City Leadership is hiring a Marketing Director to lead the people, systems, and strategy behind our internal and external communications. This person will guide marketing across Choose901, Teach901, Serve901, Give901, Choose901 Alumni, and City Leadership while managing multiple employees, contractors, interns, writers, and creative partners.

This role calls for someone who cares about getting it right and can finish what they start. Is also an experienced personnel manager who can set direction, organize many moving parts, develop emerging talent, and step into the work when needed. The Marketing Director will have the authority to make decisions and the responsibility to turn ideas into accurate, timely, measurable work.

About City Leadership

City Leadership recruits, develops, and catalyzes leaders for a growing, improving, and more loving Memphis. Through our campaigns and partnerships, we help people discover opportunities to live, work, serve, give, and build meaningful connections in Memphis.

Who Will Thrive in This Role

We are looking for a leader who holds a high standard for the finished product, takes ownership of outcomes, moves work to completion, and genuinely enjoys people. Strong candidates may bring these qualities through different backgrounds, experiences, and leadership styles.

Strength	How it shows up
Ownership and initiative	You are comfortable making decisions, proposing a direction, and being accountable for results.
Communication and influence	You enjoy connecting with people, representing an organization, and helping others understand and act on a message.
Energy and adaptability	You move work forward quickly, adjust when priorities change, and stay effective in an active environment.
Organization and quality	You establish clear systems, notice details, protect brand standards, and follow through on commitments.

Primary Responsibilities

Lead and Develop the Team

• Directly manage multiple marketing and communications employees and contractors, with clear goals, priorities, responsibilities, and deadlines.
• Coach developing talent, provide timely feedback, address performance issues, and create meaningful opportunities for employees and interns to grow.
• Recruit and coordinate interns, community writers, freelancers, photographers, videographers, and other creative contributors.
• Build a healthy team culture with high trust, clear expectations, strong collaboration, and accountability for results with pace.
• Balance delegation with hands-on support when deadlines, opportunities, or quality standards require it.

Set Marketing and Brand Direction

• Develop and lead the marketing strategy for City Leadership and its campaigns.
• Translate organizational priorities into focused campaigns, content plans, and measurable audience goals.
• Maintain a consistent voice and visual identity while helping each campaign communicate effectively with its distinct audience.
• Work directly with the CEO and other organizational leaders to prioritize opportunities and keep the team focused on the work that matters most.
• Manage assigned marketing budgets, contractor relationships, and production resources responsibly.

Manage Content and Communications

• Own the editorial calendar across social media, email, newsletters, websites, blogs, video, events, and special campaigns.
• Oversee daily social media content and audience engagement for Choose901 and support the needs of City Leadership’s other campaigns.
• Lead recurring email products, including Choose901 newsletters, Good News, Memphis on the Mic, and campaign-specific communications.
• Guide story development, writing, editing, guest-blog intake, WordPress publishing, content mapping, key-date planning, and evergreen content.
• Coordinate contributors and production workflows through Asana or other shared project-management systems.
• Ensure that internal communications keep employees informed about priorities, decisions, events, and organizational developments.
• Oversee the contact@choose901.com inbox and establish a consistent process for timely, helpful responses.

Build Community and Media Relationships

• Represent City Leadership at community events, partner meetings, media opportunities, and organizational gatherings.
• Build relationships with local organizations, employers, institutions, creators, and community leaders who can help us reach new audiences.
• Serve as a public-relations lead for City Leadership campaigns and coordinate press releases, pitches, talking points, announcements, and media responses.
• Consult with and train City Leadership clients and partners on social media, content, and communications strategy.
• Collaborate with Teach901, Serve901, Give901, and Choose901 Alumni to integrate marketing into their programs, events, and audience strategies.

Measure and Improve the Work

• Set meaningful performance measures for audience growth, engagement, email, website traffic, content production, and campaign outcomes.
• Review results with the CEO and team, identify what is working, and change course when the evidence calls for it.
• Stay current on communications tools, platform changes, and emerging practices that can improve the team’s effectiveness.
• Create room for thoughtful experimentation while maintaining accuracy, consistency, and responsible use of organizational resources.

Experience and Qualifications

Demonstrated success managing people is a priority for this hire. The strongest candidates will have sound judgment, a high standard for accuracy, and the willingness to make a timely decision and adjust as new information arrives.

• Five or more years of progressively responsible experience in marketing, communications, journalism, public relations, digital media, or a related field, or a record of comparable responsibility.
• Strong writing, editing, speaking, and storytelling skills across digital and in-person settings.
• Experience managing complex projects, overlapping deadlines, and contributors with different areas of expertise.
• Working knowledge of social media, email marketing, content-management systems, analytics, and collaborative planning tools.
• Sound judgment, attention to detail, and the ability to make timely decisions with incomplete information.
• A genuine interest in Memphis and the ability to communicate credibly with people from many communities and professional backgrounds.
• Availability to attend occasional evening and weekend events.

Candidates do not need to be the leading technical expert in every marketing discipline. They must know how to set direction, recognize strong work, develop capable people, use specialists well, and ensure that the team delivers.

What Success Looks Like

• Employees and contractors understand their responsibilities, receive useful coaching, and consistently complete high-quality work on time.
• City Leadership and its campaigns operate from a clear marketing strategy and a dependable editorial calendar.
• Choose901 remains a trusted, useful, and engaging source of information about Memphis.
• Internal and external communications are timely, accurate, and aligned with organizational priorities.
• Audience and campaign decisions increasingly reflect measurable results rather than habit or guesswork.
• New ideas move from discussion to responsible testing, execution, and evaluation.
• Deadlines are met without reminders, and quality does not drop when the calendar is full.
• Brand standards are documented, followed, and defended.
• Nothing sits half-finished. Projects that start, ship.
• The CEO can hand off a priority and stop tracking it.
• The team knows exactly what is expected of them and where the bar is.

Application Process

Applicants should submit a resume, a cover letter describing their interest in the role and connection to Memphis, three to five relevant work samples, and share a short example of a team they managed, how they developed its members, and what the team accomplished.

Early in the selection process, applicants will complete a short Culture Index survey to help us understand how they naturally approach work and leadership. It is not a technical knowledge test, and there are no perfect answers. City Leadership welcomes applicants whose backgrounds and experiences can strengthen our organization and our understanding of Memphis.About Us

Meet our Team: https://www.cityleadership.org/whoweare

Established in 2010, City Leadership exists to maximize Memphis’s leadership capital and potential. We strongly believe that better leaders make a better city. For this reason, we strive to recruit talented individuals to Memphis, to develop leaders and organizations in Memphis, and to catalyze collaborative projects for the benefit of the city.

We consult and work with organizations and leaders from every field: businesses, nonprofit groups, government entities, schools, teachers, artists, and social entrepreneurs. City Leadership offers expertise in strategic planning, research, multimedia, branding, social media, and talent acquisition.

Compensation

• Competitive salary with IRA matching
• Great Healthcare (health, dental, and vision) fully paid for by employer
• Excellent Vacation / Holiday / Time-off structure
• Continuous corporate investment in professional development

Equal Opportunity Statement

City Leadership is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of age, race, ethnicity, faith, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, or disabilities.