Temporary Director of Communications

UNIVERSITY PREPARATORY ACADEMY•Seattle, WA

4d•$6,586 - $7,800•Onsite

About The Position

University Prep (UPrep) is a 6–12 independent school in northeast Seattle, WA, offering an intellectually rich education that fosters deep inquiry and critical thinking powered by student engagement. UPrep is a strong and vibrant community of students, families, faculty, staff, and alumni that joins together to support students in becoming caring and productive adults. UPrep is a place where all students and families have equitable access to all the school has to offer, and we aspire for all community members to feel like they belong. We believe that our shared values of integrity, respect, and responsibility are essential to accomplish our mission to develop each student’s potential to become an intellectually courageous, socially responsible citizen of the world. Reporting to the Director of Enrollment Management, the Director of Communications partners with senior leadership on developing the school’s overarching communication strategy. The Director leads the tactical execution of the strategy for UPrep. The Director plans, executes, and oversees all internal and external school communications to elevate UPrep’s profile, advance its brand, and consistently convey clear messaging to internal and external audiences. The Director is responsible for planning and content development for the school’s website, social/digital medial channels, weekly school newsletter, crisis communications, and maintaining consistent branding schoolwide. The position directly supervises department staff and interns, manages the department budget, and serves as a strategic communications partner to school leadership. The Director draws on strong verbal and written communication skills, as well as digital, technical, and visual skills to communicate the mission and work of the school to diverse audiences (alumni, faculty, staff, parent/guardians, students, and the public).

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in communications, or a related field required
Five or more years of successful experience in communications, web, and digital strategic leadership roles
Experienced in digital technology, analysis, and platform expertise across social medial ecosystems
Experience with content management systems (our school uses Finalsite and Veracross)
Experience with Adobe Illustrator, InDesign, and Adobe Photoshop
Hands-on experience with SEO, web traffic metrics, and web analytics tools like Google Analytics
Excellent verbal and written communication skills
Deep knowledge of strategic communications principles within independent school or non-profit structures
Professionalism, innovative ideas, and ability to express UPrep’s work creatively to improve audience engagement through digital communications
A strategic thinker with an in-depth understanding of how technology can help increase brand awareness and elevate UPrep’s story
Strong attention to detail and ability to balance independent work/self-management with collaborative environment
Ability to meet multiple deadlines, maintain confidential information, and communicate effectively with all levels of faculty, staff, students, and families
Management skills to direct department staff, plus external vendors, for multiple projects with competing deadlines and production schedules
Flexibility, maturity, a sense of humor, and a sincere commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusivity

Nice To Haves

Experience working in an education setting preferred

Responsibilities

Develops and executes an annual communication plan that is reflective of the values, mission, and culture of the school, as well as the school’s overarching communication strategy, and ensures consistent, accurate, and professional messaging across the school.
Mentors and supervises Senior Writer & Editor and Marketing & Communication Intern to ensure high quality of work, support job satisfaction, and effectively distribute responsibilities within the office.
Provides communications support to the Head of School, Division Directors, program directors, department heads, and Board of Trustees.
Maintains the school’s crisis communication plan.
Plans and manages the department budget to maximize the effectiveness of all communications.
Oversees external contractor relationships to support the production needs of the Communication Office.
Engages actively in professional development in order to remain current in best practices related to independent school communications, emerging social media, and effective storytelling strategies.
Maintains an overall web and digital content strategy for UPrep that aligns with and supports the school’s mission, brand, and priority messaging for key distribution points, including the public website, internal Veracross portals, and social and digital media channels.
Conceptualizes, designs, authors, and produces digital communications and digital media – primarily for the website and social media – while considering events or campaign objectives, audience, budget, and timeline.
Maintains a social media calendar for UPrep’s priority channels (Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube), and posts regularly.
Ensures best practices and quality standards in digital communications and media, including techniques, content, branding, and format, both within the Communications Office and throughout the school.
Manages and designs the digital content displayed on the TV monitors located throughout campus, in partnership with our third-party service provider (Rise Vision).
Regularly refreshes website content, partnering with various departments to update section materials.
Develops a website content strategy that optimizes headlines and keywords to support SEO.
Manages email drip campaigns to prospective families through the website.
Monitors SEO/SEM, Google Analytics metrics, and social medial insights to inform future content production.
Analyzes web traffic metrics and suggests solutions to boost web presence.
Maintains the Veracross Family, Faculty/Staff, and Student Portals and updates content as needed.
Collaborates with colleagues across UPrep, including Enrollment, DE DEIB, Development, College Counseling, and classroom teachers to identify new sources of content.
Supports the Brand and Digital Communications Manager in generating, editing, publishing, and sharing engaging content across our social media channels, including Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube.
When appropriate and in line with our best practices, communicate with followers, respond to queries in a timely manner, and monitor constituent sentiment.
Oversees the Marketing and Communications Intern’s production and distribution of UPrep’s weekly all-school email via Veracross by collecting content, proofreading, analyzing weekly engagement rates, enhancing the overall look and design, and seeking feedback to ensure it meets audience needs.
Designs communication strategies and tactics to increase prospective student inquiries and applications and maintain prospective student and family interest within a competitive, dynamic, independent school dynamic.
Partners with Director of Development to support the Puma Fund, community events (i.e. State of the School and UPrep Together), capital campaigns, and all collateral (including the annual report, invitations, and micro websites) to strengthen a culture of philanthropy.
Designs and manages paid campaigns through Meta.
Collects data and reports on impressions, engagement, page views, and sessions to help inform digital marketing and communications strategy.
Interprets data, analyzes results, and provides ongoing reports to school leadership.
Measures and reports performance of digital content and assesses against goals.
Identifies trends and insights and optimizes spend and performance based on the insights.
Produces small-scale visual products, in collaboration with school partners including Development, Enrollment, College Counseling, and our division directors’ teams, to advertise and raise awareness of UPrep community events (logos, postcards, explainer graphics, presentations, etc.).
Produces design elements for the UPrep website, social media, and print collateral.
Partners with the Senior Writer and Editor to generate design concepts for UPrep Magazine.
Adheres to UPrep brand guidelines, and ensures content produced throughout the school is on brand.
Project manages external freelance designers and printers.
Takes and selects photographs/video for print publications and social media channels.
Project manages external photographers for all on-campus photoshoots.
Manages Vidigami, the school-wide system for photo organization and management.
Works with video production company (Shootsta) to create video content for social media and events.