Marketing and Communications Manager

Tandem Friends School, an all-gender, Quaker, 5th-12th grade independent day school in Charlottesville, Virginia, seeks a dynamic and enthusiastic Marketing and Communications Manager
. This is an exciting opportunity for a digitally savvy creative person with a passion for education, community engagement and storytelling. The Marketing and Communications Manager will build relationships across the community to identify and showcase compelling storytelling opportunities and reinforce Tandem’s value proposition.

A unique school with a unique history, Tandem Friends School of Charlottesville, VA is guided by the Quaker principles that define Friends Schools and has three school mottos: kindness and wisdom, creativity and integrity, and freedom with responsibility. Founded in 1970 as an inclusive option amidst the legacy of segregation academies that proliferated in Virginia at that time, Tandem was the first school in the area founded as both coeducational and racially integrated.

Over time, Tandem found Quaker schools to be kindred spirits and joined the Friends Council of Education, becoming a Friends School in 1996.

With approximately 250 students and spanning only grades 5-12, Tandem Friends aims to cultivate a school culture in which adolescents feel invested in their school community, feel seen and appreciated, and feel comfortable being their full selves  encouraging the exploration of new activities and experiences and supporting students’ sense of community responsibility and belonging, the school strives to create challenging and engaging academic and extracurricular experiences that feel purposeful to our students.

The Marketing and Communications Manager is responsible for the delivery of a comprehensive marketing and communications strategy that effectively tells the Tandem Friends story to current and prospective families, alumni, donors, and the broader community across multiple channels including advertising, print materials, digital newsletter, website, social media and press releases. This role requires a creative and results-oriented individual with strong writing, editing, photography and interpersonal skills, as well as a passion for education and a deep understanding of multiple communications channels including digital and social media.

The ideal candidate is an excellent writer and editor and possesses a journalistic and marketing eye for both written and photographic/video graphic formats. The successful candidate is an innovative and stellar digital marketer who has demonstrated expertise with social media, digital marketing, and web duties as outlined below. The candidate must also be detail-oriented, self-motivated, and able to manage multiple projects under deadlines.

The ideal candidate must be able to work both independently and collaborate with a team in a fast-paced environment.

To be effective, this person will be willing to take the time to understand Tandem’s core values and our community to be in a position to articulate our value proposition and tell our story in an authentic and relatable way to multiple constituencies. The position requires the candidate to be in-person and on-campus and to develop meaningful relationships among all constituencies in order to be the school’s primary storyteller and voice.

• Develop and maintain a compelling narrative, and a unique and strong voice for all communications based on the brand and messaging platform of the school, maintaining quality, accuracy, authenticity, editorial style and “voice” across all content types.
• Proactively identify and document compelling events, classes, and people in the Tandem Friends environment. Craft mission-aligned stories about Tandem’s people and programs for both internal and external audiences.
• Create written and visual content to the school’s digital communications, including but not limited to the weekly community newsletter, school website, admissions materials, alumni materials, marketing materials, and fundraising materials, and any other printed or digital collateral as needed.
• Act as a liaison and…