Associate Vice President for Strategic Communications
Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh, PA - United States
Carnegie Mellon University seeks a dynamic and collaborative team player to serve as their next Associate Vice President for Strategic Communications. As the university’s chief content leader, with a primary responsibility for identifying and articulating the stories that capture the essence and impact of this remarkable institution, the AVP will coordinate the channels through which those stories are told, ensuring execution at the highest level.
The Associate Vice President will be a senior leader within the University Communications and Marketing division (UCM), and a key coordinator and leader among other communicators across the university, developing a comprehensive content strategy while raising standards and developing talent. The Associate Vice President will deliver content and communications that are creatively and strategically implemented for maximum impact across a variety of audiences. Together with the Associate Vice President for Marketing and Brand Strategy, the Associate Vice President for Strategic Communications will create, guide, and measure fully integrated marketing communications strategies and campaigns which tell the strategic, high-impact stories of the university to diverse local, national, and international constituents.
Based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private, internationally ranked research university with programs in areas ranging from science, technology and business to public policy, the humanities and the arts. CMU is positioned like never before to meet the challenges of the 21st century. At the intersection of technology and humanity, CMU’s research, innovation and creative activity across seven schools and colleges will continue to guide its future as a world-class university. A member of the Association of American Universities (AAU), CMU ranks No. 21 for national universities in U.S. News & World Report. This is a global community of 15,000 students hailing from 127 countries, faculty representing 63 countries and alumni representing 147 countries.
This search comes at an incredibly exciting time at CMU. With the full support and partnership of the President, Provost, Deans and senior leaders of the administration, an entirely new senior management team is being built in the division this year. University Communications and Marketing (UCM) is accelerating forward with new thinking and innovative ways to tell the institution’s story under the leadership of Vice President for University Communications and Marketing, Tysen Kendig. The highly skilled, collaborative and passionate team in place is eager to carry out its charge alongside this new cadre of leaders.
UCM leads and coordinates strategic communications and marketing, raising the institution’s global visibility, and deepening its reputation as one of the world’s great universities through the hard work and dedication of a 60-member team. This position will have direct oversight of several departments which functions include content, strategic communications, social media, and internal, external, and research communications and will play a key leadership role across all aspects of the University Communications and Marketing organization.
The role also will serve as a liaison between the division and its academic and administrative partners throughout the university ensuring elevated and unified storytelling across the university. To succeed, the AVP will be a strong team player, builder, and partner, in addition to being extremely adept at leading through influence, empathy, and consensus-building.
The Associate Vice President will bring innovative experience conceiving integrated strategic communications that advance an organization’s reputation. They will play a critical role in building and establishing a vision and direction for communications, while developing and executing a comprehensive strategy to advance CMU’s reputation.
All applications, nominations and inquiries are invited. Applications should include, as separate documents, a CV or résumé and a letter of interest addressing the themes in the leadership profile available below.
WittKieffer is assisting Carnegie Mellon University in this search. Application materials should be submitted using WittKieffer’s candidate portal, via the buttons below.