Director – Government and Community Affairs

About the role

Project Horizon is a multi-gigawatt campus taking shape over 25 miles outside of Fort Stockton, Texas and is a significant investment in the future of West Texas. Fort Stockton is a community whose water, roads, schools, workforce, and reputation are tied to what we build. We intend for Fort Stockton to be better off in ten years than it is today. We also know that intention counts for nothing unless someone owns it.

As the Director for Community & Government Affairs for PIC, you will own and drive our relationships in the local community. We are developing Project Horizon with a community-first approach, and our integrity with the community and local government is vital for our success.

What you’ll do

• Establish, preserve, and improve PIC's relationships across Fort Stockton and Pecos County including with city officials and staff, commissioners' court, the conservation district, local schools, the chamber of commerce, economic development organizations, landowners, first responders, and local business and civic leaders

• Serve as PIC's on-the-record spokesperson with local, regional, state, and trade media for Project Horizon

• Build and maintain PIC's messaging platform and a working Q&A library covering major topics associated with our industry: water, power, tax abatements, land use, housing, traffic, construction, and local hiring

• Source and manage external PR agency relationships

• Represent PIC in public town halls, commissioners' court, regulatory hearings, chamber events, and school and civic functions, and prepare our executives and technical experts for engagements and events

• Design and run our community investment and workforce program: local hiring commitments, trades and contractor pipelines, partnerships with Fort Stockton ISD and regional community colleges, scholarships, and charitable giving, and report on what’s delivered

• Monitor community sentiment and propose improvements to Project Horizon and our efforts to support the project and the community

• Translate technical and operational reality into plain language

• Coordinate site announcements, milestone communications, groundbreakings, and site visits across our internal teams and external communications teams

About you

• 8+ years in public affairs, community relations, government relations, or corporate communications for large capital infrastructure companies or projects

• On-the-record media experience: you have given interviews, have meaningful relationships within the press and you know the difference between a statement that holds up and one that creates a second story

• You have directly managed an outside PR, public affairs, or political consulting firm

• Working knowledge of how Texas local government actually operates: commissioners' court, groundwater conservation districts, municipal utility and water boards, school boards, tax abatement and economic development agreements, and local permitting

• You write in a clear, concise manner and have experience preparing press releases, media kits, digital content, speeches, and crisis communications

• You operate independently and without and without a template, and you would rather build a program than inherit one

• You have organized PR campaigns and media responses by managing competing timelines, tracking milestones, and communicating with cross-functional teams

Nice-to-haves

• Direct data center or hyperscale campus experience, particularly community engagement through site selection, construction, and early operations

• Experience engaging with local and state political leaders

• Existing relationships in West Texas, the Permian Basin, or with statewide economic development and workforce organizations

• Fluency in Texas water policy and groundwater regulation, or in ERCOT and transmission siting issues

• Experience standing up a community benefit or workforce development program from scratch, including budget ownership and grant administration

• Experience working alongside a customer's or partner's communications team under confidentiality constraints

• Conversational Spanish

Additional requirements

• Based in Texas or willing to relocate, comfortable with regular travel across West Texas and to Austin

• Regular travel, roughly 30–50%, with sustained presence in Fort Stockton during key project phases

• Evening and weekend availability for public meetings, hearings, town halls, and community events, which do not schedule themselves around business hours

Process

• Intro Chat w/Molly Anderson, People Ops

• Interview w/Matt Perez, Associate General Counsel

• Interview w/Trevor Fare, Head of Engineering

• Interview w/Adrain Garner, Power & Transmission

• Interview w/Carson Klingenberg & Anne Purkey-Deller, Legal