[Hiring] Senior Brand & Content Lead @Rice University

Role Description

The Senior Brand & Content Lead within OpenStax at Rice University owns brand strategy, editorial voice, and external content and communications across the OpenStax K-12 and Higher Education markets.

Working under the direction of OpenStax marketing leadership, the Senior Brand & Content Lead:

• Develops and implements complex, multi-audience communications and marketing strategies.
• Sets, governs, and enforces the OpenStax brand and style guide.
• Leads public relations, media relations, and external communications.
• Supports executive messaging.
• Owns the editorial voice, content calendar, and the organization’s owned content channels, including the blog, newsletters, podcast, and social media.
• Serves as a core member of the cross-functional product marketing group, contributing to positioning, messaging, and sales-facing collateral.

This is an individual-contributor role that drives cross-functional collaboration across marketing, product, design, sales, and leadership and provides expert guidance and mentorship to colleagues without formal supervisory authority.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree.
• Four or more (4+) years of experience in brand management, content strategy, communications, marketing, or public relations.
• Strong oral and written communication skills.
• Strong leadership and strategic-management skills.
• Strong project-management and organizational skills.
• Strong organizational and creative skills.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Strong editorial and brand judgment, including experience developing or maintaining brand or style guidelines.
• Ability to manage multiple content workstreams and editorial calendars simultaneously.
• Ability to collaborate effectively and build consensus with colleagues across teams without formal authority over them.
• Proficiency with standard office and content-collaboration tools.
• Familiarity with responsible AI tools and strategies for content and marketing purposes.

Requirements

• This is a desk-based, computer-intensive role performed in a remote home-office environment.
• Reliable high-speed internet access and a suitable, distraction-minimized workspace are required.
• Occasional travel is required for team meetings, conferences, partner and press events, and organizational convenings.
• Movement: Walk, Occasionally (<33%); Climb Stairs, Ladders, Inclines, Objects/Equipment, Step Ladders, Rarely/As Required.
• Mobility: Sitting, Standing, As Required; Repetitive Hand/Wrist/Finger Movement, Frequently.
• Weight: 0-20 lbs.
• Sensory: Vision, Depth Perception, Hearing, Touch, Dexterity, Speech.
• Environment: Office/Indoor.
• Close visual acuity required for viewing computer monitors, reading documents, analyzing information, and performing computer-based work.
• Rice provides reasonable accommodations to qualified persons with disabilities so that they can perform the essential functions of this role.
• This position is fully remote, permitting all tasks to be completed from any location within the United States.
• Working hours will remain on Central Standard Time.
• This position is not classified as Essential.

Benefits

• Hiring Range: $96,859 - $123,624.
• Exempt (salaried) positions under FLSA are not eligible for overtime.

Company Description

OpenStax is a nonprofit educational initiative of Rice University that publishes free, peer-reviewed, openly licensed textbooks and builds interactive teaching and learning tools used by students and educators across high school and higher education.

Our mission is to make an amazing education accessible to all, and our work spans both the K-12 and Higher Education markets, from open textbooks and courseware to research partnerships and instructor support.

Ideal Candidate Statement

The ideal candidate is an accomplished brand and content professional who can maintain a consistent voice across very different audiences, including high school teachers, college faculty, students, supporters, and the press, without diminishing what makes each audience distinct.

• You have owned a brand or style guide and enforced it with care and good judgment.
• You are comfortable being the final authority on brand questions while bringing colleagues along rather than simply overruling them.
• You write well and edit even better.
• You can manage an editorial calendar across multiple channels and markets simultaneously.
• You know how to work with growth, events, design, product, and sales colleagues who do not report to you.
• You are at ease handling a media inquiry, shaping an executive message, and reviewing a sales one-pager in the same week.
• You are motivated by a mission that puts free, high-quality learning materials into the hands of students who need them.