About this role
Johns Hopkins University’s Innovation & Commercial Partnerships (ICP) brings together the university’s commercialization, corporate engagement, venture creation, strategic partnership, and commercial product strategy work. ICP has two arms: Johns Hopkins Technology Ventures (JHTV), which leads technology transfer, licensing, startup formation, and venture acceleration; and Corporate Engagement, which serves as a single front door for companies seeking to partner with Johns Hopkins across research, talent, and other forms of collaboration.
We are seeking a Director, Strategic Communications & Marketing to lead communications and marketing across ICP. Reporting to the Executive Director of Technology Ventures and serving as a shared resource for the full organization, the Director will shape how ICP and its brands are understood by companies, investors and founders, ecosystem partners, faculty and inventors, university leadership, and our own staff. The Director will lead the existing marketing and communications team and will combine strategic planning with hands-on execution. Above all, the Director will bring a customer-first mindset to this work: starting from what each audience needs and cares about, putting themselves in that audience’s shoes, and meeting them with passion and understanding.
This is an opportunity to define the voice of a newly expanded function at America’s first research university at a moment when Johns Hopkins is taking a more intentional, “one university” approach to how it works with industry and moves discoveries into the market. The ideal candidate is a skilled writer and strategist who can translate complex science and deal activity into clear, compelling stories for business and academic audiences alike, and who brings an entrepreneurial, creative approach: comfortable testing new ideas, learning quickly from what works, and building something new.
Specific Duties & Responsibilities
Strategy and Planning
- Ground ICP’s communications and marketing in a deep understanding of its audiences: what companies, investors, partners, faculty and inventors need, how they make decisions, and where they look for information. Use audience research, customer discovery conversations, and insight from ICP colleagues who work with these audiences every day.
- Develop and execute an integrated communications and marketing plan for ICP that advances organizational priorities across Technology Ventures and Corporate Engagement, with clear objectives, audiences, and channels.
- Establish metrics for communications and marketing performance (digital, media, events, and outreach); track progress, benchmark against peer institutions, assess the return on paid advertising and sponsorships, and report results to ICP leadership.
- Advise ICP leadership on communications opportunities and risks.
- Monitor how peer institutions, companies, and the media are talking about university–industry partnership and commercialization, and use those insights to sharpen ICP’s positioning and plans.
- Coordinate communications priorities across ICP teams so that demand from both arms is triaged transparently and resourced against organizational goals.
Brand and Marketing
- Steward the ICP brand architecture, including the umbrella Innovation & Commercial Partnerships identity and its sub-brands (Technology Ventures, Corporate Engagement, and their programs), in alignment with university brand guidelines.
- Codify ICP’s institutional value proposition and external messaging, including why Johns Hopkins partners with industry and what companies can expect, and align teams across ICP around it.
- Lead marketing for ICP programs, events, and offerings, including the corporate front door (corporate.jhu.edu) and its evolution into an integrated digital experience that connects Technology Ventures and the full menu of ways companies can engage with Johns Hopkins across schools and university units.
- Develop a business development messaging and collateral suite that equips ICP staff to position Johns Hopkins as a partner of choice for companies.
- Build campaigns and materials that support faculty engagement and participation in commercialization, making pathways to licensing, startup formation, and industry partnership clear and accessible.
- Support go-to-market planning and marketing for new commercial offerings as they are defined, in partnership with Commercial Strategy & Operations.
- Bring creativity and an entrepreneurial approach to marketing: try new formats, channels, and ideas; pilot quickly, measure what resonates, and scale what works.
- Manage external agencies, designers, and vendors as needed.
Content, Media, and Digital
- Oversee ICP’s owned channels, including websites, newsletters, social media, video, and the annual report, ensuring consistent messaging across Technology Ventures and Corporate Engagement.
- Develop a pipeline of impact stories featuring Johns Hopkins startups, licensed technologies, corporate partnerships, and inventors, and partner with university and divisional communications offices to place them.
- Lead media relations for ICP in coordination with the university’s Office of Communications, and prepare leaders and faculty founders for media and public appearances.
- Produce talking points, presentations, messaging frameworks, and Q&A documents for ICP leadership and staff.
- Lead marketing and communications for flagship events, summits, and convenings, including positioning, collateral, promotion, and post-event communications. Event planning and logistics remain with the teams that own each event.
Internal Communications
- Develop and execute internal communications for ICP staff so they consistently understand business priorities and how their work connects to them, supporting alignment and change management as Technology Ventures and Corporate Engagement operate as a coordinated team of teams.
- Partner with leadership to anticipate internal messaging needs, including all-staff communications and updates to university partners.
Team Leadership
- Lead, coach, and develop the marketing and communications team; set priorities and workflows that serve both arms of ICP.
- Manage the communications and marketing budget and recommend staffing and resourcing as ICP’s scope grows.
- Evaluate and adopt new tools and practices, including AI-enabled content and analytics tools, to extend the team’s capacity.
Collaboration and Partnerships
- Serve as ICP’s liaison to the university’s Office of Communications, Johns Hopkins Medicine Marketing & Communications, divisional communications offices, and other university partners, including alumni relations and development.
- Build an active working partnership with the university’s Office of Communications, including a regular planning cadence, shared visibility into upcoming stories and announcements, and clear alignment on review and approvals, so ICP news is amplified through central channels rather than developed in parallel.
- Invest deliberately in relationships with divisional communications teams across the schools and Johns Hopkins Medicine, establishing regular touchpoints and shared story pipelines that position ICP as a resource to the divisions rather than a separate channel.
- Coordinate with partner organizations, including state and regional economic development and ecosystem partners, on joint announcements and campaigns.
- Other duties as assigned.
Minimum Qualifications
- Bachelor’s Degree in Communication, Marketing or related field.
- Ten years of related experience including developing and executing multi-faceted communications efforts to position and elevate the reputation ofan institution and its leadership, with multiple audiences.
- Additional education may substitute for required experience and additional related experience may substitute for required education beyond a high school diploma/graduation equivalent, to the extent permitted by the JHU equivalency formula.
Preferred Qualifications
- U.S. Citizen or legal permanent resident required due to Federal Export Controls.
- Understanding of the innovation and commercialization landscape, including technology transfer, startups, venture capital, and industry partnerships.
- Ability to manage competing priorities across multiple internal clients and deliver results under pressure.
- Creativity and entrepreneurial initiative, with comfort navigating ambiguity in a newly formed organization.
- Superior writing and editing skills, with the ability to translate technical and scientific work for business, investor, and general audiences.
- A customer-first mindset: curiosity about the people we serve, empathy for their perspectives and constraints, and the ability to meet them with passion and understanding.
- Familiarity with academic environments and the university communications ecosystem.
- Experience leading a small team, managing budgets, and directing agencies or contractors.
- Demonstrated success building collaborative, trusted relationships and influence across a decentralized, matrixed organization, including with faculty, executives, communications colleagues, and external partners.
- Experience advising senior leaders and managing communications on sensitive or confidential matters with sound judgment and discretion.
- Track record of building integrated campaigns across earned, owned, and digital channels, including websites and newsletters.
- Experience marketing to business audiences, including B2B marketing, corporate partnerships, or business development support.
- Experience communicating about technology commercialization, innovation, venture creation, life sciences, or technology industries, whether at a university, research institution, company, or investment firm.
- Established relationships with key media outlets.
- Experience working in government, higher education, or a research-intensive environment.
Technical Skills & Expected Level of Proficiency
- Budgeting - Advanced
- Crisis Communications - Advanced
- Editing - Advanced
- Internal Communications - Advanced
- Media Monitoring and Analysis - Advanced
- Media Relations - Advanced
- Public Speaking - Advanced
- Stakeholder Engagement - Advanced
- Vendor Relationship Management - Advanced
- Writing - Authority
The core technical skills listed are most essential; additional technical skills may be required based on specific division or department needs.
Classified Title: Director Strategic Communications
Job Posting Title (Working Title): Director, Strategic Communications & Marketing (Johns Hopkins Innovation & Commercial Partnership)
Role/Level/Range: ATP/04/PH
Starting Salary Range: $119,515 - $209,100 Annually (Targeted: $160,000 commensurate w/exp.)
Employee group: Full Time
Schedule: M-F/8:30am-5pm
FLSA Status: Exempt
Location: Hybrid/School of Medicine Campus
Department name: Johns Hopkins Innovation & Commercial Partnerships
Personnel area: Academic and Business Centers