Assistant Director, Content Marketing

Assistant Director, Content Marketing Position Summary

Special Instruction to Applicants: Please submit 2 professional writing samples in any format. These can be attached as one document with your resume.

Position Summary

OpenStax (part of Rice University) is a non-profit textbook publisher, learning software producer, and platform for learning research. Our mission is to provide every student and instructor with free access to high-quality teaching and learning resources that help them succeed. We have created a library of more than 50 free and openly licensed college textbooks that have served millions of students across the globe, resulting in over one billion dollars in savings. We have created additional software and course materials to help college students read with more engagement and practice more effectively, incorporating our research team’s expertise in cognitive science and machine learning.

The ideal candidate is an exceptional writer and communicator, a team collaborator, and a strategic thinker, able to combine thoughtful, creative content with various marketing and sales strategies. This person can create lots of content, strategically and artfully pair visuals and interactives with excellent messaging, and give direction to other creative team members and vendors. This person is flexible, enjoys a challenge, and thrives in a remote working environment. This person is also data savvy and relies on Google Analytics, customer feedback, and other tools to optimize messaging.

We celebrate diversity of all kinds and we are committed to nurturing an inclusive environment. We seek to hire, develop, and retain talented people from all backgrounds. We are part of a private university, but our team comes from a variety of backgrounds and includes people who attended universities and community colleges, as well as people who did not graduate from college.

Essential Functions

• Manages the writing, design and coordination of the production of digital communication and marketing materials
• Develops integrated communications and/or marketing strategies and plans to meet objectives
• Oversees digital community-building through social media channels, blogs and/or the web
• Manages development and implementation of digital community strategy for a group, unit, project, program, initiative, channel, organization or unit; including how to engage customers and fundamentally impact their relationship with constituents
• Participates in university-wide and/or organization-wide initiatives and cross-functional teams to establish the organization as a strategic partner and thought leader
• Responsible for ownership and management of digital channels and/or the web
• Oversees marketing content editorial strategy and voice
• Partners with internal stakeholders such as program teams, service teams, IT, campus partners to achieve program goals and to ensure coordination
• Manages constituent complaints and reputational issues and other high priorities on digital channels
• May coach and act as lead for teams
• Hire and manage contractors as needed
• Performs all other duties as assigned

Additional Functions:

• Create, manage, and execute the OpenStax content marketing strategy across all channels (web, email, social, events, etc.) and occasionally content for PR
• Manage the work of creative staff to achieve content marketing goals, e.g. designers, freelance writers, videographers.
• Utilize Google Analytics, heat mapping, and other tracking tools to analyze marketing content across channels and make improvements to the content and overall content strategy.
• Create content marketing strategies that incorporate SEO best practices to meet SEO goals.
• Conduct research (surveys, interviews, focus groups) and analyze third party research to better understand the OpenStax target market, their interests, and what motivates them to choose and continue to use OpenStax.
• Collaborate with the OpenStax marketing, communications, and sales team to meet market share goals.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree
  • Experience may not be substituted for the education requirement
• 5 years related experience in any of the following areas: public relations, communications, event coordination and/or social media management
• Knowledge of the web, technology, social platforms, current and future trends
• Excellent writing and analytical skills
• Demonstrated problem solver
• Ability to work independently to meet expected deadlines and schedules
• Requires working at a computer for extended periods of time (up to eight hours per day)

Preferred Qualifications

• Exceptional writing and editing skills
• Experience collaborating with teams and various roles
• Knowledge of SEO, SEO best practices, and the ability to incorporate keywords into strategic content marketing practices
• Experience developing metrics-driven campaigns
• Demonstrated ability to edit website content using a content management system (CMS)
• Experience using social media platforms on to build brand community, understanding of social media metrics
• Willingness to learn Pardot, Salesforce, and other martech tools
• Ability to use customer relationship management systems (CRM)
• Working knowledge of AP Style
• Ability to use Google Analytics
• Willingness and desire to learn new things
• Ability to work independently with minimal guidance or supervision

Rice University is an Equal Opportunity Employer with commitment to diversity at all levels, and considers for employment qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national or ethnic origin, genetic information, disability or protected veteran status.

Current Rice University COVID policies, which include vaccination, face mask, testing, gatherings, occupancy limits, and travel policies can be found here: https://coronavirus.rice.edu/policies