Director/Senior Director, Strategic Communications

Laney Belle Inc has been engaged to manage this search on behalf of Intermediary Ed and is serving as the primary point of contact throughout the recruitment process.

PLEASE NOTE: We are targeting a start date as soon as possible for this position, with flexibility for the right candidate

Deadline to Apply: July 15, 2026

About the Organization

Across the country, people are struggling to get by and get ahead. More than one-third of employed Americans struggle to make ends meet, and millions of young people see their talent unrealized when educational, training, and employment systems dont meet their needs. At the same time, employers are hungry for new talent and struggling to fill open roles, while AI is creating both disruption and new opportunities..

Philanthropy has a critical role to play in helping peopleespecially those born into low-income householdsprepare for and succeed in uplifting careers. Its all too rare that a new, major philanthropy enters this fieldand yet, thats exactly what Intermediary Ed (provisional name!) is doing. Intermediary Ed is a newly-created philanthropy still in semi-stealth mode with a nearly half-billion dollar endowment, and we intend to leverage our resources toward helping people prepare for and thrive in uplifting careers.

With the support of an engaged and committed Board of Directors, our new CEO Rachel Korberg is currently recruiting members of a founding team to help build the organizations strategy, operations, and staffing with a plan to launch publicly in early 2027. This will be an exciting, fast-paced opportunity for people interested in building a new, long-term institution from the ground up, willing to roll up their sleeves and act as both leaders and individual contributors, and motivated by making an impact.

Joining a nascent organization is an exciting opportunity and also comes with some ambiguity. In the absence of organizational values, to be built out once the team has grown, the CEO is leaning on her personal leadership values to shape and lead Intermediary Ed:

• Impact and informed hope.We exist to use our resources and talents to drive real, meaningful, and positive impact in peoples lives. We are realistic about the extraordinary challenges and injustices workers and learners face, and yet we believe that change is possible.
• Excellence and ambition.We are ambitious about the impact we aim to achieve. We operate with excellence and bring high integrity and standards to our work.
• Care, flexibility, and kindness.Its critical that we treat each other with great care, flexibility, and kindness. This is what powers and sustains our excellence.
• Learning orientation.We bring curiosity and rigorous learning to our work. Good intentions arent enough. We arent afraid to go against the grain, pivot based on new information, or recognize and adapt to fast-moving developments.
• Sweat the big stuff.We stay focused on our most important goals and targets. We rigorously prioritize, streamline, and try not to lose time or energy on work that doesnt ultimately get us closer to our goals.
• Joy and team work.We work as a team and find ways to bring joy and fun to our work. The average person spends more than one-third of their life at work, and impact careers can feel especially heavy or even draining at times. Its when were personally grounded, collaborating effectively, and feeling joy that our greatest quality work comes to life.

Hybrid Operating Model

Intermediary Ed operates under a remote-first, hybrid working model. Employees are required to be in the office a minimum of one day every other week (currently every other Monday) at our Newark, NJ workspace, as well as for quarterly staff offsites and retreats. All employees are expected to live within commuting distance of Newark.

Job Description

Purpose

The Director of Strategic Communications is a leadership-level, independent contributor role at Intermediary Ed (IE). First, the Director will partner with the CEO and external communications firms to shape and execute IE's communications contributing to the organization's new voice, brand, and external presence, and helping ensure IE communicates clearly and credibly across audiences and channels. Second, they serve as a communications partner to the program team supporting efforts to advance IE's impact goals through narrative change work, field-shaping convenings, thought leadership, and messaging that helps decision-makers understand and talk about career pathways for young people.

This is not a traditional communications role. The Director will be as comfortable thinking about how to shift field narratives as they are managing a media relationship or overseeing a website redesign. They will report to the CEO and work in close partnership with the VP of Programs to ensure IE's programmatic strategy and external communications strategy are integrated and mutually reinforcing. This is a tremendous opportunity for someone who is entrepreneurial and excited by building the inaugural communications strategy and function for a new philanthropy still in startup modeincluding leading our public launch in early 2027.

Scope of Responsibility

Organizational Communications

In partnership with the CEO and with support from external communications firms, lead the development and execution of IE's organization-wide communications strategy, ensuring clarity, consistency, and credibility across all channels and audiences.

• Define and steward IE's brand voice, messaging frameworks, and visual identity as the organization launches and grows.
• Develop thought leadership content reports, briefs, op-eds, convenings that advances IE's point of view on program strategy and philanthropy and positions the organization as a credible and influential voice in the field.
• Oversee IE's (light) digital presence including website, social media, and email communications, ensuring content is audience-centered and aligned to strategic priorities.
• Manage IEs PR firm and build and manage a limited number of relationships with priority media, journalists, and communications partners to elevate IE's visibility and thought leadership in the field.
• Support the CEO and, occasionally, other senior leaders with executive communications, including speechwriting, talking points, presentation decks, and preparation for high-stakes external engagements.
• Manage external vendors including designers, agencies, and PR partners to execute high-quality communications assets.

Communications as a Program Strategy Lever

Partner with program leadership to use communications not only to describe IEs work, but to actively advance it treating narrative, convening, and field-shaping as program strategies in their own right.

• Programmatic partnership: Partner closely with the VP of Programs and program team to develop and execute communications and narrative-shaping strategies that directly advance IEs programmatic goals and impact not just describe them.
• Communications as strategy: Work with program leadership to identify where communications tools narrative change strategies, field convenings, strategic publications, media placements, and stakeholder engagement can function as program strategies in their own right, alongside grantmaking.
• Narrative shaping: Help shape how IE and the broader field frame and talk about young peoples talent and career pathways including identifying dominant narratives that should be challenged and new frames that should be elevated. (This area of work will be further developed alongside the strategy; we anticipate eventually identifying one or two key narrative goals IE is partnering with others to help advance.)
• Field convening: Identify and convene influential decision-makers funders, employers, policymakers, and researchers around IEs strategic priorities, in partnership with program leadership.
• Translation and storytelling: Translate complex programmatic strategies, research findings, and grantee learnings into compelling narratives for diverse external audiences.

Relationships and Interactions

Internally Focused

• CEODirect manager and primary thought partner. Daily-to-weekly engagement on organizational voice, executive communications (speeches, talking points, presentation decks), high-stakes external engagements, and IE's public positioning, including the 2027 launch.
• VP, Programs and the program teamThe most important internal partnership outside the CEO. Ongoing, deeply embedded collaboration to design and execute communications and narrative-shaping strategies that advance programmatic goals treating communications as a program lever, not a service function.
• Senior leadership / executive teamPeriodic support on executive communications, talking points, and preparation for external engagements; partner in shaping organizational voice and ensuring cross-functional alignment.
• VP, OperationsCoordination on vendor contracting and management, budget planning for communications spend, internal communications to staff, and brand/identity standards as the organization scales.
• Grants management and grantee-facing staffPartnership to surface grantee learnings, stories, and insights that can be translated into external narratives and thought leadership.

Externally Focused

• Communications agency partnersDay-to-day management of IE's communications partner firms and any retained agencies; setting strategy, reviewing work product, and holding partners accountable to quality and brand standards.
• Designers, writers, and creative vendorsOngoing management of freelance and agency partners producing reports, briefs, web content, visual identity, and other communications assets.
• Priority media and journalistsA small, intentionally curated set of relationships with reporters, editors, and outlets covering philanthropy, workforce, education, and economic mobility, built and maintained directly by the Director.
• Peer communications leaders at funders, intermediaries, and field organizationsCounterparts at other philanthropies and field-shaping organizations for coordination on narrative work, joint convenings, and collective field-shaping efforts.
• Field influencers and decision-makersFunders, employers, policymakers, and researchers convened around IE's strategic priorities in partnership with program leadership.
• Grantees and partner organizationsSelective, partnership-oriented engagement to lift up grantee voices, co-develop narrative work, and translate their learnings for external audiences (typically in coordination with program staff).
• Researchers, thought leaders, and content collaboratorsPartners for co-authored reports, op-eds, briefs, and convenings that advance IE's point of view in the field.

Capabilities and Competencies

• Experience: 8-10+ years in strategic communications, narrative strategy, public affairs, or a related field. Experience working in or alongside philanthropy, policy, or mission-driven organizations is strongly preferred. Experience partnering with program or policy teams not just serving them is essential.
• Writing craft: Outstanding writer across formats long-form reports, op-eds, web copy, scripts, internal memos.
• Principal collaboration and executive communications: Proven talent for channeling and articulating a leaders unique perspective across various mediums including speeches, published articles, and preparation for high-stakes public engagements.
• Narrative and strategic thinking: Exceptional ability to translate complex ideas into clear, compelling narratives. Equally important, the ability to think strategically about how narratives move through a field and what it takes to shift them.
• Field knowledge: Familiarity with the workforce development, career pathways, or economic mobility field is a plus. Curiosity about and genuine commitment to IE's mission is essential.
• Collaborative leadership: Highly collaborative, with strong ability to work across functions and influence without authority. The program and communications partnership is central to this role and requires someone who builds trust quickly and shares ownership genuinely.
• Execution: Comfort working as an individual contributor. Able to create systems to maintain quality and consistency as the organization grows.
• Budget and resource management: Experience building and managing a communications budget across consultants, contractors, agencies, and other external support. Skilled at scoping work, negotiating contracts, and managing vendor performance to maximize value, with the judgment to make trade-offs and reallocate resources as priorities evolve.
• Judgment and discretion: Strong editorial judgment, discretion with sensitive information, and the ability to represent IE's voice accurately and thoughtfully across contexts.
• Startup and building orientation: Demonstrated success building a communications function or strategy from scratch, including establishing brand, voice, systems, and infrastructure where none exist. Comfortable operating with ambiguity, iterating quickly, and making decisions without fully developed playbooks.
• Launch and moment-making: Experience leading or playing a senior role in high-stakes organizational moments public launches, major announcements, rebrands, or signature reports and translating them into sustained visibility and credibility.

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