Associate Vice President, Marketing & Communications (Apply By: Friday, September 13, 2024)

About JFF 

Jobs for the Future (JFF) drives transformation of the U.S. education and workforce systems to achieve equitable economic advancement for all. Seeing that millions of people are unfairly shut out of quality jobs and the chance for a better life, our goal is to align education, workforce, and employment change makers toward a shared North Star: By 2033, 75 million people facing systemic barriers to advancement will work in quality jobs.  

To achieve that goal, we design solutions, scale best practices, influence policy and action, and invest in innovation. With a staff of more than 300 people across the country working remotely and in offices in Boston (headquarters), Washington, DC, and Oakland, California, we operate at the national, state, and local levels, forging deep partnerships with employers, investors, entrepreneurs, policymakers, and education and workforce development providers to break down barriers and reimagine what’s possible.   

We’re on a path of ongoing growth and expanding impact. With an operating budget of $105 million, we are funded by dozens of leading government agencies, foundations, and corporations. Learn more about JFF and join us as we build a future that works—for everyone.  

 

DEIBW at JFF  

Diversity, equity, inclusion, belonging, and well-being (DEIBW) are core to JFF’s North Star and mission. We employ and build diverse teams across race, ethnicity, sex, gender identity and expression, age, and lived experiences and are constantly working toward ensuring these differences are celebrated and included. We aim to cultivate a culture that centers the overall care, well-being, and success of the employee through flexible work hours, balanced workloads, professional development, and equitable career advancement opportunities. Learn more about what DEIBW looks like in practice at JFF. 

We seek to invest in and learn from those who represent the communities we serve, particularly individuals from populations who have been explicitly or implicitly excluded from the workforce. Knowing its importance to the success of our work and the engagement of our staff members, we aspire to attract and retain a diverse team and welcome people of all backgrounds to apply to our open roles. JFF is a fair chance employer and in alignment to our North Star, we strongly encourage individuals whose highest level of education attained is less than a 4-year degree; People of Color; and people with records to apply. 

 

About the position:   

JFF's Marketing & Communications team elevates JFF’s visibility, impact, and reach through strategic brand and message development, media engagement, field outreach, and high-quality event and deliverable production. Our diverse team of strategists, business partners, creative and graphic designers, and event and promotion leaders support JFF’s enterprise initiatives, and our individual business units, in achieving their ambitious and innovative programmatic goals. Through the creation of strategic communications plans and integrated campaigns, the Marketing & Communications team generates engagement, and drives action, and awareness towards JFF’s impactful work and North Star goals.  

Reporting to the Chief Marketing and Communications Officer (CMCO), the Associate Vice President, Marketing Communications will serve as a strategic thought partner to the CMCO, and will be a trusted and collaborative leader of a newly established team of 9 Marketing Communications Business Partners (BPs). JFF’s Marketing & Communications BP team serve as internal consultants, informing and driving forward communications strategy and planning across JFF’s Centers and Practices, as well as for the Policy, Strategic Engagements and JFF Labs teams. Your work in this newly created role, will be essential in building and establishing an innovative and high-performing model for the BP role and team, aligning expectations, ways of working, and best practices while driving accountability across business units and team members to deliver results.  

As the AVP, you will leverage your leadership skills and subject matter expertise to coach the BP team toward high performance and long-term professional growth. You will be trusted to empower the BPs with skills and strategies to influence and activate their individual business unit teams, while building collaborative rhythms that enable BPs to learn from one another, share best practices, and problem-solve together.  Additionally, you will ensure that the appropriate staffing, systems, processes, and tools are in place to drive the delivery of program-specific strategic marketing communications efforts. As a senior leader on the Marketing Communications team, you will partner closely with business unit leaders and subject-matter experts, developing a nuanced understanding of their motivations and needs, and helping them to access and utilize the talents, expertise, and assets of their BPs and the broader Marketing Communication team in achieving their goals. 

In addition to leading the BP team, the AVP will partner closely with the CMCO and other MarComm leaders to identify innovative ways of elevating JFF’s brand, storytelling, and thought leadership across a diversity of channels contributing to the organization’s measurable growth and impact. Your work will ensure cohesion between individual business unit strategies and messaging, and JFF's enterprise communications strategy, helping to ensure that JFF’s programmatic and strategic brand messaging frameworks and objectives are mutually reinforcing. Drawing on insights from your work with BP’s and the business units they support, you will help to influence the overall strategy for the Marketing and Communications team, as well as drive the continued evolution of the broader MarComm team and how it engages with key stakeholders across JFF.  

This is an exciting opportunity for a collaborative, creative, and strategic marketing and communications leader who has led teams, projects, and processes to impactful outcomes. The ideal candidate will have proven strengths as a leader of complex, dynamic marketing and communication teams, is skilled at developing cross-functional relationships, and is comfortable acting with authority and confidence in a complex, fast-moving, and at times ambiguous context. 

 

What You’ll Do:  

Deliver powerful results through impactful team leadership and capacity building: 

• Determine marketing and communications resource allocations to support business units in alignment with each staff member’s skills and expertise, and program portfolio needs   

• Identify common needs, challenges, and best practices across the BP team and lead related improvement initiatives to increase effectiveness, innovation and quality of the team’s work  

• Set, track, and recognize team-wide goals, celebrate wins and successes, and build opportunities for information sharing and community, such as through retreats, team events, and informal opportunities  

• Build a community of practice within the Business Partner model, empowering business partners, and creating a culture of support and trust while centering diversity, equity, inclusion, belonging, and wellbeing (DEIBW)  

•  Manage client and business partner expectations, helping BPs to strategize through challenges and new ideas  

• Identify areas of misalignment across the teams, helping to strengthen role scope and improve processes  

• Lead with equity and model inclusive leadership, stewarding a team culture that celebrates the diversity of each individual and ensures that each person has equal opportunity to thrive at JFF 

 

Advance JFF’s mission through leadership of strategy and execution:  

• Develop and maintain common measures of progress towards marketing goals and impact of efforts within and across business units  

• Build systems for timely and accurate forecasting of marketing and comms deliverables, including events, to inform resource allocation and planning 

• Support Business Partners in scoping communications deliverables for individual project proposals, including aligning budgeting, resource planning and timelines with creative and impactful marketing and comms strategies  

• Ensure the rightsizing of program communications efforts and help Business Partners manage priorities across their portfolio 

• Keep up to date with development pipelines and partnership development in order to forecast needs and ensure that the team’s capacity and capabilities stay ahead of program needs   

 

Champion marketing and communications strategy: 

• Collaborate with members of the marketing operations, creative services and strategic communications teams on campaign and product development, project scoping and resourcing, messaging and storytelling  

• Support the development of program communications, strategies and project campaigns by providing guidance and feedback to Business Partners, ensuring activities are driving towards outlined success criteria  

• Connect OneJFF strategy throughout teams, ensuring a consistent voice in all internal and external communications  

• Generate consistent campaign performance KPIs and reporting to demonstrate impact of program communications efforts  

  

Who you are:    

The qualifications listed within the job description are intended as a guide and we do not expect candidates to bring all experiences and skills listed. Research supports that self-selecting out of potential professional opportunities is particularly common among individuals with identities that are marginalized in professional spaces. So, if you believe that you can meet the overall expectations of the position, we encourage you to apply so that we have an opportunity to learn more about you and the unique strengths you would bring to the work. 

 

• You are a collaborative and strategic marketing communications leader with experience leading large, high performing teams across complex and wide-ranging priorities (New hires at the Associate Vice President level at JFF typically bring15-20 years of prior professional experience through a combination of full-time, part-time, internship, and/or freelance positions)  

• You possess broad knowledge of communications best practices, social impact marketing and advocacy campaigns   

• You have successfully led teams and projects across a wide scope of marketing and communication deliverables, including messaging and positioning, campaign planning, product development and rollout, awareness building, and program demand generation 

• You are passionate about leading and developing people and have demonstrated experience leading change management, building team capacity and creating a culture of trust 

• You enjoy using your skills in people, project and budget management to lead large teams to successful project outcomes 

• You are an influential and collaborative thought partner to senior and executive leaders, and can readily gain trust, build confidence and obtain buy-in for changes, processes, or the need to compromise 

• You have experience in a fast-paced, dynamic environment that requires collaboration and problem-solving, and you have the ability to turn broad, innovative ideas into actionable plans 

• You have demonstrated strengths in writing and verbal communications and are comfortable refining messaging, creating engaging content and presenting  

• You are familiar with tools for digital marketing (such as HubSpot) and project management (such as Asana), and using web analytics to assess impact, and you regularly keep up with the latest tools, products and trends within the field  

• You demonstrate a growth mindset and a desire to continuously improve in your work.   

• You are able and willing to travel up to 10% as needed.   

• You possess high energy and passion for JFF’s mission and North Star, and the ability to apply JFF’s core values to all areas of your work    

• You are energized by stewarding JFF’s DEIBW values and practices within your day-to-day work, including embracing the differences and celebrating the diversity that each individual brings to JFF 
• You value building positive and collaborative relationships with others, including people whose identities and backgrounds differ from your own

 

What We Offer  

At JFF, we’re fueled by the desire to create a world where everyone has equal opportunity for economic advancement. Our team works hard to push the boundaries of what is possible, and in return, we provide a gratifying work experience, competitive salaries, and a comprehensive benefits program that includes flexibility and choice as core values in order to support people wherever they are in their lives and careers.  

 JFF has offices in Boston, Oakland, and Washington, DC; employees are welcome to use JFF office space to work in-person or hybrid, or completely remote. To improve the employee experience and promote productivity while working remotely, JFF offers an annual home office stipend to all regular full-time and part-time employees. In addition, new employees receive office equipment as needed.   

The salary range for this role is $160,000-180,000 annually, in alignment to JFF’s AVP salary band and our compensation philosophy. Starting salaries for new hires will be determined based on a combination of the new hire’s relevant experience and market demands.  

  

To Apply  

As part of your application, please include your resume and a thoughtful cover letter, addressed to  Hiring Team, AVP for Marketing and Communications, outlining how your skills and experience meet the qualifications of the position. 

We are accepting applications through Friday September 13, 2024. Applications submitted by that date will be reviewed and candidates will receive updates on their candidacy by the week of September 23, 2024.  

At JFF, we’re also committed to accessibility and want to ensure that everyone, including people with disabilities, can fully access and engage with our application and hiring process. If you are unable to complete this application due to a disability and/or have specific access/ accommodation needs in order to fully participate in our hiring process, please contact us at hiringaccommodations@jff.org. 

 

Positions at JFF are not eligible for employer-visa sponsorship or open to F-1 student visa holders.  

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Last updated on Aug 20, 2024