Director of Marketing & Communications

ABOUT US

Our Mission

Our mission is to prepare first-generation, limited-income college students and recent graduates to be leaders in their communities. We envision a future where every young person achieves their full potential and contributes their talents to build thriving communities. The Aspire Institute is an independent non-profit co-founded by Harvard Business School Professors Tarun Khanna and Karim Lakhani. To date, we have reached over 500,000 students across 190 countries. We are on a path to enroll 500,000 students in 2026 and double our reach annually. Learn more about Aspire Institute at www.aspireleaders.org.

Our Culture

We are an entrepreneurial, impact-driven organization. Our team plans, experiments, analyzes, and replans. Our core values are rooted in collaboration, innovation, and inclusivity. We believe that true change comes from collective effort, and we strive to bring together diverse voices and perspectives to inform our work. Our commitment to innovation drives us to continuously seek out and apply the latest research and best practices in Aspire’s programs. Inclusivity is at the heart of our operations; we endeavor to create opportunities that are accessible to all underserved and marginalized communities.

ABOUT THE ROLE

This role combines an outward focus on PR, media, and advertising and an internal focus on strategy, operational planning, and building the Marketing & Communications team. As a strategic leader who is equally comfortable setting vision and executing campaigns, this role uniquely blends work in leadership and management with writing, partnership development, and other on-the-ground activities. Scale our global partnerships network, elevate our brand, lead our Marketing & Communications team, and unite our outreach efforts across Aspire’s local Foundries and its headquarter, to empower learners around the world!

Key Responsibilities

1. Team & Department Leadership
   1. Lead the Marketing & Communications department across areas of employee experience, budgeting, goal-setting, and project management.
   2. Own Aspire’s global application growth strategy and annual enrollment targets, manage the full application funnel, and set measurable KPIs across channels to ensure performance against targets
   3. Directly manage two full-time team members (Senior Coordinator of Communications & Outreach, Senior Coordinator of Partnerships), 1-2 interns, and oversee external vendors as needed.
   4. Build and scale the Marketing & Communications team as Aspire doubles its reach year over year
   5. Analyze multi-channel performance and applicant funnel data to evaluate ROI on marketing efforts, including cost per applicant and conversion rates
   6. Develop and manage the annual marketing budget aligned to application and enrollment targets
2. Global Brand Management
   1. Refine and cultivate Aspire’s brand as inclusive, world-class, and globally relevant
   2. Lead centralized strategy while enabling localized execution across diverse international markets, ensuring that headquarters and local Foundry brands align
   3. Onboard, train, and support Foundry affiliates on Aspire’s voice, recruitment strategies, CRM system, application targets, and brand standards
   4. Align distributed teams around shared KPIs
3. Strategic Communications & PR
   1. Lead public relations efforts, including media strategy, press outreach, and reputation management, to strengthen the organization’s public profile and ensure consistent, mission-aligned messaging across earned media channels
   2. Set and execute an integrated, global communications strategy across content, events, advertising, and social media
   3. Direct, write, and edit outreach and publicity materials across print, website, social media, and other mediums
4. Donor Relations
   1. Collaborate with our CEO on institutional fundraising efforts by preparing marketing collaterals, including our Annual Report and newsletters for Foundations, Companies, and other funding partners
5. Partnerships Management
   1. Lead our B:B:C recruitment strategy and cultivate a global partnership ecosystem of universities, companies, and other organizations through which we recruit applicants
   2. Identify and engage key strategic partners that can scale our reach both domestically and internationally

Employment Details

• Location: Hybrid, based in Cambridge, MA; in office on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays and remote on Mondays and Fridays
• Reports to: CEO
• Schedule: 40 hours/week with some evenings and weekend work required based on our international stakeholders and event calendar
• Travel: Occasional out of town travel may be required for in-person events, partnership development, Foundry relations, etc. less than 20% of time

ABOUT YOU

You are…

• Excited to work in a fast-paced, quickly-evolving, startup environment
• Passionate about education, leadership development, social impact, and empowering first-generation, low-income youth globally
• Comfortable working autonomously and experimentally to achieve the desired impact for your role in a matrix team environment
• An excellent written and verbal communicator, able to communicate effectively across multiple mediums and audiences both domestic and international
• Comfortable with strategic thinking and tactical execution to both set and implement our communications and outreach efforts
• Able to influence cross-functional leaders and drive alignment across a matrix organization
• A systems thinker who builds repeatable, scalable growth engines

You bring…

• 7-10+ years of relevant professional experience in Marketing and Communications leadership roles
• Work experience across higher education, non-profit, startups, international development, or related fields
• Experience scaling organizations through periods of rapid growth
• Proven track record driving measurable audience or enrollment growth
• Experience balancing brand stewardship with performance marketing
• Experience working closely with executive leadership and board members
• Bachelor’s or Master’s Degree in Marketing, Communications, PR or related field.
• Experience working with relevant tools like Google Analytics, Customer Relationship Management softwares (Full Fabric, HubSpot, Salesforce), MailChimp, etc.

TO APPLY

Applicants must be authorized to work in the U.S. Please submit a cover letter and resume. We are recruiting on a rolling basis for an as-soon-as-available start date.

Additional Information

Benefits

• Health Insurance: Health, vision, and dental coverage with 75% of premiums provided by Aspire Institute (FTE)
• PTO: 15 vacation days, 3 personal days, and 5 sick days
• Company Holidays: 18 additional paid days, including the day after Thanksgiving and the days between Christmas and New Years
• Retirement: Employee contributed 403(b) retirement plan
• Other: Term life and long-term disability insurance (FTE)

Everyone at Aspire Institute works to ensure a workplace where all are treated respectfully and have equal opportunities to grow professionally and succeed. Collectively, we create a work environment that values diversity and inclusion across all aspects of employment.

Job descriptions continually evolve to meet current organization needs. This description is intended to provide a current overview of the role.