Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer; CMO

Xavier University seeks an accomplished, strategic, and results-oriented Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer (VP/CMO) to join the Executive Cabinet as a new senior leadership role reporting directly to the President. At a pivotal moment in the University’s strategic plan, the VP/CMO will lead a centralized Division of Marketing and Communications, assuming accountability for Xavier’s brand, reputation, marketing strategy, budget and talent.

Working in close partnership with Strategic Enrollment Management, Advancement, Athletics, and leaders across the University, the VP/CMO will build a research-driven brand platform that articulates Xavier’s distinctive identity and the value of a Xavier education, while developing an in-house, agency-style marketing operation that unifies brand strategy and performance marketing to advance institutional priorities and drive enrollment, revenue, and growth. The successful candidate will bring proven executive leadership, a track record of connecting marketing investment to measurable results, and the ability to leverage market research, data analytics, emerging technologies, and artificial intelligence to inform strategy, optimize performance, and strengthen Xavier’s position and reputation.

Applications will be reviewed immediately and will be accepted until the position closes at the University’s discretion.

• Institutional brand and strategy
• To set Xavier's brand strategy and market position, grounded in its Jesuit Catholic mission, and ensure consistent use across colleges, units, and channels.
• To lead the research and development of Xavier's brand platform, the visual and verbal statement of what Xavier stands for and why it is relevant to prospective students, families, alumni, and donors.
• Secure approval from the President and Board of Trustees.
• To hold the University to that platform consistently, year over year, across colleges, programs, and channels.
• To facilitate cabinet-level work on who Xavier is and how it competes, so that senior leaders work from a single brand in support of a shared set of institutional goals.
• To advance the data-grounded case for brand investment, including optimizing the level and mix of investment.
• Revenue partnership
• To share accountability for undergraduate and graduate enrollment results with Strategic Enrollment Management.
• Specifically, to strategically strengthen the enrollment funnel from prospects and inquiries through to deposited students.
• To support Advancement with campaigns and communications that enhance donor and alumni engagement and to support the work of measuring how these efforts contribute to achieving advancement goals.
• To apply audience segmentation to define and reach the alumni, prospective students and families Xavier has prioritized.
• Communications, reputation, and crisis readiness
• To ensure media relations, executive and presidential communications, and internal communications align with the brand platform, working with a dedicated communications leader who manages day-to-day media relations.
• To protect Xavier's reputation proactively, and maintain a tested plan for issues and crisis response.
• Data intelligence, technology, and AI
• To build a data-driven division with clear metrics, dashboards, and reporting to the President and cabinet.
• To establish an ongoing brand perception research program (a brand tracker) covering prospective students, parents, current students, alumni, and donors, and use it to identify what most influences likelihood to enroll and to give.
• To strengthen capabilities in source analytics and data science, in order to segment audiences.
• Use that capability to attribute results to marketing spend by channel, tracing marketing's contribution to all…