Responsibilities

• Strategic Leadership and Planning
• Work with DSAI leadership, faculty, and other university communications teams to develop a strategic communications program that positions the university as the leading academic hub for data science and artificial intelligence.
• Craft and execute long- and short-term communications and marketing plans that leverage the university’s unique constellation of assets to advance strategic priorities.
• Establish clear objectives for the communications and marketing program. Develop and track metrics to continually monitor progress towards goals, measure digital and media success, benchmark against peers, and respond to opportunities for improvement. Provide reports to leadership and stakeholders to demonstrate impact.
• Support institute and university leadership in navigating the communications opportunities and risks inherent in building an institute at the forefront of an emerging sector that presents both opportunities and challenges. Provide strategic and tactical guidance to anticipate challenges and protect and enhance the reputation of the university, institute, its people, and its work.
• Provide vision, input, and support on variety of public events for the institute that help to build DSAI’s brand, disseminate its core work, and elevate its research, educational, and translational missions.
• Media Relations and Communications
• Hire and manage a team of specialists to help achieve the goals of the communications and marketing strategic plans.
• Lead DSAI’s media engagement and digital communications across multiple channels to promote the work of the institute and its associated centers and programs.
• Create an active, forward-looking media relations strategy to elevate institute leadership and faculty experts as thought leaders on key issues driving the public conversation around data science and AI.
• Develop and deploy a robust, owned-media strategy cross channels - social media, websites, video, podcasts, live events, AI platforms, complementing traditional media outreach and positioning the school as an innovative leader and an unparalleled platform for data science and AI discussions.
• Partner with counterparts in the university's Office of Communications to manage reputational issues and crisis communications for the institute, ensuring operational alignment, and effective coordination and execution for internal and external audiences.
• Serve as a spokesperson for the institute as needed and advise and prepare faculty and other leaders and experts for media and public appearances.
• Advance the Institute Director’s thought leadership goals and strategic positioning for internal and external audiences.
• Prepare standard materials such as talking points and Q&A’s for use by DSAI team members in presentations, meetings, and interactions with various groups.
• Marketing and Branding
• Lead efforts to market and promote the institute's academic programs, research, events, and activities through coordinated marketing campaigns. As needed, hire and manage external agencies to support this work.
• Develop marketing campaigns and strategies to raise awareness and enhance reputation of the institute for audiences such as prospective students, faculty, staff, and the broader community.
• Oversee the development of the institute’s brand and visual identity, in coordination with other university communications partners and key stakeholders, and manage the use of the brand and creation of branded material and other assets within the established university brand guidelines.
• Provide leadership with regular updates on trends in higher education and data science and AI research, its evolving landscape, including regular benchmarking to support strategy and decision-making.

Requirements

• Bachelor's Degree.
• Ten years of managerial-level, progressively responsible experience in leading strategic communications and public affairs programs in related fields/industry.
• Additional education may substitute for required experience, and additional related experience may substitute for required education beyond a high school diploma/graduation equivalent, to the extent permitted by the JHU equivalency formula.

Nice To Have

• Experience developing and running comprehensive strategic communications programs that elevate institutional expertise in data science and AI, and effectively engage diverse public, academic, government, and industry audiences.
• Comfort achieving results in a highly collaborative environment incorporating stakeholders and decision-makers across multiple teams and departments.
• Ability to build trust and influence at the executive level; experience providing advice and counsel to senior leaders and executives.
• Understanding of the importance of media relations
• Comfort and familiarity with a wide range of media relations and marketing tools and tactics, and a track record of evaluating and incorporating new tools as they become available.
• Demonstrated ability to lead and manage a diverse team, oversee multiple projects, and work in a fast-paced environment.
• Strong leadership skills with a track record of leading high-performing communications and marketing teams.
• Experience hiring staff, developing teams, crafting and overseeing budgets, and managing contract resources or agencies for discrete projects.
• Previous professional experience in and/or content expertise in academic or related industry environments.

Benefits