The Rivers School — a 6-12 co-ed independent day school in Weston, MA, just outside Boston — seeks professionals who are looking to join a dynamic, innovative, and welcoming school community.
The Marketing and Communications team at The Rivers School provides a portfolio of integrated marketing services, including strategy development and planning, print and digital programs, media and public relations, social media, website, and digital communications. We tell the school’s story to increase engagement and enrollment and to achieve the school’s broader goals and mission.
The associate director of marketing and communications at The Rivers School produces high-quality writing and manages departmental operations and data-driven projects for internal and external communications.
This position reports to the director of marketing and communications and is an integral part of a four-person team of marketing professionals who work to engage current and prospective students and families, as well as other external and internal audiences, in support of the school’s key messages and overall brand strategy.
The following responsibilities form a general blueprint for the position.
Responsibilities include:
- Organize and execute annual communications plans, including leading team meetings with various administrative and academic departments to understand their needs and map out deliverables, particularly for admission and advancement.
- Serve as team project manager and oversee the operational workflow and processes for communications and marketing requests (print and digital).
- Serve as managing editor for the biannual school magazine, the Riparian, working closely with the creative director, print houses, advancement, and marketing team to set deadlines, schedules, and editorial direction.
- Manage digital communications sent through the Blackbaud CMS system, working with internal clients, writing and editing content, circulating drafts, sending to the appropriate distribution groups, and monitoring responses.
- Oversee the production of the school’s Weekly Update newsletter and publish weekly when school is in session.
- Build and maintain RiversNet resource tiles for faculty, staff, parents, and students by soliciting information from various departments.
- Provide writing and editing support for the news section of the website, school magazine, and other materials such as speeches and talking points. Contribute approximately 1-2 articles per week while school is in session or video content to showcase our program.
- Work with staff at The Rivers School Conservatory and Camp Nonesuch to develop promotional materials as needed.
- Seed, develop, and share story ideas with the marketing and communications team. Cultivate relationships with senior administrators and professional community members from across the institution, ensuring that the content produced tells the Rivers story in a way that is compelling and innovative.
- Provide editorial support and services for admission, advancement, and head of school initiatives.
- Provide support for digital media channels such as The Rivers School’s social media channels, and monitor profiles such as Niche.com, Google, and GreatSchools to uphold a positive brand image.
- Measure the success of select marketing plans and initiatives with analytics to inform future planning and strategy.
- Grow and foster professional relationships with students and professional community members.
- Work collaboratively with freelance contributors (writers, photographers, videographers) as needed.
Qualifications:
- Bachelor’s degree and background in journalism, marketing, and communications, a plus.
- Ability to think strategically about institutional communications and messaging.
- Excellent research, interviewing, and writing skills; proven content writing and copywriting experience across all media.
- Demonstrated ability to proof and rewrite copy for accuracy, brevity, clarity, and style.
- Strong project management experience.
- Strong organizational skills with the ability to juggle and prioritize multiple projects.
- Working knowledge of Microsoft Office, Adobe Creative Studio, Canva, Google Docs, Google Analytics, Dropbox, SmugMug, Hootsuite or similar content management services, and other platforms.
- Blackbaud/CMS experience, a plus.
- Ability to attend school events on occasional nights and weekends.
- Experience in photography or videography is a plus.
In addition to a cover letter, all applicants must submit writing samples and/or a portfolio of work.
Salary Range: $85,000-$95,000
Rivers encourages interest from candidates who will enrich the diversity of identity, experience, and perspectives among our professional and school community. We recognize that skilled and innovative individuals follow a variety of pathways in life, and we enthusiastically invite applications from those who may have experience that meets our qualifications in non-traditional ways. Rivers offers BIPOC affinity, LGBTQ+ affinity, and white allyship spaces for professionals, as well as institutional professional development, to support and enrich our work around equity and access. In addition to mentorship from peers and direct supervisors, all professional community members benefit from a year-long onboarding program.
If you would benefit from any accommodations at any point during the application process, please contact our Director of Human Resources, Erica Casey (e.casey@rivers.org)
