Sr. Divisional Marketing Specialist

Department: Residential Living

Summary

As a senior leader on the Residential Living team and key member on the Auxiliary Services team, this position is a champion of collaboration, leading a collective effort in aggressively marketing and creating a positive image/brand for Residential Living , (consisting of the collective of Dining Services, Housing, Residence Education, and the Residential Facilities offices) ensuring service excellence in our customer service practices and messaging an inclusive community oriented brand to all stakeholders. This position’s leading priority will be to the Residential Living operation led by Auxiliary Services, ensuring a unified brand across all services that markets a high quality residential experience and delivers a comprehensive marketing plan promoting the recruitment and retention of new and returning resident students. This position will serve as a collaborative partner on the strategic development of all operations to ensure the Residential Living portfolio delivers exceptional student satisfaction, maximized occupancy, and retention. This position also serves as a leader within the larger Auxiliary Services unit, providing divisional support/consultation in strengthening its marketing and communication efforts by leading the oversight and staffing of a marketing support center that will deliver support services to all departments within the division. They will extend their marketing prowess in developing an innovative and aggressive effort to recruit, grow, and organize a robust summer conferencing program within Auxiliary Services. 

Responsibilities and Essential Duties

● Serve as a collaborative partner with the Executive Director of Residential Living and Associate Director of Housing on the execution of all operations within the residential portfolio, with a focus on delivering messaging that demonstrates an excellent public facing product and brand.
● Serve as a chief marketing officer within Residential Living and the larger Auxiliary Services division ensuring the delivery of an exceptional brand that meets the goals of the department, division, and University
● Lead the collaboration within the Residential Living team to shape public relations, communications and develop creative initiatives that promote/protect the brand of the residential experience and aid in the recruitment of students
● Create and execute a comprehensive marketing/communication plan across all services within the Residential Living team that promotes the residential experience and aids in the retention and recruitment of students.
● Spearhead and lead efforts in the creation of a new marketing support center designed to provide exceptional marketing and communications support to all Auxiliary Services units within the division
● Supervise and oversee all student staff and day to day operations for Auxiliary Services Marketing Support Center, leading staff on the support and consultation services to units on all forms of publications, marketing (print and digital), communications, website design and brand development
● Provide leadership, consultation, and collaboration with all division leaders on marketing and various AVPA initiatives
● Partner with the Senior AVPA team on the formulation of a division wide brand
● Design and lead an aggressive multi-platform social media campaign that promotes all Residential Living office initiatives to multiple audiences
● Lead, design, and maintain creative influence over all printed, digital and promotional communication campaigns/products and ensure a seamless messaging of the brand across all services within Residential Living (and support the same with Auxiliary Services through the Marketing Support Center)
● Oversee all mass communications and graphic design within Residential Living to ensure it matches the messaging of the goals and brand of the department
● Serve as project leader and/or committee member for high profile marketing and recruitment events
● Facilitate the organization and creation of presentations and recruitment activities with the Admissions office as needed
● Provide leadership, guidance, and possible functional supervision with office staff tasked with marketing and communications responsibilities
● Lead the efforts in recruiting, organizing and growing the University’s summer conferencing program, creating a brand for the program that promotes the beauty and resources within the Houghton/Hancock community
● Partner with the project manager in growing the summer conference operation, including recruitment, marketing, management, negotiating agreements, networking with potential clients, and other related tasks, leading enterprise staff to execute logistics for the camps/conferences successful stay on campus
● Assess and track impact of marketing initiatives
● Commit to learning about continuous improvement strategies and applying them to everyday work. Actively engage in University continuous improvement initiatives.
● Apply safety-related knowledge, skills, and practices to everyday work.

 

Required Education, Certifications, Licensures

● Bachelor’s degree from an accredited institution, in Marketing, Graphic Design, Communication, Business, or a related field

Required Experience

● 4-5 years professional experience demonstrating progressive leadership taking on additional responsibilities in Marketing, Public Relations, Graphic Design or a related field
● Demonstrated experience in project management
● Candidate needs to demonstrate strong competence and direct experience in at least two of these areas: Graphic Design, Marketing, Communications, Public Relations, Website development

Desirable Education and/or Experience

● Master’s degree is preferred in a related field
● Strong preference will be given to candidates who have at least 2 years of providing marketing services within a higher education Residence Life setting and are familiar with the purpose of a residence hall environment
● 2 or more years experience working with supporting marketing efforts for multiple unit directors within a division
● 4 or more years working in a higher education setting
● Supervisory experience with a student population with an educational mindset geared towards their progressive development is highly desired
● Having experience with three or more of these areas is highly desired: graphic design, marketing, communications, public relations, website development, project management

Required Knowledge, Skills, and/or Abilities

● Dynamic collaborator with a strength to network across multiple audiences in achieving goals while delivering an exceptional public facing brand
● Strong ability to communicate and commit to an inclusive marketing strategy that engages a wide spectrum of diverse audiences
● Demonstrated skills in print and digital content creation/management (webpage design/social media/email)
● Strong time management, organizational, and project management skills with exceptional ability to multi task
● Ability to supervise students intentionally with a focus on professional growth and development
● Self starting energy with an ability to work collaboratively with others in a fast paced team environment
● Ability to manage several simultaneous projects and adapt to changing needs
● Ability to work independently and take initiative to problem solve and implement creative solutions
● Advanced skills utilizing database and spreadsheet software to create reports, charts, graphs, and presentations
● Advanced skills utilizing office productivity suite software including word processing, spreadsheet, presentation and mail solutions
● Strong interpersonal skills with a commitment to collaborate with multiple stakeholders to create solutions in a team centered environment
● Excellent customer service and written/oral communication skills
● Demonstrated ability to use judgment when dealing with confidential information

Desirable Knowledge, Skills, and/or Abilities

● Graphic design skills and knowledge
● Demonstrated understanding of the day to day operations within a University setting
● Previous experience utilizing housing management software for promotion, marketing, and communication to resident students on a college campus
● Experience with continuous improvement strategies to help solve problems and improve processes
● Previous experience using Google productivity office suite software is preferred

Demonstrated success in working with persons with a wide variety of personal characteristics and viewpoints.

Work Environment and/or Physical Demands

WORK ENVIRONMENT: The work environment characteristics described here are representative of those an employee encounters while performing the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

The work environment is that of a typical office and/or classroom setting. The office is located within a residence hall building on the first floor within a common area (not on a residential floor). The noise level in the work environment is usually low to moderate.

Required Training and Other Conditions of Employment

Every employee at Michigan Technological University will receive the following 4 required trainings; additional training may be required by the department.

Required University Training:

• Employee Safety Overview

• Anti-Harassment, Discrimination, Retaliation Training

• Annual Data Security Training 

• Annual Title IX Training

Department Required Training:

● Must be trained to utilize housing management software (Adirondack) and Roompact to utilize their student communication solutions

● Candidate must be trained on all marketing/media based software to successfully execute the department’s brand in print/digital format. Department presently uses Canva, Omni, Print Shop, and Buffer

Background Check:

Offers of employment are contingent upon and not considered finalized until the required background check has been performed and the results received and assessed.

Other Conditions of Employment:

Please note that successful applicants are responsible for ensuring their eligibility to work in the United States (i.e. a citizen or national of the United States, a lawful permanent resident, a foreign national authorized to work in the United States without the need of an employer sponsorship) on or before the effective date of your appointment, and maintain eligibility without sponsorship throughout your appointment.

Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) % (1=100%)

1.00

FLSA Status

Exempt

Pay Rate/Salary

The minimum salary for this position is $69,000. The final salary will depend on experience and qualifications.

Title of Position Supervisor

Executive Director - Residential Living

Posting Type

Internal & External Posting

Dependent on Funding

No

Special Instructions to Applicants (if applicable)

Please upload a cover letter, résumé, and the contact information for at least three professional references (one preferably from a current/former supervisor), ideally as a single PDF document.

Additionally, candidates are asked to submit a portfolio that captures examples of their original print/digital work in graphic design, communications, website development, public relations, and marketing. In lieu of a portfolio, candidates can submit at least two pieces of related marketing, written memos, digital and print media, and other public facing communication work they authored, with at least one piece focused on graphic digital communications that they fully designed and one public communication. Submissions should be from the past 5 years.

Additional Information

Hybrid work schedule arrangement:
This position features a hybrid structure that allows for some remote work combined with on site availability.  The selected candidate will need to have some on site presence to develop a better understanding of the identity and culture of the division and University so they can accurately convey our brand publicly. During the first year of employment it is ideal that the candidate is on site 32 hours a week to develop a strong understanding of the department operations, establishing the infrastructure of the marketing support center, and build rapport within the team. The schedule may be adjusted after the first year contingent on the selected candidates performance within the position and integration within the campus community. Contingent on divisional need, candidate may need to provide additional on site coverage for high volume events/projects. Given this position’s critical need to cultivate professional relationships, departmental networking, and directly supervise students, it is not eligible for 100% remote work.

Typical workday is 8am-5pm Monday-Friday, however staff should expect to be asked on nights and weekends to attend events and work flexible hours as needed to meet the needs of a residential student environment. Work volume tends to increase during peak housing times including the opening and closing of Fall and Spring semesters. During the month of August, staff should anticipate a high demand workload in preparation for the opening of the academic year. During opening week, staff will be required to be onsite for the full week to support welcoming our first year students. 

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Michigan Technological University is an Equal Opportunity Educational Institution/Equal Opportunity Employer that provides equal opportunity for all, including protected veterans and individuals with disabilities.  

If you require any auxiliary aids, services, or accommodations during Michigan Tech’s hiring process please notify the Human Resources office at 906-487-2280 or hr-help@mtu.edu.

Required Education, Certifications, Licensures* (minimum requirements)

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