Senior Director, Brand & Marketing

Job Summary

At UBC, we believe that attracting and sustaining a diverse workforce is key to the successful pursuit of excellence in research, innovation, and learning for all faculty, staff and students. Our commitment to employment equity helps achieve inclusion and fairness, brings rich diversity to UBC as a workplace, and creates the necessary conditions for a rewarding career.

Job Description Summary

The Senior Director, Brand & Marketing plays a critical role in leading the Brand and Marketing team. This team is responsible for the stewardship of UBC’s brand, including through visual media and web systems, and is a driving force behind the university’s paid advertising campaigns. The Senior Director and their team set the standards, build the systems, develop the tools and deliver the experiences that make consistent, high-quality brand expression achievable at scale. This position is critical for advancing the university's reputation, achieving long-term strategic brand, marketing and communications goals, and building alignment across all major institutional campaigns and among UBC’s communicators network.

This position provides ongoing strategic leadership as well as tactical advice on brand management in order to ensure UBC’s brand is expressed consistently, across every campus, channel, and community so that every student, researcher, donor, partner, and the public recognizes not just the logo, but the promise behind it.

Organizational Status

Reports to the Associate Vice-President, Communications. Works closely with enterprise-wide executive members, senior communications and marketing professionals to support and align paid marketing activities as appropriate. Leads the Brand and Marketing management team and works collaboratively with the Senior Director, News & University Affairs and Senior Director, Strategic Communications to support a focused, integrated and impactful approach to telling UBC stories. Oversees external relationships with media, creative, reputation research and digital agency partners.

Work Performed

Campaign Strategy: Provide strategic long-term direction for UBC brand and marketing work. Lead UBC’s paid institutional marketing campaigns, overseeing media buying, agency partnerships, and creative direction to build institutional awareness, affinity, and engagement.

Enterprise Stewardship: Providing strategic advice on UBC brand management; ensure UBC’s brand is expressed consistently across every campus, channel, and community so that audiences recognize not just the logo, but the promise behind it.

System-Building: Shift the focus from purely central execution to organizational enablement. Develop the architecture—including visual identity systems, Common Look and Feel (CLF), and martech stacks—that empowers faculties, schools, and units to do excellent, brand-aligned work.

Governance & Influence: Navigate the complex faculty and unit stakeholder landscape using influence without authority to create brand and visual alignment. Lead the development of an enterprise brand architecture and governance framework that provides clear rules, escalation paths, and exception handling.

Digital Leadership: Direct UBC’s digital presence, including web product management, UX/UI, accessibility (WCAG), and search/AI-discoverability (SEO/GEO) to ensure the university’s digital infrastructure is authoritative and user-centered.

Integrated Leadership: Lead three interdependent teams—Brand Communications, Digital Solutions, and Design & Photography—ensuring strategy informs execution and vice versa while maintaining customer service to our partners.

Performance & Measurement: Oversee the measurement of "what matters"—brand health, reputation, audience trust, and organizational capability—using market research and reputation tracking to help inform our portfolio-wide communications approach.

Portfolio Leadership and Collaboration: Work closely with the other Senior Directors and Directors group to champion and support the implementation of a focused and integrated communications portfolio to maximize our marketing and communications impact

Consequence of Error/Judgement

Must be able to work independently and exercise extensive judgement and decision making in managing proactive and reactive brand and communication needs and issues. Every action and decision could have a significant impact on the brand equity and reputation of the University. Poorly designed programs can result in weak results and inefficient spending.

Supervision Received

Works with minimal guidance under broad guidelines established by the Associate Vice-President, Communications.

Supervision Given

Oversees the Brand and Marketing department through a team of direct managers including Brand Communications, Digital Solutions and Design teams.

Senior brand and marketing leader for the university entrusted to indirectly inspire and align the university's broader communications network and brand and marketing opportunities.

Minimum Qualifications

An undergraduate degree in a discipline relevant to Communications, Brand or Marketing.

A minimum of ten years experience in brand and marketing communications positions in large and complex organizations, including five years operating at a strategic leadership level.

Willingness to respect diverse perspectives, including perspectives in conflict with one’s own.

Demonstrates a commitment to enhancing one’s own awareness, knowledge, and skills related to creating an inclusive environment.

Preferred Qualifications

Driven to take action and get things done, while still doing so in a collaborative way

Team leadership experience and ability to manage and inspire through times of change

Advertising agency or other marketing services-oriented experience

Proven experience developing communications and marketing strategies and guiding the execution of tactics.

Willingness to innovate and try new things even at risk of failure

Diligence in understanding every program’s success or failure and an innate desire to improve upon for next time.

Expertise in managing large and complex marketing budgets.

Takes a positive and inspirational attitude to challenges.

Constant commitment to breaking down silos within the portfolio and across the university.

Passion and track record for brand strategy and bringing a brand to life - internally and externally.

Ability to see the big picture opportunities and challenges as well manage to finest detail.

A leader that understands the academic environment and is capable of thriving in highly

decentralized organizational structures

Ability to work effectively and collaboratively within a team environment.

Exceptional service orientation and interpersonal skills with the ability to build bridges in a fast-paced and diverse environment with a broad range of stakeholders.

Leads through influence and engenders trust from wide variety of people.

Brings strong organizational and project management skills.

Committed to openness, transparency, collaboration and inclusion.

A person who is excited about raising the bar and has a wellspring of energy to make it happen.