Director of Communications and Marketing

Summary

The Director of Communications and Marketing leads BFIS communications and marketing strategy and sets the standards for how the school communicates internally and externally. Reporting to the Head of School, this role builds a coherent operating model that reduces communication overload, strengthens trust, and supports enrollment in a competitive international school market. This role owns institutional messaging, brand standards, channel discipline, and admissions positioning in partnership with Admissions. It also leads communications planning for sensitive or high-stakes situations and serves as the school’s primary point of contact for media inquiries. BFIS communications should reflect the school’s mission to stimulate creativity and curiosity, build a sense of community, create future-ready learners, and inspire joy.

Reports to:Head of School

Key Direct Reports

● Communication and Marketing Team

The role collaborates closely with Associate Head of School, Director of Admissions, EdTech and Information Systems Administrator, Division Leadership, Operations, staff leaders as appropriate, and external partners/vendors (including Finalsite and creative agencies).

Guiding Principles

  •  Communicate in ways that reflect BFIS’s mission and values, strengthening belonging, trust, and shared understanding.
  •  Prioritize clarity over volume and protect the community from communication overload.
  • Use inclusive, culturally responsive language for a multilingual community.
  •  Protect student dignity, consent, and safeguarding in all communications and storytelling.
  •  Use data and feedback to improve systems and outcomes.

Essential Duties and Key Responsibility Areas

Communications and Marketing Strategy

  • Develops and leads an annual communications and marketing plan aligned with school priorities, admissions goals, and the BFIS mission
  • Definis channel purpose and guardrails (what goes where, when, and why)
  • Maintains a master communications and marketing calendar and a planning rhythm with SLT and Admissions
  • Supports key initiatives identified by the school’s strategic priorities and provides updates on progress and outcomes as needed
  • Sets realistic output expectations and stops work that does not support priorities
  •  Develop an annual strategic Marketing and communication plan.
  •  Partners with the Board Advancement Committee on strategic mapping and narrative alignment for future advancement planning, ensuring a clean handoff when the advancement function is launched.
  •  Collaborates with HR to support staff recruitment goals by strengthening the visibility and clarity of job postings and recruitment communications, and improving the candidate communication experience, without owning HR processes

Brand, Messaging, and Reputation Stewardship

  •  Owns BFIS voice, messaging architecture, and brand standards across channels
  •  Reviews and approves high-impact messaging and public-facing narrative
  •  Proactively identifies opportunities to build and protect the school’s reputation and flags emerging issues early
  •  Serves as the primary contact for media inquiries and coordinates media responses and story opportunities as appropriate
  •  Ensures communications reflect the complexity of the school community without oversimplification and without marketing claims the school cannot deliver
  •  Focuses on strategy, standards, and approvals; routine drafting and publishing sit with direct reports except during high-stakes communications

Admissions Marketing Partnership

  • Partners with Admissions on positioning, recruitment cycle campaigns, open days, and family journey communications
  •  Sets priorities for admissions funnel pages in Finalsite and for campaign landing pages
  •  Aligns external messaging with what the school can deliver, reducing mismatch and disappointment
  •  Ensures recruitment marketing is consistent across website, email, and social channels through shared planning and standards

Content Direction, Production Oversight, and Creative Standards

  •  Provides direction to ensure consistency of style, voice, accuracy, and theme across school communications
  •  Oversees production standards for key print and digital communications (website, email campaigns, newsletters, social media, collateral)
  •  Establishes and enforces expectations and standards for photography and video capture used in school communications, including consent, safeguarding, ethical representation, and appropriate context
  • Ensures accessibility expectations are met across communications and digital content, including readable structure, captions where appropriate, alt text, and clear calls to action
  • Directs the use of photo and video assets to strengthen storytelling and brand consistency, and coordinates vendor support when needed

Governance, Systems, and Performance

  •  Establishes editorial standards, approval paths, lead times, and decision rights across communications channels
  •  Holds final editorial authority over schoolwide communications channels and may revise, delay, redirect, or decline communications to protect clarity, timing, safeguarding, and community wellbeing
  •  Develops policies, procedures, templates, and request workflows relating to school communications
  •  Builds lightweight systems that make communications consistent across divisions and reduce last-minute requests
  •  Clarifies decision rights for digital platforms: Communications owns content and priorities; EdTech owns platform administration, security, and integrations
  •  Sets measurable goals and reviews performance monthly using a small dashboard that includes internal volume and engagement, website admissions page performance, inquiry actions, and campaign effectiveness
  •  Defines and enforces a realistic multilingual communications policy (what is bilingual, what is summarized, turnaround standards, and who approves traslations)
  • Ensures schoolwide communications are published through agreed channels and workflows; supports leaders in using the system consistently

Crisis Communications, Sensitive Issues, and Community Support

  • Maintains and updates a crisis communications protocol that defines decision-making, drafting, approvals, translation needs, publishing responsibilities, and timing
  •  Supports SLT during sensitive or emergency situations with clear sequencing, tone guidance, and audience-specific messaging
  • Ensures communications during incidents protect confidentiality, student welfare, and safeguarding obligations

Department Operations, Resource Stewardship, and Team Leadership

  •  Supports planning for financial, technical, and human resource needs within Communications and Marketing
  •  Manages budgets, contracts, and purchasing decisions for communications and marketing vendors as assigned
  •  Plans, assigns, and evaluates work across the team to maintain quality and deadlines
  •  Builds professional learning and coaching practices that strengthen writing, clarity, and communication discipline across the school

Digital Responsibility, Safeguarding, Child Protection, and GDPR-Aware Practice

  •  Ensures communications workflows uphold safeguarding, dignity, consent, and ethical representation of students and families
  •  Ensures photos and stories are captured and used in ways that reflect child protection expectations, confidentiality, and appropriate boundaries between school and home
  •  Ensures communications practices do not inadvertently disclose sensitive student information, family circumstances, or safeguarding-related matters
  •  Partners with EdTech to ensure privacy-aware practice across platforms, lists, forms, tracking, and retention of communications assets
  •  Models sound judgment in digital environments, including cybersecurity-aware workflows and secure access practices

Listening, Feedback, and Continuous Improvement

  •  Builds a feedback loop with families and staff (lightweight pulse checks, theme tracking, and listening channels) to improve clarity, trust, and accessibility over time
  •  Uses feedback and data to adjust channel rules, timing, and content priorities, and communicates changes transparently
  •  Represents BFIS at major school community events and key recruitment moments (for example Open House, Fundraising Events, Community Wide Events), ensuring messaging, visibility, and experience are aligned.
  •  Leads communications and marketing initiatives with awareness of educational trends, innovations, and emerging topics, translating relevant developments into messaging and content priorities where appropriate.
  •  Builds and maintains relationships with peer schools, partner organizations, and relevant associations to strengthen BFIS visibility, learning, and collaboration in the local and international education community.
  •  Participates in selected sector events and partner initiatives that support BFIS communications and marketing objectives, and shares relevant insights with leadership.
  •  May be assigned additional duties or tasks or other requirements as directed by the Head of School

Skills and Requirements

  •  Bachelor’s degree or equivalent professional experience in communications, marketing, journalism, or related field
  •  7+ years of leadership experience in communications and marketing, ideally in education or mission-driven organizations
  •  Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English and strong editorial judgment
  •  Demonstrated ability to lead cross-functional workflows, set priorities, and enforce standards with clarity and tact
  •  Experience managing vendors and projects with clear outcomes, timelines, and accountability
  •  Demonstrated ability to manage multiple priorities with strong organization and follow-through
  • Demonstrated ability to handle sensitive information with discretion and sound judgment in a school environment

Preferred Skills and Requirements

  • Master’s degree preferred
  • Experience in international or multilingual school environments
  • Working proficiency in Spanish; additional languages (Catalan, French, German, etc.) an asset
  • Experience with Finalsite or similar CMS platforms and with email marketing tools
  • Comfort with analytics and conversion thinking (GA4, Search Console, admissions funnel metrics)
  • Experience serving as a media contact and supporting public-facing communications
  • Experience directing photography and videography to complement communications and marketing needs
  • Familiarity with print and digital production processes, accessibility basics, and content governance practices
  •  Experience with crisis communications planning in a school or public-facing setting

 

Visit our website for more information on the job requirements, and if you meet them, we encourage you to apply via the BFIS website: https://www.bfischool.org/about-us/careers