Responsibilities

• Develops, leads, and executes comprehensive marketing strategies that support the mission, goals, and strategic initiatives of Campus Dining and Shops (CDS) and Three Pillars Catering while operating within approved budget parameters.
• Creates and implements integrated marketing campaigns designed to increase participation in meal plans, drive retail dining sales, increase catering revenue, and strengthen customer engagement.
• Partners with dining operations leadership to develop unit-specific marketing and communication plans that support operational objectives, new initiatives, customer satisfaction, and revenue growth.
• Provides strategic leadership for merchandising, branding, advertising, communications, media relations, public relations, and promotional activities for all Campus Dining and Shops operations, ensuring compliance with University at Buffalo, SUNY, and FSA policies, procedures, and brand standards.
• Plans, conducts, and analyzes market research, customer surveys, focus groups, industry trends, and consumer data to identify opportunities for new programs, menu promotions, branding initiatives, and customer experience improvements.
• Develops and implements innovative branding, merchandising, advertising, and promotional campaigns that enhance the visibility and reputation of Campus Dining and Shops and Three Pillars Catering.
• Oversees all digital marketing efforts, including website content, email marketing, digital signage, mobile applications, online ordering platforms, and social media channels, ensuring content is timely, accurate, engaging, and aligned with organizational branding.
• Utilizes data analytics, reporting systems, and performance metrics to evaluate marketing effectiveness, measure return on investment (ROI), monitor customer engagement, and make data-driven recommendations for continuous improvement. This includes oversight of the company wide secret shopper program and annual NACUFS Survey.
• Provides leadership, supervision, coaching, and performance management for the marketing team, including professional staff, interns, and student employees. Establishes priorities, assigns work, monitors progress, and supports professional development.
• Collaborates with dining operations, culinary teams, retail managers, catering, student affairs, university departments, and external partners to plan and execute inclusive promotional events, grand openings, special events, and campus-wide marketing initiatives.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree from an accredited college or university in Marketing, Communications, Business Administration, Public Relations, Advertising, Hospitality Management, or a closely related field. A master's degree is preferred.

Preferred

• Five (5) to seven (7) years of progressively responsible experience in marketing, communications, brand management, or advertising, including supervisory or management experience.
• Demonstrated experience developing and executing strategic marketing plans, managing multiple concurrent projects, administering budgets, and evaluating marketing effectiveness through analytics and performance metrics.
• Experience in higher education, collegiate dining, hospitality, retail food service, or auxiliary services marketing is preferred.
• Experience with meal plan marketing, consumer research, branding, merchandising, digital marketing, social media strategy, graphic design oversight, event marketing, and promotional campaign development.
• Experience supervising, mentoring, and evaluating professional staff, interns, and student employees.
• Knowledge of higher education branding standards, accessibility requirements, copyright and trademark considerations, and SUNY and University at Buffalo communications policies and procedures.
• Excellent written, verbal, interpersonal, public relations, presentation, and project management skills, with the ability to communicate effectively with diverse audiences.
• Demonstrated ability to conceptualize, design, implement, and assess comprehensive marketing and communications programs while managing multiple priorities within established budget parameters.
• Strong understanding of customer-focused marketing principles and consumer behavior, preferably within food service, retail, hospitality, or a college or university environment.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office Suite and experience with digital marketing platforms, website content management systems, social media management tools, graphic design software, desktop publishing applications, and marketing analytics tools.