Senior Director of Marketing & Communications: Tickle College of Engineering - UTK

Responsibilities

• Strategic Leadership and Direction
• Establish the multi-year marketing and communications vision, strategic framework, priorities and performance measures for TCE, aligned with the college's strategic plan and goals for national reputation, enrollment, research and external engagement.
• Lead development of the college's integrated marketing strategy, translating institutional goals into audience priorities, differentiated positioning, coordinated campaigns and resource allocations.
• Lead a sustained national reputation strategy that strengthens recognition of TCE as a leading destination for engineering education, research and collaboration, grounded in the college's demonstrated strengths and distinctive capabilities.
• Direct market, audience and competitive research to assess awareness and perceptions of the college, identify barriers to recognition and inform positioning, messaging and marketing investments.
• Establish differentiated brand positioning and audience-specific value propositions that translate the college's research strengths, educational outcomes and institutional impact into compelling reasons to engage with TCE.
• Direct integrated campaigns across paid, owned, earned and shared channels, ensuring editorial content, creative work, digital platforms and media outreach advance defined marketing objectives.
• Establish measures of awareness, perception, priority-audience engagement and campaign effectiveness; evaluate results and direct adjustments to strategy, investment and resource allocation.
• Serve as an advisor to the Dean and Chief Alignment Officer on national reputation, competitive positioning, enrollment growth, research visibility, partnerships and institutional impact.
• Develop innovative solutions to complex marketing, reputation and communications challenges, exercising independent judgment when competing policies, priorities or resource demands are present.

Requirements

• Education: Bachelor's degree in Marketing, Communications, Public Relations or a related field.
• Experience: Eight years of progressively responsible experience in strategic marketing, including substantial responsibility for brand positioning, audience research, integrated marketing campaigns and marketing performance measurement. Experience must include translating organizational priorities into marketing strategies; managing marketing budgets and allocating resources; and a minimum of three years managing managers and professional staff.

Preferred

• Education: Master’s degree in Marketing, Communications, Public Relations or a related field.
• Experience: Ten years of relevant, progressively responsible experience, including leadership of a multi-unit communications and marketing organization. Expertise in multiple marketing and communications specialty areas (design, writing, media relations, marketing and communications strategy). Experience in higher education, a government agency, or an engineering or science organization.
• Knowledge of trends in public affairs, higher education and the technology sector
• Knowledge of reputation marketing and competitive positioning for higher education, engineering, science or research-intensive organizations
• Ability to translate complex research, technical information and institutional achievements into compelling value propositions for priority audiences
• Ability to navigate complex organizational and external dynamics with political acumen
• Ability to manage communications under pressure with rapid turnaround
• Skill in building strategic relationships with academic and research leaders, industry decision-makers, journalists, thought leaders and other high-profile stakeholders
• Knowledge of methods for assessing changes in brand awareness, audience perceptions and institutional reputation