Communications Director Jobs

About The Position

Requirements

• Undergraduate degree in communications, public relations, journalism, English, political science, or a related field.
• 7–9 years of progressive experience in communications, stakeholder communications, public affairs, external relations, or a related field.
• 3–5 years' experience leading, managing, and developing staff within a complex, multi-stakeholder environment.
• Experience advising senior leaders on communications strategy, messaging and stakeholder considerations.
• Demonstrated experience leading an embedded communications team, or operating successfully in a matrixed organizational model.
• Experience coordinating communications work across multiple internal partners and functions.
• Experience managing change, competing priorities and politically sensitive issues in a decentralized environment.
• Strong expertise in strategic communications planning, stakeholder engagement, communications advisory services, and communications governance.
• Advanced knowledge of communications strategy, narrative development, issues management, editorial planning, and organizational communications models.
• Strong understanding of employer, industry, government, and partner-facing communications in a complex institutional environment.
• Ability to translate institutional priorities, stakeholder needs, and local context into effective communications strategies and plans, while identifying when matters require institutional coordination, escalation, or central ownership.
• Strong analytical capability and ability to synthesize information, stakeholder perspectives, and organizational context into communications recommendations and advice.
• Ability to lead cross-functional initiatives and influence diverse stakeholders.
• Excellent written and verbal communication, presentation, editing, and executive influencing skills.
• Demonstrated ability to lead organizational change and influence adoption of enterprise standards and practices.
• Demonstrated ability to balance strategic priorities, operational requirements and stakeholder interests in a complex environment.
• Demonstrated political acuity, diplomacy, and sound judgment when navigating complex organizational, stakeholder, and reputational considerations.
• Strong relationship-management capability across senior leadership and distributed communications environments.
• Strong understanding of higher education, work-integrated learning, employer engagement, and the external environment in which universities operate.

Nice To Haves

• Graduate degree is considered an asset.
• Experience in higher education, work-integrated learning, employer-facing environments, the broader public sector or a comparable context is strongly preferred.

Responsibilities

• Serves as the senior communications adviser to the Associate Provost, Co-operative and Experiential Education and the CEE leadership team on communications priorities, stakeholder considerations, positioning, and communications approaches.
• Supports leaders in translating CEE priorities into clear communications strategies aligned with university direction.
• Advises on the communications implications of strategic initiatives, external engagement activities, institutional positioning, organizational change, emerging issues, and stakeholder opportunities.
• Provides strategic counsel on employer, partner, government, and sector stakeholder communications.
• Applies institutional narrative direction, messaging frameworks, planning expectations, and communications standards within CEE's employer- and partner-facing context.
• Ensures CEE communications reflect Waterloo's priorities, voice, and governance requirements while remaining relevant to employer, partner, government, and sector audiences.
• Contributes CEE-specific insight, stakeholder perspectives, and external audience understanding to institutional communications planning, storytelling, and communications development.
• Supports alignment between CEE communications activities and broader institutional communications priorities.
• Leads communications planning and prioritization within the employer and partner communications portfolio.
• Works closely with Directors, Communications, central communications service lines, embedded communicators, and relevant marketing colleagues to support coordinated communications planning and delivery.
• Provides direction, coaching, and oversight to communications staff to ensure local communications planning, advice, and execution align with institutional frameworks, service expectations, and partnership standards.
• Ensures communications activities are coordinated across audiences, channels, stakeholders, and institutional initiatives.
• Clarifies what work is led locally within CEE communications, what is supported through central communications or marketing service lines, and what requires joint planning and escalation.
• Operates within the overall budget framework set by the AVP, CIR, with responsibility for monitoring, forecasting, and ensuring appropriate and effective use of funds across the Director’s portfolio in alignment with strategic priorities.
• Leads communications approaches that strengthen Waterloo's relationships with employers, industry partners, community organizations, government stakeholders, and other external audiences connected to co-operative and experiential education.
• Provides strategic communications support for employer engagement initiatives, partnership activities, and external stakeholder communications.
• Supports institutionally coordinated communications related to work-integrated learning, talent development, experiential education, and employer engagement priorities.
• Identifies emerging stakeholder issues, sensitivities, opportunities, and reputational considerations requiring institutional awareness or coordination.
• Uses stakeholder feedback, audience insight, environmental scanning, and performance information to improve communications planning and effectiveness.
• Identifies communications risks, competing priorities, and reputational considerations within CEE's external environment and escalates where institutional coordination is required.
• Supports adoption of shared planning tools, standards, reporting expectations, and continuous improvement practices across the communications function.
• Integrates stakeholder insights and organizational context into communications planning and decision-making.
• Leads, develops, and evaluates communications staff within the Co-operative and Experiential Education Communications portfolio.
• Establishes team priorities, allocates work and resources, and ensures alignment with institutional communications objectives and priorities.
• Provides functional leadership for communications practice within CEE by promoting shared frameworks, standards, and communications approaches.
• Builds a high-performing, collaborative, and audience-focused team culture that reflects both CEE's operating environment and the standards of the wider communications function.
• Promotes high standards of judgment, service excellence, responsiveness, and continuous improvement across the team.