UCLA’s impact is felt across the country and around the globe – yours can be too! As the Assistant Director, Writing and Communications for UCLA Development’s central Annual Giving team, you can grow your career while making an impact as an authentic storyteller that connects our donors with opportunities to help other Bruins thrive. As a skilled writer, you will use your creative excellence to develop compelling prose delivered through mass communications and other forms of messaging that helps us tell the story of how we all continue to be part of something bigger at UCLA. Whether it be writing/editing high-quality personalized communications across all type of direct response communication channels or creating conceptual outlines or full dialogue scripts for producing video communications, you will serve as a strong and collaborative partner campus wide to ensure we express powerful messaging and achieve unity in our annual giving communication efforts to all our constituents. This is a great opportunity to join us in a role where your writing, communication and overall creative skills and experiences will help engage and inspire our stakeholders to provide philanthropic support for UCLA. Central to our commitment to support the work of the #1 public university is to build and strengthen relationships with our constituents.

Qualifications

• Minimum of three years of professional writing experience in development and/or a related environment such as sales, marketing, or business development with a proven ability to develop on-point messaging across a variety of marketing/communication mediums. (Required)
• Demonstrated experience in writing creative and persuasive materials with a strong understanding of tone and voice; excellence in grammar and spelling with a tremendous eye for detail to compose, proofread and edit a wide variety of print/digital materials. (Required)
• Demonstrated and experience with and strong understanding of social media platforms and digital marketing strategies that have delivered proven results. (Required)
• Knowledge of the principles and practices of marketing, communications and solicitation strategies including the implementation of multi-mediums to deliver optimal results of constituent engagement. (Required)
• Flexibility to switch between types of writing; equally comfortable writing in clear, simple language as well as more technical/specialized verbiage or other styles as dictated by appropriate audience. (Required)
• Demonstrated ability to plan, organize and prioritize assignments, work independently, provide proficient follow up and make effective timely decisions despite tight deadlines and competing requirements in a fast-paced environment. (Required)
• Ability to work collaboratively with other professionals and be willing to make, offer or accept suggested changes as well as provide guidance, mentorship and training of writing skills and language usage. (Required)
• Excellent verbal communication skills to collect and relate information with accuracy, diplomacy and tact; able to communicate effectively in an understandable manner across a wide variety of individuals and groups. (Required)
• Dedicated, passionate, resilient, and results-oriented with demonstrated skill in succeeding at challenging assignments and producing work that is on point, on target, highly polished, and of a high standard. (Required)
• Excellent interpersonal skills to work well within and across other departments, as well as establish and maintain cooperative working relationships with a wide variety of internal and external constituents. (Required)
• Willingness to keep abreast of industry trends and technologies and contribute frequent suggestions for improving the impact and effectiveness of the central annual giving program’s communications. (Required)
• Proficiency with Microsoft suite of applications as well as other applications, software, etc. for email, calendaring, database management with ability to conduct online research and learn new technologies in a prompt and efficient manner. (Required)
• Working knowledge of Salesforce and InDesign is helpful. (Preferred)
• Basic knowledge of the principles and practices of graphic design, user experience, layout, art direction, and brand guidelines, including the enforcement of consistent visual identity across multiple communication mediums. (Preferred

Education, Licenses, Certifications & Personal Affiliations

• Bachelor’s Degree in Communications or related field. (Preferred)

Special Conditions for Employment

• Background Check: Continued employment is contingent upon the completion of a satisfactory background investigation.
• Ability to work evenings and/or weekends as needed. (Required)