Executive Director, Brand

University of Chicago Medicine; Chicago (IL); Hybrid; USD 150,000 - 210,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Opportunity to work in a world-class organization

Engagement with numerous stakeholders

Impact on patient lives and health equity

Job summary

A leading academic healthcare system seeks an Executive Director, Brand to spearhead brand strategy and external campaigns. This role involves collaborating with leadership to craft narratives, enhance brand awareness, and ensure alignment with organizational goals. Candidates should have a minimum of 10 years in brand strategy with a Bachelor’s degree in a related field. The position, based in Chicago, offers the chance to impact patient care and health equity significantly.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in brand strategy leadership.
• Experience in a complex healthcare organization is preferred.
• Proven results in marketing and communications strategies.
• Proven track record in developing and executing comprehensive marketing and communications strategies.
• Strong storytelling, public relations, and campaign development expertise.
• Ability to analyze information, present data, and drive performance with data in a matrixed organization.
• Bold, creative, and innovative leader who inspires teams in a competitive marketplace.
• Solid leadership to build and grow high-performing teams.

Responsibilities

• Develop a cohesive brand strategy for UChicago Medicine.
• Oversee storytelling initiatives and brand guideline enforcement.
• Manage multi-channel marketing campaigns and budgets.
• Manage creative agency relationships and budgets.
• Measure ROI and brand performance using data-driven insights.
• Collaborate with Growth Marketing, Performance Marketing, Communications and Marketing Ops teams.
• Foster community visibility and equity through branding initiatives.

Skills

Leadership in brand strategy

Public relations expertise

Data analysis and presentation skills

Storytelling

Campaign development

Leadership

Strategic thinking

Education

Bachelor's degree in Marketing, Communications, Public Relations, or Business

Master's degree preferred

Job description

Job Description

Join a world-class academic healthcare system, UChicago Medicine, as our next Executive Director, Brand. We are seeking a progressive visionary with a high degree of professional energy and a proven track record. This role requires a dynamic leader to spearhead UChicago Medicine's comprehensive brand strategy efforts, ensuring a consistent, impactful voice that reinforces the organization’s mission and values. This role will oversee all external campaigns, driving innovative initiatives to strengthen brand awareness, enhance stakeholder engagement, and position UCM as a leader in healthcare innovation. Partnering closely with leadership across departments, this role will craft narratives that highlight UCM’s commitment to high-quality patient care, research, education, community, and people while ensuring alignment with organizational goals.

The successful candidate will leverage data-driven insights, foster continuous team development, and build strong relationships with key stakeholders to achieve outstanding marketing performance. Reporting to the Chief Marketing Officer, this role will be an innovative partner, leveraging market insights, storytelling, and performance metrics; the Executive Director will ensure that brand strategies effectively reach diverse audiences, elevate UCM’s reputation, and contribute to measurable growth in patient and provider acquisition.

This position is based in Chicago with the expectation that you will have an onsite presence at least 2 days per week, sometimes more often, given meetings and organizational priorities.

Who you are:

• Bachelor’s degree in Marketing, Communications, Public Relations, or Business required. Master’s degree preferred.
• 10+ years of progressive experience with a notable record of results while working as a leader in brand strategy, communications, and public relations.
• Experience from a highly complex healthcare or hospital organization is strongly preferred.
• Proven track record in developing and executing comprehensive marketing and communication strategies.
• Strong storytelling, public relations, and campaign development expertise.
• Ability to analyze information, present data, and draw conclusions by applying analysis techniques, using data to drive positive performance in a highly matrixed organization.
• Bold, creative, courageous, and innovative mindset who is able to inspire and motivate others; well versed in operating in a very competitive marketplace.
• Solid reputation as an individual who can provide sound leadership and build effective teams to maximize organizational growth and success.

What you’ll gain as Executive Director, Brand:

• Opportunity to work at a world-class organization, engaging numerous stakeholders, to fulfill its patient-care, research, medical‑education, and health‑equity missions.
• High visibility as innovative marketing leader for UChicago Medicine, managing key internal and external relationships.
• Ability to make a difference in the lives of patients and their families by marketing UCM as a provider of choice, highlighting our relentless pursuit to address health disparity and achieve health equity.

What you’ll do as the Executive Director, Brand:

• Develop and implement a cohesive brand strategy that strengthens UChicago Medicine’s identity as a trusted leader in healthcare.
• Drive storytelling initiatives that resonate emotionally and strategically with patients, providers, and key stakeholders. Oversee the creation and enforcement of brand guidelines to maintain consistency across all communication channels.
• Lead the development and execution of multi‑channel campaigns, including digital, traditional, and earned media in accordance with priorities and playbooks. Ensure alignment between internal and external communications, supporting strategic objectives and organizational priorities.
• Craft messaging for high‑profile multi‑geography brand campaigns, announcements, and partnerships in collaboration with senior executives.
• Manage creative agency relationship and be held accountable for agency performance and budget.
• Demonstrate effective ROI and performance metrics by leveraging data‑driven insights to measure the effectiveness of campaigns. Monitor brand health metrics, public relations impact, and KPIs, providing actionable recommendations to leadership.
• Manage budgets effectively to achieve communication objectives within financial constraints.
• Build, inspire, and manage a high‑performing brand and creative team through effective coaching and development for long‑term success. Foster continuous learning within the team through regular communications, meetings, training, and professional development plans.
• Partner with the Growth Marketing, Performance Marketing, Communications and Marketing Ops teams to align branding and growth strategies, creating a unified product performance narrative. Collaborate with Physician Relations, Operations, Clinical leadership, and other teams to ensure messaging supports organizational priorities and provider engagement efforts.
• Foster efforts to positively impact the organization’s visibility, image, and relationship with its surrounding community.

E4 Leadership

E4 Leadership (Equity, Engage, Evolve, Excel) is a patient centered management system that empowers teams to improve on a daily basis. This is done through daily readiness huddles, real time process monitoring, performance review huddles and structured problem solving. E4 Leadership is an evolving system where leaders work together to cultivate a culture of equity and continuous improvement that enables:

1. Each person to realize their full potential for contribution
2. The organization to achieve high performance outcomes
3. System‑wide integration, coordination, and seamless execution
4. Clear focus on exceptional, equitable patient care and experiences.

As part of the leadership team, this position will be instrumental in reinforcing and sustaining UCM’s E4 Leadership Culture.

Why Join Us

We’ve been at the forefront of medicine since 1899. We provide superior healthcare with compassion, always mindful that each patient is a person, an individual. To accomplish this, we need employees with passion, talent and commitment… with patients and with each other. We’re in this together: working to advance medical innovation, serve the health needs of the community, and move our collective knowledge forward. If you’d like to add enriching human life to your profile, UChicago Medicine is for you. Here at the forefront, we’re doing work that really matters. Join us. Bring your passion.

UChicago Medicine is growing; discover how you can be a part of this pursuit of excellence at UChicago Medicine Career Opportunities.

UChicago Medicine is an equal opportunity employer. We evaluate qualified applicants without regard to race, color, ethnicity, ancestry, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, civil union status, parental status, religion, national origin, age, disability, veteran status and other legally protected characteristics.

As a condition of employment, all employees are required to complete a pre‑employment physical, background check, drug screening, and comply with the flu vaccination requirements prior to hire. Medical and religious exemptions will be considered for flu vaccination consistent with applicable law.

Compensation & Benefits Overview

UChicago Medicine is committed to transparency in compensation and benefits. The pay range provided reflects the anticipated wage or salary reasonably expected to be offered for the position.

The pay range is based on a full‑time equivalent (1.0 FTE) and is reflective of current market data, reviewed on an annual basis. Compensation offered at the time of hire will vary based on candidate qualifications and experience and organizational considerations, such as internal equity. Pay ranges for employees subject to Collective Bargaining Agreements are negotiated by the medical center and their respective union.

Review the full complement of benefit options for eligible roles at Benefits - UChicago Medicine.