Director of Marketing

University of Mississippi•University, MS

About The Position

The School of Business Administration at the University of Mississippi is hiring a Director of Marketing. This is the senior marketing and communications role for the school. The Director reports to the Dean, sits on the Dean's leadership team, and owns how the school presents itself to prospective students, alumni, donors, the press, and the broader business community. The school is looking for a builder. Someone who can see marketing as the engine that pulls the rest of the school along and who has the instinct to set the agenda rather than wait to be handed one.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree required.
At least fives years of experience, 3 years supervisory or team leadership experience.
Demonstrated experience developing and executing a comprehensive, multi-channel marketing, communications, or external engagement strategy.
Strong written and verbal communication skills, including experience writing for and presenting to senior audiences.
Working knowledge of digital marketing, CRM or marketing automation platforms, web content management, and marketing analytics.
Relevant experience | 5 Years, 3 years supervisory | Required

Nice To Haves

Advanced degree preferred (MBA, master's in marketing, communications, business, or a related field).
Ten or more years of progressively responsible leadership experience in marketing, communications, advancement, public relations, or a closely related external-facing function.
Significant senior-level experience leading marketing, communications, or brand functions in higher education, advancement and philanthropy, professional services, or a comparably complex mission-driven environment.
Demonstrated track record of partnering with development, advancement, or alumni teams to advance fundraising, donor engagement, and constituent relationships.
Experience leading recruitment, enrollment, or audience-acquisition marketing, ideally across multiple programs or product lines.
Proven success building and leading high-performing teams, and managing meaningful budgets with discipline and transparency.
Experience operating in a federated environment with many internal stakeholders and bringing them into alignment without heavy-handed control.
A storyteller at heart, with a strong editorial instinct and the ability to translate complex ideas into clear, human narratives.
Strategic and analytical, able to set direction, prioritize ruthlessly, and use data to make and defend decisions.
Sophisticated brand sensibility, with an eye for visual quality and a commitment to consistency.
Skilled communicator and trusted advisor who can move comfortably between the Dean's office, faculty, donors, alumni, students, and the press.
Operationally strong, with the ability to build the planning rhythms, processes, and dashboards that make a function reliable.
Deep fluency across digital, content, PR, social, paid media, and CRM-enabled communications.
Mission-driven, with a genuine interest in education, in the people behind the work, and in building something that matters.
Direct, honest, and easy to partner with. Comfortable giving and receiving candid feedback.
Confident in the room. Comfortable taking control of a conversation when the moment calls for it, willing to push back on senior stakeholders, and able to keep a high-stakes meeting pointed at the outcome rather than the agenda.
Generous with credit, deliberate with attention, and steady under pressure.

Responsibilities

Set the direction. Develop and lead a comprehensive, school-wide marketing, communications, and brand strategy aligned with the Dean's priorities and the school's strategic plan.
Serve as a senior advisor to the Dean and leadership team on positioning, reputation, audience strategy, and external messaging.
Directly supervise the Communications Manager and social media interns; recruit, onboard, and develop talent; build an accountable, collaborative team culture with clear roles and high standards.
Steward the function's budget and external vendor partnerships, including agencies, photographers, videographers, and media buyers, to extend the team's capacity and protect quality.
Define and steward the school's brand identity, voice, and visual standards, ensuring a consistent and elevated presence across every audience and channel.
Lead earned-media and public relations strategy, building relationships with national, regional, and trade outlets to elevate faculty thought leadership, student outcomes, and school milestones.
Oversee signature storytelling and content production across web, email, social, video, print, and event collateral, ensuring a consistent voice and visual identity at every touchpoint.
Partner closely with the school's development and alumni relations teams to align marketing strategy with fundraising priorities, campaign messaging, and donor-facing communications.
Lead the creation of case-for-support materials, campaign collateral, donor stories, impact reports, and stewardship communications that support the Dean and the development team in advancing the school's philanthropic priorities.
Elevate alumni storytelling and engagement programming so that alumni see themselves, and want to stay close to the school across the full arc of their careers.
Lead integrated recruitment marketing strategy across undergraduate, graduate, and executive programs, in close partnership with admissions and program leadership.
Apply data and audience insight to prospect generation, nurture, yield, and conversion across the full funnel.
Position the school's programs in a competitive landscape and articulate clear value propositions for each audience.
Provide strategic oversight of marketing and recruiting efforts across all academic departments, centers, institutes, and administrative offices within the school.
Partner with university-level marketing and communications on shared brand standards, joint campaigns, and resource sharing.
Streamline and align marketing initiatives across the school to ensure efficiency, brand consistency, and shared measurement.
Establish operating norms, planning rhythms, and a service model that makes the marketing function easy to work with and faster than the alternatives.
Lead the school's digital marketing strategy across web, SEO and SEM, paid media, email marketing, marketing automation, social, and CRM-driven communications.
Direct campaign planning and execution for program recruitment, rankings submissions, signature events, and special initiatives.
Manage and continuously improve the school's web presence in coordination with university IT and web teams.
Define KPIs, dashboards, and reporting cadences that link marketing investment to enrollment, engagement, reputation, and philanthropic outcomes.