Senior Associate Vice President for Strategic Marketing and Communications

Position Summary

The SAVP serves as the university’s chief communications leader and brand strategist with responsibility for overall communications, marketing and branding activity for Cal Poly Pomona across all media platforms. The SAVP ensures a clear, consistent and coordinated brand narrative that advances Cal Poly Pomona’s mission of student success and polytechnic excellence to the campus community and external audiences.

Strategic Brand Leadership

• Define and evolve the university’s brand identity and messaging architecture.
• Develop and execute comprehensive marketing campaigns aligned with the university's mission and strategic goals.
• Oversee brand consistency across all visual, digital, and print platforms.

Stakeholder Collaboration

• Partner with communicators distributed across and embedded in the Colleges, Enrollment Management, Outreach, Recruitment and Educational Partnerships, University Advancement and Student Affairs to align brand strategy with recruitment goals and fundraising initiatives and key communications deliverables.
• Develop effective and credible working relationships with senior leaders and campus communicators.
• Drive Reputation, Market Position, and Awareness.

Crisis Communications and Issues Management

• Serve as the official university spokesperson and primary advisor to senior leadership on public affairs.
• Advises the President and Cabinet on reputational risk and opportunity.
• Oversee proactive and reactive media relations to enhance the university’s regional and national earned media coverage.
• Oversee and enhance crisis communications protocols.

Internal and Executive Communications and Change Management

• Lead internal and executive communications strategies and drives organizational transformation to unify and elevate marketing and communications practices across a decentralized academic environment.

Content & Digital Strategy

• Manage the production of high-impact, brand-aligned multimedia content, including university magazines, social media accounts, and the official website.

Team & Budget Leadership

• Supervise a diverse team of communications marketing professionals while managing departmental budgets and external vendor relationships.
• Lead a service-oriented team environment that fosters collaboration, operational excellence, teamwork, flexibility and creativity.

Integrated Marketing Operations

• Lead the content strategy and production through cross-functional teams in digital strategy, creative services, and editorial production.

Performance Analytics

• Implement a data-informed culture by tracking performance outcomes, brand awareness metrics and marketing ROI to inform planning.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree from an accredited institution in marketing, communications, public relations or related field or equivalent combination of education and relevant experience.
• Minimum of seven (7) years of progressively responsible related experience in complex marketing and communications environments.
• Demonstrated experience in crisis management and service as institutional spokesperson.
• Strong record of effectively leading diverse, creative and professional teams.
• Demonstrated commitment to and understanding of diverse academic and socioeconomic backgrounds.
• Advanced proficiency in strategic storytelling across print, digital and social platforms.
• The ability to lead through influence as well as through positional authority in a complex, multi-constituent environment.

Preferred Qualifications

• Master's Degree or MBA with a concentration in marketing or related discipline.
• Management level experience in higher education.
• Familiarity with higher education CRM systems, web content management systems and data analytics tools for measuring campaign effectiveness.
• Contextual understanding of legislative affairs and public policy and the significance of communicating the university’s value to the state and government officials.
• Commitment to student success, equity and inclusive excellence.
• Proven success in partnering with university advancement or development teams to support major capital campaigns.