Chief Communications and Marketing Officer

University of Wisconsin Madison • Madison, WI

1d

About The Position

For over 20 years, WIDA has provided a trusted, comprehensive approach to supporting, teaching, and assessing multilingual learners. We are an educational services organization that advances language development and academic achievement for multilingual children in early childhood and grades K-12. In short, we provide educators around the world with high-quality language standards, assessments, professional learning, and research. We are proud to be a part of the Wisconsin Center for Education Research (WCER) within UW-Madison's nationally ranked School of Education.  The Chief Communications and Marketing Officer will work with WIDA's Executive Director and the senior leadership team on overall strategic priorities and initiatives. In addition, the CCMO will oversee marketing and communications, and will be charged with leveraging WIDA’s strong brand to further amplify the organization’s impact; partnering across the organization to ensure that marketing and communications is seamlessly integrated across WIDA’s core functions; leading a highly effective team of communications and marketing professionals through a period of organizational change and growth; and cementing WIDA’s role as an important thought leader in multilingualism, reaching relevant audiences, new and old, within and beyond its consortium. The Chief Communications and Marketing Officer will bring a deep knowledge of strategic communications, brand identity, best practices in marketing and communications, as well as a willingness to engage with and embrace WIDA’s mission in multilingual learning. The successful candidate will have at least seven years of leadership experience in communications-focused roles and will have a well-developed capacity for strategic thinking, relationship-building, and leading teams of committed mission-driven professionals.

Requirements

• At least seven years of management experience in a communications-focused role, preferably at a large-scale education-related organization
• Exceptional written and verbal communication skills; strong writing ability and the ability to create communications that instill organizational pride and inspire readers
• A successful track record of developing and implementing strategic communications plans and a track record of measuring the success of such plans
• Excellence in organizational management and demonstrated ability to coach staff, lead other leaders, and manage high-performance teams
• A proven ability to build relationships and influence outcomes, with and without formal authority
• Familiarity with digital marketing and social media as key parts of comprehensive communications and marketing strategies
• Experience managing brand consistency across audiences, ensuring and strengthening its resonance with a broad range of stakeholders
• Ability to work within a dynamic, fast-paced, and collaborative environment while driving solutions forward
• Excellent professional judgment managing change
• Bachelor’s degree required

Nice To Haves

• Advanced Degree preferred

Responsibilities

• Develops comprehensive marketing plans that encourage research-based, market-driven programming and outcome evaluation, including cost and effectiveness measures for marketing initiatives
• Builds brand identity and awareness for the division among internal and external audiences, ensuring consistent image and identification with the brand across all marketing and communications efforts
• Analyzes marketing trends and critical measurements of productivity and customer service to implement marketing operational strategies
• Directs marketing campaigns by contributing information, analysis, and strategic thinking establishing functional objectives in line with organization goals
• Directs strategic planning initiatives and establishes objectives to ensure appropriate use of financial, administrative, staffing resources, and alignment with the strategic plan
• Exercises supervisory authority, including hiring, transferring, suspending, promoting, managing conduct and performance, discharging, assigning, rewarding, disciplining, and/or approving hours worked of at least 2.0 full-time equivalent (FTE) employees

Benefits

• This position offers a comprehensive benefits package, including generous paid time off, competitively priced health/dental/vision/life insurance, tax-advantaged savings accounts, and participation in the nationally recognized Wisconsin Retirement System (WRS) pension fund.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Executive