Senior Director, Marketing and Strategic Communications

While we appreciate your enthusiasm for our work, we ask for no phone calls or LinkedIn messages regarding this role, please. Applications will be accepted until the position is filled.
A note on our process: We are committed to a human-first hiring approach. Your application will be reviewed entirely by our team, without the use of AI screening tools.

Remote (must reside within the United States)
Job Type: Full-time, 35 hours per week, Exempt
Salary Range: $150,000 – $170,000, based on the candidate's relevant experience, skills, and qualifications. This range reflects national market data for comparable roles.
Travel: Domestic and occasional international travel required, including overnight stays (up to 15%)
Start Date: Immediate
No immigration or relocation assistance is available for this position

About Us

The Pacific Institute is a global water think tank that combines science-based thought leadership with active outreach and engagement to influence local, national, and international efforts in water sustainability and resilience. Our vision is to create a world in which society, the economy, and the environment have the water they need to thrive now and in the future. Since 1987, we have worked with diverse groups ranging from major corporations to frontline communities with a mission of creating and advancing solutions to the world’s most pressing water challenges. Our work is routinely featured in national and global top-tier media, and we engage more than 270 partners, including NGOs, utilities, policymakers, businesses, and others.

About the Role:

The Senior Director, Marketing and Strategic Communications, leads the strategy and execution of integrated marketing and communications campaigns that grow the Pacific Institute’s audiences, strengthen its reputation as a definitive voice on global water solutions, and build the visibility and positioning that drive partnership and funding growth.

Reporting to the President and CEO and serving as a full member of the Executive Management Team, the Senior Director leads a team spanning content, digital, media relations, and partner communications. Working across Development and Research and Programs, this role builds the campaigns, messaging, and marketing infrastructure that convert the Pacific Institute's work into greater visibility, partnerships, and funding. This is a role with room to grow. As we enter our next planning period through 2030, they will shape what marketing and communications looks like at the organization for the next five years: building the systems, strategies, and team that position the Pacific Institute as the definitive voice on global water solutions.

Responsibilities:

Marketing, Brand, and Audience Growth (45%)

• Create and lead the Pacific Institute’s marketing strategy: audience definition, positioning, and a campaign calendar tied to organizational priorities.
• Plan and execute time-bound, outcome-measured campaigns tied to research launches, initiative milestones, and funding priorities.
• Steward the Pacific Institute’s parent brand and associated sub-brands, (CEO Water Mandate and the Water Resilience Coalition), maintaining a consistent voice, messaging frameworks, visual identity standards, and editorial integrity across all properties.
• Lead content and audience strategy across the Pacific Institute’s digital marketing infrastructure.
• Build the analytics and reporting capability that shows what marketing and communications activity produced, in terms leadership and funders can act on.
• Partner with the Chief Growth Officer to build marketing capability that directly supports revenue growth, including funder-facing collateral and messaging, campaign support, and content that opens partnership conversations.
• Partner with the Chief Research and Programs Officer and programmatic team to integrate communications into research and program initiatives, ensuring communication strategies, audience considerations, and dissemination opportunities are incorporated early into the process.
• Build a sustained executive visibility and thought leadership program for the Pacific Institute leadership and subject matter experts: media relations, speaking opportunities, and rapid response commentary.
• Represent the Pacific Institute externally on brand, marketing, and organizational positioning matters, and prepare subject matter experts for media and public appearances.

Communications Systems and Functional Leadership (25%)

• Design and maintain the communications system: the processes, workflows, quality standards, and decision-making norms that govern how communications work gets planned, prioritized, produced, and evaluated.
• Set priorities and manage intake across programs and initiatives, with the authority to sequence work and resolve cross-functional bottlenecks.
• Lead organizational media strategy, steward senior media relationships, and establish spokesperson strategy and protocols.
• Serve as the communications voice at EMT meetings, advising leadership on the strategic and external positioning implications of organizational decisions as they are being made.
• Align communications planning with organizational strategy, funding priorities, and capacity constraints.

Team Leadership and Development (15%)

• Foster a team culture of collaboration, creative excellence, psychological safety, and continuous learning.
• Build and maintain a team structure that can scale as the organization grows.
• Direct the team budget and workforce planning, including resourcing strategy, contractor and vendor portfolio decisions, and alignment of spend with organizational priorities.
• Build strategic redundancy and shared institutional knowledge across the team, ensuring flexibility and resilience.

Execution and Quality Assurance (15%)

• Ensure the quality, consistency, and timeliness of external communications, maintaining high editorial and strategic standards.
• Translate complex research findings, programmatic initiatives, and partnership activities into audience-appropriate messaging.
• Establish and enforce publication processes, timelines, and quality checkpoints.
• Write, edit, and produce communications and campaign materials directly and on an ongoing basis, reflecting the player-coach nature of this role and the firsthand execution required by the Pacific Institute’s lean structure.

requirements:

• At least 14 years of progressive experience in marketing, strategic communications, media relations, or public affairs, with demonstrated outcomes at the organizational or enterprise level.
• At least 7 years in a leadership role managing and developing a communications team.
• At least 5 years in a marketing leadership role, independently responsible for a large brand.
• Demonstrated experience building or significantly evolving communications systems, processes, and team structures in a growing or transitioning organization.
• Track record of translating complex, technical, or research-based content into compelling narratives for diverse audiences including policymakers, funders, media, corporate leaders, and communities.
• Experience owning departmental budgets, workforce planning, vendor portfolios, and resourcing strategy.
• Experience with media strategy at the national or international level, including earned media, spokesperson preparation, and crisis communications.
• Experience advising executive leadership or serving in an executive-level communications advisory capacity.
• Working knowledge of how to apply AI tools for strategic advantage in communications and marketing, paired with sound judgment about their ethical use, including accuracy, attribution, and protection of the Pacific Institute’s research credibility and organizational voice.

Education

• Bachelor’s degree in Communications, Marketing, Public Relations, Journalism, Public Policy, or a related field.
• Advanced degree preferred but not required. Equivalent professional experience will be considered.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

• Outstanding writing and editing skills with the ability to synthesize complex information for diverse audiences and formats.
• Strategic thinker who is equally comfortable setting direction and rolling up their sleeves to execute.
• Demonstrated ability to set priorities, manage competing demands, make decisions with confidence and transparency, and advocate for the marketing and communications functions at the executive level.
• Deep understanding of digital communications, social media strategy, website management, email marketing, content management systems, and analytics platforms.
• Experience with brand management, visual identity, organizational positioning, and marketing infrastructure development.
• Strong interpersonal skills with a collaborative, inclusive approach to leadership.
• Comfort operating in a remote-first environment with a globally distributed team.
• Strong commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion in both internal team practices and external communications.

Preferred qualifications:

• Experience in the nonprofit, philanthropic, or mission-driven sector, with an understanding of resource constraints, funder accountability, and values-driven organizational culture.
• Familiarity with water, climate, environmental sustainability, or natural resource policy issues.
• Experience communicating with diverse audiences including vulnerable communities, elected officials, corporations, community leaders, and the public.
• Experience translating program and organizational impact data into compelling external narratives and cross-functional brand storytelling for funders, partners, and the public.
• Experience managing communications for organizations undergoing growth, transition, or structural change.
• Fluency in other languages.
• Experience working with international organizations, multilateral institutions, or global sustainability networks.

Compensation and Benefits

This position is eligible for paid vacation and benefits. The Pacific Institute offers an excellent compensation package, including a generous health, dental, and Institute-matched retirement plan and a competitive salary that is commensurate with experience and reflects the field. Hiring Range: $150,000 – $170,000 per year. (if selected for an interview, a salary range within our hiring range that is specific to the candidates' geographic location will be shared). 

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

The Pacific Institute is an Equal Opportunity Employer.
Diversity is a core value at Pacific Institute. We are dedicated to enhancing diversity, equity, and inclusion within our team and culture for two reasons:
To stay true to our values and principles: We recognize that historical and current injustices have left out certain voices and perspectives from decision-making about accessing and managing water resources. We acknowledge that the representation of these groups in water-related decision-making and careers is an important step towards addressing past and current injustices. Because Pacific Institute participates in water-related decision-making, we acknowledge that hiring and retaining a diverse staff can contribute to a broader need to address systemic injustices.
To better achieve Pacific Institute's mission and vision: We know that having diverse perspectives makes for better research, creative solutions, and can help us achieve our mission. We recognize that a diverse team with varied perspectives, skills, and experiences is essential for generating and scaling innovative ideas that solve increasingly complex challenges. We make an active effort to create an inclusive environment where everyone feels respected, heard, validated, empowered, and celebrated across different identities and cultures. We aim to constantly evolve our approach to DEI to reflect best practices in this work, just as we do with our water and climate research. As part of this commitment, we request that all candidates include a short statement in their cover letter to address how your addition to our staff would contribute to our DEI efforts.

To Apply

Please submit the following:

• A cover letter (no more than two pages) including:
  • Your interest in the work of the Pacific Institute and specific fit for this position;
  • A brief description of a time you developed a marketing or communications strategy for an organization that did not have one, or significantly rebuilt one that wasn't working. What did you inherit, what did you build, and what changed as a result?
  • The DEI statement described above;
• Your CV/Resume;
• A campaign case study (2-3 pages).

Describe one integrated marketing or communications campaign you led from strategy through execution. Include:

• The organizational objective the campaign was designed to support.
• Your role and the team you led or coordinated.
• The channels and tactics used.
• The measurable outcomes (reach, audience growth, media coverage, fundraising results, policy uptake, or other relevant metrics).

Originally posted on Himalayas