Director, Strategic Communications - Football

Director, Strategic Communications - Football (6403C), Intercollegiate Athletics 86745

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.

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 Director, Strategic Communications - Football owns and leads strategic athletics storytelling across multiple mediums as dictated by the message. This position utilizes existing knowledge of the sport to craft strategy around storytelling efforts and immerses itself in the ethos of the sport on a conference, community, college, national and international level. While this role will decide which mediums and content are necessary, there will be a strong focus on digital content and communication utilizing various digital platforms - with the proper channel(s) chosen by the employee based on the message created.

With a strong emphasis on brand awareness, broad-reaching messaging, recruiting and retaining student-athletes, and providing entertainment to all consumers of Cal Athletics, this position is critical in supporting the storytelling for these areas.

Application Review Date

The First Review Date for this job is: 2026-06-22. For full consideration, please apply on or before the first review date.

Responsibilities

Team Immersion

• Engage with all members of the football program to learn the student-athletes' personalities, talents and abilities, exploit coaches strengths for public consumption, identify sport influencers and engage to broaden the message and identify and target critical audiences that can amplify the strategies of elevating the sport publicly.

Oversee Content Creation

• As an extension and critical player with the football program, review/approve content and capture content (as needed) in support of and in alignment with the Media plan. Content can be in all forms - video, visual, graphic, written, spoken, etc.

Media Plan Creation

• Create, manage, communicate, publish, share and continue to revise a Media Plan. The media plan will highlight on a scheduled basis the flow of information, how communication will occur, cadence of messaging, types of required content, intended audiences and other key factors in publicizing the team.

Storytelling Integrator

• Collaboratively work with content creators, Cal Athletics digital ecosystems directors, Cal Athletics fundraisers and game day entertainment employees to synchronize all communication, publicity, and engagement. Keep a firm working knowledge of the overall strategy shared by these groups that in totality make up the external engine of Cal Athletics.

Strategic Communications Project Manager

• Serve as a main, public-facing resource for the football program, specific to all storytelling aspects of the position. Project manage requests, coverage, and alterations or additions to the media plan and maintain historical knowledge of each sport.

Other

• Facilitate required statistical submissions, written notes or releases specific to the assigned sports. Other duties as assigned.