Department : Development
Supervises : Professional and Support Staff
Salary : Up to $250,000
Payroll Classification: Marketing Specialist 5
Req Nbr : 9139
Position Summary
UCLA is preparing for its next comprehensive philanthropic campaign—an effort that will span approximately five years, following the historic success of the $5.49 billion Centennial Campaign that concluded in December 2019. As we shift toward a new era of donor engagement, storytelling, and impact-driven fundraising, The Senior Executive Director, Campaign Content and Creative will play a critical role in elevating both campaign-specific and ongoing donor communications at one of the nation’s top fundraising institutions.
Primary Responsibilities
As UCLA’s senior-most leader in development marketing and communications, you will have responsibility for both campaign-related efforts and ongoing philanthropic communications. You will serve as the university’s principal campaign marketing and communications architect, and will oversee evergreen storytelling and engagement initiatives that elevate donor experience, support major gift activity, and advance philanthropic priorities year-round.
Qualifications
1. 15+ years of progressively responsible experience managing programs in development marketing, brand strategy, or campaign communications—preferably in higher education or mission-driven institutions.
2. Prior experience with and ability to identify and apply current and emerging marketing trends and practices, preferably in the advancement field, including new and emerging strategies and technologies—such as AI-powered tools—to improve team effectiveness, donor engagement, and communications outcomes.
3. Strong experience managing staff with demonstrated leadership abilities that foster learning and excellence among team members; supervisory skills to recruit, train, organize, direct, guide, motivate, monitor and evaluate staff to produce high quality work; skill to take corrective action as required.
4. Experienced in navigating matrixed environments— diplomatic with exceptional ability to motivate, manage and influence without formal authority, align diverse teams around shared goals, and build coalitions across central and unit-based stakeholders.
5. Experience with and strong understanding of constituent management systems and platforms (e.g., Blackbaud CRM and Salesforce Marketing Cloud) and their impact in fundraising and donor engagement.
6. Advanced ability to conceive, implement and evaluate strategic programs to achieve established goals.
7. Highly developed managerial and leadership skills with demonstrated ability to independently lead integrated functional teams, ideally in a decentralized, complex organization.
8. Deep understanding of campaign planning cycles and the role of storytelling, stewardship, and donor engagement in philanthropy.
9. Demonstrated ability to use strategies and tools to move public opinion, encourage stakeholder involvement and support, increase donor support and establish brand preference and choice.
10. Skilled in project management, resource prioritization, and managing high-volume creative output across platforms.
11. Fluency in digital marketing and constituent relationship management to guide content strategy and measurement, including audience segmentation, performance analysis, and marketing automation.
12. Ability to handle information with sensitivity, discretion and solid judgment.
13. Exceptional written, verbal communication and interpersonal skills; political acumen to communicate and collaborate with a wide variety of professionals.
14. Highly advanced research, analytical and problem-solving skills.
15. Advanced knowledge of UCLA, including its achievements, mission, goals, vision, infrastructure, products and services.
16. Ability to lead with empathy, build trust across functions and disciplines.
17. Comfortable managing ambiguity while driving toward clarity and execution. Knowledge of the role of public universities in driving societal impact.
18. Bachelor’s degree in marketing, communications or related field is preferred.
Employment is contingent upon completion of a satisfactory background check.
The University of California is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer advancing inclusive excellence. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, age, protected veteran status, or other protected categories covered by the UC nondiscrimination policy.
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