Assistant Director, Strategic & Creative Communications (5372C) Intercollegiate Athletics 86717

About Berkeley

At the University of California, Berkeley, we are dedicated to fostering a community where everyone feels welcome and can thrive. Our culture of openness, freedom, and belonging make it a special place for students, faculty, and staff. As a world-leading institution, Berkeley is known for its academic and research excellence, public mission, diverse student body, and commitment to equity and social justice. Since our founding in 1868, we have driven innovation, creating global intellectual, economic, and social value. We are looking for applicants who reflect California's diversity and want to be part of an inclusive, equity-focused community that views education as a matter of social justice. Please consider whether your values align with our Guiding Values and Principles, Principles of Community, and Strategic Plan.

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Departmental Overview

The Department of Intercollegiate Athletics consists of more than 275 staff members and coaches and sponsors 30 varsity sports programs. These 30 programs include more than 850 student-athletes who participate in the various sports programs annually within the National Collegiate Athletics Association.

Position Summary

The Strategic and Creative Comms assists with the storytelling and digital communication efforts for 2-3 assigned Olympic Sports. Under the direction of the strategic lead, this position helps execute content strategies that reach fans, recruits, and the community. The Strategic and Creative Comms takes direction on which platforms and mediums to use to best share the team's message. This position supports the department's goals of brand awareness and student-athlete retention by creating consistent, engaging content. By focusing on specific sports, the Strategic and Creative Comms provides the necessary support to help those programs succeed within the existing athletics digital ecosystem.

Application Review Date

The First Review Date for this job is: June 19, 2026. For full consideration, please apply on or before the first review date.

Responsibilities

Content Creation & Capture

• Supports the Olympic Sports teams by capturing and producing content in various forms, including video, photos, and social media graphics.
• Utilizes tools like Adobe Photoshop and Premiere to execute assets that align with the team's media plan.

Media Plan Execution

• Assists with the daily implementation of the sport-specific media plan.
• Helps maintain the schedule of information flow, ensures messaging cadence is met, and updates content based on direction from leadership.

Team Engagement, Research & Immersion

• Spends time with assigned teams to identify storytelling opportunities.
• Assists in gathering information on student-athlete personalities and coaches' strengths to help broaden the teams public message.
• Identify sport influencers and engage to broaden the messages.

Communication Coordination

• Collaborates with the digital, fundraising, and gameday entertainment teams to help synchronize publicity efforts.
• Acts as a liaison for routine media requests and assists with coordinating storytelling tasks.

Strategic Communications Project Supporter

• Serve as the main point of contact for the assigned sports specific to storytelling aspects of the position.
• Triage, assign and communicate requests, coverage, and alterations or additions to the media plan and maintain historical knowledge of each sport.

Other

• Facilitate required statistical submissions, written notes, historical records or releases specific to the assigned sports.
• And other duties as assigned.

Required Qualifications

• Knowledge to create and deliver targeted content in efforts to promote sports/athletes, assist in recruiting and retaining athletes for the sports represented.
• Ability to execute a sport-specific, storytelling strategy - using existing mediums and content.
• Follow a sport-specific media plan that includes cadence of messaging, audiences, mediums, types of content, and schedules.
• Ability to learn all facets of an Olympic sports program - including personnel, trends, participants, national landscape and audiences.
• A collaborator that is flexible in adjusting schedules, timelines, content, messaging, mediums, etc. in order to best fit the immediate and impactful needs of a sports program.
• Knowledge of digital media assets and other communication content and how they are used to communicate.
• Knowledge of social media platforms and how to use them to promote sports teams.
• Previous experience using Facebook, X, TikTok, Instagram and other other social media channels to storytell.
• Knowledge of NCAA/Power 4 landscape, including recruiting cycles, NIL trends, and student-athlete retention drivers.
• Working knowledge of concepts and principles of news and media communications.
• Must maintain current knowledge of applicable rules and standards of the Atlantic Coast Conference, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), as well as other associations and agencies to which the Berkeley campus of the University of California adheres, and, at all times avoid any and all violations of these rules and standards and/or the ability to learn.
• Time and project management skills.
• Knowledge on how to develop and implement original ideas and correctly identify and effectively solve problems.
• Ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously.
• Thorough knowledge of the fundamentals of design and user experience, including skill to design in an appealing, lively and relevant way.
• Thorough understanding of technical language and requirements of the assigned work.
• Thorough knowledge of content management systems and / or relevant web applications used for web production and organization-specific computer application programs and/or the ability to learn.
• Thorough skills to create clear, easy-to-navigate, informative, accurate, well-designed, and functional web sites that provide web content consistent with the organization's message and in keeping with management directives and client objectives.
• Thorough understanding of organization's processes, procedures, and applicable rules and regulations for web communications and/or the ability to learn.
• Thorough technical skills in computer applications for web production, image handling, publishing and design, illustration, presentation preparation, animation, web interaction, and / or other state-of-the-art web communication capabilities.
• Thorough interpersonal communication skills.
• Thorough skills to develop and implement original ideas and correctly identify and effectively solve problems.

Education / Training

Bachelor's degree in related area and / or equivalent experience / training