Associate Director, Digital Production

The Associate Director manages, produces, and supports the university's digital strategy and solutions efforts, serving as an essential production resource that is fully integrated with the broader marketing and communications team. Under the general direction of the Senior Director of Digital Strategy and Solutions, the Associate Director helps ensure brand consistency, mission/DEI alignment, quality assurance, and accessibility of mission-critical digital communications channels and content. The incumbent serves as a senior client relationship manager, project planner, and digital expert to ensure successful delivery of projects and tasks within established deadlines and budgets. The Associate Director leads a comprehensive portfolio of activities ranging from strategic to tactical, technical to creative, training to production-and in all aspects, ensuring excellence in quality. The position supervises professional staff, external partners, students, and/or other resources as assigned.
Position Specific Responsibilities/Accountabilities
Resource Management

• Supervise assigned team members, comprised of technical, communications, and creative professionals. Hire, supervise, train and assess the performance of personnel, freelance and contracted partners, and students. Coach team members to maximize creativity, productivity, and effectiveness. Develop a culture of accountability through evidence-based decision making, outcomes assessment, and process improvement where individual and team progress, deadlines, and results are thoughtfully evaluated and reported with regularity.
• Support and manage the creation and development of the university's strategic digital communications and marketing, interpreting key constituent insights and translating those into compelling, memorable, and distinctive digital experiences that accomplish strategic objectives. Recommend and implement approaches and tactics that influence target audiences, move them to action, and support revenue generation goals.
• Assist in the management and development and advancement of enterprise solutions and tools that support the university's communications, marketing, and external relations objectives, including websites, content management systems, quality assurance tools, accessibility tools, and other digital functionality extensions. Collaborate closely with Information Technology Services to ensure university practices, policies, and methodologies are consistently applied to all systems managed.

Client Relations and Training

• Serve as the primary relationship manager to assigned clients (schools, colleges, divisions, departments) regarding digital media projects to ensure successful outcomes and alignment with university standards and policies. Provide planning, guidance and support to client areas for major projects and daily incident workflow. Liaise with appropriate internal and external resources to accomplish goals and ensure projects achieve desired outcomes and production stays within budgets, deadlines and objectives.

• Serve as a resident expert for the enterprise content management system and related digital media tools. Train and consult with colleagues, content providers, faculty, campus administrators and freelancers in a variety of topics including writing styles, design and functionality. Create, develop and/or oversee training, workshops and/or tutorials as necessary to support content providers.
• Convene user groups and facilitate active dialogue between system users, content providers and vendors. Manage, verify and approve access to the university's digital media systems as appropriate. Manage digital metrics delivery, analytics tools and reporting. Develop and support a culture of data measurement metrics to measure the effectiveness of digital media channels, campaigns and/or efforts. Provide minimum data collection guidelines, implementation and training. Collaborate with clients to provide analytics reports and ensure projects account for and respond to data-driven findings.

Digital Production

• Project manage communications and marketing digital initiatives. Provide planning and project coordination services to strategic projects and initiatives. Establish and adhere to formulas, criteria, and standards throughout project implementation. Conduct focus groups, lead committee meetings, deliver presentations, deploy surveys, present statistical analyses, lead benchmarking exercises, and provide other measurements to support competitive positioning and data-driven decision making.
• Own major projects, establish project requirements, assess team member performance goals, prioritize team requests and workflows and mitigate risks associated with successful project outcomes.
• Implement the university's quality controls, developing checklists and protocols that systematically and specifically address periodic and special reviews (including, but not limited to link integrity, SEO, ADA, DEI, and other areas of focus/interest).
• Research and stay abreast of emerging digital media technologies and communications channels. Identify and advocate for opportunities to utilize and enhance digital media projects, improve the digital experience, and better address communications objectives.
• Provide expertise to clients and projects regarding online content, design, information architecture and ensure other digital considerations effectively reach the identified target audiences, integrate with the university's marketing and messaging direction and align with the university's visual identity program. Audit digital media channels and recommend solutions. Devise plans and educate clients regarding alternative approaches and emerging trends.

Quality Assurance, Reporting

• Manage quality assurance, search engine optimization, ADA compliance protocols, digital metrics delivery, analytics tools and reporting. Develop and support a culture of data measurement metrics to measure the effectiveness of digital media channels, campaigns and/or efforts. Provide minimum data collection guidelines, implementation and training. Collaborate with clients to provide analytics reports and ensure projects account for and respond to data-driven findings.
• Guide colleagues, content providers, faculty, campus administrators and freelancers in a variety of topics including writing styles, design and functionality. Recommend information architecture approaches and photography selections. Review and/or audit client copy/design/functionality and report whether objectives are being met.
• Complete other duties and projects as assigned.

Loyola Marymount University Expectations
Exhibit behavior that supports the mission, vision, and values of the university. Communicate and employ interpersonal actions that model high standards of professional, responsible, accountable and ethical conduct. Demonstrate a commitment to outstanding customer service.
The incumbent must have the ability to supervise creative, communications and technical personnel and manage complex projects with dependencies, deadlines, budgets and outside resources. The incumbent must possess the ability to implement marketing and communication principles and strategies in the execution of complex communications projects. The incumbent must have the ability to initiate ideas, develop concepts and review the effectiveness of processes to ensure professional standards and high quality. The incumbent has the ability to assess the needs of internal clients and suggest appropriate measures to meet those needs or redirect those requests to the appropriate areas. The incumbent is able to work effectively and independently with internal and external constituencies. The incumbent has the ability to operate in an environment in which skilled relationship management and consensus-building is required to deliver successful outcomes.
Requisite Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree required; master's degree preferred. Degrees in business management, computer science, design, or marketing fields preferred. Incumbent will be expected to continue upgrading knowledge, skills, and abilities needed to stay abreast of best practices and industry trends.
• Minimum 6 years' experience in an institutional, corporate, or executive consulting role coordinating digital strategy and marketing/communications with progressive managerial and supervisory experience. Must possess ability to work effectively and independently with internal and external constituencies and with professionals of varied disciplines to accomplish tasks and projects.
• Proficient in current web technology including HTML, CSS, XML, SQL, MySQL, PHP, and JavaScript, web servers and server-side technology, code versioning technology such as Git, JS libraries and frameworks; Google analytics; search engine optimization, schema; best practices for content marketing, responsive design; usability testing and tools; HTML email tools; content management systems (in particular, Terminal 4 and WordPress); proven ability to generate, analyze, and interpret web metrics to inform strategic decision making; visual design, Adobe Creative Suite, web animation, audio/video; knowledge of best practices for user interface (UI) and user experience (UX).
• Must be able to demonstrate experience and commitment in aligning with an organizational brand and be able to articulate support for the university's DEI commitments through role.
• Demonstrated expert-level understanding of creative process and ability to synthesize highly complex information into the formulation of editorial concepts. Demonstrated ability to implement communications projects to satisfy objectives.
• Demonstrated computer proficiency with common software production suites.
• Ability to produce high-quality deliverables with meticulous attention to detail. Must be metrics-driven and results-oriented with proven analytical skills.
• Possesses exceptional verbal and written communications skills and compelling and impactful presentation abilities. Can demonstrate the ability to motivate and inspire teams as well as colleagues, constituents, and audiences.
• Highly collaborative style with experience developing and implementing communications strategies successfully; background that demonstrates relationship cultivation, consensus building, flexibility, team orientation, and managing through influencing.
• Must be able to perform effectively in a fast-paced, intellectually intense, creatively challenging, service-oriented environment, while also managing multiple projects with varying deadlines.
• Experience working successfully in a complex organization, preferably in higher education.
• Willing and able to adjust to changing demands and shifting priorities, and address urgencies that arise on evenings or weekends.
• Evidence of positive, energetic, and flexible leadership style with a track record for producing high-quality deliverables with meticulous attention to detail. Must be metrics driven and results oriented with excellent analytical skills. Ability to provide quick turnaround and updates for multiple requests while maintaining high quality work.
• Self-starter, able to work independently and entrepreneurially; experience creating, developing and implementing new initiatives.
• Excellent judgement and creative problem-solving skills, including negotiation, mediation, and conflict resolution skills.

The above statements are intended to describe the general nature and level of work being performed. They are not intended to be construed as an exhaustive list of all responsibilities, duties and skills required of personnel so classified.
Reasonable Expected Salary - $90,000 - $93,000. Salary offer commensurate with education and experience.
#HERC# #HEJ#
Staff Regular
Salary range
$66,560.00 - $87,776.00 Salary commensurate with education and experience.
Loyola Marymount University, a Carnegie classified R2 institution in the mainstream of American Catholic higher education, seeks outstanding applicants who value its mission and share its commitment to inclusive excellence, the education of the whole person, and the building of a just society. LMU is an equal opportunity employer committed to providing an environment free from discrimination and harassment as defined by federal, state and local law. We invite all persons in the full diversity of their being, life experience, and beliefs to apply. (Visit www.lmu.edu for more information.)