| Detailed Description: |
The Director of Marketing and Communications serves as the Kroc School's senior marketing strategist and communications leader. The position is responsible for developing and executing integrated marketing, communications, branding, public relations, and audience engagement strategies that advance the School's strategic priorities, strengthen institutional reputation, increase visibility, and support enrollment growth objectives.
Working in close partnership with the Director of Recruitment and Admissions, the Director develops and implements marketing strategies that generate prospective student interest, support recruitment efforts, strengthen stakeholder engagement, and enhance the School's national and international profile, including the work of its Institute for Peace and Justice and Center for Restorative Justice. While the Director of Recruitment and Admissions is responsible for recruitment operations, admissions processes, applicant engagement, and enrollment outcomes, the Director of Marketing and Communications is responsible for market positioning, brand strategy, lead generation, communications, digital engagement, and marketing analytics.
The Director is a visionary, creative, mission-driven, and entrepreneurial individual with the expertise to lead distinctive marketing and communication initiatives that generate excitement about peace education and increase awareness of the School at the local, national and international level. The person in this role is responsible for leading the development and implementation of marketing, branding, communications (internal and external) and public relations strategies across the Kroc School and its various units. The Director will develop and direct strategies to enhance the visibility and reputation of the Kroc School, and by extension the greater university, including all appropriate digital, print and interactive media. The Director serves as the School's primary liaison to external marketing agencies and consultants and is responsible for ensuring that marketing investments align with institutional priorities and produce measurable results. Through strategic leadership, market intelligence, and data-informed decision making, the Director supports sustainable enrollment growth and advances the mission and reputation of the Kroc School.
Duties and Responsibilities:
Marketing Strategy, Brand Management, and Market Intelligence
- Develop and implement comprehensive marketing and communications strategies that support the School's strategic plan, enrollment objectives, and institutional priorities, including for its Institutes and Centers.
- Lead brand positioning, messaging, storytelling, and value proposition development across all School academic programs, centers, institutes, and strategic initiatives. Work closely with units and programs of the School to advise and guide their communications goals, branding and event planning.
- Conduct market research, audience analysis, and competitive assessments to identify opportunities for enrollment growth, program visibility, and market expansion.
- Advise School leadership on marketing trends, market opportunities, reputation management, and strategic communications.
- Establish annual marketing plans, goals, performance measures, and priorities. Execute ongoing reviews of marketing and communications activities to ensure alignment with the Dean’s initiatives and priorities.
Enrollment Marketing and Analytics
- Partner closely with the Director of Recruitment and Admissions to develop and execute enrollment marketing strategies that support recruitment and enrollment goals.
- Develop and manage integrated marketing campaigns designed to generate awareness, inquiries and qualified prospective student leads.
- Utilize enrollment funnel data, market intelligence, and audience insights to inform strategy and improve marketing effectiveness.
- Monitor and analyze key performance indicators, including lead generation, inquiry volume, website performance, campaign effectiveness, audience engagement, conversion trends, and return on investment.
- Develop dashboards, reports, and recommendations that support enrollment planning, resource allocation, and strategic decision making.
- Support enrollment forecasting and long-range planning through data analysis and market intelligence.
Digital Marketing and Audience Engagement
- Lead the School's digital marketing strategy, including website management, content marketing, social media, email marketing, search engine optimization, and digital advertising.
- Oversee website strategy, content development, and user experience to strengthen audience engagement and lead generation.
- Ensure consistent branding, messaging, and audience engagement across all digital platforms.
- Evaluate and optimize digital marketing performance through ongoing assessment of engagement, conversion, and campaign metrics.
Communications and Public Relations
- Develop and implement internal and external communications strategies that advance the School's mission, visibility, and reputation.
- Promote faculty scholarship, student success, research initiatives, institutional achievements, and thought leadership.
- Manage media relations, executive communications, presentations, messaging, and public relations activities in collaboration with University Marketing and Communications.
- Provide marketing and communications support for major School events, initiatives, and strategic priorities.
- Lead the development of marketing skills and capabilities of relevant personnel in the School and individual programs (e.g. host workshops, one-on-one trainings, create guides and tutorials, etc.).
External Agency Management and Administration
- Serve as the School's primary liaison to external marketing agencies, consultants, and vendors.
- Establish priorities, performance expectations, budgets, timelines, and deliverables for external partners.
- Monitor agency performance and hold vendors accountable for achieving agreed-upon goals and measurable results.
- Manage marketing budgets, contracts, and vendor relationships.
- Supervise marketing staff, student employees, and contracted partners as assigned.
- Represent the School on university committees, initiatives, and collaborative projects.
Background check: Successful completion of a pre-employment background check.
Degree Verification Requirement: Persons offered employment in this position will be required to provide official education transcripts for degree verification purposes.
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| Job Requirements: |
Minimum Qualifications:
- Bachelor's degree from an accredited institution in Marketing, Communications, Business Administration, Higher Education Administration, or a related field.
- Minimum five years of progressively responsible experience in marketing, communications, enrollment marketing, brand management, or a related field.
- Demonstrated success developing and implementing strategic marketing initiatives that increase awareness, engagement, and lead generation.
- Experience using analytics and performance metrics to inform decision making and evaluate effectiveness.
- Experience managing digital marketing campaigns and communication strategies.
- Experience managing external vendors, consultants, or agency relationships.
- Demonstrated ability to collaborate effectively across departments and stakeholder groups.
Preferred Qualifications:
- Master's degree in Marketing, Communications, Business Administration, Higher Education Administration, or a related field.
- Six or more years of progressively responsible experience as described above.
- Experience in higher education marketing, particularly graduate and professional education.
- Experience working with CRM platforms such as Slate, Salesforce, or similar systems.
- Experience with marketing automation, lead nurturing campaigns, and audience segmentation.
- Experience utilizing enrollment funnel metrics and market research to inform marketing strategy.
- Experience supervising professional staff and managing budgets.
Performance Expectations - Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:
- Entrepreneurial mindset, demonstrating initiative and creativity with a focus on results
- Ability to work collegially with faculty, staff, students at the Kroc School and the university and members of the community at large
- Expertise in strategic marketing, branding, communications, and audience development.
- Strong understanding of enrollment marketing and prospective student engagement.
- Knowledge of digital marketing, SEO, content strategy, social media, email marketing, CRM platforms, and marketing analytics.
- Ability to analyze data and translate findings into actionable recommendations.
- Strong project management, organizational, and budgeting skills.
- Excellent written, verbal, presentation, and interpersonal communication skills.
- Ability to build collaborative relationships across academic and administrative units.
- Ability to manage multiple priorities and complex projects in a dynamic environment.
- Demonstrated commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, belonging, and student success.
Success in this position will be measured through:
- Achievement of annual enrollment growth targets in partnership with the Director of Recruitment and Admissions.
- Growth in qualified prospective student inquiries, applications, and enrolled students.
- Improvement in marketing-driven enrollment funnel performance and conversion metrics.
- Effectiveness of marketing campaigns in generating measurable enrollment and revenue outcomes.
- Website performance, digital engagement, and lead generation metrics.
- Marketing return on investment and efficient use of marketing resources.
- Brand visibility, reputation enhancement, and market reach.
- Quality and effectiveness of communications and public relations initiatives.
- Performance and accountability of external marketing agencies and vendors.
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