Executive Director, Marketing Strategy & Partnerships Strategy & Partnerships

Boston University•Boston, MA

20h•$140,000 - $150,000•Hybrid

About The Position

The Executive Director Marketing Strategy & Partnerships serves as a senior leader and primary connection between Boston University's schools, colleges, and administrative units and the External Affairs division. This role collaborates across the institution to define and build individual marketing and communications strategies that align with university priorities and messaging. The Executive Director is responsible for ensuring communications and marketing efforts are strategic, focused, on-brand, meet institutional goals and have defined measuring strategies. Acting as a trusted advisor and partner, the Executive Director builds and sustains deep, strategic, and collaborative partnerships across the University, engaging early with senior leaders and communications staff to shape priorities, define objectives, and translate needs into cohesive, high-impact marketing and communications strategies with measurement objectives. The Executive Director leads a team of Marketing & Communications Strategists while operating within a matrixed model that brings together strategy, creative, digital, and communications expertise. The individual is responsible for leading and mentoring the team in relationship building, strategic planning and messaging and follows alongside key projects and initiatives led by the team to ensure productive collaboration and institutional alignment. Boston University is a leading private research and teaching institution with more than 38,000 students, 11,000 faculty and staff, 300 programs of study, and 130 research centers and institutes. Our scholars are at the forefront of innovation, successfully competing for more than $574 million in sponsored research awards last year. Our students come from all 50 states and more than 140 countries, and nearly 20 percent of our undergraduates are first-generation college students.

Requirements

Senior leadership experience in marketing strategy and partnerships.
Experience collaborating across diverse institutional units.
Proven ability to define and build marketing and communications strategies aligned with institutional priorities.
Experience ensuring communications and marketing efforts are strategic, focused, on-brand, and meet institutional goals.
Skill in developing and implementing measurement strategies for marketing and communications.
Experience acting as a trusted advisor and building deep, strategic, and collaborative partnerships.
Ability to engage early with senior leaders and communications staff.
Experience shaping priorities, defining objectives, and translating needs into cohesive, high-impact strategies.
Experience leading and mentoring a team of strategists.
Coaching skills in relationship building, strategic planning, and messaging.
Experience operating within a matrixed model.
Ability to advise on leveraging connections across an institution.
Experience partnering closely with creative leadership.
Ability to see across a whole University and identify overlaps and opportunities for collaboration.
Experience defining and assessing success metrics.
Experience gathering feedback and driving continuous improvement.
Experience representing a function on a leadership team.
Ownership of processes, workflows, and resource decisions.

Responsibilities

Serve as the front door to External Affairs for deans, vice presidents, and communications leaders across the University.
Engage early to understand partner goals, target audiences, and obstacles.
Build and sustain strategic and collaborative partnerships across the University.
Translate partner goals into clear objectives, sharp briefs, and marketing and communications plans aligned with University priorities.
Lead the development of annual and campaign-based strategies.
Ensure all work is strategically defined, prioritized, and positioned for success before production.
Lead and mentor a group of Marketing & Communications Strategists, coaching them in relationship building, strategic planning, and messaging.
Advise the team on leveraging institutional connections for successful initiative promotions.
Stay close to team-led projects to ensure collaboration, cohesion, and alignment with University messages and priorities.
Act as a connector within the External Affairs matrixed model, aligning strategy, creative, digital, and communications expertise.
Partner with creative leadership to ensure work is on brand, inventive, and well-told from concept through execution and evaluation.
Identify overlaps, reduce duplication, amplify shared initiatives, and bring units together on cross-University priorities.
Define success metrics before work begins and assess outcomes.
Gather feedback from partners to inform future planning and drive continuous improvement.
Represent Strategy & Partnerships on the External Affairs leadership team, setting engagement and advisory standards.
Own and improve team processes, workflows, and resource decisions.