Senior Specialist, Communications and Marketing Strategy

University of Ottawa•Ottawa, ON

11d•Onsite

About The Position

The Telfer School of Management at the University of Ottawa is seeking a Senior Specialist, Communications and Marketing Strategy. This role reports to the Chief Administrative Officer and serves as a liaison between Telfer School of Management units and the marketing and communications (MARCOM) team. The primary goal is to ensure that communications efforts are integrated, strategic, and relevant, while implementing an omni-channel vision for the marketing and communications ecosystem. The specialist will prioritize effective media to reach students based on defined goals and will lead the development and implementation of marketing and communications strategies to promote supported services, priorities, and sector initiatives targeting current and potential Telfer School of Management clients. Collaboration with MARCOM managers, operational strategists (digital and content), and other teams is crucial to maximize the reach and effectiveness of communications across various channels, including web, print, video, social media, advertising, and events.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in marketing, communications, public relations, journalism or a related field, or an equivalent combination of education and experience
Five to seven years of professional experience in designing, implementing, and evaluating marketing and communications strategies
Proven skills in strategic planning and in implementing detailed marketing and communications plans
Proven aptitude for designing and implementing digital strategies and associated content
Proven experience in designing a variety of communications products and content for a range of platforms
Strong ability to interpret data, and excellent knowledge of best practices for the digital environment
Ability to understand and interpret industry metrics/analytics and apply them to plan and design products that meet the goals of clients and target audiences
Ability to communicate in French and English
Excellent judgment, initiative, creativity, flexibility, tact, and diplomacy
Skills and ability to resolve difficult situations and delicate problems that could affect the University’s brand
Established credibility and authority, and experience in building trust and influence among client departments
Motivation and excellent team spirit
Proven ability to forge partnerships or productive working relationships with a wide variety of internal and external partners
Ability to address the needs of many different clients and partners simultaneously and to balance speed, quality, and accuracy
Excellent interpersonal and problem-solving skills
Availability to work flexible hours, including evenings and weekends
Availability to travel, if required
Planning: Organize in time a series of actions or events in order to realize an objective or a project. Plan and organize own work and priorities in regular daily activities.
Initiative: Demonstrate creativity and initiative to suggest improvements and encourage positive results. Is proactive and self-starting. Show availability and willingness to go above and beyond whenever it is possible.
Client Service Orientation: Help or serve others to meet their needs. This implies anticipating and identifying the needs of internal and external clients and finding solutions on how to meet them.
Teamwork and Cooperation: Cooperate and work well with other members of the team to reach common goal(s). Accept and give constructive feedback. Able to adjust own behaviour to reach the goals of the team.

Responsibilities

Handles requests for marketing and communications support from stakeholders in the unit being served.
Provides expert advice to unit managers based on in-depth knowledge of operations and available data.
Leads and supports the development and implementation of marketing and communications plans and strategies for the sector or unit being served.
Ensures communications with current and/or potential clients have a better scope and higher engagement.
Works closely with operational managers and strategists from the Telfer School of Management MARCOM team to prioritize projects and ensure their execution.
Supports the mission, vision, and strategic directions of the Telfer School of Management in designing proposed content and strategies.
Supervises the creation and production of relevant content to support omnichannel strategies in a multi-media environment (social media, digital platforms, webpages, videos, print documents).
Ensures the implementation of proposed strategies and content by tasking communications officers, digital strategists, graphic designers, and other MARCOM colleagues.
Performs quality control on and approves communications products to ensure they meet University language and branding standards, as well as best practices.
Ensures sector priorities are assigned according to the MARCOM team’s capacity to complete projects.
Works closely with all stakeholders, including University marketing and communications teams.
Supervises the work of multifunctional teams and encourages dialogue and problem-solving.
Regularly evaluates current performance and opportunities to inform upcoming marketing and communication plans.
Conducts in-depth research to understand target audiences, the environment, and marketing and communications media to prioritize within the omni-channel context.