Our Values

Rural America is a place of untapped potential. As an organization, we believe it takes a culture of collaboration — one built upon integrity, respect, and trust — to achieve equity and help rural people and places take on meaningful roles in the 21st-century tech economy.

Rural Innovation Strategies, Inc. (RISI) is a social impact nonprofit consulting firm with a multi-disciplinary team of strategists, advocates, and capacity builders.

Our capabilities reflect the depth and breadth of our commitment to serve rural America, and the local leaders there working to advance tech-enabled economic development. Our work provides critical support to secure funding, develop infrastructure, and implement the programs needed to unlock the potential of rural America.

We work with rural communities across the country as they build tech economies that support scalable entrepreneurship and tech job creation. From writing federal grants and launching accelerators to convening stakeholders and securing funding, our team supports communities through the entirety of their tech-based economic development journey.

Rural America is home to 12% of the U.S. workforce, but just 5% of the tech workforce. Smaller populations and lack of broadband in rural areas have historically translated into inequities in access to training for fast-growing tech careers, leading rural employers to outsource their tech talent demand to other markets. This has led to a vicious cycle in which there is never enough demand to justify tech training in rural areas, and because training is not available, employers continue to outsource their tech needs. RISI aims to break this cycle by showing that tech jobs and tech talent can exist in rural areas, and we are seizing the moment to create a more equitable distribution of accessible future-proof jobs.

RISI and its collaborating organization, the Center on Rural Innovation (CORI), are headquartered in a historic general store building in the village of Hartland, Vermont, part of New England’s Upper Valley and greater Dartmouth College region.

Job Summary:

This role will be responsible for developing, planning, budgeting, and implementing marketing and communications strategies across the entire social enterprise (this includes Rural Innovation Strategies, Inc, the Center on Rural Innovation, and the CORI Innovation Fund).

In addition to building brand awareness, establishing the enterprise as a thought leader, and helping shift national narratives through data-driven research products and storytelling efforts, the person in this role will work collaboratively across teams and serve their evolving communications and marketing needs.

The Director of Communications and Marketing will manage a growing team and excel at building relationships with external vendors that will support the marketing and communications goals of the enterprise.

Supervisory Responsibilities:

Communications Specialist

Duties/Responsibilities:

Design and manage communication programs and campaigns that increase engagement and awareness across various platforms and communications touch points, including media (print, electronic, and digital); social media; owned media such as websites, publications; sponsorships and speaking opportunities; convenings; and other methods as appropriate.
Lead the enterprise on how to best position overall brand and messaging with short- and long-term communications strategies ensuring consistency across our internal and external audiences
Analyze and report on the measurable outcomes of communications efforts to continuously improve strategies and success.
Create editorial calendars and facilitate the collection of news items for monthly newsletter, social media accounts, and other communication channels.
Facilitate the design and production of all materials, including direct marketing, research reports, partnership materials, and all brand collateral.
Supervise communications staff members and vendors to successfully deliver communications tactics through our various channels.
Identify, evaluate and manage outsourced vendors as necessary.
Actively support other teams across the enterprise in achieving mission-critical deliverables.
Perform other duties as assigned

Physical Requirements:

Prolonged periods of sitting at a desk and working on a computer.

Location:

This is a remote position and will be part of a distributed team. However, periodic travel will be required for strategic planning and alignment with teams, including program-related travel to various communities and travel to RISI’s headquarters in Hartland, VT.

Requirements

Education and Experience:

A minimum of 8-10 years experience leading multi-channel marketing and communications strategy and implementation for a company or comparably sized nonprofit organization.

Benefits

Personal and professional development opportunities
Health, dental, vision, and short-term disability insurance
15 days PTO (accrued) plus 8 floating holidays (pro-rated based on start date)
Employer matched 401k after 90 days
The salary for this position is $110-120k depending on experience

Not considering any candidate that reside in California

Must be authorized to work in the US - no sponsorship offered at this time

Rural Innovation Strategies, Inc.

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Director of Communications and Marketing