Job Description

UCSF seeks a seasoned communications leader to serve as Assistant Vice Chancellor (AVC), Strategic Communications, to join the Office of Communications (OC). In this new, high-profile role, the AVC will provide the vision, direction and implementation for communications strategies that advance the strategic and business initiatives that support UCSF's core mission areas of health sciences education, research, and care delivery. The AVC also will be responsible for managing UCSF's issues and crisis management strategies. Reporting to the Vice Chancellor of Communications, the AVC will join a leadership team that embraces collaborative leadership as its management philosophy.

The role will work closely with colleagues across the UCSF enterprise, including leadership and staff partners in the academic, research, and care delivery units, as well as UCSF's shared services such as communications, marketing, community and government relations, real estate and planning, legal, university development and alumni relations, enterprise emergency management and other divisions. The AVC will lead the team responsible for identifying and translating business goals into actionable communications strategies, and collaborating with teams across the OC and the enterprise to implement them.

Office of Communications

The Office of Communications , led by Vice Chancellor Won Ha, is UCSF's enterprise communications team, which sets the vision, direction, and execution of communications strategies to promote and defend UCSF and UCSF Health's reputation at the local, national and global level. It provides comprehensive and coordinated leadership in planning, creating and implementing integrated strategies across all media to foster increased awareness and support of UCSF's mission, vision, accomplishments and strategic priorities among its internal and external constituencies. The OC serves as the official voice of UCSF to regional, state, national, and international news media, and leads integrated, outcome-driven communications to strengthen awareness of UCSF's excellence.

Assistant Vice Chancellor, Strategic Communications

The AVC will join the OC at a time of significant expansion. The OC seeks a mature leader with a strong track record of developing and implementing sensitive and complex communications strategies who is experienced in providing strategic counsel at all levels of the organization, pursues their work from a strong ethical foundation, exercises discretion across a wide range of sensitive topics, promotes collaborative approaches to problem-solving, and is committed to developing staff and helping them achieve their goals against best-in-class standards.

The AVC, along with their colleagues on the OC leadership team, will collaboratively guide the office's ongoing efforts to modernize its strategies, structure, and processes. The AVC will play a key role in shaping how UCSF communicates and deploys its resources to advance its mission, reputation, and strategic priorities as an academic, research and clinical enterprise. As part of the OC leadership team, the AVC will address administrative efforts ranging from financial analysis and risk management to operational and strategic initiatives.

The AVC will join a talented, mission-driven, mutually supportive, and experienced leadership team of communications professionals committed to driving integration and shared excellence across their respective portfolios. The AVC oversees a team of five full-time employees with responsibilities in the following areas:

• Developing and operationalizing communications strategies for dynamic, complex, time-sensitive strategic and business initiatives with high public visibility.
• Developing, guiding, and operationalizing the overarching content strategy for OC-produced earned and owned content initiatives, using interdisciplinary forms of communications and storytelling.
• Collaborating with colleagues within OC, including Public Affairs, Brand Strategy and Internal Communications, to develop, guide and implement strategies for proactive earned, owned, social, and internal communications based on audience and desired outcomes.
• Developing and leading a preemptive issues management system and a crisis management protocol that collaborates closely with Legal, Risk Management, and other UCSF units.
• Cultivating productive relationships with a wide range of leaders, colleagues, and stakeholders across the enterprise including the Office of the Chancellor and the Chancellor's Executive Team and Cabinet, UCSF Health, UCSF's four schools and graduate division, University Development and Alumni Relations, the Office of Community & Government Relations, and others.

Recent examples of priority strategic and business initiatives include the approval of a comprehensive modernization of on UCSF's historic Parnassus Heights campus, approval of a new hospital building at UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital Oakland, UC systemwide changes to student health insurance, initiatives related to the expansion of UCSF Health, labor issues, and politically and culturally sensitive health care-, higher education- and research-related topics.

The AVC also will provide senior-level staff support to the Vice Chancellor as needs require and serve as his deputy, ensuring seamless OC leadership representation with the office's stakeholders and partners. The AVC will help advance the office's priorities by providing strategic analysis, planning, and problem-solving, as well as managing key initiatives led by the Vice Chancellor.

The AVC must be a proactive, goal-oriented, collaborative and agile leader with demonstrated success working within health care or an academic medical center. The ideal candidate will bring a proven track record of developing and leading communications strategies in complex and matrixed organizations, proactive leadership and team-building skills, outstanding communication and stakeholder management skills, and a strong commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging. The AVC must possess the business savvy, emotional intelligence, and exceptional relationship skills needed to collaborate successfully with a variety of internal and external stakeholders.

The final salary and offer components are subject to additional approvals based on UC policy P lacement within the salary range is dependent on a number of factors including your work experience and internal equity within this position classification at UCSF.

The salary range for this position is $144,200-$350,000 (Annual Rate).

To learn more about the benefits of working at UCSF, including total compensation, please visit:

Job Tags

Full time, Work experience placement, Local area,

Similar Jobs