Location: Hickory, North Carolina
The Director/Senior Director of Integrated Marketing and Communications is a senior member of Lenoir-Rhyne University's Office of Marketing and Communications, with primary responsibility for developing and executing integrated strategies that advance the university's enrollment goals. Reporting to the Associate Vice President for Marketing and Communications, the director/senior director works across digital advertising, web, email, print, social media and other channels to build awareness, generate interest and move prospective students through the enrollment process.
This is both a strategic and hands-on role. The director/senior director must be able to develop strategy, exercise sound judgment, and independently lead complex projects while also producing high-quality work. The successful candidate will be an exceptional writer and editor with broad creative and digital fluency and the ability to write copy, update web content, create or modify print and digital assets, support digital advertising and edit short-form multimedia.
The director/senior director is not expected to be the university's primary specialist in every discipline. Rather, the role requires demonstrated depth in several core areas, broad professional fluency across marketing and communications, and the judgment to know when to execute work directly and when to engage specialized colleagues or partners. The ideal candidate is proactive, politically and organizationally astute, highly collaborative and comfortable moving work forward with a high degree of independence.
Supervisory Responsibilities Essential Accountabilities Enrollment, Advancement and Institutional Marketing - Partner with Admission and Enrollment Management to develop integrated recruitment marketing supporting undergraduate, transfer, graduate and online enrollment.
- Lead development of admission marketing collateral and campaigns across print, web, email, advertising, social media, video and other channels, including writing and editing recruitment copy.
- Develop audience-specific messaging across the recruitment funnel and use enrollment data, audience insights and campaign performance to improve effectiveness.
- Partner with Advancement on marketing and communications supporting fundraising, alumni engagement, donor communications, campaigns and institutional priorities.
- Support reputation-building and integrated storytelling that increase awareness of Lenoir-Rhyne's academic programs, people, accomplishments and community impact.
Integrated Strategy, Leadership and Project Ownership - Partner with the Associate Vice President to develop and execute integrated marketing and communications strategies supporting university priorities, enrollment goals, brand awareness, reputation and engagement.
- Own assigned initiatives from strategy and concept development through execution, measurement and optimization, engaging the Associate Vice President at appropriate decision points.
- Translate institutional goals, audience needs and market insights into actionable plans, campaigns, messaging and creative deliverables.
- Serve as a strategic resource to university leaders and campus partners; anticipate needs, establish priorities and recommend effective approaches.
- Manage multiple complex projects, timelines, budgets, vendors and production processes while identifying opportunities to improve workflow and efficiency.
Brand, Creative, Writing and Content - Support stewardship and implementation of the Lenoir-Rhyne brand, translating brand strategy, visual identity and messaging consistently across platforms.
- Develop creative concepts and provide strategic and creative direction for print, digital, advertising, photography, video and other marketing projects.
- Serve as a senior writer, copywriter and editor, producing polished web copy, news and feature stories, admission and advancement communications, advertising, email, social media, scripts, publications and presentations.
- Translate complex academic, institutional and strategic information into clear, compelling and audience-appropriate communications.
- Create, modify or adapt professional print and digital assets using Adobe Creative Cloud when needed, while collaborating effectively with designers, photographers, videographers, writers, agencies and other specialists.
- Review work for brand consistency, messaging effectiveness, editorial and creative quality, accuracy and audience relevance.
Web, Digital and Multimedia - Lead strategy and optimization of recruitment-related web content and landing pages; write, edit and publish content in the content management system as needed.
