Position Available: College of Engineering, Director of Communications and Marketing

UIC COE Director of Communications and Marketing

The UIC College of Engineering (COE) has an opening for a talented professional to serve as Director of Communications and Marketing.  This is a leadership position responsible for planning, developing and executing a comprehensive communications strategy and marketing program for the College and its academic departments; specifically, to strengthen COE’s public profile; support its recruitment of undergraduate and graduate students; support its outreach and relationships with alumni, donors and industry; deliver the necessary communications to enable an efficient, effective and scalable environment for our existing students and employees; and, work in collaboration with the UIC Office of Public and Government Affairs and UIC Office of Marketing and Brand Management to keep Engineering’s activities at the forefront of and consistent with other campus units.

The University of Illinois at Chicago is a vibrant, multicultural institution that has a long history of outstanding engineering education and research. The UIC College of Engineering continues this tradition with excellent undergraduate and graduate programs in six academic departments: Bioengineering, Chemical Engineering, Civil and Materials Engineering, Computer Science, Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Mechanical and Industrial Engineering.

At the only public research university offering engineering education in Chicago, the College of Engineering prepares students for classroom and career success, and its strong ties to the Chicago engineering community ensure that UIC students become experts in engineering fundamentals and emerging technology. UIC’s diverse engineering faculty are leaders in their respective fields, who serve as teachers, faculty advisers, and mentors to undergraduate and graduate engineering students.  Of the College’s 150+ faculty, 25 are women, 83 are Fellows of societies such as IEEE, ACM, ASME, AAAS, and ASCE, and 30 are National Science Foundation CAREER or Presidential Young Investigator award winners.

Central to the UIC College of Engineering’s mission is providing “Access to Excellence and Success”.  Innovative experiential student learning opportunities are enabled by various special programs and laboratories, and the Director of Communications and Marketing position will contribute to the advancement of education in the College.

Essential Duties
The Director of Communications and Marketing:

• Develops, implements, and evaluates the communications, marketing, promotion, recruitment, and social media strategies, as well as the branding, style guides and standards initiatives (hereafter “communication efforts”) for COE and its academic departments, in concert with campus efforts.
• Leads and coordinates communication efforts across COE and works closely with COE Administration, Advancement, Student Affairs, Academic Departments and Centers, faculty, and students, to ensure that resulting messaging, platforms, content, design, branding, and communication efforts effectively and accurately represent COE’s mission and values while also reaching the widest natural audience.
• Serves as the COE liaison to UIC Marketing and Brand Management, the UIC Public and Government Affairs Office, UIC Alumni Association’s publications, members of the press, and other internal and external stakeholders as needed. May serve on campus committees.
• Oversees and also contributes directly to the production, writing, reviewing, editing, and approval processes for all marketing and communications materials in various formats/media in support of promoting COE’s teaching and research missions, including website, press releases, publications, magazines, e-newsletters, brochures, invitations, appeals, videos, remarks, etc., to ensure accuracy and consistency with broader COE and UIC marketing, branding and fundraising efforts as well as effective, targeted, distribution. This includes working across COE and its academic departments, and closely with developers, designers and relevant UIC representatives, to ensure the design, content, and branding represent the mission and values of COE while attracting increased traffic to various media platforms and positive interest in the College.
• Collects and maintains COE data related to communication efforts to enable cost effective decision making.
• Prepares and oversees the marketing and communications budget.
• Identifies and manages related vendors and vendor relationships.
• May supervise any or all of the following: Director of Engineering Media Services, Associate Director of Communications, Writer, Graphic Designer, IT Tech Associate.
• Perform other related duties and participate in special projects as assigned.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s Degree in Communication, Design, Marketing, Journalism, English or a related engineering field required. A related Master’s Degree is preferred.
• Strong oral and written communication skills.
• Experience with web, social media and graphic design preferred.
• A minimum of five years of progressive experience in communications, marketing, journalism, public relations or a related field, with preference to such experience in an institution of higher learning, alumni relations, advancement and/or development.
• Demonstrable skill and creativity in one or more subareas (such as design, writing, marketing, social media) is required. Feel free to include samples of your personal work in the application, if applicable.
• Solid understanding of traditional, digital and social media communications and marketing concepts and principles.
• Solid understanding of search engine optimization and auction-based search term advertising.
• Comfort with leading trends and best practices for higher education digital communications strategies.
• Excellent communication, presentation, organization and computer skills, with proficiency in Microsoft Office and other related software and database applications.

Additional information about the College may be found at https://engineering.uic.edu/ 

For fullest consideration, please apply by October 24, 2017.

To apply, please click the following link for the online application system:  https://jobs.uic.edu/.

The University of Illinois at Chicago is an Equal Opportunity, Affirmative Action employer. Minorities, women, veterans and individuals with disabilities are encouraged to apply.
 

The University of Illinois conducts background checks on all job candidates upon acceptance of contingent offer of employment. Background checks will be performed in compliance with the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

For more information, please contact:
Jovita Banks
jovibank@uic.edu