Assistant Director of Communications, Marketing and Project Management

About Worcester State University:

WORCESTER STATE UNIVERSITY is a liberal arts and sciences university with a long tradition of academic excellence dating back to 1874, as well as an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer that seeks to reflect the diversity of its community. Our workforce is dedicated to academic quality, student-centered programming, engaged citizenship, open exchanges of ideas, diversity and inclusiveness, and civility and integrity. We are looking for job applicants who share these values and commitment to our students.

Worcester State is centrally located in Massachusetts, about an hour's drive from Boston, Springfield, and Providence, Rhode Island. Our 58-acre campus is nestled in the residential northwest side of Worcester--the second largest city in New England and home to 37,000 college students at more than a dozen colleges and universities. Over 6,000 of those students attend Worcester State--approximately 5,300 are undergraduates and 1,000 are graduate students. Learn more about us at worcester.edu/about .


Job Description:

OFFICIAL TITLE: Assistant Director of Communications, Marketing and Project Management
SUPERVISION RECEIVED: Director, Editorial Communications
SUPERVISION EXERCISED: Subordinate professional and classified staff, as assigned

General Statement of Duties: The Assistant Director of Communications, Marketing and Project Management is responsible for researching, writing, and editing stories for the university's news site, WSU News, and supporting other communication efforts of the university. They will be assigned communications and marketing projects with university departments, and work with the staff in the Office of Communications and Marketing to determine effective strategies for dissemination.

In addition to writing and editing duties, the Assistant Director will also have responsibility for project management, internal client servicing, brand management, and assisting with content creation for the University's marketing communications and campaigns.

The position reports to the Director of Editorial Communications and will support that position when work demands require. They will also work with the Director of Marketing and acts as project lead in meeting the University's marketing and enrollment objectives with vendors and other partners.

With an understanding of traditional as well as new media and technology, this person must be equally comfortable writing copy for news stories, press releases, brochures, publications, websites, email blasts, advertisements, videos, and audio podcasts. As the news website manager, this person will cover events to provide stories, photos and/or videos, with content that reflects the campus environment and culture.

Responsibilities:

(E) = Essential

1. (E) Communicates the Worcester State story through compelling storytelling; disseminates the University's marketing communications.
2. (E) Establishes daily and long-term editorial processes and calendars for news website; communicates content updates, schedules and deadlines to the wider organization and/or individual colleagues.
3. (E) Writes and edits copy for news website, advertisements, brochures, department websites and other promotional materials; creates, curates, and evaluates news content for the WSU News website, including writing, editing, and posting news articles, photographs, videos, TV/radio news clips, podcasts, etc., using the WordPress platform.
4. (E) In collaboration with the cross-divisional content team, identifies compelling story ideas and creates content for the news website and www.worcester.edu that is relevant, informative, and impactful with attention paid to quality, style, and format.
5. (E) Attends university events for the purpose of developing story content and, when necessary, taking photos/videos; oversees student interns/staff as assigned.
6. (E) Relays the University's key brand messages and unique points of distinction to desired audiences through the creation of engaging content for a variety of channels; works to ensure a consistent voice, style, and tone in all communications.
7. (E) Provides project management and executes projects from conceptualization to completion for a variety of internal clients to achieve their marketing goals while adhering to University brand guidelines and standards.
8. (E) Manages the production of print and digital communications utilizing strong project management, adherence to production schedules; collaborates with the Publication and Printing Services Office, external vendors, and internal stakeholders
9. (E) Works collaboratively with the Director of Marketing, Assistant Vice President of Communications and Marketing, Director of Editorial Communications, Assistant Director of Web & Digital Communications, work-study students, interns, graduate assistants, freelance writers, editors, photographers, and videographers
10. Researches higher education news and storytelling trends with peers and competitors and implements creative ways to increase engagement on a periodic basis
11. (E) Supports student recruitment, retention, and graduation goals.
12. (E) Act as an essential employee, during emergency and weather-related events, as a member of the Emergency Response Team, to assure timely and accurate communication to campus constituencies.
13. (E) Demonstrates civility and professional, customer-service oriented behavior, worthy of emulation by other staff and students.
14. (E) Responsible for contributing to the WSU Strategic Plan.
15. (E) Responsible for contributing to Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action objectives.
16. Performs other duties as assigned.

Requirements:

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in communications, English, journalism, marketing, or a related field.
• Strong writing and editing skills, in addition to interpersonal, communication, and listening skills.
• Three years of experience in communications, journalism, marketing or a related field.
• Experience with marketing campaigns, production scheduling, project management, and customer service.
• Ability to work under pressure and multi-task a number of projects by setting priorities and meeting deadlines.
• Ability to learn new software and conduct research.
• Experience with HTML, content management systems, Wordpress, and photography editing and production.
• Ability to work independently as well as on a team, multi-task and effectively prioritize multiple projects at the same time and adhere to deadlines.
• Ability to thrive in a highly collaborative, creative, cross-functional team environment.
• Proven ability to successfully work with vendors and agencies to achieve results.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Higher education experience preferred; knowledge of higher education principles, practices and procedures; ability to apply principles of marketing in a higher education environment.
• Five years of experience in communications, journalism, marketing or a related field.
• Videography and video editing skills
• Photo editing skills

Additional Information:

Worcester State University is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer which seeks to reflect the diversity of its community.

The firm annual salary range for this full-time, benefited APA position is: $60,000 - $68,000.


Application Instructions:

All applicants must apply online at worcester.interviewexchange.com

Expected documents for submission include a cover letter, resume, and a list of three professional references with contact information. Applicants must complete the National Student Clearinghouse Authorization form or submit the official transcript of highest degree.

All information that can be uploaded to one's e-account should be done so by the applicant; information which cannot may be faxed to 508-929-8169 or emailed to hr@worcester.edu, or may be sent to the following address:

Executive Director, Chief Human Resources Officer

Worcester State University

486 Chandler Street

Worcester, MA 01602-2597

URL: www.worcester.edu