Executive Director of Web and Digital Communications

Middlebury College; Middlebury (VT); On-site; USD 108,971 - 126,963; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

MiddCard Privileges

Discounts on season passes and campus/

Inclusion Program access

Job summary

Middlebury College seeks an Executive Director of Web and Digital Communications to lead the institution’s approach to web content, UX, and governance, ensuring our digital presence advances strategic priorities and reflects the strength of our brand.

Reporting to the Vice President for Communications and Marketing, you will partner with stakeholders to translate goals into a clear roadmap, emphasizing accessibility, usability, and measurable outcomes while collaborating with ITS for

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in communications, marketing, computer science, or a related field with digital-communications experience.
• 10+ years leading or influencing web/digital strategy on large-scale institutional sites with measurable improvements.
• Translate audience needs and brand strategy into clear requirements and priorities for technical teams (e.g., ITS).
• Strong editorial standards, information architecture, and content governance across a complex organization.

Responsibilities

• Lead institutional web strategy and content governance across the institution’s public web presence.
• Set the content and user-experience vision for Middlebury.edu with stakeholders to support brand, recruitment, and engagement goals.
• Co-own the roadmap for the institutional web presence with ITS for feature needs and metrics.
• Guide site architecture, navigation, taxonomy, and content organization for clarity and findability.
• Establish accessibility standards and remediation pathways with internal/external experts and ITS.
• Enable a distributed community of web editors through training and governance-friendly workflows.
• Use data to drive optimization with KPIs, analytics, and reporting practices.

Skills

Web governance

Editorial standards

Information architecture

CMS familiarity

Leadership

Stakeholder management

Education

Bachelor's degree in communications/marketing/CS or related field

10 years of progressive web/digital leadership

Tools

Web CMS

Analytics tools

SEO tools

Job description

Executive Director of Web and Digital Communications

Description
The Director of Web and Digital Communications will lead Middlebury's institution-wide approach to web content, user experience, and governance to ensure our digital presence advances strategic priorities and reflects the strength of our brand. Reporting to the Vice President for Communications and Marketing, they will partner closely with colleagues to set a clear roadmap grounded in audience needs, accessibility, usability, and measurable outcomes and collaborate with Middlebury Information Technology Services to translate communications goals into functional web development requirements.

This is a full-time, benefits eligible, salaried position with a hiring range of $108,971 - $126,963 per year.

Core Responsibilities:

• Lead institutional web strategy and content governance by establishing a clear, institution-wide framework for decision-making, editorial standards, prioritization, and continuous improvement across the institution's public web presence.
• Set the content and user-experience vision for Middlebury.edu by partnering with editorial, design, and project management to define audiences, journeys, voice/tone, and content patterns that support brand, recruitment, and engagement goals for Middlebury.
• Co-own the functional roadmap for the institutional web presence by translating communications goals into prioritized feature needs, success metrics, and phased releases in close partnership with ITS development resources responsible for technical implementation.
• Guide information architecture and site structure evolution by leading planning for navigation, taxonomy, and content organization, coordinating stakeholder input, and ensuring changes improve clarity, findability, and institutional storytelling.
• Establish and steward accessibility standards and accountability by defining expectations, building sustainable review practices, training editors, and partnering with internal/external experts and ITS to ensure ongoing compliance and remediation pathways.
• Enable and support a distributed community of web editors through training, documentation, and governance-friendly workflows that improve quality, usability, consistency, and brand alignment across schools, departments, and programs.
• Use data to drive continuous optimization by setting KPIs, overseeing analytics and reporting practices, monitoring content performance, and recommending iterative improvements to content strategy, UX, and campaign landing experiences.
• Serves as a cross-functional leader and connector by aligning priorities across Communications and marketing teams and campus stakeholders, escalating risks and decisions appropriately, and maintaining a strong, structured partnership model with ITS for platform evolution and service delivery.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in communications, marketing, computer science, or a related field, or an equivalent combination of education and progressively responsible experience in digital communications, web strategy, or content operations.
• 10 years of progressive experience leading or significantly influencing web/digital strategy, content platforms, or large-scale institutional websites, with a track record of measurable improvements (engagement, usability, conversion, accessibility, or content quality).
• Demonstrated ability to set a content-led digital roadmap by translating audience needs, institutional goals, and brand strategy into clear requirements, priorities, and success measures, and partnering with technical teams (e.g., ITS) for functionality implementation. Strong command and understanding of editorial content development and best practices.
• Strong expertise in web governance and distributed publishing models, including editorial standards, information architecture, content lifecycle management, and training/coaching content contributors across a complex organization. Experience in applying user-centered practices (research, testing, analytics, content audits, journey mapping) to drive continuous improvement in content effectiveness and digital experience.
• Proven leadership and people management skills, including building healthy team culture, developing staff, managing workload and priorities, and collaborating effectively with editorial, design, and project management peers. This position will supervise 1-2 staff members and regularly collaborate with others in ITS.
• Excellent communication and influence skills, with the ability to consult, negotiate, and build alignment across senior leaders, stakeholders, and cross-functional teams, including explaining tradeoffs and decisions clearly.
• Comfort and credibility working alongside technical partners (designers, developers, platform administrators, security/accessibility specialists), with the ability to communicate functional needs clearly and ensure shared accountability without directly leading technical delivery.
• Use and understanding of web-based CMS solutions for building large-scale websites with diverse sets of content editors and multiple sites.

Physical Demands and Working Conditions:

Work is performed in an office environment and requires the ability to operate standard office equipment and keyboards.

Other:

An offer for this position is contingent upon successful completion of a criminal background check and references.

Benefits

As an employee of Middlebury College in Vermont, you will enjoy being part of a vibrant supportive community.

Middlebury offers its employees excellent compensation and competitive health, dental, life, disability, generous retirement matching, and vision benefits, and a generous time-away program - up to 34 days per year, increasing as the term of service lengthens. Employees are eligible for robust educational assistance programs. The result is a very high quality-of-life in a gorgeous setting. Middlebury College offers its employees excellent compensation and other perks of employment including:

• MiddCard Privileges: access to athletic facilities, discounts at the college store, library privileges, and cultural and sporting events. Spouses or domestic partners are eligible to receive a card with the same privileges.
• Discounts on season passes at Middlebury College's Snow Bowl, the Ralph Myhre Golf Course and the Rikert Outdoor Center.
• Access to ourPartner Inclusion Programthat provides comprehensive support services to the spouses and partners of Middlebury employees.
• A full listing of our benefit offerings can be found on ourwebsiteor click to see some of the other fun perks of working at Middlebury, whether inMiddlebury, VTorMonterey, CA!

Middlebury College is an equal-opportunity employer where diversity, equity, and inclusion are core values. To this end, the College recruits talented and diverse faculty, staff, and students from across the United States and around the world. Middlebury College encourages applications from women, people of color, people with disabilities, and members of other protected classes and historically underrepresented communities. The College also invites applications from individuals who demonstrate an ongoing commitment to advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace.