Director - Public Relations & Marketing Communications - 992523

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Nova Southeastern University (NSU) was founded in 1964, and is a not-for-profit, independent university with a reputation for academic excellence and innovation. Nova Southeastern University offers competitive salaries, a comprehensive benefits package including tuition waiver, retirement plan, excellent medical and dental plans and much more. NSU cares about the health and welfare of its students, faculty, staff, and campus visitors and is a tobacco-free university.

We appreciate your support in making NSU the preeminent place to live, work, study and grow. Thank you for your interest in a career with Nova Southeastern University.

Primary Purpose:

The Director of Public Relations and Marketing Communications (PRMC) has a proven track record of creating, managing and producing effective public relations and marketing communications campaigns for visibility, brand recognition, and communications to reach target generation, engagement, visibility and brand recognition.

Plays a pivotal role in the fast-paced, high-performing public relations, social media, marketing communications, and news generation portfolio at the university and in the colleges, leading the media relations, crisis communications, internal communications and visibility campaigns as well as marketing communications projects including Web, digital, and social media. Responsible for developing and managing a proactive media strategy to advance visibility, build reputation and promote key messages reaching multiple internal and external target audiences.

This position will report to the Assistant Vice President of PRMCS oversees professional staff in media relations, news communications, internal communications, social and digital media, and marketing communications at both the university and college levels. Works closely with faculty, deans, students and university officials to raise the public profile of NSU and its colleges through robust, aggressive earned media strategies, as well as through use of emerging technology and paid digital to distribute NSU content directly to opinion leaders, influencers and target audiences. Along with the division’s other senior leaders, responsible for the university’s content management across Web, digital, and social media channels, ensuring best-practice content is produced, posted and disseminated across all accounts.
The Director of PRMC will partner with University deans, vice presidents and enrollment managers to lead all efforts in the development, implementation and measurement of integrated public relations and marketing campaigns across paid, earned, owned and shared channels. Superb client relations, account and project management, and business communications/presentation skills are a must.

This position requires experience properly coaching, supporting and directing subordinate(s) to help them contribute to successful campaigns and develop their skills and leadership abilities for future professional growth and opportunities.

Job Category: Exempt

Hiring Range:  Commensurate with experience

Pay Basis:  Annually

Subject to Grant Funding? No  

Essential Job Functions: 

1. Plans, directs, supervises, and coordinates work activities of subordinates and staff, including hiring, coaching, evaluating, and terminating, all in accordance with University policies and procedures. Directly supervises the public relations and marketing communications team including public relations and enterprise communications staff, a social/digital media team. Also oversees communications managers assigned to plan, develop, and deliver strategic communications priorities in the university’s various colleges.
2. Leads the team in the development and execution of public relations and marketing communications strategies and initiatives that drive visibility, reputation, enrollment, fundraising, visibility and reputation results with measurable KPIs for the university and its colleges.
3. Analyzes data, insights and best practices to create comprehensive PR and marketing communications plans with clear objectives, effective use of brand positioning and a targeted action plan that connects with target audience segments and markets to produce desired results for the university and its colleges.
4. Develops and implements innovative, strategic, proactive and results-driven methods to significantly expand the university’s and its colleges’ visibility and positive public profile by pitching and placing stories with influential media outlets and/or through direct distribution to opinion leaders and target audiences.
5. Collaborates with internal and external partners to develop PR campaigns and communications plans, including use of traditional methods as well as effective use of digital, Web, video, and social media channels.
6. Researches market trends, competitor positioning and opportunities to develop stronger plans.
7. Builds and maintains strong relationships with internal and external partners.
8. Works with analytics team to develop and implement effective PR and marketing communications scorecard to track, assess and improve Return on Investment and Return on public relations and marketing communications activities for their respective accounts and campaigns.
9. Proactively seeks to understand impact of all PR and marketing efforts on the business (for the colleges and for the University as a whole) and works to make comprehensive recommendations for continuous improvement.
10. Demonstrates experience and expertise in helping to leverage/improve web, social and digital presence, user engagement and functionality to maximize SEO, increase search rankings, integrate marketing and digital campaigns for lead generation, and boost reputational and marketing results for the university and the colleges.
11. Performs as exceptional advocate and leader for the PRMC division and serves as effective representative of the University and its colleges with key internal and external publics, being well versed in key priorities and key messages across the University landscape.
12. Demonstrates exceptional communication skills through content development, presentations, and building and fostering client partnerships. Keeps key stakeholders updated on PR and marketing communications plans and performance. Participates in strategy discussions and leadership meetings and presents strategy/metrics/reports to key stakeholders.
13. Develops project and campaign strategies, proposals, budgets and timelines. Responsible for keeping campaigns on time and on budget with strong ROI/ROAS.
14. Embraces accountability for high-performing projects and campaigns as measured by attainment of client business objectives and overall client satisfaction.
15. Demonstrates a solid understanding of video, digital communications, and social media and trends to identify ways to integrate social media into other communications strategies. Uses emerging technologies and techniques to develop, package and deliver compelling story ideas and content through an array of channels and methods to influence target audiences, including through the use of social media, digital news periodicals, influence campaigns and direct distribution methods.
16. Leads routine and weather-related crisis communications response team and partners with Vice President and Assistant Vice President on high-level safety or reputational crises as needed. Familiar with provisions, protocols and institutional responsibilities related to the Clery Act, Title IX and other higher education regulations.
17. Ensures that enterprise-wide and college-based communications strategic plans are effectively aligned with presidential priority messages and themes and reflect the communications quality and best practices of the division and the industry.
18. Seeks out, listens for and is attuned to new opportunities that will impact reputation and partners with communications counterparts.
19. Collaborates with internal marketing team members in creative services, Web communications, advertising & analytics, and other practice areas to bring the best solutions and expertise to the client, and to develop relationships and strategies to enable the division to produce even more cost-effective and powerful results for our accounts and the University as a whole.
20. Supports the university by adhering to consistent brand standards and core values.
21. Provides support to team members at all levels on various projects as needed.
22. Adheres to policies and procedures, with ability to recommend changes and develop alternatives when and if necessary.
23. Completes special projects as assigned.
24. Performs other duties as assigned or required.

Job Requirements: 

Required Knowledge, Skills, & Abilities: Knowledge:
1. Administration and Management – Working knowledge of business and management principles involved in strategic planning, resource allocation, budgeting, human resources modeling, leadership technique, production methods, and coordination of people and resources.
2. English Language – Thorough knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
3. Marketing - General knowledge of principles and methods for describing and promoting programs and services in order to achieve desired outcomes with limited supervision.
4. Marketing Research & Analytics – General knowledge of principles and methods for researching and analyzing data used for describing, promoting and selling services
5. Communications and Media – General knowledge of media production, visual, verbal, and interactive communication, and dissemination techniques and methods. This includes alternative ways to inform and persuade via written, oral, and visual media.
6. Digital Media – General knowledge of digital media production, communication, and dissemination techniques and methods. This includes alternative ways to inform and persuade via digital, web, and social media.
7. Advanced knowledge of MS Office Suite (Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint).
8. General knowledge of standard Adobe Suite.

Skills:
1. Critical Thinking - Advanced skills in using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions, or approaches to problems.
2. Judgment and Decision Making - Advanced skills in considering the relative costs and benefits of potential actions to choose the appropriate one.
3. Persuasion - Advanced skills in persuading others to change their minds or behavior.
4. Complex Problem Solving - Proficient skills in identifying complex problems and reviewing related information to develop and evaluate options and implement solutions.
5. Active Learning - Advanced skills in understanding the implications of new information for both current and future problem-solving and decision-making.
6. Time Management - Proficient skills in managing one's own time and the time of others.
7. Social Perceptiveness - Advanced skills in being aware of others' reactions and understanding why they react as they do.
8. Speaking - Advanced skills in talking to others to convey information effectively.

Abilities:
1. Oral Comprehension & Expression - The ability to listen to, understand, and communicate information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences so others will understand.
2. Written Comprehension & Expression - The ability to read, understand, and communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
3. Deductive Reasoning - The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
4. Inductive Reasoning - The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (including finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
5. Fluency of Ideas - The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
6. Originality - The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
7. Problem Sensitivity - The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing there is a problem.
8. Multi-Tasking - The ability to perform multiple tasks simultaneously without error.
9. Detail Oriented - The ability to pay attention to details, understand underlying cause/effect relationships, and account for those details and relationships.

Physical Requirements:
1. Near Vision - Must be able to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
2. Speech Recognition - Must be able to identify and understand the speech of another person.
3. Speech Clarity - Must be able to speak clearly so others can understand you.
4. Travel - Must be able to travel on a daily and/or overnight basis.
5. May be required to work nights or weekends.
6. May be exposed to short, intermittent, and/or prolonged periods of sitting and/or standing in performance of job duties.
7. May be required to accomplish job duties using various types of equipment/supplies, to include but not limited to pens, pencils, and computer keyboards.

Required Certifications/Licensures: 

Required Education: Bachelor's Degree

Major (if required: Public Relations, Journalism, Marketing, Advertising/Sales, Communications, related field, or relevant experience.

Required Experience: 1. Eight (8) to 10 or more years of experience in public relations and marketing communications work at a major university, with at least five (5) years or more supervising a communications team of four or more staff.
2. Experience properly coaching, supporting and directing subordinate(s) to help them contribute to successful campaigns and develop their skills and leadership abilities for future professional growth and opportunities.
3. Experience in leveraging social media channels and digital marketing strategy.
4. Demonstrated ability to manage multiple, complex projects on time and on budget, demonstrating results against Key Performance Indicators or success measures.
5. Demonstrated success and understanding in executing cross-channel marketing tactics to drive consumer engagement such as social and digital media, marketing automation/CRM, content creation and website management.
6. Proven strong project management experience trafficking projects from concept to completion with key team members including clients, decision-makers, writers, designers, digital managers, and external agencies/vendors.
7. Possess demonstrated marketing/campaign experience in the health care corridor, either in health care education, medical or health care systems or patient services. A portfolio of campaigns with success measures in this industry category will be required.

Preferred Qualifications: 

1. Master’s Degree.
2. Bilingual (English & Spanish).

Is this a safety sensitive position? No  

Background Screening Required?  No  

Pre-Employment Conditions: 

Sensitivity Disclaimer: Nova Southeastern University is in full compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and does not discriminate with regard to applicants or employees with disabilities and will make reasonable accommodation when necessary.

NSU considers applicants for all positions without regard to race, color, religion, creed, gender, national origin, age, disability, marital or veteran status or any other legally protected status.