Director, Marketing & Communications Jobs

APPLICATION DEADLINE: August 21st - please upload a cover letter and resume for your application to be considered complete

ORGANIZATIONAL AND POSITION OVERVIEW

Education Pioneers’ mission is to attract, develop, and mobilize a diverse network of high potential leaders who bring the capacity to address an evolving set of challenges to make education a lever for equity and excellence. As an organization, we’ve grown and learned through a series of challenges and changes, both internal and external, and are excited to be pivoting toward our pre-pandemic aspirations for scale and long-term transformation. We’ve clarified our vision and direction internally and are embarking on important and exciting work to translate and communicate this thinking to external audiences – work that the Director, Marketing and Communications, will lead.

The Director, Marketing and Communications will play a critical role in elevating EP’s external presence to amplify our impact and enable our strategy. This includes aligning and leveraging EP’s brand to reflect our values and advance our vision, communicating the impact and importance of our work, and developing and executing strategies to reach and engage key stakeholders as we grow our programs and impact. This dynamic role requires a strong collaborator who toggles seamlessly across altitudes, who considers and integrates diverse perspectives, and who is ready to dive into a layered portfolio of work with individuals and teams across the organization.

In the near-term, the Director, Marketing and Communications will manage the execution of core marketing and communications functions, leveraging and managing outsourced capacity (e.g., external designers, writers, and branding consultants) as appropriate. As EP grows in scale, this individual will hire and manage a small team of full-time staff as we expand our internal marketing and communications capacity.

This position will report to the MD, Central Services and is a full-time exempt position.

INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCE GOALS

The Director, Marketing and Communications will be charged with achieving the following outcomes:

• Consistent, high-quality reflection of brand in collateral and assets
• Audience experiences and perceptions of communications
• Performance on brand strength measure (to be defined)
• High-value, effective marketing and communications support provided to staff across the organization
• Quality (including relevance and alignment) and consistency of EP’s communications to key audiences
• Marketing and Communications Business Partner: EP’s staff and network have effective and scalable support to consistently produce and elevate aligned messages, collateral, and experiences
• Alignment of brand to long-term aspirations (vision, strategic plan, and culture)
• Communications: EP’s written communication and public presence are consistent with the brand vision and strategy, exemplify EP’s culture and values, and put EP’s best foot forward
• Brand: EP’s Brand Vision and Strategy amplifies our impact and supports our strategic priorities – making all aspects of work easier through recognition, understanding of our model and impact, and positive perceptions

ROLES & RESPONSIBILITIES

The following roles and responsibilities represent broadly what the Director, Marketing and Communications is responsible for and specific responsibilities that are aligned with our organizational objectives over the next 2-3 years. As our organization evolves, these roles and responsibilities could change or expand.

Defining and shaping our brand as an organization (30%):

• Regularly evaluate our brand against both our internal vision/plan and our to-be-established brand strength metric to inform action and strategic planning
• Identify key champions and messengers for the organization and equip them with the training, resources, platforms, and access necessary to grow awareness of EP’s impact and importance
• Own and drive the process to define and evolve the EP brand, bringing and securing critical perspectives and necessary expertise to inform and shape a brand that reflects our organizational vision, strategy, and culture
• Raise EP’s visibility in the sector, working to identify key audience segments and increase their understanding of the value EP provides by attracting, developing, and mobilizing critical human capital for public education
• Update and maintain accurate and relevant information and messages across external channels, including our website, blog, and social media

Developing and managing our communications strategy across the organization (30%):

• Support alumni as they work to communicate their impact and the impact of EP on their career journey
• Create compelling external communications that showcase the work of our organization, alumni, and fellows
• Develop and manage the execution of multi-year plans and strategies for effectively communicating the mission, vision, and impact of EP
• Monitor progress and analyze data to continuously improve the effectiveness of our communications strategies
• Ensure clear, coherent messages across platforms, growing and diversifying the communications streams used to reach key audiences and engage critical stakeholders

Providing marketing and communications support and services to functions across the organization to achieve our goals (30%)

• Identify mechanisms for content- and knowledge-sharing across workstreams to ensure efficiency and brand coherence
• Serve as consultant and partner for teams across EP to access strategic marketing and communications support
• Effectively prioritize requests for support, balancing ensuring strong customer orientation, capacity, and results
• Facilitate and manage processes that allow internal stakeholders across functions to envision their marketing and communications needs aligned to their respective workstreams
• Develop and ensure staff are trained to effectively adhere to brand/messaging standards and leverage a library of branded collateral and communications templates

Contribute to organizational coherence and the conditions for a thriving team (10%)

• Demonstrate an orientation towards learning and resilience in support of broader org culture and goals
• Attend and participate in Central Services, functional team, and organization-wide meetings and working sessions to advance collaborative and/or interdependent work
• Support, manage, and execute cross team collaboration towards achieving goals across the organization

CORE COMPETENCIES TO BE SUCCESSFUL IN THIS ROLE

What is outlined below is an articulation of the most important competencies you’d need to excel in to be successful in your role. It’s not necessarily an articulation of all the skills you’ll lean into or even a reflection of your “superpowers,” but we want to transparently communicate the areas we feel are most important.

• Defining the Opportunity / Problem: You identify and systematically prioritize opportunities to pursue and problems to solve to elevate our brand and external presence and strengthen our marketing and communications function and practices.
• Influencing Others to Achieve Outcomes: You deeply understand the perspectives of internal and external stakeholders and leverage this understanding to inspire committed and positive actions towards individual and collective goals.
• Communicating Strategically: You apply rigorous and coherent thinking to structure and communicate ideas effectively to various audiences.
• Setting Vision and Direction: You establish a clear vision for EP’s brand and EP’s marketing and communications function, aligned to EP’s long-term goals, and you drive activities to maintain alignment with that vision. You seamlessly operate across altitudes, from the conceptual to the strategic to the tactical.
• Making Decisions and Demonstrating Judgment: You use appropriate breadth and depth of context and data to make sensible and timely decisions, and display sound judgment when faced with opportunities / challenges
• Organizing, Planning, and Executing: You are able to organize, prioritize, track, and manage workflow and resources to accomplish functional and cross-functional goals.

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

• Strong track record of leadership and organizing/managing work at different levels and/or across functions/departments
• Demonstrated commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion in beliefs and actions
• Demonstrated excellence in written, interpersonal, and verbal communication
• Bachelor’s Degree (required)
• 8+ years of experience, with 5+ years of experience in communications, marketing, or public relations
• Demonstrated knowledge and proficiency with a range of relevant communications methodologies (digital, print, social media, media relations, etc.)

COMPENSATION & BENEFITS

The salary range for this role is $85,848 - $117,600 depending on candidate location and relevant experiences and competencies. We believe in compensating staff members fairly and equitably in relation to their relevant experience and competencies. Given our commitment to equity, EP does not negotiate salary offers. You will have an opportunity to discuss salary in more detail if you progress in the hiring process.

Education Pioneers offers competitive compensation based on the market for nonprofits our size. Our benefits include a flexible PTO policy that is not limited in days; paid medical or parental leaves should you have need; medical, dental, vision, short-term and long-term disability, and life insurance; a flexible spending account (FSA), as well as a 403b with an employer match.