Communications Director

University of Wisconsin-Madison; Madison (WI); On-site; USD 110,000 - 125,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health benefits

Paid time off

Wisconsin Retirement System (WRS)

Job summary

The University of Wisconsin-Madison is seeking a Communications Director to lead a six-person team within the Division of the Arts. This role shapes the department's voice, strategy, and brand across campus and beyond, coordinating with faculty, staff, and external partners.

Reporting to the Senior Director for Arts and Media, the director will oversee budgets, resource allocation, and strategic initiatives, and attend events, including evenings and weekends, to advance UW‑Madison's arts profile.

Qualifications

• Minimum of five years related professional experience.
• Specialized knowledge in strategic communications, public relations, marketing, media relations, journalism, brand strategy, or visual communications.
• Experience engaging multiple audiences through different channels and a variety of media.
• Exceptional communicator and editor with a clear, compelling, and accessible voice.
• Experience managing complex communications initiatives and programs.
• Minimum two years experience supervising professional staff.
• Minimum two years experience building and managing budgets.

Responsibilities

• Creates communications content
• Develops, implements, and monitors strategic communication initiatives for designated audiences and internal stakeholders to maximize engagement and strengthen collaboration efforts
• Identifies, establishes, and directs media relationships and partnerships with internal and external sources
• Audits and directs day‑to‑day operational plans to align with strategic initiatives and to meet established objectives
• Identifies, proposes, and implements new or revived operational policies and procedures
• Exercises supervisory authority, including hiring, transferring, suspending, promoting, managing conduct and performance, discharging, assigning, rewarding, disciplining, and/or approving hours worked of at least 2.0 full‑time equivalent (FTE) employees

Skills

Strategic communications

Public relations

Marketing

Media relations

Brand strategy

Visual communications

Education

Bachelor's Degree

Job description

Current Employees: If you are currently employed at any of the Universities of Wisconsin, log in to Workday to apply through the internal application process.

Job Category

Limited

Employment Type

Regular

Job Profile

Communications Director (C)

Job Summary

The Communications Director works to magnify engagement in the arts across multiple audiences, advance goals and priorities of the campus arts community, and build on a national profile for the arts at UW-Madison. The Communications Director leads a group of 6 professional communications staff, oversees the department's strategy and budget, determines the personnel resource allocation plan, and ensures a cohesive voice and brand identity for all communications. The Communications Director develops and implements a strategic communications plan for the area. The Communications Director reports to the Senior Director for Arts and Media and serves on the leadership team, working collaboratively on the implementation of a strategic vision for the arts on campus.

The Communications Director may be asked to represent the Senior Director at appropriate meetings and events with stakeholders and is responsible for building and maintaining strong relationships with high-level campus communicators, the media, and professional organizations. This position also works closely with colleagues in the arts across campus in conjunction with the Office of Strategic Communication on aligning with campus branding and communications.

The department the Communications Director oversees is the Division of the Arts communications team which currently includes specialists in web design, writing, video, and social media. The Communications Director oversees specific internal, local and national strategies for those units as well as collaborating with individual faculty and staff, departments, non-academic units, and deans to uplift and promote their priorities in the arts and media and collectively raise the profile of arts and culture initiatives through all media. This position is expected to attend events hosted by the Division of the Arts and campus arts partners as assigned, including some evening and weekend events.

The Senior Director for Arts and Media reports to the Provost's Office and serves as a connector and supporter of the arts across campus. In support of the Senior Director's role, the Communications team promotes and provides resources for interdisciplinary collaborations, faculty, staff and student projects, and artist-in-residency programs. It does this through direct promotion in all media, and through supporting other units' efforts in these areas. All work should lead to an ever-healthier arts and culture ecosystem throughout campus and greater visibility of that work to the state, the nation and the world.

This position requires most work to be performed in‑person, onsite, at a designated campus work location. Approximately 8 hours per week work may be performed remotely, at an offsite, non‑campus work location. A period of evaluation will be required.

Key Job Responsibilities

• Creates communications content
• Develops, implements, and monitors strategic communication initiatives for designated audiences and internal stakeholders to maximize engagement and strengthen collaboration efforts
• Identifies, establishes, and directs media relationships and partnerships with internal and external sources
• Audits and directs day‑to‑day operational plans to align with strategic initiatives and to meet established objectives
• Identifies, proposes, and implements new or revived operational policies and procedures
• Exercises supervisory authority, including hiring, transferring, suspending, promoting, managing conduct and performance, discharging, assigning, rewarding, disciplining, and/or approving hours worked of at least 2.0 full‑time equivalent (FTE) employees

Department

Division of the Arts

Compensation

Salary is negotiable based on experience. The median salary within the range is $116,643. Individuals compensated at or above median salary would be expected to have significant experience and all required knowledge. They would be seasoned professionals with particularly broad and deep knowledge of the position.

This position is eligible for a comprehensive benefits package, including generous paid‑time off, competitively priced health/dental/vision/life insurance, tax‑advantaged savings accounts, and participation in the nationally recognized Wisconsin Retirement System (WRS) pension fund. Review the benefits summary for more information.

Required Qualifications

• Minimum of five years related professional experience
• Specialized knowledge or professional experience in one or more areas including strategic communications, public relations, marketing, media relations, journalism, brand strategy, or visual communications
• Experience engaging multiple types of audiences through different channels and a variety of media
• Exceptional communicator and editor with a clear, compelling, and accessible voice.
• Experience managing complex communications initiatives and programs
• Minimum two years experience supervising professional staff
• Minimum two years experience building and managing budgets

Preferred Qualifications

• Work experience related to the arts and/or higher education
• Experience or specialized knowledge building a national profile for an organization
• Understanding and experience monitoring trends in communications and technology and how they apply in the higher education context

Education

Bachelor's Degree Preferred Minimum

Contact Information

Serena Boman, HR Generalist, [e-mail]

Institutional Statement on Diversity

Diversity is a source of strength, creativity, and innovation for UW-Madison. We value the contributions of each person and respect the profound ways their identity, culture, background, experience, status, abilities, and opinion enrich the university community. We commit ourselves to the pursuit of excellence in teaching, research, outreach, and diversity as inextricably linked goals.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison fulfills its public mission by creating a welcoming and inclusive community for people from every background - people who as students, faculty, and staff serve Wisconsin and the world.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to, including but not limited to, race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, age, pregnancy, disability, or status as a protected veteran and other bases as defined by federal regulations and UW System policies. We promote excellence by acknowledging skills and expertise from all backgrounds and encourage all qualified individuals to apply. For more information regarding applicant and employee rights and to view federal and state required postings, visit the Human Resources Workplace Poster website.

To request a disability or pregnancy-related accommodation for any step in the hiring process (e.g., application, interview, pre‑employment testing, etc.), please contact the Divisional Disability Representative (DDR) in the division you are applying to. Please make your request as soon as possible to help the university respond most effectively to you.

Employment may require a criminal background check. It may also require your references to answer questions regarding misconduct, including sexual violence and sexual harassment.

The University of Wisconsin System will not reveal the identities of applicants who request confidentiality in writing, except that the identity of the successful candidate will be released. See Wis. Stat. sec. 19.36(7).

The Annual Security and Fire Safety Report contains current campus safety and disciplinary policies, crime statistics for the previous 3 calendar years, and on‑campus student housing fire safety policies and fire statistics for the previous 3 calendar years. UW-Madison will provide a paper copy upon request; please contact the University of Wisconsin Police Department.