PBLWorks, Senior Director of Marketing

ORGANIZATION

Buck Institute for Education, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization (dba PBLWorks) headquartered in Novato, California, is the industry leader in providing professional development, products, and resources related to Project Based Learning (PBL). PBLWorks creates, collects, and shares high-quality PBL tools and resources with K-12 teachers and education leaders across the country. At PBLWorks, our vision is for all students — no matter where they live or what their background — to have access to quality PBL instruction to deepen their learning and achieve success in college, career, and life.

PBLWorks recently launched PBLWorks Teach, the first of a series of planned product offerings to schools, districts, and teachers. 

For more information about PBLWorks, please visit www.pblworks.org.

OPPORTUNITY 

PBLWorks is poised for its next phase of growth, innovation, and impact. Our Strategic Plan 2024–2028 expands our focus from professional learning to support teachers in designing PBL units to the development of new products and redesigned services that enable all teachers to implement PBL by creating curriculum units that teachers can adapt and the creation of a digital platform that teachers can access from anywhere at any time. This includes the aforementioned PBLWorks Teach.

The opportunity calls for a strategic marketing leader with K-12 domain knowledge, digital product marketing experience, and a proven track record for success. The Senior Director of Marketing is an experienced leader with exceptional communications skills who will have overall strategic and operational responsibility for leading initiatives that expand our brand presence in new and existing markets, enhance our brand identity and assets as we scale, and ensure cohesive and impactful market positioning. They will partner with the Business Development team and work collaboratively across the organization to develop and execute integrated communications and marketing campaigns that drive lead generation and conversion, enabling the organization to achieve its growth objectives by utilizing data-driven strategies and embracing a growth mindset. 

The Senior Director of Marketing is energized to advance racial equity by marketing products and services that engage more students — especially Black and Brown students — in PBL by reaching over 230,000 educators annually by 2028.

REPORTING RELATIONSHIPS

Serving as a key member on the Leadership Team and as a representative internally and externally, the Senior Director of Marketing reports to the Chief Operating Officer. The Senior Director will supervise a Marketing Manager and manage a team of external vendors/freelancers (design, copywriting, web development, PR, etc.) to support the execution of marketing and communications initiatives.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Key responsibilities of the Senior Director include:

Design and Implement a Comprehensive Marketing Strategy Aligned with the Products Goals

• Collaborating closely with the executive team, along with the business development and product development teams, develop and implement a vision, strategy, and operational plan for the Marketing and Communications team that supports the organization’s overall goals and objectives to expand our reach through growth and scale.
• Evaluate and build the function's capacity to support the organization's growth goals. Ensure we have in place the people, processes, and systems to measure, implement, and optimize our efforts.
• Work closely with the business development team to spearhead cross and upsell moments, design the customer acquisition and retention journey while supporting efforts to steadily increase the lifetime value of various customer types.
• Establish a system for gathering and monitoring key marketing performance indicators and other metrics; provide regular reporting and analysis for the leadership team to understand the efficacy of marketing strategies in order to iterate and improve on strategies and tactics.

Marketing and Communications

• Working across the PBLWorks organization, oversee all external communications efforts and lead the development of compelling external-facing collateral and assets, including website, print (e.g. annual report, services catalog), digital, and video content, ensuring consistency across all materials, publications, and platforms to promote PBLWorks.
• Work with the leadership team to develop, implement, and monitor all communications and marketing initiatives at PBLWorks to enhance the engagement cycle and customer journey to drive sales.

Organizational Leadership

• Provide leadership in supporting and delivering organizational communication that builds cohesiveness, fosters a culture where we work as One Synergistic Team, and supports staff in navigating organizational growth and evolution.
• Motivate and lead with high care and high expectations, creating a culture of accountability, collaboration, and shared problem-solving. Collaborate closely with Human Resources to manage performance improvement and employee relations issues with high expertise, tact, and sensitivity.
• Engage in ongoing individual and collective learning to advance racial equity through Project Based Learning for all students, especially Black and Brown students.
• Broaden PBLWorks’ access and exposure by building and maintaining relationships with key leaders, partners, funders, and organizations to advance its goals.

YEAR-1 PRIORITIES 

While the scope of responsibility outlined above is comprehensive, PLBWorks has identified the following main priorities that we envision requiring the most attention for the first 12-18 months in the role: 

• Develop and lead multi-channel marketing strategy and activities for publicizing and promoting existing and new products and services - including cross-functional leadership of our product launches; PBLWorks books; publications, and events (including PBL World, regional conferences, etc.); and support our go-to-market strategy to increase adoption by all stakeholders.
• Successfully launch a multi-channel marketing strategy for new and existing services and products - including a SaaS product launch - that increases demand for services and revenue.
• Enhance PBL Works’ marketing, positioning, and brand integrity. Expand our market presence; improve our brand identity and ensure unified and consistent messaging and position across platforms; develop assets to advance our goals.
• Keep the trains moving. Develop our annual report and sales catalog, along with maintaining and enhancing our existing mar-comms activities.

Requirements

The successful candidate must believe in PBLWorks’ core values, be driven by our mission and vision, share our commitment to advancing racial equity, and be comfortable breaking new ground to lead social change. They should have demonstrated experience in successfully building and executing marketing plans, possess a deep understanding of branding, and demonstrate superior written and verbal communication skills.

The specific requirements for the ideal Senior Director candidate will be:

• 10+ years of hands-on experience in all aspects of marketing, including but not limited to go-to-market strategies, publicity, communications, events, website, branding, video and print collateral, and digital marketing. Demonstrated experience leading product marketing efforts is a big plus.
• 5+ years of planning and driving org-wide communications, including but not limited to content creation, media relations, internal communications, crisis communications, and performance tracking. 
• 5+ years of experience managing others, providing coaching and leadership that inspires and creates a highly effective team.
• Experience scaling B2B and B2C products and driving substantial growth in K-12 and/or for digital products is highly desirable.
• Expertise in performance marketing to drive organizational growth.
• Entrepreneurial drive and hands-on spirit to deliver business results.
• A savvy understanding of digital platforms and tools including: Pardot, Salesforce, Drupal, SproutSocial, MailChimp, Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram) and knowledge of website optimization and SEO (Google Analytics, Alexa).
• Experience in a high-growth start-up or enterprise setting is a plus.

Knowledge, Approach, and Know-how

• Strategic Vision and Agility: the ability to think strategically, anticipate future consequences and trends, and incorporate them into the organizational plan. 
• Leadership and Organization: exceptional capacity for managing and leading people; a team builder who has experience in scaling up organizations; capacity to enforce accountability, develop and empower top-notch leaders from the bottom up, lead from the top down, cultivate entrepreneurship, and learn the strengths and weaknesses of the team; and, place people in a position to succeed. 
• Results-proven track record of exceeding goals and a bottom-line orientation; evidence of the ability to consistently make good decisions through a combination of analysis, wisdom, experience, and judgment; high level of business acumen; problem-solving, project management, and creative resourcefulness.
• Impeccable integrity, clear communicator in writing and verbally, decision-maker.
• Flexible and able to multitask; can work within an ambiguous, fast-moving environment while also driving toward clarity and solutions; demonstrated resourcefulness in setting priorities and guiding investment in people and systems.
• Action-oriented: enjoys working hard and looking for challenges; proactive; not afraid to take risks.

LOCATION

The Senior Director of Marketing is a remote position and may work from anywhere within the contiguous United States. Travel may be required up to 20% of the time.

Benefits

PBLWorks offers the Senior Director of Marketing role a full-time competitive salary range of $175,000 - $200,000 (commensurate with experience), with full health benefits (including medical, dental, and vision), 403b, and life and disability insurance. More details can be provided upon request.

Candidates are encouraged to apply by September 30th for full consideration.

As a company, we celebrate and embrace diversity. We actively seek a diverse pool of candidates in every hiring process. Buck Institute for Education is an Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, gender, age, veteran status, political affiliation, sexual orientation, marital status, or disability (in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act).