Senior Director for Messaging and Communications

If you are a current Barnard College employee, please use the internal career site to apply for this position.

Job

Senior Director for Messaging and Communications

Job Summary

Barnard College seeks a strategic, dynamic, and highly skilled communications leader to serve as Senior Director for Messaging and Communications. This role is responsible for developing and maintaining a strong, unified brand voice and identity for the College, ensuring all communications elevate Barnard’s reputation and reinforce its position as the nation’s preeminent women’s college.

The Senior Director will work closely with the Vice President for Strategic Communications, serving as a key partner in executing a centralized messaging strategy to elevate Barnard’s visibility, impact, and storytelling. This role will play a critical part in shaping Barnard’s brand voice, ensuring that all content is clear, compelling, and strategically aligned with the College’s mission and goals.

Job Description

Duties & Responsibilities

• Lead the development of a cohesive messaging framework that defines how Barnard communicates across all platforms, reinforcing the College’s identity, strengths, and impact.
• Develop, refine, and maintain Barnard’s institutional brand voice, ensuring all messaging is consistent, engaging, and strategically aligned.
• Ensure messaging is tailored and impactful for Barnard’s key audiences, including students, faculty, staff, alumnae, prospective students, parents, and the broader higher ed community.
• Establish and maintain consistency and alignment across the communications division, ensuring all content reflects Barnard’s voice and strategic priorities.
  
  

Qualifications

Skills, Qualifications & Requirements:

• 7-10 years of experience in journalism, media or communications, preferably in higher education, nonprofit, government, or news organizations.
• Proven experience developing and executing centralized messaging frameworks that drive engagement and impact.
• Exceptional writing and editing skills, including the ability to craft compelling narratives, strong leads, and clear, audience-driven messaging.
• Strong editorial judgment and news instincts, with the ability to shape narratives and drive effective communications strategies.
• Demonstrated ability to manage teams, cultivate talent, and support creative excellence.
• Agile, fast-moving, and solutions-oriented, with the ability to juggle multiple priorities and complex projects.
• Deep understanding of media relations, content strategy, and brand positioning.
  
  

This job is currently a hybrid position, but may require a presence in the office up to five times a week for team and full staff meetings, events, and other times as directed by the supervisor.

Salary Range: $140,000 - $155,000 annually

The salary of the finalist selected for this role will be set based on a variety of factors, including but not limited to departmental budgets, qualifications, experience, education, licenses, specialty, and training. The above hiring range represents the College's good faith and reasonable estimate of the range of possible compensation at the time of posting.

Company

Barnard College

Time Type

Full time