Assistant Athletics Director
Santa Clara University
Assistant Athletics Director
Santa Clara University
$91,800-$114,785 annually, Compensation will be based on education, experience, skills relevant to the role, and internal equity.
A. POSITION PURPOSE
The Assistant Athletics Director for Marketing, Revenue Strategy and Fan Engagement provides strategic leadership for Santa Clara Athletics’ marketing operations and leads the development and execution of integrated strategies that drive attendance, ticket revenue, fan acquisition and retention, student engagement, and brand awareness. This position will report to the Associate Athletics Director for Marketing and Fan Engagement. This position leads the Athletics’ marketing team and oversees department-wide marketing campaigns, game presentation, promotional programming, and fan experience initiatives. This position also serves as the primary liaison to the Center for Student Involvement and the West Coast Conference on matters related to student engagement, fan experience, and promotional programming.
B. ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
Marketing, Revenue Strategy, Fan Engagement, and Game Presentation
Develop, implement, and evaluate annual department-wide marketing, promotional, fan engagement, and revenue-support strategies, with primary responsibility for men’s and women’s basketball and oversight of plans for assigned programs.
Lead the Athletics marketing team in translating departmental priorities into coordinated campaigns, promotional calendars, game-presentation plans, and measurable audience and revenue goals.
Lead digital advertising strategy across paid social, display, search, retargeting, and emerging channels, including audience targeting, budget allocation, campaign execution, testing, and performance optimization.
Direct email-marketing strategy in collaboration with Ticket Sales and Operations, using audience segmentation, automation, testing, and performance analytics to support season tickets, mini-plans, group sales, premium hospitality, single-game tickets, renewals, and fan-engagement initiatives.
Direct integrated marketing campaigns designed to increase attendance, ticket sales, premium hospitality revenue, group sales, fan acquisition and retention, student engagement, and brand awareness.
Collaborate with Ticket Sales and Operations to develop campaign strategy, product positioning, offers, sales timelines, and customer journeys that support ticket-revenue and attendance goals.
Use CRM data, audience research, customer behavior, sales trends, and campaign analytics to evaluate performance, improve marketing effectiveness, and identify opportunities for revenue and audience growth.
Provide strategic and operational leadership for game presentation and the in-venue fan experience, including team introductions, promotional elements, student activations, sponsor integrations, entertainment, recognitions, and premium fan experiences.
Oversee the development and execution of game-day rundowns, public-address scripts, timing protocols, pregame activities, National Anthem performances, honorary recognitions, and promotional and corporate-partner activations.
Assign and direct marketing staff, game-day personnel, and external partners responsible for campaign execution, event production, promotions, and fan-engagement activities.
Responsible for writing the game day public address scripts that include game day timing protocol and corporate sponsor activations.
Collaborate with Communications, Creative Services, Ticketing, Development, Corporate Partnerships, and external partners to develop and execute cohesive marketing, revenue generation, digital advertising, email marketing, and fan engagement strategies for Men’s and Women’s Basketball and assigned programs.
Establish performance measures and regularly communicate marketing, attendance, revenue, and fan-engagement results to Athletics leadership and relevant departmental partners.
Contact and Liaison Responsibilities
Oversee day-to-day fan engagement, game presentation, and event experience operations, establishing priorities, service standards, staff assignments, and execution plans.
Provide strategic oversight and direction for Santa Clara Athletics fan engagement and spirit initiatives, including the Pep Band, Dance Team, Mascot Program, Bucky’s Kids Club, student promotions team, and other fan experience programs.
Serve as the primary liaison to assigned spirit groups, student organizations, campus departments, and external partners to support Athletics marketing, fan engagement, and revenue generation initiatives.
Represent Santa Clara University Athletics at West Coast Conference, NCAA, and professional development meetings related to fan engagement, game presentation, student experience, spirit programs, and marketing initiatives.
Serve as the on-site representative for spirit groups, game presentation elements, student engagement initiatives, and fan experience activations at conference championships, NCAA Championships, and other designated events.
Supervise, direct, and train on-call employees.
Lead and manage the Athletics marketing team, including designated full-time employees, on-call staff, student employees, marketing interns, game-day personnel, and other assigned team members.
Recruit, select, onboard, train, supervise, and evaluate designated full-time marketing staff, establishing clear responsibilities, annual goals, performance expectations, and professional-development plans.
Assign sport, campaign, game-presentation, and functional responsibilities; manage staff workloads and schedules; and allocate personnel according to departmental priorities, event requirements, and available resources.
Hire, train, schedule, and manage gameday student support staff, promotional teams, spirit program personnel, and marketing interns to ensure successful execution of events and fan experience programs.
Provide regular coaching, constructive feedback, and professional-development opportunities that strengthen employees’ marketing, digital, event-production, fan-engagement, and leadership capabilities.
Create meaningful experiential-learning opportunities that allow student employees and interns to develop practical skills while contributing to departmental initiatives.
Build and maintain a collaborative, inclusive, accountable, and service-oriented team culture aligned with the mission and values of Santa Clara University and its Department of Athletics.
Ensure team members understand and follow departmental procedures, brand standards, event protocols, applicable University policies, and NCAA and conference requirements.
LiaisonResponsibilities.
Serve as liaison to Office of Student Life, Student Programming (ASB, ASG and other student organizations.
Serve as the Athletic Department’s liaison to the School of Communications, Leavey School of Business, and other academic units to develop strategic partnerships, experiential learning opportunities, class projects, and student involvement initiatives that support departmental goals.
Manage relationships with external vendors, agencies, and partners related to marketing, digital advertising, email marketing, fan engagement, game presentation, promotional activities, and special events.
6. Other Duties as Assigned
The Director will assist the Associate Athletics Director, Marketing and Fan Engagement in day-to-day operations of the unit as assigned.
Be aware of and abide by all NCAA and conference rules and regulations.
C. PROVIDES WORK DIRECTION
Provides direct supervision, work direction, performance feedback, and professional development to designated full-time marketing staff.
Recruits, hires, trains, schedules, supervises, and evaluates student employees, marketing interns, on-call employees, promotional staff, and game-day personnel.
Assigns marketing, sports, campaign, game-presentation, and event responsibilities and establishes priorities, deadlines, and performance expectations for assigned personnel.
Provides strategic direction and program oversight to Santa Clara Athletics spirit groups, including the Pep Band, Dance Team, Mascot Program, and other designated fan-engagement programs.
Provides project direction and performance expectations to vendors, agencies, freelancers, and other external partners supporting marketing and fan-engagement initiatives.
D. GENERAL GUIDELINES
Recommends initiatives and implements changes to improve quality and services.
Identifies and determines cause of problems; develops and presents recommendations for improvement of established processes and practices.
Maintains contact with customers and solicits feedback for improved services.
Maximizes productivity through use of appropriate tools; planned training and performance initiatives.
Researches and develops resources that create timely and efficient workflow.
Prepares progress reports; informs supervisor of project status; and deviation from goals. Ensures completeness, accuracy and timeliness of all operational functions.
Prepares and submits reports as requested and required.
Develops and implements guidelines to support the functions of the unit.
E. QUALIFICATIONS
To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The items below are representative of the knowledge, skills, abilities, education, and experience required or preferred.
This position requires the ability to effectively establish and maintain cooperative working relationships within a diverse multicultural environment.
Knowledge
• Experience using database management systems and other common office computer applications including word-processing, spreadsheet, email and browser applications.
Skills
• Demonstrated interpersonal and communication skills, written and verbal.
Abilities
• Ability to work effectively with internal constituents, particularly senior staff, coaching staff and other appropriate University staff.
• Ability to work effectively with external constituents, particularly donors and corporate sponsors.
• Capable of working both independently and as a team member; results oriented; self-starter.
• Demonstrated ability to handle confidential information with discretion.
Education
• Bachelor’s degree required.
Years of Experience
• 5 years of experience or equivalent in athletic marketing, business marketing, or related field
F. PHYSICAL DEMANDS
The physical demands described below are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. In accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, as amended, the California Fair Employment & Housing Act, and all other applicable laws, SCU provides reasonable accommodations for qualified persons with disabilities. A qualified individual is a person who meets skill, experience, education, or other requirements of the position, and who can perform the essential functions of the position with or without reasonable accommodation.
Considerable time is spent at a desk using a computer terminal.
Will be required to travel to other buildings on the campus.
Will be required to attend conference and training sessions within Bay Area or in- or out-of-state locations.
G. WORK ENVIRONMENT
The work environment characteristics described below are representative of those an employee encounters while performing the essential functions of this job.
Typical office environment.
Mostly indoor office environment with windows.
Offices with frequent interruptions.
Frequent attendance at athletic events outside.
Frequent events attended evenings and weekends.
Telecommute
Santa Clara University is registered to do business in the following states: California, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Arizona, and Illinois. Employees approved to telecommute are required to perform their work within one of these states.
EEO Statement
Equal Opportunity/Notice of Nondiscrimination
Santa Clara University is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants are encouraged to apply and will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, ethnicity, national origin, citizenship, ancestry, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender expression, gender identity, marital status, parental status, veteran or military status, physical or mental disability, medical conditions, pregnancy or related conditions, reproductive health decision making, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local laws. For a complete copy of Santa Clara University’s equal opportunity and nondiscrimination policies, please visit the Office of Equal Opportunity and Title IX website at https://www.scu.edu/title-ix/.
Clery Notice of Availability
Santa Clara University annually collects information about campus crimes and other reportable incidents in accordance with the federal Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act. To view the Santa Clara University report, please visit the Campus Safety Services website. To request a paper copy please call Campus Safety at (408) 554-4441. The report includes the type of crime, venue, and number of occurrences.
Americans with Disabilities Act
Consistent with its obligations under the law, Santa Clara University will provide reasonable accommodations to applicants and employees with disabilities. Applicants who wish to request a reasonable accommodation for any part of the application or hiring process should contact the Department of Human Resources ADA Team at [email protected] or by phone at (408)554-4392. Please note: This contact information is intended for accommodation requests only. Resumes or inquiries about application status sent to this inbox will not be reviewed or forwarded. For resumes or questions regarding application status, please contact [email protected].
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