Assistant Director, Communications

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 University's good faith and reasonable estimate of the range of possible compensation at the time of posting.

Position Summary

Reporting to the Creative Director for Communications, the Assistant Director is responsible for overseeing the strategy, production, and dissemination of the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation's (GSAPP's) digital presence. This role serves as a key driver in shaping the School's voice across the web and social media platforms with the goals of :

1) Attracting prospective students by showcasing the School's academic environment, student experience, and community activities.

2) Supporting current students by maintaining timely, accurate, and accessible information on GSAPP programs, courses, faculty, and events.

3) Engaging alumni and promoting their accomplishments to internal and external audiences.

4) Ensuring a consistent editorial voice, visual quality, and publishing standards across all GSAPP online platforms.

The Assistant Director collaborates across departments, oversees the development of content strategy and analytics reporting, and provides key support to GSAPP's overall communications initiatives.

Performs other related duties and responsibilities as assigned / requested.

Responsibilities

Website Management (50%)

• Manages content across programs to ensure information is accurate and current.
• Manages admissions pages to ensure effective and clear information, with constant reevaluation and improvement of messaging.
• Ensures cross-referencing of applications pages throughout the website and finds connections among content.
• Monitors website analytics and provides analytics reports to senior management on a regular basis.
• Develops tools and methods for increasing engagement, specifically among prospective students.
• Refreshes images on an ongoing basis and works with GSAPP programs to maintain current images of their various activities.
• Establishes key targets and benchmarks for each semester related to the school's activities and priorities, and realizes weekly updates based on this overall timeline.
• Regularly updates and develops the 'Environments' pages to be the most compelling and visually exciting section in order to 1. Accurately reflect the student experience on campus, in New York, and across the country and globe 2. Make visible GSAPP's Global Engagement through travel images, faculty participation in international exhibitions, student work featured at global events, etc., and 3. Show the frequency and wide geographic reach of GSAPP's academic initiatives and network.

Social Media (20%)

• Establishes a monthly calendar with key semester activities highlighted across GSAPP programs.
• Works with all programs to review their semester activities and coordinates the dissemination of key events.
• Establishes weekly plans to enrich content, diversify platforms with content strategy for each, and outline quantity goals to create a regular rhythm.
• Links social media content to the website and vice versa.
• Creates short- and long-term strategies for new content to anticipate needs for documenting programs or events, organizes and stages videos, and develops new media.
• Produces weekly analytics report to monitor the school's progress and changes, and tracks external and competitors, collaborators, and the cultural landscape for effective benchmarking.

'Abstract' and Media Archive (20%)

• Collects and edits content from all GSAPP programs.
• Maintains and manages a timely archive of key images across programs and initiatives, organized and readily available for the Dean's messaging, press purposes, website, and social media publishing, or for use in related school publications.
• Works with external graphic designers to coordinate their work on Abstract.

Performs related duties and responsibilities as assigned / requested. (10%)

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree required. Must have a minimum of 3-5 years of experience in design and language arts.
• Experience in an academic setting is highly desirable.
• Excellent writing and editing skills required, with an understanding of the special requirements of writing for the Web, such as the use of keywords, hyperlinks, navigation, and the importance of brevity.
• Must have a good eye for detail, with excellent spelling, grammar, and punctuation skills.
• Strong interpersonal skills to work effectively with contributors, designers, and webmasters.
• Good organizational skills to collate material from multiple sources and produce web content within tight deadlines.

Preferred Qualifications

• Master of Architecture or related degree greatly preferred.

Equal Opportunity Employer / Disability / Veteran

Columbia University is committed to the hiring of qualified local residents.