Senior Manager, Strategic Communications

Job Summary

The Senior Manager, Strategic Communications leads strategic communications planning and provides tactical expertise within the UBC Faculty of Medicine. Reporting to the Executive Director, Creative & Communications, Faculty of Medicine, the Senior Manager oversees employees and directs the communications activities for multiple Faculty of Medicine education and training programs and initiatives across the province. With more than 20 thousand faculty, clinical faculty, staff and learners spanning multidisciplinary undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral programs across British Columbia, the Senior Manager, Communications serves as a senior advisor and works closely with the Faculty’s Vice-Dean of Education, Regional Associate Deans and Department Heads and School Directors, and liaises with academic partners across British Columbia to advise, develop and implement strategic communications initiatives that highlight, advocate and elevate the reputation, impact and profile of the UBC Faculty of Medicine at the local, provincial, national and international level.

The Senior Manager, Strategic Communications provides strategic leadership and is accountable for the development, integration and implementation of the Faculty of Medicine’s Education, Public Affairs & Issues Management communications portfolio. The position establishes communications direction across the Faculty’s distributed education and training mandate, including strategic communications, advocacy, government and stakeholder communications, issues management and crisis communications.

Organizational Status
The University of British Columbia is a global centre for research and teaching, consistently ranked among the top 20 public universities in the world. Since 1915, UBC’s entrepreneurial spirit has embraced innovation and challenged the status quo. UBC encourages its students, staff and faculty to challenge convention, lead discovery and explore new ways of learning. At UBC, bold thinking is given a place to develop into ideas that can change the world.

Our Vision: To Transform Health for Everyone

Ranked among the world’s top medical schools with the fifth-largest MD enrollment in North America, the UBC Faculty of Medicine is a leader in both the science and the practice of medicine. Across British Columbia, more than 12,000 faculty and staff are training the next generation of doctors and health care professionals, making remarkable discoveries, and helping to create the pathways to better health for our communities at home and around the world.

The Faculty of Medicine —comprised of approximately 2,600 administrative support, technical/research and management and professional staff, as well approximately 620 full-time academic and over 14,000 clinical faculty members—is composed of 19 academic basic science and/or clinical departments, 3 schools, and 26 research centres and institutes. Together with its University and Health Authority partners, the Faculty of Medicine delivers innovative programs and conducts research in the areas of health and life sciences. Faculty, staff and trainees are located at university campuses, clinical academic campuses in hospital settings and other regionally based centres across the province.

The UBC Vancouver Campus is located on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) people. The City of Vancouver is located on Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations territory.

Work Performed
In consultation with the Executive Director, Office of Creative and Communications:

• Develops, establishes and directs a comprehensive and integrated communications strategy for the Faculty’s Education portfolio, encompassing undergraduate, postgraduate and health professions education and the Faculty’s distributed provincial training model.
• • Serves as the senior communications advisor for the Education portfolio and establishes communications approaches for major education initiatives, public affairs matters and government and stakeholder priorities affecting the Faculty’s provincial education mandate.
  • Responsible for the development, handling and distribution of sensitive, timely and/or confidential information from Faculty senior leadership to senior leadership university-wide.
  • Engages with ministry and health authority communications teams to advance funding announcements, policy changes or partnerships.
  • Leads the integration of communications priorities across the Faculty’s major training hubs, distributed sites and education programs, establishing common strategic approaches while addressing differing regional, program and stakeholder requirements.
  • Leads communications risk assessment and issues-management strategy for the Education portfolio, determining proactive and responsive communications approaches for emerging, sensitive and high-profile matters and advising senior leadership on reputational implications.
  • Directs the communications strategy supporting implementation and public positioning of the Faculty’s Education strategic priorities, establishing portfolio-wide messaging, audience strategies, measures of effectiveness and communications priorities across the province.
  • Directs and prioritizes communications support for senior education leadership and provides strategic oversight of executive, media, government and stakeholder communications developed within the portfolio.
  • Establishes the internal communications approach for the Education portfolio, ensuring alignment with Faculty-wide internal communications strategies.
  • Serves as an internal advisor/consultant to Faculty leadership, Regional Associate Deans, Department Heads and staff across the province regarding communications best-practices.
  • Establishes and directs the integrated content and channel strategy for the Education portfolio, ensuring communications across programs, hubs and platforms collectively support Faculty and institutional priorities.
  • Establishes performance metrics and evaluation frameworks to measure the effectiveness of communications strategies and initiatives, using insights to continuously refine and strengthen impact.
  • Effectively utilizes all existing communications tools and tactics and implements new methods as well, to ensure that messages are communicated effectively.
  • Establishes and directs the digital communications and web strategy for the distributed Education portfolio, setting standards and priorities for education-related digital communications across provincial sites.
  • Develops and directs public affairs, advocacy and government communications strategies related to the Faculty’s education and training mandate, working with Faculty leadership, UBC Government Relations and provincial partners to establish coordinated positioning and stakeholder engagement approaches.
  • Leads communications planning and response within the Education portfolio for emerging issues and crises, assessing stakeholder and reputational implications, establishing response strategies and coordinating with the Executive Director and central University communications functions where matters have broader institutional implications.
  • Fosters close working relationships with Faculty communicators across the province, Internal Communications, and Media Relations, to ensure a timely, relevant and mutually beneficial flow of relevant information.
  • Applies an Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Accessibility lens to the Faculty’s communications strategy and collateral to ensure alignment with the strategic plan and UBC institutional priorities.
  • Maintains awareness of emerging trends, issues and opportunities in Communications, academia and health care to inform strategy and positioning, skills and professional accreditations as appropriate.
  • Other duties as required.

Consequence of Error/Judgement

• Must be able to work independently and exercise good judgment and decision-making in managing proactive and reactive communications needs and issues.
• Actions and decisions made could impact the reputation of the University.
• The quality, ethics, integrity, and accuracy of communicated information produced by this position are critical to the University.
• Given the wide reputational reach of communications materials and the diverse audiences of the Faculty, e.g., faculty and staff across the university, senior administration, as well as provincial and federal government leaders and the media, inaccurate and inappropriate or poor messaging could seriously affect the image and reputation of the University as a whole and could result in negative perception of the University's academic and administrative record.
• Requires professional judgements and initiative in managing special projects.
• Requires high level of tact, discretion and negotiating skills to effectively bring together and coordinate input from various stakeholders.

Supervision Received
This position works independently and in close collaboration with the Executive Director, Office of Creative and Communications, Faculty of Medicine, UBC.

Supervision Given
May supervise employees and/or external communications service providers. Oversight of Office of Creative and Communication staff for specific tasks, such as web site maintenance/uploads.

Minimum Qualifications
Undergraduate degree in a relevant discipline. Minimum seven years of related experience, or communication services, or the equivalent combination of education and experience.

• 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 equity, diversity, and inclusion
  

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with communications services, including experience operating at a strategic level with accountability for communications and marketing.
• Demonstrated accomplishments in crisis communications and issues management, including strong written and oral skills, ability to assess the broad implication of developments, anticipate issues and develop proactive strategies to mitigate risk.
• Experience and demonstrated skill in developing, implementing and evaluating strategic communications plans, marketing and engagement strategies, and understanding of emerging digital and social media platforms.
• Innovative thinker with the ability to position the Office of Creative and Communications as a strategic communications leader within the University.
• Ability to work effectively and collaboratively within a team environment; ability to motivate and develop relationships to move initiatives forward.
• Ability to conduct needs analyses, plan, organize, manage, monitor, complete, and evaluate projects within allocated time and resources. Exercises diplomacy and discretion in all internal and external interactions.
• Ability to work under pressure to meet deadlines and to juggle multiple priorities and assignments.
• Ability to think and act independently and see the broad implications of events; evaluate long range opportunities and potential problems.
• Able to work in a complex environment with a diverse range of stakeholders.
• Exceptional service orientation and interpersonal skills.