Assistant Director of Communications and Media Relations

Location: Commerce, Texas, United States; weekly work may be required at the Dallas educational site, with occasional travel to other locations and instructional sites.

Company

East Texas A&M University is a public university offering degree programs, distance education, research opportunities, and academic services across Northeast Texas.

What you will do

• Lead the planning, management, and daily operations of the university communications function.
• Translate institutional priorities into communications plans, editorial calendars, workflows, assignments, and timelines.
• Oversee media relations, university news, owned media, internal communications, and e-communications.
• Lead institutional storytelling, editorial standards, content distribution, and communications coordination across channels.
• Develop and coordinate crisis and issues communications with university leadership and serve as the media-relations contact during sensitive situations.
• Supervise professional staff, manage team capacity and resources, provide coaching, and evaluate performance.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in communications, journalism, public relations, English, marketing, or a related field, or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Seven years of progressively responsible experience in communications, journalism, media relations, public relations, editorial operations, or a related field.
• Experience developing and implementing communications plans, writing and editing, media relations, editorial planning, or institutional communications.
• Experience supervising professional staff or providing significant team leadership in a complex organization.
• Exceptional writing, editing, verbal communication, interpersonal, organizational, project-management, and staff-management skills, with knowledge of journalistic standards, media practices, and AP style.
• Ability to work with confidential or sensitive information and outside normal business hours when emergencies, major announcements, or media activity require.

Nice to have

• Master’s degree in communications, journalism, public relations, marketing, or a related field.
• Communications experience in higher education, government, or another complex public organization.
• Experience leading an institutional communications, editorial, or news operation.
• Experience with earned media, crisis communications, organizational-change communications, and advising leaders.
• Familiarity with the Texas media environment and public higher education.

Culture & Benefits

• Full-time staff employment with health, dental, vision, life, and long-term disability insurance.
• Employee tuition assistance for master’s and doctoral programs.
• Paid holidays, sick leave, vacation, and employer contributions toward health and basic life insurance premiums.
• Automatic enrollment in the Teacher Retirement System of Texas, with optional additional retirement plans.
• Physical wellness programs, wellness release time, and access to research opportunities at an R2 research institution.

Hiring process

• Submit a cover letter, resume or CV, three professional references with complete contact information, and transcripts through the Texas A&M Online Employment Services website.
• Official transcripts are required upon acceptance of a verbal offer; international transcripts must be translated and evaluated by an approved credential evaluator.
• Employment is contingent upon credential verification and completion of a criminal history investigation.