Director of Marketing & Partnerships

Job Category: Director of Marketing
Job Type: Full Time
Job Location: Minneapolis - MN

The Director of Marketing and Partnerships is a lead strategist of UMAA’s revenue-generation and serves as its marketing team leader. This role is a high-impact “player-coach”—a modern marketing leader who translates organizational vision into an operational roadmap.

The Director’s work is the financial engine that allows the UMAA to foster a lifelong spirit of belonging and pride. By growing diverse revenue streams, this role directly expands the Association’s capacity to advocate for the University and its global alumni community.

This position reports to the VP of Strategic Engagement at the Alumni Association.

Essential Functions

Revenue Operations & High-Level Business Development (60%):

  • Revenue Portfolio: Directly responsible for achieving marketing team revenue goals through strategic partnerships, memberships, donations, and MN Alumni Market sales to ensure the long-term financial sustainability of the Association’s mission.
  • Departmental Roadmap: Supervise and lead three members of the marketing team to deliver on annual goals to achieve the revenue targets.
  • IP Ownership: Serve as the business owner of UMAA intellectual property; creatively determine how to leverage UMAA marks to enhance brand value and deepen alumni pride through high-quality merchandise and partnerships.
  • Cultivation: Personally manage the cultivation and negotiation of top-tier, “anchor” partnerships and royalty agreements.
  • Innovation: Continually assess the alumni landscape for opportunities—new entrepreneurial ideas that bring value to alumni while diversifying income to keep the Association relevant in a modern marketplace..
  • Strategic Implementation : Partner with the VP of Strategic Engagement to operationalize long-term revenue goals, providing expert marketing guidance on how to maximize UMAA assets.
  • Active Partnership Stewardship: Represent the UMAA at select signature events to personally steward partners, identify prospective sponsors in the field, and ensure that partner activations enhance, rather than detract from, the alumni experience.

Departmental Leadership & Modern Integration (25%):

  • Vision Alignment: Ensure the marketing team’s work is aligned with the overarching direction set by the VP of Strategic Engagement, fostering a culture where every campaign serves the broader goal of alumni engagement.
  • Modern Marketing Integration: Integrate the talents of the marketing and sales staff with communications and engagement to ensure a seamless, modern experience for alumni across all channels.
  • Revenue Results Leadership : Drive department-wide results by ensuring the MN Alumni Market, Membership, and Donation functions are optimized, cross-promoted, and aligned with the overarching 12-month roadmap.
  • Strategic Advisory: Partner with the VP of Strategic Engagement to identify, create, and monitor long-term revenue goals, providing expert guidance on growth strategies within revenue programs in portfolio.

Business Ownership & IP Strategy (10%):

  • Budgetary Oversight: Take full accountability for departmental budgets, including revenue forecasting and P&L performance to ensure responsible stewardship of Association resources.
  • Contractual Integrity: Oversee the management and fulfillment of all organizational obligations within revenue contracts to safeguard the Association’s reputation and the trust of our partners and alumni.

Other Duties as Assigned (5%):

  • Market Insight & Ambassadorship: Serve as an informed ambassador for the alumni community, utilizing event presence to gather real-time “audience-centric” insights that inform future strategies.
  • Cross-Functional Impact: Contribute leadership to special projects that improve internal operations and the overall alumni value proposition.

Qualifications

Required Qualifications:

  • BA/BS degree plus at least 6 years of full-time relevant work experience.
  • Revenue Expertise: Proven track record of managing a diverse revenue portfolio and leading the full sales cycle from prospecting to contract execution.
  • Leadership: Experience supervising professional staff and leading cross-functional teams to achieve unified goals.
  • Technical Proficiency: Advanced knowledge of Google Suite (Gmail, Calendar, Drive), MS Office Suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) and Zoom.
  • Operational Agility: Proven experience thriving in fast-paced, deadline-driven environments, delivering structured work with high accuracy and timeliness.
  • Creative Strategy: Experience applying modern, creative marketing approaches to non-traditional or mission-driven sectors (e.g., Higher Ed, Non-profits, or Membership organizations).

Preferred Qualifications

  • Retail & E-commerce Acumen: Prior experience in retail management or e-commerce operations, with a deep understanding of product margins, inventory complexities, and the financial mechanics of a retail P&L.
  • Project Management: Proficient user of Trello or similar platforms, with the ability to build workspaces that coordinate complex communication across multiple teams.
  • Mission Connection: A natural affinity for the University of Minnesota and a sophisticated understanding of how to translate institutional value into corporate partnerships.
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