Assistant Vice President, Brand

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Position Summary:

NJIT seeks an accomplished and creatively driven brand leader to serve as Assistant Vice President, Head of Brand. Reporting to the Senior Vice President of Advancement, the AVP will serve as the university’s chief steward of the NJIT brand, responsible for defining how the institution presents itself and for strengthening the marketing capability required to elevate its visibility and reputation. The AVP will establish baseline measures of brand awareness and perception, set clear brand objectives grounded in market realities and institutional priorities, and lead the execution of brand strategy in direct support of NJIT’s 2030 Strategic Plan. The successful candidate will bring the analytical rigor to measure and manage brand as a strategic asset, along with the creative judgment to ensure that every expression of NJIT is distinctive and cohesive.

The AVP, Head of Brand reports to the Senior Vice President of Advancement and serves as a key member of the Advancement leadership team. The AVP leads a talented creative and editorial group including visual brand, publications, and in-house designers, and is responsible for developing the team’s capabilities, workflows, and standards.

Essential Functions:

Brand Strategy and Measurement

• Lead the development and execution of a comprehensive, university-wide brand strategy that advances the goals of NJIT’s 2030 Strategic Plan.
• Establish baseline brand awareness and perception levels among key audiences, including prospective students and families, employers, peer institutions, policymakers, alumni, and donors, through market research and ongoing measurement.
• Set clear, measurable brand objectives informed by market dynamics and institutional needs, and report regularly on progress to university leadership.
• Design and lead initiatives that measurably increase awareness, consideration, and preference for NJIT in priority markets and audience segments. Marketing Modernization
• Partner with leaders of the marketing organization to modernize NJIT’s marketing function.
• Work alongside marketing team leads to strengthen in-house capabilities and agency capabilities, streamline workflows across teams, and adopt contemporary tools, data practices, and channel strategies.
• Contribute to organization-wide assessments of how marketing investments and activities across the university are structured and deployed, and help shape recommendations that increase their collective impact.
• Champion a data-informed culture within the Brand team and across the marketing organization, embedding audience insight, testing, and performance measurement into how work is planned and evaluated.
• Identify opportunities to better connect adjacent institutional activities, including signature university events, with brand and marketing strategy so that major investments work most efficiently in service of the NJIT story.

Brand Governance and Stewardship

• Own and evolve NJIT’s brand architecture, identity system, and editorial and visual guidelines, ensuring they are current, accessible, and consistently applied.
• Establish practical brand governance, including review processes, approval standards for paid and high-visibility media, and clear roles for communicators across colleges and units, so that brand integrity is protected while partners can move swiftly.

Creative and Team Leadership

• Lead, mentor, and develop the visual brand, publications, and design teams, setting a high creative standard and fostering a collaborative, accountable culture.
• Direct the development of signature creative work, from campaigns and publications to digital and environmental expressions, that brings the NJIT story to life across channels.

Institutional Partnership

• Partner closely with enrollment management, university communications, athletics, academic units, and advancement colleagues to align messaging and amplify institutional priorities such as student recruitment, research visibility, and philanthropic engagement.
• Advise senior leadership on how brand considerations intersect with institutional strategy, reputation, and emerging opportunities.
• Represent the brand function in university-wide planning and serve as a visible, credible ambassador for the NJIT brand internally and externally.

Prerequisite Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in marketing, communications, design, business, or a related field.
• A minimum of ten years of progressively responsible experience in brand management, marketing, or integrated communications, including significant leadership experience managing teams and budgets.
• Demonstrated success developing and executing brand strategy for a complex, multi-stakeholder organization, with measurable results in awareness and reputation.
• Experience leading organizational change, such as modernizing a marketing function, building new capabilities, or guiding a team through a period of transformation and growth.
• Strong command of brand measurement, market research, and analytics, with the ability to translate data into strategy and communicate results to executive audiences.
• Exceptional creative judgment across visual identity, editorial voice, and campaign development.
• Outstanding communication, collaboration, and influence skills, with a track record of building productive relationships across a decentralized environment.

Preferred Qualifications

• Advanced degree in a relevant discipline.
• Experience in higher education or another mission-driven, multi-audience sector.
• Familiarity with enrollment marketing, insourcing or agency-transition initiatives, and contemporary martech and digital channel strategy.

Compensation:

$170,000 - $190,000

At the university's discretion, the education and experience prerequisites may be exempted where the candidate can demonstrate to the satisfaction of the university an equivalent combination of education and experience specifically preparing the candidate for success in the position.

Range:

NJIT 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, or other items.

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Additional Information:

As an EEO employer NJIT is committed to building a diverse and inclusive teaching, research, and working environment and strongly encourages applications from individuals with disabilities, minorities, veterans, and women.

Employment at NJIT is subject to the provisions of New Jersey First Act which mandates new employees, who are not NJ residents, to establish primary residence in New Jersey within one year of their appointment to certain positions. The law does not apply to any individual employed at NJIT on a temporary or per semester basis as a visiting or adjunct professor, teacher, lecturer, researcher or administrator. For more information on the act please click here.

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