Marketing and Communications Director

Trafalgar School for Girls has built a reputation over its long history as a leader in girls’ education in Montreal. Offering a challenging, lively and creative atmosphere, a uniquely qualified and passionate faculty and staff, and a vibrant downtown campus, Trafalgar inspires each student to find her passion, pursue her dreams and reach her potential through an outstanding educational program.

Trafalgar School for Girls and McGill’s Faculty of Education have joined together to create a transformative partnership: the CoLab. A first of its kind in Canada, the CoLab will integrate teacher training, classroom practice and cutting-edge pedagogical research under one roof.

Nurturing our students to live as smart, independent, compassionate young women, Trafalgar provides the tools, technology and innovation required to thrive in post-secondary pursuits and beyond. Our unique whole girl approach, commitment to excellence and embodiment of core values create a profound and powerful learning environment within a supportive, engaged community.

To support our mission of providing our students with the best educational experience, we strive for excellence in every facet of the organization - including providing a stimulating, creative and lively work environment that attracts the best staff and faculty. We are seeking the right candidate to fill the position of:

Director of Marketing and Communications

Summary of Position:

Reporting to the Head of School, this key position will help drive and realize Trafalgar’s strategic objectives. Working closely with the Admissions and Advancement teams, and responsible for the development of an annual communications and marketing strategy, the Director of Communications and Marketing will also be mandated with the writing, creative development, and delivery of key communications and marketing initiatives and deliverables. The successful candidate will work creatively and collaboratively with students of all ages as well as with the admissions team, teachers, staff and stakeholders including parents, alumni and board members. We are seeking someone who is a great storyteller, creative communicator, dynamic in multimedia and prolific in social media. The successful candidate will be a visible and positive presence at Trafalgar to promote its vision, mission and core values, and uphold its brand and standards.

Key Responsibilities:

Develop and implement an ongoing communications and marketing strategy, including a comprehensive branding strategy.

Develop, in consultation with the head of school, goals to ensure that the brand awareness for Trafalgar and the CoLab is enhanced among current and prospective constituencies and stakeholders, including current students, staff, faculty, alumni, parents, grandparents, donors, community leaders and media representatives.
Develop and implement digital and social media campaigns that support the overall branding of the school.
Work with the members of the Marketing and Communications Committee to engage the school’s stakeholders in the development and the implementation of the marketing plan.

Create and deploy clear and consistent messaging across all channels, to ensure brand consistency.
Manage the calendar of communication-relevant activities.

Work collaboratively with the Associate Director of Admissions in the retention and recruitment of students by developing publications, and supporting material (e.g., videos, program brochures, hard-copy and virtual publicity material); support an annual Open-House program and other initiatives by which the school is positioned within the community.
Work collaboratively with the Director of Advancement to support the campaign communication plan and assets.
Oversee and design PR events.
Create content for press releases, byline articles, and keynote presentations.
Identify, optimize and/or create website pages with CTAs tied to objectives.
Monitor, measure, analyze and report digital, social media, marketing, PR and event results, and develop improvement strategies where applicable.

Develop and steward relationships with pertinent media outlets and vendors, and serve as the school’s primary liaison to them.

Participate in special projects and perform other duties as assigned by the Head of School.
Assist in the development of the Marketing and Communications Department budget, and monitor the expenditure of Department funds, in consultation with the head of school, the director of finance and operations.
Create and maintain a “Story bank” by curating and creating photo and video content of school-life; namely encourage students to submit their photos and videos of school-life and events; document these happenings and/or supervise other employees/volunteers who are obtaining these visual and audio records (e.g. photographers and videographers).

Qualifications and skills:

Minimum 5 years’ communications and marketing experience, preferably in a not-for-profit, agency and/or education setting.
Communications degree or diploma and/or a related combination of experience, including project management.
Proficiency with communications-related technology, including the most recent social media applications.
Demonstrated experience in website management, reputation and brand management, and overall success in profile building, and the creation of innovative, successful, communications strategies.
Demonstrated experience and leadership with social media technology and innovation (i.e., Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat, Flickr, blogs, wikis, RSS, social bookmarking, discussion forums and community software).
Experience with online monitoring and measurement platforms including, but not limited to Facebook Insights, YouTube Insights, Google Analytics, HootSuite, TweetDeck and Social Mention.
Imaginative and curious with the ability to ideate, organize, lead and manage projects from beginning to end.
Strong verbal and written communication skills in English and French, with a flair for creative writing and taglines.
Experience working with design agencies to project manage the design and execution of extensive publications. Background in content development and working with multiple external writers and stakeholders.
A skilled writer with a lens to multiple external stakeholders; demonstrated ability and experience producing editorial, corporate communications and advertising copy.
Comfortable using a broad range of technology and design software.
Ability to prioritize and multi-task.
Adaptive to new situations and committed to a growth mindset.
Attention to detail and follow-through to meet deadlines and commitments.
Creative, fresh and fun approach to marketing and design.
Graphic design skills for smaller marketing pieces.
A great sense of humor and ability to work closely with all constituencies and school stakeholders.

If you are interested in applying please submit a cover letter and CV to hr@trafalgar.qc.ca.

Application deadline: September 30, 2021. Qualified applicants will be contacted shortly after their application is submitted as we will be conducting a rolling set of interviews. Only candidates selected for an interview will be contacted. Thank you for your interest in applying.

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