Center For Outcomes Based Contracting

Innovate, Excel, Succeed with Our Team! The Center for Outcomes Based Contracting seeks an outstanding candidate to serve as Communications and Marketing Manager, a newly established position under the Center's current grant funding cycle. This role is responsible for executing and evolving the Center's communications strategy, building brand presence, and amplifying the evidence and stories that establish us as the field's trusted authority as we scale our impact and build an independent organization.
The Center for Outcomes Based Contracting (OBC) is designed to foster partnerships between school districts and service providers, with the goal of improving student outcomes. At the Center for OBC, we are not just innovating educational contracts; we're transforming the way school districts and service providers collaborate to improve student outcomes. Established with the mission to uphold excellence and opportunity for all students in K-12 education, the Center for OBC empowers districts to contract for clear student outcomes and compels mutual accountability for achieving them.
To learn more, please visit obc.southerneducation.org.
The Opportunity
The Communications and Marketing Manager is a senior, strategic role within the Chief of Staff Team, reporting directly to the Chief of Staff. This position owns the Center’s integrated communications and marketing function, shaping how the organization tells its story, reaches priority audiences, and supports growth. 
The Center has established strong foundational communications infrastructure—including core channels, branding, and external PR support. This role will elevate and unify those systems into a coordinated strategy that reflects the organization’s next stage of growth as it expands nationally and transitions toward independent 501(c)(3) status. 
This is both a strategy and execution role. The Manager will lead communications planning, audience strategy, and narrative development while also directly producing high-quality content across digital channels. Success requires comfort moving between big-picture positioning and hands-on delivery—from shaping multi-channel campaigns to drafting LinkedIn posts, producing newsletters, and maintaining a consistent digital presence. 
The role works closely with all internal teams and serves as the operational lead for communications coordination across the organization, ensuring clarity, alignment, and consistency in how the Center shows up externally.

Typical Duties and Responsibilities

Brand Stewardship and Content Design

• Serve as brand steward across all external communications, ensuring visual and voice consistency
• Design and produce branded content in Canva, including social graphics, newsletter layouts, impact stories, event amplification materials, and recruitment collateral
• Ensure findings from all research projects are incorporated into communications resources and templates, keeping the field-facing knowledge base current and evidence-grounded
• Develop and maintain templates for recurring communications needs to build organizational capacity and ensure consistent quality

Impact Storytelling and Research Amplification

• Partner with the Insights and Program teams to produce and distribute impact stories that showcase the Standards of Excellence in action
• Create amplification plans for research releases, reports, and organizational milestones, ensuring content reaches district leaders, state education agencies, intermediaries, providers, funders, and policymakers
• Support op-ed development and Strategic Advisory Council amplification in coordination with the external PR firm
• Track and contribute to the Center's media visibility goals, including monitoring citations, speaking invitations, and media requests

Digital Channel Management

• Manage the OBC website (WordPress) alongside our website designer, ensuring content is current and aligned with branding; oversee projects such as resource migration from Google Drive to the website 
• Develop and publish content across social media platforms, primarily LinkedIn, with a focus on audience engagement and brand consistency
• Draft, design, and distribute the monthly newsletter (Salesforce) and other external communications
• Maintain the organizational content calendar as the source of truth for communications planning and cross-team alignment
• Track and report monthly analytics across website, LinkedIn, YouTube, and newsletter; recommend strategy adjustments based on performance trends

Marketing Strategy & Audience Engagement 

• Lead the Center’s marketing strategy to increase awareness, engagement, and adoption of Outcomes Based Contracting across priority audiences, including school districts, state education agencies, intermediaries, funders, and service providers
• Define and maintain clear audience segments and messaging approaches tailored to different stakeholder groups across the education ecosystem
• Leverage existing OBC value proposition statements to communicate organizational offerings (tools, frameworks, convenings, and consulting) in ways that drive engagement and uptake
• Design and execute campaign strategies that connect content, storytelling, and research to audience action and participation
• Support the development of a consistent pipeline from awareness to engagement (e.g., content → events → convenings → partnerships/adoption)
• Develop and manage audience engagement strategies through email marketing, ensuring subscribers receive timely, relevant content that moves them toward deeper engagement with the Center's offerings
• Use data and analytics to understand audience behavior, refine messaging, and improve reach and engagement over time

Cross-Team Collaboration and Organizational Strategy

• Review organizational strategies, priorities, and goals across all teams and develop proactive communications plans that advance the Center's work forward -- including in areas not directly owned by the communications function
• Serve as the internal communications operations lead, building workflows and rhythms that enable smooth cross-team collaboration with clear timelines and ownership
• Coordinate with the external PR firm to align internal execution with external strategy, media relations, and events including the annual OBC Convening
• Support communications that drive earned revenue growth, including promoting new services, tools, and credentialing opportunities to priority audiences
• Contribute to organizational transition communications as the Center moves toward independent 501(c)(3) status
• Participate in project kickoffs, provide feedback to project managers, and lead regular improvement conversations to resolve workflow friction points

Required Education, Experience, and Skills

• Bachelor's degree in communications, marketing, education, or a related field
• Five or more years of relevant communications experience with demonstrated progression of responsibility, including experience independently developing and owning an organization's communications strategy; nonprofit or education sector experience strongly preferred
• Exceptional writing and editing skills with demonstrated ability to create content for diverse audiences including district leaders, state education agencies, funders, and policymakers
• Proficiency in Canva with a demonstrated portfolio of polished, branded design work
• Experience managing and updating websites, preferably WordPress, including content management and basic SEO practices
• Experience managing social media platforms and strategic content calendars, with particular familiarity with LinkedIn
• Ability to track and interpret digital analytics across website, social, video, and email channels and translate data into actionable recommendations
• Demonstrated ability to think across organizational priorities and independently develop communications strategies that serve goals beyond the communications function, with examples of measurable impact
• Strong project management skills; communicates proactively about timelines and meets deadlines consistently
• Experience working in collaborative, cross-functional environments across multiple stakeholders

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with Salesforce Account Engagement or similar CRM/marketing automation platforms
• Familiarity with Canva, Adobe InDesign or similar design tools
• Experience working alongside external PR or communications firms
• Knowledge of Google Analytics, YouTube Analytics, website and SEO optimization
• Experience leading or supporting an organizational rebrand, entity transition, or launch, including developing transition communications for internal and external audiences
• Experience developing communications that drive earned revenue or service adoption
• Familiarity with K-12 public education, outcomes based contracting, education policy, or school district operations

Compensation & Benefits
This is a full-time position working Monday – Friday with a salary range of $95,000–$110,000, commensurate with experience. The Center offers a comprehensive benefits package to support employees' health, financial security, and professional growth. Full-time employees receive 100% employer-paid medical, dental, and vision coverage, along with basic life and AD&D insurance, short-term and long-term disability, and workers' compensation. Additional options include voluntary life insurance and supplemental coverage through Aflac. For retirement, employees have access to a 403(b) tax-deferred plan from day one, plus an employer-funded 15% contribution plan after one year. Other benefits include an Employee Assistance Program (EAP), tuition reimbursement, a monthly mobile phone stipend, and access to role-specific professional learning and advancement opportunities.
Applications will be accepted until the position is filled. Selected candidates will be subject to a background check as part of the hiring process.
The Center for Outcomes Based Contracting is an equal opportunity employer. Candidates of all backgrounds are encouraged to apply.

This is a remote position.