes and to organizational development projects and processes that support the library’s strategic and operational goals.
- Builds positive relationships with external stakeholders such as community members and the media, by promoting the library's services with a unified voice and protecting its corporate identity.
- Builds positive relationships with internal stakeholders such as library staff and Board, by collaborating to gather input, reporting progress on plans and projects, supporting communications-related work across the organization and providing information on topics of interest.
- Collaborates with other managers to establish communications expectations and to ensure communications and strategic planning supports great public services.
- Leads the transformation of existing communication services and strategic planning processes.
- Contributes to the work of the CEO to support and inform the Library Board, municipal administration and councillors, Friends of the Library, and other community and library partners.
- Develops the department budget and monitors expenditures.
Library-Wide Responsibilities
- Contributes to library-wide planning and development as a member of the senior management team.
- Participates in the development, implementation and evaluation of the library’s strategic plan.
- Works with other managers, establishes goals and objectives, to implement and evaluate communications and strategic planning to support all aspects of library service provision.
- Works with other departments on the delivery of services in a highly collaborative team environment.
Minimum Qualifications
- MLIS; five years progressively responsible professional library experience including three years leadership experience with supervisory and management functions.
Required Experience, Knowledge and Skills
- Strong verbal and written communication skills: able to communicate effectively in various formats to a wide range of audiences and to understand what voices, styles and formats are effective in print and digital channels.
- Experience with developing and following strategic plans, creating and understanding communication and marketing plans, researching target audiences, and defining key messages.
- Ability to work with sensitive information and to adapt messages to suit a variety of situations.
- Experience with advocacy work and crafting messages to suit different political beliefs and contexts.
- Knowledge of community needs assessment and development models and experience collaborating with external agencies.
- Ability to analyze, synthesize and organize data into briefs, summaries and other reports.
- Ability to communicate and translate effectively between technical service staff and project stakeholders.
- Experience with public relations: crisis management, media relations and internal communications.
- Experience with project management principles, practices and tools.
- Ability to provide clear directions, delegate tasks, communicate priorities and provide encouragement and constructive feedback.
- Ability to address concerns in a caring, respectful, and professional manner and to support team members through life and work challenges with empathy, flexibility, and patience.
- Able to lead and support diverse teams through a variety of projects: help teams to maintain momentum and focus, manage complex interpersonal dynamics, and reach defined goals in a timely manner while balancing shifting priorities.
- Knowledge of change management techniques and an ability to support people through change.
- Knowledge of graphic layout and design principles for print and digital projects.
- Knowledge of current and emerging technologies related to library services and training (e.g. cloud-based catalogues, digital resources, etc.).
- Knowledge of tools and file formats related to graphic design, commercial printing, social media content, website development, data analysis, and e-newsletter production.
- Able to use at high level productivity, presentation and survey software (e.g. MS Office Suite, MS SharePoint Google Suite, Adobe Suite, survey software, social media channels and aggregators).
- Understanding of dynamic content systems and strategies (e.g. document management: naming conventions, lifecycles, publishing schedules, views, formats, and taxonomies).
- Experience in developing, monitoring and evaluating budgets.
Conditions of Employment
- Satisfactory background screening is required for this position which includes a Criminal Record Check
- Eligible to work in Canada
Application Deadline
Deadline: 9:00 AM on Thursday, November 12, 2026
Interested applicants must submit a PDF or Word cover letter and résumé with your first and last name in the title by e-mail to recruitment@sclibrary.ca . Please do not send Google drive links to your documents, as they are not accessible with this email address.
Please Note: Successful candidates will be required to provide proof of educational and professional credentials as noted in the resume.
Thank you for your interest in Strathcona County Library. We only contact candidates selected for interviews.
In addition to providing a dynamic working environment, we offer a competitive salary and benefits package.
For more information visit Strathcona County Library website: https://sclibrary.ca
Collection and use of personal information: Personal information is being collected to determine your qualifications and suitability for employment with Strathcona County Library, as authorized by and managed in accordance with section 4(c) of the Protection of Privacy Act (POPA). If you have any questions about this notice or collection, please contact our Privacy Officer at privacy@sclibrary.ca