Assistant Vice President of Marketing and Communications

Duke Alumni Engagement and Development

Duke Title: Administrator Special Projects

Internal Title: AVP Marketing and Communications Operations

For the global Duke community, the name “Duke” represents more than just a university. It means family. Duke’s Office of Alumni Engagement and Development is here to keep more than 200,000 alumni, donors, students, parents, and friends connected to the programs, people and places that mean the most at every stage of their lives. When you join the Duke Alumni Engagement and Development team, you join a team of high-achievers who are committed to deepening relationships, enabling connections, and helping the community make world-changing impact.

SUMMARY

The Assistant Vice President of Marketing and Communications serves as a strategic partner in inspiring Duke’s diverse community of alumni and friends to support Duke’s global mission. The AVP will provide communications planning, operations oversight, and budget management across the Marketing, Communications, and Stewardship (MCS) team. The AVP will operate in the capacity of a chief of staff, bringing high levels of diplomacy and problem-solving to advance operational effectiveness and productivity. This role serves as a strategic partner to the Associate Vice President, helping to lead the execution of internal and executive communications as well as represent MCS in important fundraising and engagement initiatives. The successful candidate is a dynamic self-starter who is passionate about organizational excellence. He or she will bring a proven expertise in leading highly matrixed organizations and managing change management communications. Reporting to the Associate Vice President of Marketing, Communications and Stewardship, this position will serve as a senior member of the department’s management team.

JOB RESPONSIBILITIES

Operations, Supervision, and Planning

• Provide operational leadership for the Marketing, Communications and Stewardship department, creating an atmosphere of excellence in support of AED’s mission, vision and values.
• Represent Marketing, Communications, and Stewardship on high priority projects routinely requiring communication with and coordination of senior level officials.
• Guide colleagues in the development of enterprise-wide practices, tools and templates to enhance communication effectiveness.
• Serve as an integrator, connecting work streams that would otherwise remain siloed.
• Build and maintain relationships across AED and Duke to facilitate workflow and reduce barriers.
• Ensure information flows from team members to Associate VP appropriately to enable efficient decision-making.
• Work with the Associate VP to create annual work plans, set objectives, and measure results for MCS strategies.

Internal and Executive Communications

• Work with the Associate Vice President to deliver best-in-class internal communications campaigns that educate, inspire, and connect AED employees to our mission and business goals.

• Create new ways to share information and drive employee engagement with an increased emphasis on storytelling.
• Support Human Resources and Talent Development in providing leaders with the skills they need to drive dialogue and engage employees.
• Lead the development of executive communications materials including newsletters, memos, talking points, videos, and more.
• Partner with Associate VP to provide strategic counsel and leadership to AED staff regarding university announcements, industry news, resources, and other relevant Duke updates.
• In collaboration with marketing and communications leaders across Duke, guide the development and implementation of strategies and activities that promote and protect our brand and reputation, ensuring strategic alignment among internal and external communications.

Management Duties

• Supervise executive support staff including a project manager and staff assistant.

• Representative Duties - Appropriately represent Duke University as “employer” to direct reports and direct reports as “employees” to Duke University

• Programmatic Duties - Ensure alignment of given programmatic, departmental, and/or organization-wide activities with AED strategic goals, priorities, and expectations
• Financial Duties - Exercise fiduciary responsibility for given individual, programmatic, departmental, and/or organization-wide activities in accordance with Duke’s financial policies, procedures, and standards, and AED expectations
• Personnel Duties: Supervise direct reports in accordance with Duke’s human resource policies, procedures, and standards, and AED expectations
• Personnel Duties: Hire & Onboard new employees (and offboard separating employees) in accordance with programmatic, departmental, and organization-wide priorities, Duke’s human resource policies, procedures, and standards, and AED expectations

Perform other duties as assigned.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

Technical:

• Bachelor’s degree and minimum of 7 years of marketing and communications work experience required
• Master’s degree, ideally an MBA, preferred
• Experience leading large, cross-functional teams within a matrixed organization or a marketing agency
• Demonstrated excellence in change management strategy and executive communications
• Minimum seven years’ experience in administration, management or supervision
• Demonstrated success developing multi-year plans and managing teams toward high performance
• Outstanding negotiation and presentation skills
• Knowledge of educational fundraising, higher education issues, and research universities

Behavioral:

Candidate must:

• Be able to set schedules, prioritize work, and manage deadlines effectively for self and for a team
• Be able to set strategic, short-term and long-term goals, and uses planning and tracking tools to coordinate competing projects
• Effectively and clearly communicate thoughts, ideas, and facts through writing and oral presentations
• Develop positive relationships and work collaboratively with a variety of campus partners and development stakeholders to achieve shared objectives
• Demonstrate an ability to influence and persuade others, and facilitate communication and cooperation between major functional and stakeholder groups
• Effectively manage and guide group efforts, including providing appropriate feedback concerning group progress

Required Qualifications at this Level

Education/Training

Work generally requires organizational, analytical and communication skills normally acquired through the completion of a bachelor's degree program. Masters degree preferred.

Experience

Seven years of administration, management, or supervisory experience (including project management) is required.

Minimum Qualifications

Education

Work generally requires organizational, analytical and communication skills normally acquired through the completion of a bachelor's degree program. Masters degree preferred.

Experience

Seven years of administration, management, or supervisory experience OR AN EQUIVALENT COMBINATION OF RELEVANT EDUCATION AND/OR EXPERIENCE (including project management) is required.

Duke is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer committed to providing employment opportunity without regard to an individual's age, color, disability, gender, gender expression, gender identity, genetic information, national origin, race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, or veteran status.

Duke aspires to create a community built on collaboration, innovation, creativity, and belonging. Our collective success depends on the robust exchange of ideas—an exchange that is best when the rich diversity of our perspectives, backgrounds, and experiences flourishes. To achieve this exchange, it is essential that all members of the community feel secure and welcome, that the contributions of all individuals are respected, and that all voices are heard. All members of our community have a responsibility to uphold these values.

Essential Physical Job Functions: Certain jobs at Duke University and Duke University Health System may include essentialjob functions that require specific physical and/or mental abilities. Additional information and provision for requests for reasonable accommodation will be provided by each hiring department.