Director of Communications

JOB SUMMARY:

The Director of Communications helps to shape, implement and execute plans that keep St. Thomas’ students, faculty, staff and key external audiences apprised of important university news and storylines. This role is a leader on the university’s seven-member PR & Communications team (which is part of the larger Marketing, Insights and Communications team) charged with building and enhancing the university’s reputation through strategic storytelling and communications. The director plays an important role in managing strategic communications projects by ensuring key messaging is reflected in all materials, and that resulting materials are of high quality, and completed on time. The director helps shape the editorial direction and creates content for all of the university’s strategic publications, including its online newsroom, associated newsletters, as well as its various magazines aimed at reaching university alumni. Additionally, this person manages all university-wide internal communications. Other duties will include leading the production of St. Thomas Magazine, the university’s flagship, bi-annual publication aimed at reaching its massive alumni base, as well as providing editorial direction and quality control for other magazines published by specific schools and colleges within St. Thomas. This position reports to the AVP of PR & Communications, who provides strategic guidance that the director will use to shape the communications and editorial calendars.

Building and maintaining relationships across the university will be essential to the Communications Director’s position. Within the PR & Communications team, this role will supervise two writer/editors and an internal communications specialist, as well as collaborate with a group of 1-3 alumni communications professionals. This role must maintain a strong, collaborative relationship with the Director of Public Relations to implement integrated communications projects that maximize visibility for critical university initiatives. The director must also maintain strong relationships with other teammates within the 40-person Marketing, Insights & Communications (MIC) team, as well as key stakeholders across the university to help identify the right stories in support of strategic university objectives.

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS:

1. Managing Communications Projects: This role will work closely with the AVP of PR & Communications and other MIC colleagues to manage communications projects deemed strategic to university objectives. These projects will range from university news announcements to campaigns in support of critical initiatives (e.g. DEI campaigns, fundraising drives, etc.). This will include facilitating editorial meetings, playing an active role in story mining, contributing creative ideas for bringing stories to life, and setting project timelines. On occasion, this will also include crisis communications.

2. Managing the University’s Long-Term Editorial Calendar: With direction from the AVP of PR & Communications, the Director of Communications will set the university’s long-term editorial calendar based on strategic priorities. This editorial calendar will inform the direction of the St. Thomas Newsroom, magazines, newsletters and internal communications materials. As part of this, the Director will oversee the monthly editorial plans for the Newsroom, provide strategic oversight of the St. Thomas Magazine editorial lineup (e.g. suggest themes, etc.), provide suggestions for internal and alumni newsletters, among other duties. This role will also be expected to write and edit major stories for these publications.

3. Leading Internal Communications: This position will manage plans designed to keep St. Thomas students, faculty and staff apprised of important news and announcements. This role also will be expected to help build and enhance internal communications skillsets for the PR & Communications team, as well as the MIC team as a whole. This will include consulting with partners across the university on internal communications needs and helping to create recommendations, as well as editing and approving materials produced by the Internal Communications Specialist. The Communications Director will also work closely with the Chief Marketing Officer on communications resulting from decisions made by senior leadership. Additionally, this role will also play a role in establishing a network of people across the university who manage communications to ensure messages are aligned and campaigns are coordinated as needed.

4. Creating Content: In addition to editing and approving copy, the Communications Director should be a strong writer as well and be prepared to contribute written copy for all of the university’s strategic publications (including internal communications) as needed. Aside from written copy, this position should also possess a working knowledge of multi-media communications vehicles (e.g. podcasts, interactive infographics, etc.) and be able to recommend them as appropriate, depending on the communications challenge. This position must also develop and maintain relationships with key university personnel (e.g. deans, professors, department leaders, subject matter experts, etc.) to develop story ideas.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in public relations, marketing, journalism and mass communications, or a relevant field 
• Seven years of professional communications experience.

An equivalent combination of education and experience from which comparable knowledge and skills have been acquired may be substituted. For example, a candidate with an AA and two additional years of experience (nine total) or a candidate with eleven years of experience but no degree will be considered. Certificates, training programs, and other similar non-degree educationmay be considered with additional experience in lieu of the BA degree.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Managing internal communications

JOIN OUR COMMUNITY:

The University of St. Thomas offers a competitive and comprehensive benefits program, which includes:

• Up to 100% tuition remission for employees, spouses, and dependents upon eligibility 
• A generous Employer retirement contribution of 9.4% of annual salary upon eligibility 
• Medical, dental, and vision options 
• Employer-paid disability, life, and AD&D benefits