Director, External Communications - Football , Intercollegiate Athletics

About Berkeley
At the University of California, Berkeley, we are dedicated to fostering a community where everyone feels welcome and can thrive. Our culture of openness, freedom, and belonging makes it a special place for students, faculty, and staff. As a world‑leading institution, Berkeley is known for its academic and research excellence, public mission, diverse student body, and commitment to equity and social justice.

Since our founding in 1868, we have driven innovation, creating global intellectual, economic, and social value. We look for applicants who reflect California's diversity and want to be part of an inclusive, equity‑focused community that views education as a matter of social justice.

The Department of Intercollegiate Athletics consists of more than 275 staff members and coaches and sponsors 30 varsity sports programs. These programs include more than 850 student‑athletes who participate annually within the National Collegiate Athletics Association.

The Director of External Communications – Football (FB) owns and leads strategic athletics storytelling across multiple mediums on behalf of the football program. This role focuses on brand awareness, messaging, recruiting, and entertainment, supporting storytelling for the broader Cal Athletics ecosystem.

• Engage with all members of the football program to learn the student‑athletes’ personalities, talents, and abilities; leverage coaches’ strengths for public consumption; identify sport influencers; and target critical audiences to amplify strategies.

• Create, manage, communicate, publish, and revise a Media Plan.
• Highlight on a scheduled basis the flow of information, communication cadence, content types, intended audiences, and other key factors in publicizing the team.

• Collaboratively work with content creators, Cal Athletics digital ecosystems directors, 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 constitute the external engine of Cal Athletics.

• Serve as a main, public‑facing resource for the football program for all storytelling aspects.
• Project‑manage requests, coverage, and alterations to the media plan, 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 or ability to learn about program activity and best practices.
• Problem‑solving skills; ability to multi‑task, work with frequent interruptions, and be an effective listener.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills in English.
• Proficiency in 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, content types, and schedules.
• Learn all facets of a sports program quickly—including personnel, trends, participants, national landscape, and critical audiences.
• Create and deliver targeted content to recruit and retain individuals to the sport represented.
• Thrive in a flexible, fast‑paced, dynamic work environment.
• Collaborate flexibly, adjusting schedules, timelines, content, messaging, and mediums to meet the program’s needs.
• Proficient user of social media for promoting teams and athletics.
• Experience using Facebook, X, Tik Tok, Instagram, and other social media channels for storytelling on behalf of a sports team.
• Knowledge of NCAA/Power 4 landscape, recruiting cycles, NIL trends, and student‑athlete retention drivers.
• Working knowledge of news and media communications principles.
• Maintain current knowledge of and comply with rules and standards of the Atlantic Coast Conference, NCAA, and other governing bodies relevant to UC Berkeley athletics.
• Leadership skills to oversee strategic direction of storytelling over multiple platforms.
• Strong time and…