Director Brand, Content & Fandom

USA Triathlon; Colorado Springs (CO); On-site; USD 110,000 - 160,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid work

On-site HQ: Colorado Springs

Job summary

USA Triathlon is seeking a senior builder to lead brand, storytelling, and fandom across USA Triathlon, USA TRI, and the Foundation, ahead of LA 2028. You will celebrate age-group athletes, coaches, and youth, while elevating elite and development pipelines to a national audience.

You'll connect stories across brands, drive high-volume editorial, and empower a small team to maximize impact within a constrained budget, on site in Colorado Springs.

Qualifications

• 8–10+ years in brand, content, marketing, or communications, with leadership experience.
• Proven track record building a high-volume, high-quality content operation.
• Strong storytelling instincts and creative direction across social, video, digital, and editorial.
• Comfort using data to prioritize, and delivering work with limited resources.
• Experience in sports, nonprofit, or mission-driven consumer brands.

Responsibilities

• Own our brands: lead positioning, voice, and expression for USA TRI, USA Triathlon and Foundation.
• Build the content engine: strategy, editorial calendar, production workflow and standards.
• Run athlete story pipeline across elite, development, junior, and age-group athletes.
• Grow fandom and audience, converting attention into membership and participation.
• Fuel revenue for foundation and campaigns, and partnerships with value for sponsors.
• Lead and coach a team of three, manage budget, agencies, and freelancers.
• Navigate brand guidelines and Rule 40 in all activities.

Skills

Story instincts

Team leadership

Brand architecture

Audience building

Resourcefulness

Cross-functional influence

Analytical judgment

Athlete trust

Job description

Company Summary

At USA Triathlon, we believe in the power of sport to transform lives — and in the strength of a team that lives that passion and mission every day. As the Olympic and Paralympic National Governing Body (NGB) for triathlon and multisport in the U.S., we’re driven to grow participation, inspire communities, and empower athletes of all backgrounds to reach their personal bests.

Company Summary

At USA Triathlon, we believe in the power of sport to transform lives — and in the strength of a team that lives that passion and mission every day. As the Olympic and Paralympic National Governing Body (NGB) for triathlon and multisport in the U.S., we’re driven to grow participation, inspire communities, and empower athletes of all backgrounds to reach their personal bests. We’re a team of bold thinkers, passionate doers, and collaborative leaders united by service, performance, innovation, and inclusion. Recognized by the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee for our commitment to diversity and inclusion, we offer unlimited PTO, 100% employer-paid medical benefits, and a supportive culture that celebrates excellence and balance. Every day, our work is fueled by our Purpose, Mission, and Vision:

• Purpose: Give everyone a chance to tri — removing barriers and creating opportunities for all.
• Mission: Drive success for multisport from the starting line to lifelong love.
• Vision: Bring triathlon to new places, people, and possibilities.

We’re the hub for a nationwide multisport community of athletes, coaches, race directors, and clubs. From youth and collegiate development to high-performance racing and community access initiatives, USA Triathlon drives the future of endurance sport in America. Join us in Colorado Springs — recognized as one of the nation’s best places to live — and help shape the future of Olympic and Paralympic sport. We are proud to be an equal opportunity employer.

Position Summary

USA Triathlon is hiring a builder to lead brand, storytelling, and fandom across our brands: USA Triathlon, USA TRI, and our USA Triathlon Foundation brand, heading into the LA 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games. For USA Triathlon, you'll celebrate the age group athletes, coaches, race directors, and youth who make up the sport. For USA TRI, our elite and development pipeline, you'll make our Olympic, Paralympic, and emerging athletes known and followed by a national audience. For our Foundation brand, it is meaningfully telling our stories to connect with donors – enabling philanthropy to support our organizational mission and our athletes. Most importantly, you'll connect the brands: turning elite inspiration into grassroots participation, and turning audiences into fans, members, donors, and partners. This is a build role. The content engine this job requires doesn't exist yet, and the window to create it to fully leverage and amplify a home Games is finite. LA 2028 is a once-in-a-generation moment to put American triathlon in front of a domestic audience, and the audience we will have at the Games is the one we build starting now. The work we do today will benefit our sport, our athletes, and our organization long past LA. We're looking for someone who sets a high bar, raises a small team to meet it, and moves fast with modest resources.

Essential Job Functions

• Own our brands. Lead positioning, voice, and expression for how USA TRI, USA Triathlon and USA Triathlon Foundation brands are represented, how they communicate and how they work together to connect elite athletes to grassroots participation, and enable philanthropic giving across our programs.
• Build the content engine. Design and stand up the strategy, editorial calendar, production workflow, and standards needed to publish consistently and at volume across social, video, digital, and editorial channels.
• Run the athlete story pipeline. Identify, prioritize, and develop a continuously replenished pipeline of athlete narratives: elite, development, junior, and age group, with enough runway that no major moments arrive unprepared.
• Grow fandom and audience. Drive organic growth of owned audiences and engagement that lasts between Games, working with Growth Marketing to convert attention into membership and participation.
• Fuel revenue. Create storytelling that supports the USA Triathlon Foundation and Elevate28 campaign, content programs that deliver value for corporate partners, and stories that inspire connection to and engagement with our organizational products and programs.
• Raise the team's performance. Lead and coach a team of three, set clear expectations and a higher standard for quality and velocity, and manage the budget, agencies, and freelancers that extend capacity.
• Navigate the rules. Work within USOPC, IOC, and IPC brand and athlete marketing guidelines, including Rule 40.

Supervisory Responsibilities

• Content Manager
• Multimedia Content Producer
• Social Media/Graphic Designer

Knowledge, Skills, And Abilities

• Story instinct. Ability to identify the story inside a life, a result, or a community and translate it into narrative that builds awareness, emotional connection, and lasting engagement.
• Team leadership and coaching. Demonstrated ability to lead teams to success by setting standards, giving candid feedback, developing individual capability, and holding people accountable with both clarity and care.
• Brand architecture expertise. Deep knowledge of brand development, positioning, and messaging, including experience managing multiple differentiated but connected brands within one organization.
• Audience building. Practical understanding of how to grow owned audiences organically, deepen engagement, and convert casual interest into durable fandom and advocacy.
• Resourcefulness. Proven ability to produce high-quality, high-volume work with a small team and a constrained budget, and to make disciplined choices about what not to do.
• Cross-functional influence. Strong collaboration and relationship-building skills, with the ability to align creative and storytelling efforts across growth, philanthropy, corporate partnerships, communications, high performance, and events.
• Analytical judgment. Ability to use audience insight, performance data, and market trends to prioritize content and refine strategy.
• Athlete trust. Ability to build genuine, respectful relationships with athletes and to tell personal stories with care and integrity.

Requirements

Qualifications

• 8–10+ years in brand, content, marketing, or communications, with significant leadership experience.
• A track record of leading teams to success, and upskilling existing teams.
• Proven success building a content operation that published consistently and grew audience and engagement.
• Strong story instincts and creative direction across social, video, digital, editorial, and experiential channels.
• Comfort using data to prioritize, and the discipline to deliver high-quality work with limited resources.
• Experience in sports, entertainment, nonprofit, or a mission-driven consumer brand.

Preferred

• Experience with the Olympic and Paralympic movement or a professional sports property.
• Content experience supporting fundraising or sponsorship revenue.
• Familiarity with endurance or participation-based sport.

Working Conditions And Physical Requirements

• USA Triathlon offers a hybrid work schedule and requires this position to be on site at USAT headquarters in Colorado Springs, CO at least two days per week
• While performing the duties of this job, the employee may be regularly required to stand, sit, talk, hear, reach, stoop, kneel, and use hands and fingers to operate a computer, telephone, and keyboard. The employee may be required to exert force to manipulate or move items weighing up to 50 pounds.
• This position may require limited non-traditional work hours including evenings, weekends, and some holidays related to USA Triathlon event attendance and support. Event attendance and support may entail travel, including outside of traditional office hours, to USA Triathlon events and/or international events

EEO Statement

USA Triathlon is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, or protected veteran status.

Disclaimer

This job description is intended to describe the general nature and level of work performed. It is not intended to be an exhaustive list of all duties, responsibilities, and qualifications required. Duties and responsibilities may change as business needs evolve.