Animal Journalism Jobs (NOW HIRING)

Moody Gardens is looking for a Social Media Coordinator to own our organic social channels, guest reviews, and email marketing — and to bring them to life with the kind of content only this property can offer. You’ll plan it, create it, publish it, engage with our audience, and report on how it performs, while supporting our broader content and video efforts as part of a small, collaborative team.

You will be on camera regularly. Comfort being the face of our brand is a core requirement of this position, not a bonus. If the idea of going live from the shark tank on a Saturday morning sounds like the best part of the job, keep reading.

A word about how we work: this property is a content goldmine, and the discipline of this job is exactly that — discipline. The calendar is planned ahead, published on schedule, verified for accuracy, and measured. The creative serves the plan, not the other way around. The right person for this role finds that structure energizing, not confining.

You will learn directly from a former television news senior producer and a marketing director with a well-established career in destination and hospitality marketing. For the right person early in their career, the portfolio you build here — penguins, sharks, sea turtle rehabilitation, a rainforest pyramid, and a full resort — will be unlike anything you could build anywhere else in this market.

Social Media

• Own day-to-day management of our organic social channels: content calendar, publishing, scheduling, and community management
• Run every piece of published content through our pre-publish quality process — fact verification against source documents and peer review — without exception
• Create and publish short-form vertical video (Reels, TikTok, Shorts) as our highest-volume format
• Host live video from across the property — attractions, animal encounters, events, and behind-the-scenes moments
• Track performance and report on what’s working, what isn’t, and what to do next

Online Reputation Management

• Monitor guest reviews daily across Google, TripAdvisor, Yelp, Facebook, and other platforms
• Draft and publish timely, on-brand responses — thanking guests for positive feedback and responding thoughtfully to criticism
• Escalate serious complaints and service issues to the Marketing Director and appropriate department leadership
• Report recurring themes and actionable guest feedback to marketing and property leadership
• Maintain accurate business listings across review and search platforms

Content Capture & Production Support

• Shoot photo and video on property: animal habitats, guest experiences, events, and seasonal programming
• Edit your own social content and assist with editing on larger team projects
• Provide field production support on team video projects, including our video podcast — second camera, B-roll, audio, and lighting
• Cut long-form team content into clips and Shorts for social distribution
• Capture and organize B-roll; maintain a tagged asset library the whole team can pull from

Email Marketing

• Build and deploy approximately two eNewsletters per week to our subscriber database
• Manage lists, segmentation, scheduling, and testing
• Follow a pre-send accuracy checklist without exception, and report on open, click, and revenue performance

Paid Social (supporting — phased in after your first 90 days)

• Amplify high-performing organic content within a defined monthly budget and established campaign structure
• Follow our playbook and tracking standards, and report on spend and results monthly

• Subject matter you can’t get anywhere else. Very few jobs let you build a reel featuring sharks, penguins, and behind-the-scenes with the chefs.
• Visible impact. We’re a small team supporting an entire resort. Your work goes live, reaches a real audience, and gets measured.
• Mission that matters. Moody Gardens is a non-profit dedicated to education, conservation, recreation and rehabilitation.
• Room to grow. This position is built to develop toward greater responsibility in digital marketing as you demonstrate results.
• Benefits including (health/dental/vision, 401K, paid time off, property access and guest privileges, dining and hotel discounts, plus a breathtaking property as your office)

Required

• Bachelor’s degree in Marketing, Communications, Digital Media, Film, Journalism, or a related field — or equivalent demonstrated experience
• A portfolio or reel is required to be considered. Show us what you’ve shot, edited, and published. Personal channels count. We’re equally interested in evidence of consistency — an account or calendar you ran steadily over months tells us more than a highlight reel alone.
• Genuine comfort and confidence on camera, including unscripted live video
• Solid video editing skills for social formats (Premiere, Final Cut, CapCut, DaVinci Resolve, or similar)
• Working knowledge of Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and YouTube — how each platform actually behaves, not just how to post to it
• Exceptional attention to detail in written copy. Our mission includes education, and our published work needs to reflect that. Spelling, grammar, and factual accuracy are hard requirements of this role — finalists complete a short proofreading and fact-checking exercise as part of our interview process.
• Sound judgment and composure in public-facing writing, including responding to unhappy guests professionally and in brand voice
• Comfort using AI tools as part of a daily workflow, within our responsible-use guidelines — you own the accuracy of everything you publish, regardless of how it was drafted
• Availability to work Monday–Friday with regular weekend, evening, and holiday coverage. Our busiest periods are weekends, Spring Break, summer, and the holiday season, and this role is expected to be present and posting during them.
• Ability to move around a large property, carry equipment, and work outdoors in Gulf Coast weather

Preferred

• Photography skills and lighting/audio fundamentals
• Experience with a social media management platform (we use Sprout Social) and email marketing platforms
• Experience with paid social advertising
• Basic graphic design (Canva, Adobe Express, or Creative Suite)
• Interest in animals, conservation, science communication, and hospitality