Director of Brand Strategy and Communications

We are Lexia Learning, a Cambium Learning® Group company.

Lexia Learning, a Cambium Learning® Group company, is the structured literacy expert. For over 35 years, the company has focused solely on literacy, and today, provides a full spectrum of solutions for both students and teachers. With robust offerings for differentiated instruction, personalized learning, assessment, and professional learning, Lexia helps more learners read, write, and speak with confidence.

Job Overview:

Lexia, the structured literacy expert, is looking for a branding and communications leader with experience defining and driving brand strategy in the fast-growing EdTech space. This person will be inspired by our vision of a world where Literacy is a reality for everyone. The Director of Brand Strategy and Communications will lead a team of marketers and communications experts and will be responsible for developing and defining the brand and marketing strategy for Lexia. This leader will build strategies to reflect where we are now and where we want to be in the future. The ideal candidate will have experience establishing and growing successful brands and teams. We are looking for someone who is both humble and inspiring - able to unlock the personality of our brand, challenge assumptions and inspire creatives and brand teams to develop impactful marketing strategies in service of students and educators.

Job Responsibilities:

Leadership

• Lead strategic communications and brand strategy and communications planning, including directing marketing calendar development across seasonal and our Metrics, Strategy & Planning (MSP) cycles.
• Establish a best-in-class branding and communications function via (a) hiring & developing top tier talent (b) driving operational excellence (c) embedding data & analytics in every decision-making process (d) optimizing ad tech stack and (e) delivering marketing thought leadership and strategic business acumen.
• Manage the branding and communications marketing budget, ensuring the highest possible return on investment on all spending.
• Direct strategy development of the branding and communications teams including brand programs, public relations, social media, and internal communications strategy that builds a significant audience that engages with the content on an ongoing basis.
• Lead, mentor, and inspire a team of marketers who love working with you and gain the experience they would be hard-pressed to gain anywhere else.

Strategy

• Identify and execute brand awareness opportunities in order to increase awareness within our key audience cohorts of educators, policy makers and parents through trade advertising, content syndication, event sponsorships, influencer marketing programs, digital ad placements, connected tv ad placements and other channels.
• Proactively incorporate Outside-In perspectives and innovative media buying/optimization practices by keeping abreast of competitive strategies, emerging trends and technology.
• Identify and manage branding, media, public relations and social media agencies; and lead the cross agency/functional development of annual strategy and plan in partnership with internal partners to achieve goals.
• Work closely with external agencies to drive accountability for strong results, transparency into data/targeting/optimization, testing new capabilities and cost savings.

Analytics

• In partnership with Lexia’s Data & Analytics team and the Marketing Analytics team, deeply understand the relationship between brand and marketing programs to continuously optimize spend across channels to maintain a well- balanced and efficient funnel.
• Develop and maintain a media scorecard that will serve as an Executive Summary of all media performance.
• Oversee brand research and brand communications ROI metrics to inform program design.
• Direct monthly and quarterly reporting process for branding and communications teams.
• Analyzes market trends, interprets research, and utilizes competitive data to develop brand direction and identify impactful marketing initiatives and campaigns. Works closely with VP of Strategic Marketing, Sr. Director of Product Marketing and Director of Lifecycle Marketing on customer segments, journey and mapping.
• Directs overall brand identity strategy, and ensures effective use by internal and external creative resources and agencies; including directing the optimization of the brand and editorial guidelines, training and audit of team creative.

Collaboration

• Act as the brand steward and strategic communications thought leader for the organization.
• Partner with the marketing services and creative teams to execute campaigns consistently across the buyer and customer journey.
• Engage key cross functional partners to continuously glean actionable insights from brand, national, regional and customer program performance and direct strategic as well as tactical optimization based on such recommendations.
• Working with a cross-functional team led effort to create our brand vision, promise, and architecture utilizing external third-party consultants to facilitate the discussion across the organization.
• Form key relationships with some of the biggest influencers within the marketing, data, and sales spaces.
• Be a key contributor to quarterly Metric, Strategy and Planning (MSP) process optimizing and brand marketing and strategic communications plans and communicating those plans to the rest of the marketing organization.
• Align with the human resources and VP of Strategic Planning and other leaders to develop an internal communications process and strategy for all different types of employee communications.
• Working with the creative director, develop a consistent visual identity that aligns with the brand architecture established.
• Shares knowledge of industry trends and competitive trends; monitors EdTech industry and bring forward elevated and new thinking

Job Requirements:

• 10+ years owning and managing brand marketing programs for B2B SaaS companies.
• 5+ years of experience managing a team of brand and communications professionals.
• Have utilized an integrated campaigns framework or an agile marketing framework to unify the work of the marketing team and ensure we have a strong foundation centralizing and unifying the efforts of the entire marketing function.
• Strong budgetary management experience and analytical skills. Proven track record of analyzing marketing spend to determine ROI and inform future activities / investments.
• Exemplary leadership and management skills. Ability to lead by example and inspire others to achieve success. Track record of attracting and retaining top marketing talent and managing teams effectively to optimize results.
• Demonstrated experience with campaign design and execution. A genuine passion for thoughtful and engaging campaign design and a focus on end-to-end execution.
• Highly creative with the ability to innovate new ways to generate interest and excitement among targeted audiences.
• Excellent presentation and communication skills.

To learn more about our organization and the exciting work we do, visit https://www.lexialearning.com/... Equal Opportunity Employer

We are dedicated to fostering a culture that celebrates unique backgrounds, ideas, and experiences. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, gender, gender identity/expression, sexual orientation, national origin, protected veteran status, or disability.