Director, External Communications - Football , Intercollegiate Athletics

Departmental Overview

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

The Director, External Communications - FB owns and leads strategic athletics storytelling across multiple mediums as dictated by the message, audience and intended outcomes on behalf of the football program. This position utilizes existing knowledge of the sports to craft strategy around storytelling efforts and immerses itself in the ethos of the sport on a conference, community, college, national and international level.

With a strong emphasis on brand awareness, broad-reaching messaging, recruiting and retaining student-athletes, and providing entertainment to all consumers of Cal Athletics, this position is critical in supporting the storytelling for these areas. By aligning with the football program, this position allows a narrowed focus of communication excellence needed for football to thrive in the existing college athletics ecosystem.

The First Review Date for this job is:
June 22, 2026. For full consideration, please apply on or before the first review date.

• Engage with all members of the football program to learn the student-athletes' personalities, talents and abilities, exploit coaches strengths for public consumption, identify sport influencers and engage to broaden the message and identify and target critical audiences that can amplify the strategies of elevating the sport publicly.
• Create, manage, communicate, publish, share and continue to 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 ecosystems directors, Cal Athletics fundraisers and game day entertainment employees to synchronize all communication, publicity, and engagement.
• Keep a firm working knowledge of the overall strategy shared by these groups that in totality make up the external engine of Cal Athletics.

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

• Facilitate required statistical submissions, written notes or releases specific to the assigned sports.
• 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 listener.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills in the English language.
• 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 in efforts to recruit and retain individuals to the sport represented.
  • Ability to thrive in a flexible, fast-paced and dynamic work environment.
  • Strong collaborator that is flexible in adjusting schedules, timelines, content, messaging, mediums, etc. in order to best fit the immediate and impactful needs of a sports program.
  • Proficient user of social media related to promoting teams and Athletics.
  • Previous experience using Facebook, X, Tik Tok, Instagram and other other social media channels to story tell on behalf of a sports team.
  • Knowledge of 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.
  • Must maintain current knowledge of and/or ability to learn applicable rules and standards of the Atlantic Coast Conference, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), as well as other associations and agencies to which the Berkeley campus of the University of California adheres, and, at all times avoid any and all violations of these rules and standards.
  • 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 related area and/or equivalent experience / training.

For information on the…