Director, External Communications - Football , Intercollegiate Athletics

Director, External Communications - Football

The Director of External Communications – Football (Intercollegiate Athletics) owns and leads strategic athletics storytelling across multiple media for the UC Berkeley football program, leveraging the sport’s ethos on a conference, community, college, national and international level. The role emphasizes brand awareness, broad-reaching messaging, recruiting and retaining student‑athletes, and providing entertainment to all consumers of Cal Athletics. By focusing on football, this position delivers communication excellence needed for the program to thrive within the college athletics ecosystem.

• Engage with all members of the football program to learn the student‑athletes’ personalities, talents and abilities; exploit coach strengths for public consumption; identify sport influencers and engage to broaden the message and target critical audiences that amplify the sport publicly.

• Create, manage, communicate, publish, share and revise a Media Plan.
• The media plan will highlight, on a scheduled basis, the flow of information, how communication will occur, cadence of messaging, types of required content, intended audiences, and other key factors in publicizing the team.

• Collaboratively work with content creators, Cal Athletics digital ecosystem directors, Cal Athletics fundraisers and game‑day entertainment employees to synchronize all communication, publicity, and engagement.
• Maintain a firm working knowledge of the overall strategy shared by these groups that together form the external engine of Cal Athletics.

• Serve as the main, public‑facing resource for the football program on all storytelling aspects of the position.
• Project manage requests, coverage, and alterations or additions to the media plan while maintaining historical knowledge of each sport.

• Facilitate required statistical submissions, written notes, or releases specific to the assigned sports.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

• Advanced knowledge of and/or ability to learn about the program activity and best practices.
• Problem‑solving skills; multi‑task, work with frequent interruptions, and effective listening.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills in English.
• Proficiency in the use of computer applications relevant to job duties.
• Creation and execution of a sport‑specific Storytelling strategy.
• Create and follow a sport‑specific media plan that includes cadence of messaging, audiences, mediums, types of content, and schedules.
• Ability to learn all facets of a sports program quickly, including personnel, trends, participants, national landscape and critical audiences.
• Strong ability to create and deliver targeted content to recruit and retain individuals to the sport represented.
• Ability to thrive in a flexible, fast‑paced and dynamic work environment.
• Strong collaborator who is flexible in adjusting schedules, timelines, content, messaging, mediums, etc. to best fit the immediate and impactful needs of a sports program.
• Proficient user of social media for promoting teams and athletics.
• Previous experience using Facebook, X, Tik Tok, Instagram and other social media channels to tell stories on behalf of a sports team.
• Knowledge of the NCAA/Power 4 landscape, including recruiting cycles, NIL trends, and student‑athlete retention drivers.
• Working knowledge of concepts and principles of news and media communications.
• Maintain current knowledge of and/or ability to learn applicable rules and standards of the Atlantic Coast Conference, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), and other governing bodies, and avoid any violations of these rules.
• Leadership skills to oversee the strategic direction of storytelling over multiple platforms.
• Strong time and project management skills.
• Ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously from concept through completion.

• Bachelor’s degree in a related area and/or equivalent experience/training.

• Annual salary range: $ – $.
• Exempt, monthly‑paid position.
• Full‑time (40 hours/week) career position eligible for UC benefits.

• Required to hold a valid driver’s license, have a driving record in accordance with local policies and/or enroll in the California Employer Pull Notice Program.

The University of California is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, age, protected veteran status, or other protected status under state or federal law.