Responsibilities

• The Senior Director of Communications and Marketing is BGC’s communications leader. Reporting to the Chief Advancement Officer, the Director develops and implements an integrated, institution-wide strategy for Gallery exhibitions, Academic Programs and recruitment, Public Humanities + Research, Publications, the Study Collection, and supports alumni engagement and development.
• The Director is responsible for institutional positioning and brand consistency across BGC platforms, editorial direction, audience development, media relations, digital strategy, and creative production, as well as tracking and analyzing audience engagement.
• The role is strategic and hands-on: the Director sets priorities that align with broader institutional goals, writes and edits at a high level, leads staff and external partners, and ensures that campaigns are delivered effectively and on time.
• During the first year, the Director will assess the strategies, systems, audience data, digital platforms, vendor relationships, and institutional knowledge developed over the previous eight years; preserve what is working; identify gaps and opportunities; and establish a measurable, multi-year communications and marketing plan.
• Strategy, Leadership, and Institutional Positioning
• Lead annual and multi-year communications and marketing strategy aligned with BGC’s mission, academic priorities, exhibition and program calendar, enrollment goals, audience-growth objectives, and revenue needs.
• Create an integrated communications timeline and plan that establishes priorities across departments, anticipates major campaigns, and allocates staff and financial resources effectively.
• Define existing and target audiences, campaign objectives, key performance indicators, and reporting practices; use results and data to guide investment and improve institutional decision-making.
• Advise the Director, Deputy Director, Chief Advancement Officer, senior leadership, faculty, and curators on messaging, public positioning, executive communications, and reputation management.
• Develop and maintain rapid-response communications protocols, including approval pathways, stakeholder communications, message templates, and oversight of media response efforts.

Requirements

• At least seven years of experience in communications, marketing, public relations, audience development, enrollment marketing, or a related field, including supervisory and budget-management experience.
• Demonstrated success creating integrated strategies that have measurably increased awareness, engagement, attendance, enrollment, or revenue.
• Exceptional writing and editing skills, with the ability to communicate scholarly, artistic, and institutional ideas clearly to multiple audiences.
• Substantial experience with brand strategy, media relations, digital marketing, websites and content-management systems, email, social media, paid campaigns, analytics, SEO, and audience segmentation.
• Proven ability to manage staff, agencies, consultants, vendors, complex production schedules, and multiple concurrent priorities in a lean organization.
• Sound judgment, diplomacy, intellectual curiosity, and the ability to build trust across academic, curatorial, administrative, visitor-facing, and Advancement teams.
• Bachelor’s degree required; advanced degree or substantial experience in museums, arts and culture, higher education, design, art history, or the humanities strongly preferred.
• Candidates must be legally authorized to work full-time in the United States for any employer. Bard Graduate Center will not petition, pay for, or take over an existing visa.

Benefits

• Benefits Overview: We are pleased to offer our full-time employees an excellent benefit package which includes; multiple health insurance options; TIAA retirement plans; generous vacation, sick, and personal time; and more. To learn more about employee benefits and eligibility at Bard College, please visit  https://www.bard.edu/humanresources/benefits/ .