Employment Opportunity: Associate Director, Communications (full-time, permanent, subject to a probationary period)

Established in 1789, the University of King's College is Canada's oldest chartered university and is associated with Dalhousie University. A small and extraordinarily lively academic community located in Halifax (Kjipuktuk), Nova Scotia, King's is known nationally and internationally for its highly acclaimed interdisciplinary programs in the humanities, including its renowned Foundation Year Program, its professional programs in journalism and its fine arts programs in creative writing. King's is a community where students, faculty, alumni, and staff work to bring greater understanding, creativity, and compassion to the world.

The Associate Director, Communications leads communications for the Advancement Office (AO) and, as primary storyteller for the university, is responsible for strengthening King's institutional reputation. The incumbent will need to blend strong strategic capabilities with hands-on tactical execution, overseeing - and personally contributing to - creative communications projects.

The goal of the position is to orchestrate many aspects of communications to work together as a unified force. This integrated approach ensures consistent and complementary messaging regardless of the communications platform or channel. Reporting to the Director of Advancement, the Associate Director, Communications works with others in Advancement and throughout the university who have communications responsibilities. The incumbent works with the President, the Chief Enrolment and Student Services Officer and others, to ensure marketing and communications align to strengthen the mission and present a unified brand. The Associate Director, Communications works across the university to develop the ability to source stories. The incumbent will use the tools of their position to celebrate the vibrancy of our collegial community to enhance King's ability to attract students, influence and celebrate donors and heighten alumni engagement.

SPECIFIC DUTIES/ACCOUNTABILITIES

Communications Leadership

• Produce a Strategic Communications Plan for Advancement that prioritizes alumni engagement, donor relations and other strategic objectives of the university (such as diversity and accessibility) that can be assisted through communications strategy.
• Work with Advancement colleagues and Enrolment and Student Services to support and enhance the university's integrated approach to key messaging.
• Reach out to others within the university community to form relationships that will encourage news and information sharing to assist institutional storytelling about faculty, student and alumni success and donor impact.
• Consult with counterparts at Dalhousie University to seek their partnership and communications expertise and, when necessary, their approval.
• Participate in planning sessions with Advancement colleagues and with Enrolment and Student Services and other members of the King's community as requested, and serve on King's committees as appropriate.
• Lead the earned media strategy for the university. Seek external media interest in King's news and events through building media lists and relationships with journalists. Write media pitches or press releases and receive and respond to media requests with the assistance of others as relevant.

Management

• Coach and manage direct reports on the Advancement team, maintaining an efficient, collaborative, and engaging work environment to ensure the teams success meeting annual deadlines and goals.
  • Direct Reports
    • Website Manager
    • Writing and Digital Content Coordinator
  • Ancillary
    • Student Assistant(s)
    • Assignment writers as required (maintain and build this list) and creative service providers (design, web, video, photography) as needed.
• Produce an Editorial Calendar for stock content required during each school year (align with recruitment) and, through weekly meetings with Advancement's communications team, maintain flexibility to adapt the calendar to include flow content when appropriate.
• Ensure brand standards are maintained via visual and editorial consistency across King's; maintain and update the university editorial style guidelines and visual identity guidelines.
• Maintain photographic assets, and draft university documents concerning communications practices, e.g., around the recording/photographing of students and use of their words and images on digital and print platforms related permissions, procedures and guidelines.
• Specific to furthering the university's commitment to diversity, equity, accessibility, inclusion and reconciliation, work in partnership with the Chief Enrolment and Student Services Officer and King's support staff, including the Equity Officer, Accessibility Officer, Sexual Health and Safety Officer and others to ensure BIPOC students (and alumni) are represented on the website and other materials in ways that respect and support the BIPOC student experience at King's; ensure BIPOC student participation in the review and development of communications permissions, procedures and guidelines that concern the collection and use of their images and words.
• Monitor and manage our online presence.
  • Manage King's social media channels (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.) ensuring quality storytelling in the student or institutional voice and integrate media tools to create a cohesive brand.
  • Manage the website and its storytelling capacities; acting as chief storyteller, oversee the creation and distribution of content across digital channels through reporting assignments completed by self, or assigned to other full-time or student employees or contract writers as needed.
  • Perform environmental scanning daily. Source story ideas; create well-written content and edit the work of others appearing on the website and social channels to ensure it is on brand, provides balanced representation, is engaging, correct and aligned with editorial style, visual identity guidelines and key messages; help to build understanding and capacity for others on the team to do the same.
  • Determine need for external professional photography, videography, graphic design, writing or printing services; hire and manage work of both external creative suppliers and technical assistants to make sure our digital presence optimized, searchable, up to date and, with the help of others, secure.
• Manage related budget allocations, determining the most effective use of funds and adherence to budget limits.

Platform Responsibilities

• With the Website Manager, work with all areas of the college to ensure that the website is current and meeting the community's needs; oversee creation/lay-out/functionality of individual pages.
• With the Writing and Digital Content Coordinator, work to ensure that King's Social Channels are meeting the needs of the community and advancing engagement.
• Serve as Editor for the Stewardship Report and fundraising campaign materials in partnership with Advancement staff.
• Serve as Editor of Tidings, an annually published alumni magazine.
• Serve as Editor of the monthly alumni e-newsletter in partnership with the Alumni Relations Manager.

Research and Reporting

• Regularly evaluate the success of communications initiatives building discipline around tracking and working to continually improve performance.
• Set measures and record digital analytics to aid data driven tactics and to evaluate success toward goals.
• Present regular reports on goals, progress and recommendations to the Director of Advancement and college committees as appropriate.

Communications Support for the President

While the Advancement Office is in campaign mode (foreseeably the next six years), the Associate Director, Communications will be paid a monthly stipend above their regular salary to support the duties normally carried out by the Advancement Director. These duties support the President's communications needs by:

• Working with the President to provide support for institutional messaging and speeches.
• Staying alert to earned media possibilities that could serve to amplify progress toward the President's mandate and the university's mission.
• With the President, Director of Advancement and others as required, provide support for strategic communications.

The above accountabilities are intentionally detailed but are not intended to be an all-inclusive list of the duties and responsibilities of the position described.

The successful candidate will need:

• University degree in a related field such as Journalism, Communications, English, Public Relations, or equivalent experience.
• A minimum of five years experience in a similar position with equivalent high-level responsibility
• Exemplary writing skills with the ability to adapt for voice and audience.
• Exemplary editorial and copyediting capacity.
• Strong technical capabilities with all technology related to the position, including the ability to capture and read data and to optimize SEO.
• Strong managerial experience with both people and projects and a history of mature judgement.
• Ability to lead others, enhance teamwork, and encourage participation and accountability.
• Experience working with style guides and other pillars of brand management.
• Experience with media relations and strategic communications management.
• Highly organized, motivated and committed to the values of the university and the collaborative nature of a small team.
• Preference will be given for experience within a post secondary environment or a similar environment with multiple stakeholders.
• Experience with speech writing and/or donor communications (case for support and impact stories) will be considered an asset.

Closing Date: June 17, 2024

Salary will be commensurate with level of education and experience. The starting salary range is $83,342 to $95,645 annually. While required, in addition to the annually salary a stipend of $1,000 monthly will be paid to compensate for the communications support provided to the President. A comprehensive group benefits package is offered including membership in the Nova Scotia Public Service Superannuation Plan (PSSP).

Starting Date: August 19, 2024

To apply for this position, please forward resume and covering letter to:

Pethrona Russell
Human Resources Manager
University of King's College
6350 Coburg Road
Halifax, Nova Scotia B3H 2A1
[email protected]

We thank all applicants for their interest, however, only candidates selected for an interview will be contacted.

The University of King's College is committed to diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion. We encourage and welcome applications from Indigenous persons (especially Mi'kmaq), persons with a disability, racialized persons, including persons of Black/African descent (especially African Nova Scotians), women, persons of a minority sexual orientation and/or gender identity, and all candidates who would contribute to the diversification of our community.