Director of Marketing and Strategic Communications

About SREB

The opportunity

What you will do

Brand, messaging, and strategy

• Steward and evolve SREB's message platform, keeping it aligned with the strategic plan as it develops.
• Set and maintain brand standards for consistency across every channel and program.
• Contribute brand, messaging, and audience perspective to SREB's next strategic vision and plan.

Marketing, digital, and audience growth

• Help define SREB's primary audiences and build an integrated marketing strategy mapped to them, adapting as priorities evolve.
• Own SREB's channels to grow visibility, deepen engagement, and ensure SREB's work reaches the people who need it most.
• Set measurable goals and use analytics to grow reach and engagement and to refine content over time.

Publications, content, and launches

• Turn SREB's research and data into press-ready narratives, explainers, and campaign-ready content.
• Lead communications and marketing support for SREB's publications and report launches, from rollout planning through promotion across earned, owned, and social channels.

Internal and member communications

• Strengthen internal communications across SREB, helping staff and program teams stay aligned and tell their stories well.
• Support Board and member-state communications, including narrative, key messages, and anticipated questions ahead of key moments.

Team and agency direction

• Lead and develop an internal team to meet department objectives.
• Direct the external agency partner against clear priorities, KPIs, and budget, ensuring their work builds SREB's internal capability.
• Establish department processes, tools, and measurements to ensure high quality results.

What you bring

Required

• 8+ years in marketing, communications, or public affairs, with a record of building or transforming a function, and experience managing teams and external partners.
• A collaborative, team-first instinct. You build credibility by making others successful and earn trust across an organization through results.
• Success in developing messaging and brand strategy and translating complex content for broad audiences.
• Hands-on fluency with digital and social channels (LinkedIn in particular), email, web content, and analytics.
• Experience supporting senior executives' visibility and directing agencies or vendors against clear goals.
• Excellent writing and editing, with judgment about voice and when restraint serves the message.
• A tech-forward mindset, with genuine enthusiasm for AI-enabled marketing and communications tools.

Preferred

• Experience in education, government, or nonpartisan organizations, or a private-sector background in mission-driven, fast-paced, high-growth environments.
• Comfort turning research, data, and policy content into compelling stories.
• Familiarity with the Southern region and its education, policy, and media landscape.
• Strong earned-media instincts and relationships across national, regional, or trade outlets.

What success looks like in the first year

• A refined message platform and brand standard in consistent use across SREB.
• A working content engine that converts SREB's research, publications, and data into earned, owned, and social content.
• Measurable growth in SREB's visibility and engagement, with SREB and its leadership recognized as a go-to voice on what works in education.
• A well-directed agency relationship that delivers against KPIs and strengthens internal capability.
• Brand and communications perspective reflected in SREB's next strategic plan.

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