Director of Communications, NYU Libraries – Position Summary 

Join the NYU Division of Libraries–an exciting community of researchers, teachers, librarians, information professionals, creators, and advocates at one of the most recognized brands in higher education.

The Division of Libraries at NYU is seeking a candidate to lead and advance its communications strategy. The successful candidate will lead external and internal communications for the division and be a key subject-matter guide on communication practices. You will have an opportunity to serve as a member of the Dean’s Senior Leadership Team and partner with the Dean and other division senior leadership members to ensure that the mission and strategic priorities of the division are clearly understood by our community–the NYU faculty, students, staff, and alumni; the public; and the information profession.  The Division of Libraries is distinct from other academic units (schools) at NYU and, with a faculty body of over 70 FTE, is also distinct from other academic support units.  This position offers a chance to be a collaborative partner and build innovative, forward-thinking external communications programs that articulate our distinctiveness and advance NYU’s Division of Libraries as an innovative research library enterprise that centers DEI and showcases our people, programs, and partnerships. In collaboration with senior leadership, you will create innovative approaches to improve the public visibility of the Division of Libraries, promote and deepen the impact of its research, and enlist support for alumni engagement and fundraising programs. You will be uniquely positioned to work closely with our faculty, administrators, and staff to discover and highlight our most exciting work. Using content analytics, you will help us understand what most effectively resonates with the many audiences the division serves. In partnership with the Division of Libraries’ Senior Director for Creative Strategy, Branding, and NYU-TV and the Director of User Experience, you will design and implement a communications strategy across multiple channels (website, mobile, online communities, video, print).  You will be responsible for the creation, management, implementation of the (existing) division’s Media Center and an editorial calendar, and you will oversee communications staff and/or consultants charged with producing communications materials, manage the communications budget, and serve as the key point person for all strategic and crisis messaging.  You will also serve as the division’s liaison with NYU’s communications and public affairs offices as well as align the division’s communications policy guidelines with those of NYU.

More About Us:

Want to learn more about our division and what makes us outstanding? Please look at our website, shared values, and organizational priorities by clicking here.

Position Qualifications: Education and Experience

• Bachelor’s Degree and 10+ years of professional experience in developing and implementing strategic communication and/or marketing plans; supervising staff and consultants; managing budgets; or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Must include leadership experience, including managing professional staff.
• Demonstrated success in managing competing priorities and deadlines and ability to be flexible, adaptable, detail-oriented, and learn quickly.

Position Qualifications: Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

• Outstanding verbal, writing, and editing skills.
• Knowledge of communications principles and practices.
• Manage several projects/initiatives simultaneously.
• Knowledge of best practices and procedures in digital communications, including social media; designing marketing tools.
• Balance strategic/creative thinking with operational activities–creating, writing, and producing.
• Demonstrated capacity for independent exploration of appropriate technologies.
• Excellent interpersonal and relationship-building skills.
• Work diplomatically through influence and persuasion.
• Work successfully across organizational boundaries and collaboratively with diverse staff.
• Knowledge of accessibility guidelines and best practices for print and digital communications. Experience developing accessible media, communications, and digital publications.
• Balance strategic thinking with operational excellence, manage cross-functional initiatives, and effectively track and report outcomes.

To Apply:

Ready to take the next step and find out more about this role. Click here to apply and take the next step towards an exciting career with the Division of Libraries at NYU.

When you arrive on the next page, you will need your Resume/CV and a cover letter.

In compliance with NYC’s Pay Transparency Act, the annual base salary range for this position is USD $120,000.00 to USD $160,000.00. New York University considers factors such as (but not limited to) scope and responsibilities of the position, candidate’s work experience, education/training, key skills, internal peer equity, as well as, market and organizational considerations when extending an offer. This pay range represents base pay only and excludes any additional items such as incentives, bonuses, clinical compensation, or other items.   

NYU aims to be among the greenest urban campuses in the country and carbon neutral by 2040. Learn more at nyu.edu/nyugreen.

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ABOUT THE COMPANY

From the time of its founding in 1831 until 1973, New York University housed its library collections in various campus locations. A major gift from Elmer Holmes Bobst and his wife, Mamdouha, enabled the University to bring its various collections together in a new library on Washington Square South in 1973.

The striking, 12-story Elmer Holmes Bobst Library, designed by Philip Johnson and Richard Foster, is the flagship of a 10-library system that provides students and faculty members with access to the world’s scholarship. The system holds 5.8 million volumes and more than 2 million e-books.

Located at the heart of NYU’s Washington Square campus, Bobst Library is central to its intellectual life. When school is in session, Bobst receives 10,000 visits per day and more than two million visits annually.

Bobst Library offers approximately 3,000 seats for student study. Its facilities include the Avery Fisher Center for Music and Media, one of the world’s largest academic media centers, with media-ready collaborative studies and carrels and the multi-channel Feldstein Immersion Room, which provides one of the most dramatic listening experiences in New York.

Also in Bobst Library, the Digital Studio offers a leading-edge resource for faculty and student projects and promotes access to digital resources for teaching, learning, research, and arts events. The Data Services Lab is equipped with high performance computers for qualitative, quantitative, and geographical research. The Studio and the Lab are staffed by expert consultants from the Libraries and NYU IT.

Bobst Library is home to the Libraries’ Special Collections Center, opened in September 2019 and designed for research into and exhibition of the Libraries’ extraordinarily rich special collections. The new Center co-locates the collections of three formerly separate repositories: Fales Library, Tamiment Library, and the University Archives. The renowned Tamiment Collections document the history of labor, socialism, anarchism, communism, and American radicalism. The Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives hold the Jewish Labor Committee Archives and the historical records of more than 130 New York City labor organizations. The Fales Collections include the Fales Collection of English and American Literature, one of the most comprehensive fiction collections in the country. The Fales Collections also focus on food studies, avant-garde New York music and art, and American history. For example, the unique Downtown Collection documents the Downtown New York literary and arts scene from the 1970s to the present, focusing on postmodern writing and dance, performance art, and the downtown music scene. Supporting NYU’s comprehensive programs in nutrition and food studies, the Marion Nestle Food Studies Collection documents American food history with a focus on New York City; the Dalia Carmel Collection includes regional and national cookbooks from all over the world. The Special Collections Center also houses the University Archives, which comprise the historical records of NYU.

NYU’s special collections are supported by the Barbara Goldsmith Preservation and Conservation Department, whose staff conserves and preserves archival material in all media, including papyrus, paper, plastic, magnetic tape, film, and more. NYU Digital Library Technology Services (DLTS) processes, enables access to, and preserves digital materials from both the NYU community and collaborating partner organizations.