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Posted: 09-Jan-25
Location: Claremont, California
Type: Full-time
Salary: $225,000-$245,000 per year
Categories:
Employment Type:
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Additional Information:
Location:
Claremont, CA
Job Posting Title:
Vice President for Communications and Marketing
Department: Communications Supervisor: President
The Opportunity
Pitzer College (Pitzer), a top-ranked liberal arts and sciences college and part of The Claremont Colleges Consortium, invites inquiries and nominations for the position of Vice President for Communications and Marketing. Pitzer College is seeking a visionary and dynamic professional to lead the development and execution of a comprehensive communications and marketing strategy that aligns with the College’s mission, values, and long-term goals. The VP will spearhead marketing and communication initiatives across all platforms, ensuring the College’s distinctive identity and story are consistently and powerfully communicated to key audiences. This role plays a crucial part in enhancing the College’s visibility, attracting student interest, enhancing and strengthening alumni and donor engagement, and supporting the recruitment of high-quality faculty and staff.
The Position
The Vice President for Communications and Marketing reports to the President and is a member of Senior Staff. The VP will develop and implement a comprehensive brand strategy and vision that aligns with the College’s mission, effectively communicating the "Pitzer story" across all platforms. They will lead all marketing, internal and external communication, and branding efforts, ensuring consistency and integration with admissions, alumni, and development teams to align with institutional goals. This role involves creating and executing marketing campaigns to boost visibility, applications, and donor engagement while driving innovation in digital marketing strategies to enhance engagement and support for the College. They will utilize analytics to measure and optimize marketing efforts, oversee the College’s website and digital platforms to ensure alignment with branding and user experience standards, and collaborate with senior leadership to define and communicate the College’s value proposition. Additionally, the VP will lead initiatives to manage the College’s public image, collaborate with the President and Chief of Staff on crisis communication response and strategy, and mentor the communications and marketing team to foster professional growth. They will also manage the department’s budget to ensure resource efficiency and contribute to College committees and institutional initiatives.
Opportunities and Expectations for Leadership
Strategic Vision and Planning
- Develop and implement a comprehensive brand strategy that aligns with the College's mission, values, and long-term goals while effectively communicating the unique “Pitzer story.”
- Oversee the areas of Strategic Communication, Creative Services, Video Marketing, Web Strategy and Development and collaborate with Athletics Communications.
- Lead the visioning for all marketing, communication, and branding initiatives, ensuring consistency across all platforms and departments for greatest impact.
- Develop and manage the execution of integrated marketing campaigns and communication strategies aimed at enhancing the College’s visibility and reputation, while engaging key stakeholders to boost student interest, and strengthen donor engagement to drive advancement outcomes.
- Oversee reputation management initiatives, proactively addressing issues that could affect the College’s public image.
Collaborative Leadership
- Serve as an active member of the President’s Senior Staff leadership team, collaborating with them and others across the College on a variety of institution-wide initiatives and objectives.
- Collaborate with senior leadership to define the College’s distinctiveness and unique value proposition and ensure it is effectively communicated in platforms most relevant to today’s audience.
- Collaborate with the President to enhance their public profile and image.
- Support the Chief of Staff in executing the institution’s crisis communication strategy, ensuring timely and effective responses to public relations challenges.
- Communicate the College’s position and policies on a variety of issues to specific media and to various constituencies, including serving as the College spokesperson with the media as appropriate.
- Build and develop strong relationships with academic leaders, faculty, and staff to integrate branding, marketing and communications seamlessly into the broader educational mission.
- Provide strategic direction and coordinate marketing and communications produced by academic, co-curricular and administrative units.
- Foster a collaborative work environment, ensuring cross-departmental coordination and communication, and integration of marketing strategies with admissions, academics, alumni relations, career and development teams.
Innovation and Development
- Drive innovation in the use of digital marketing and web-based communication tools to engage diverse audiences in efforts to improve user engagement, lead generation and conversion rates.
- Stay at the forefront of marketing trends and advancements by continually engaging with industry research and best practices.
- Serve as a trusted advisor and thought partner in developing and implementing strategies aimed at advancing Pitzer mission.
- Leverage data and analytics to track success of marketing campaigns, communications efforts and adjust strategies accordingly.
- Oversee the development, management, and optimization of the College’s website and digital platforms, ensuring alignment with brand strategy, performance, user experience, and accessibility standards.
- Ensure continuity within the units of Marketing and Communications by developing media relations policies, writing stories and scripts, initiating special publications, writing articles for publications, and performing other related hands-on functions.
Division Management
- Lead a team of creative professionals, providing guidance, mentorship, and support to achieve departmental and institutional goals.
- Facilitate the team's professional growth by keeping them current with the latest industry trends and best practices.
- Demonstrate a strong commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion as well as foster a welcoming environment with a strong sense of belonging.
- Recruit, retain, and develop a talented and diverse staff of professionals, fostering an inclusive and welcoming environment with a focus on best practices and continuous improvement.
- Participate in College committees as assigned, such as regular departmental and staff meetings.
- Oversee the development, management, and allocation of the office’s budget to ensure effective use of resources and alignment with institutional goals.
Professional Qualifications and Personal Qualities
The ideal candidate will possess exceptional interpersonal communication skills and a proactive approach to engaging with various College constituency groups. They should be creative, self-motivated, resourceful, and exercise good judgment, while demonstrating technical expertise and professionalism. The ability to collaborate effectively with fellow administrators and all members of the Claremont and Pitzer College community is essential, along with a proven track record in successful project management and excellence in marketing strategy and advertising. Experience working with culturally and ethnically diverse faculty, staff, and students is also critical for success in this role.
Education
A master’s degree in marketing or communications from an accredited institution is preferred, along with a minimum of six to eight years of senior-level leadership experience. The ideal candidate will have significant experience working in higher education and executive-level experience in branding and marketing to diverse audiences.
The VP will possess:
- Exceptional interpersonal communication skills with a proactive personality for outreach with the various College constituency groups.
- Creativity, self motivation, resourcefulness, good judgment, technical expertise, professional presentation, and the ability to multi-task.
- The ability to work effectively and collaboratively with administrators and other members of the Pitzer College community.
- A proven track record of successful project management and demonstrated excellence in marketing strategy and broad advertising.
- Successful experience in working with a culturally and ethnically diverse faculty, staff and student population.
- Knowledge of emerging best practices and implementation of initiatives that contribute to the fulfillment of Pitzer’s educational mission, values and objectives.
- Strong interpersonal skills coupled with the ability to effectively communicate and engage with a broad set of internal and external stakeholders including students, faculty, parents, trustees and administrative constituencies of the College.
- An appreciation for Pitzer’s mission, the College’s core values that distinguish its approach to education, and the community values that serve as aspirations for all community members to promote ethical practices in a diverse community built upon trust.
- An ability to balance day-to-day operations with overarching strategy in order to anticipate and address the future needs of the College.
- An unwavering commitment to diversity in all forms as well as a commitment to foster an inclusive culture.
- Experience as a fair, respected leader and skilled administrator with a proven ability to manage resources to maximize organizational effectiveness.
- Familiarity with legal issues in higher education.
- Commitment to participatory governance and collaborative decision-making.
- Supervision and team-building skills and experience.
Licenses/Certifications: Must have a valid driver’s license and a driving record acceptable to the College’s insurer
Supervisory Responsibility: Yes, supervising Office of Communication direct reports.
Time Type: Full-time, 40 hours per week.
Annual Pay Schedule: 12 months of the year.
Work Schedule: The regular hours for this position will be scheduled between 8:00 am to 5:00 pm, Monday through Friday. These hours may vary due to needs of the College or department.
Work Model: Hybrid, On-Campus.
Compensation: Budgeted Salary Range: $225,000-$245,000 per year.
Benefits: Pitzer College is committed to providing comprehensive benefits to eligible employees and their eligible dependents. Our benefits package includes competitive compensation, health, dental, and vision insurance, retirement savings plans, generous paid time off (vacation, holidays, sick time, parental leave, bereavement, etc.), tuition reimbursement, tuition exchange program participation and more.
Physical Requirements: General physical requirements for an in-person office position.
Procedure for Candidacy
To assure full consideration, application materials should be received by February 7, 2025. The advisory search committee will begin a review of applications in mid-February and continue its work until an appointment is made.
Candidates should provide:
- A letter of interest stating how the candidate’s experiences and qualifications connect with the required/preferred characteristics and priorities expressed in the position profile.
- Curriculum vitae/resume.
- Statement of contribution to diversity, equity, and inclusion.
- Five professional references with emails, telephone numbers, and a description of the candidate’s professional relationship with each reference listed (references will not be contacted without prior authorization from the applicant).
- Example(s) of a marketing/branding campaign(s) and results.
The search is being managed by:
Pitzer College:
Marie Piñedo, Executive Director of Human Resources
Email: marie_pinedo@pitzer.edu
- Applications should be submitted electronically to: https://theclaremontcolleges.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/PIT_Staff/details/Vice-President-for-Communications-and-Marketing_REQ-7061
- Nominations should be sent to: marie_pinedo@pitzer.edu
