The Senior Communications and Marketing Specialist is a lead development writer for UCSF's fundraising team. The incumbent will develop strong relationships with many of the world's leading researchers and clinicians across a wide range of medical and biological science specialties; they will conduct interviews, research, and reporting for feature stories and gift stories; help plan, write, and edit fundraising proposals for UDAR's high-level donors, vision statements relating to new initiatives and programs at UCSF, concept papers, case statements, talking points for UDAR and UCSF leadership, brochures; and write digital and video content. The successful candidate will be, above all, an experienced, versatile, and dependable writer, equally committed to scientific accuracy and powerful storytelling. It is important that this person has the ability to understand complex scientific information and convey it to a wide variety of audiences. The successful candidate will also be a strong collaborator with diverse stakeholders across the university including faculty leaders, communications colleagues, frontline fundraisers, and others.

Under the direction of the Director of Marketing and Communications, the CMS will conduct interviews; carry out research; proactively seek out interesting stories and faculty members, write fundraising proposals, magazine stories, donor stories, gift announcements, vision statements, concept papers, case statements, event collateral, brochures, and digital and video content. The successful candidate will be an experienced, versatile, and dependable writer equally committed to scientific accuracy, powerful storytelling, and collaborative work.

The CMS' writing will appear in UCSF Magazine, UCSF News, UCSF Insider, fundraising proposals, vision statements, top donor communications, and more. All work will adhere to UCSF brand and style guidelines and align with industry best practices. The specialist will partner with UDAR fundraising colleagues to determine communications strategy and best practices. They will ensure that all deliverables possess appropriate imagery, quality, and tone commensurate with each assignment's purpose, design, audience, and objectives.

The CMS' work will directly impact the success of UCSF's fundraising and events programs by developing engaging and compelling copy and messaging that accurately highlights (and brings to life) a person, program, initiative, or scientific endeavor for donor and donor prospect audiences. The specialist will build strong relationships with and secure support from faculty members, staff, students, community members, and donor constituencies.

Note that this role has the potential to be remote for the right candidate. Applicants will need to be available during Pacific time business hours.

Core Responsibilities include:

• Write compelling copy for fundraising proposals, stories, and features for UCSF Magazine and UCSF News, social media, various donor and board communications, emails, signature events, and other UCSF priorities.
• Conduct interviews with UCSF leaders, faculty members, donors, and others as necessary.
• Develop robust and strategic relationships with communications professionals and key faculty members across UCSF campuses.
• Consult UDAR's fundraising professionals on communications strategy for specific initiatives or campaigns.
• Collaborate across the AC team with writers, designers, video professionals, copy editors, and email gurus across the AC team.
• Translate academic writing into donor-centric copy.
• Ensure that all UDAR communications align with UDAR's DEIA+ culture of belonging.

In the first three months, you will learn about our brand, audience, and communications goals. You'll engage critical internal and external stakeholders as you build collaborative, congenial working relationships with internal and external clients. You will have written and completed several writing assignments.

Within six months, you will be writing copy and dealing with communications requests from our fundraisers, determining the scope of projects, interviewing faculty members where appropriate, and continuing to build strong relationships within the AC team and beyond. You'll attend strategy meetings to understand fundraising priorities and get context on forthcoming communications. You'll draft gift announcements and UCSF news stories related to donor storytelling. You'll have a strong sense of our events program, and you will start to contribute to some of our signature donor events.

After a year, you will be working on several different UDAR writing projects with the ability to manage your work priorities. You will have developed relationships with faculty members across campus and with other communications professionals. You will have written several fundraising proposals and stories that required interviewing skills and time management. You will have worked closely with our in-house copy editor and others in the Advancement Communications team, including designers and email specialists. You will use your experience and leadership skills to impact development communications across different topics at UDAR positively.

To see the salary range for this position (we recommend that you make a note of the job code and use that to look up): TCS Non-Academic Titles Search (ucop.edu)

Please note: The compensation ranges listed online for roles not covered by a bargaining unit agreement are very wide, however a job offer will typically fall in the range of 80% - 120% of the established mid-point. An offer will take into consideration the experience of the final candidate AND the current salary level of individuals working at UCSF in a similar role.

For roles covered by a bargaining unit agreement, there will be specific rules about where a new hire would be placed on the range.

To learn more about the benefits of working at UCSF, including total compensation, please visit: https://ucnet.universityofcalifornia.edu/compensation-and-benefits/index.html