Senior Director of Marketing and Communications

Senior Director Of Marketing & Communications

For more than 75 years, Children's Fairyland has been a place where Oakland's children and families discover the magic of storytelling, play, and imagination. As the first original storybook park in the country — and the inspiration for Disneyland's design — Fairyland is woven into the fabric of this city and the Bay Area in a way few institutions can claim.

This isn't just a marketing job. It's an opportunity to be the chief storyteller for a beloved Oakland icon — to shape how tens of thousands of families, donors, community partners, schools, and neighbors understand and connect with a place that genuinely matters.

We are looking for an exceptional Senior Director of Marketing & Communications to lead Fairyland's brand, voice, and visibility across all channels and audiences. This is a senior leadership role reporting directly to the CEO and serves as a member of the Senior Leadership Team.

The right person brings deep fluency across marketing, public relations, communications, social media, and digital content — and knows how to hold all of those disciplines together with strategic coherence. They are as comfortable building a media relationship as they are reviewing analytics, writing a donor newsletter, and coaching a team member, all in the same week.

This role also oversees Fairyland’s Events and Rentals strategy as a key driver of earned revenue, brand visibility and community engagement - including signature 21+ nighttime events and private park rentals.

Essential Duties & Responsibilities

Strategic Leadership & Brand Stewardship

• Develop and lead a comprehensive, integrated marketing and communications strategy aligned with Fairyland’s long-term vision
• Shape and steward Fairyland’s brand identity, voice, and storytelling across all channels and experiences - including on-site events and rentals
• Collaborates cross-functionally with all departments at Fairyland to understand the organizational impact and drive strategic initiatives
• Serve as a key strategic partner to the CEO and Senior Leadership Team on communications, positioning, audience development, earned revenue opportunities, and public engagement
• Identify and elevate opportunities to increase visibility, audience engagement, and community impact
• Represent Fairyland externally at events, panels, and within community partnerships

Marketing, Communications & Events Execution

• Oversee the development and execution of multi-channel campaigns, including digital, social media, email, print, PR, and event marketing
• Provide strategic direction for Fairyland’s 21+ events and rental program, ensuring strong brand alignment, audience growth, and revenue performance
• Direct content strategy and production, ensuring consistency and quality across all platforms
• Manage media relations, including press outreach, storytelling, and reputation management
• Evaluate and implement digital tools and technologies (i.e. Asana, HootSuite, Wordfly) to enhance marketing effectiveness
• Use data and analytics to inform decisions, measure impact, and continuously refine strategy

Community Engagement

• Leverage and deepen relationships across Oakland’s civic, cultural, media, and philanthropic communities
• Build partnerships that expand Fairyland’s reach and strengthen its role as a community anchor
• Ensure communications authentically reflect and engage the diverse communities Fairyland serves

Team Leadership & Development

• Lead, mentor, and grow a high-performing Marketing, Communications & Events team of four.
• Foster a collaborative, accountable, and inclusive team culture grounded in Fairyland’s values
• Set clear goals, provide ongoing feedback, and support professional development for team members
• Oversee departmental planning, budgeting, and resource allocation
• Ensure that processes, procedures and assignments of responsibilities are designed to meet marketing and communication goals in an efficient, manageable and effective manner
• Accountable for the performance of the marketing and communications program and ensuring alignment with CFL’s strategic goals

Knowledge Skills and Abilities

• Bachelor's degree in marketing or communications, or equivalent relevant experience
• 8+ years of proven success in a senior management role in marketing, communications and/or public relations; non-profit, cultural institution or mission-driven organization strongly preferred
• 5+ years of experience in leading comprehensive strategic marketing and communications, media relations, and marketing programs with measurable results
• 4+ years of experience managing, mentoring and coaching a team of marketing and communications professionals
• Strong Bay Area community knowledge and existing relationships across Oakland’s civic, philanthropic, media and cultural landscape highly preferred
• Excellent writing and editing skills - across formats, audiences, and registers
• Confident, effective, compelling public speaker and organizational representative
• Experience with leveraging data analytics and metrics to inform strategy
• Experience in leveraging events and experiences as a core marketing and revenue strategy
• Demonstrated skills, knowledge and experience in the design and execution of marketing and communications activities, including digital marketing campaign development.
• Demonstrated ability to seamlessly embed diversity, equity and inclusion into effective marketing campaigns and communications
• Experience overseeing the design and production of print materials and publications, website management (WordPress), CRM integration (Tessitura) and digital/social media content creation and management.
• Excellent judgment and creative problem-solving skills, including negotiation and conflict resolution.
• Ability to work independently and responsibly while managing numerous projects simultaneously.

Personal Attributes/Values

• Collaborative by nature, with the confidence to lead and the humility to listen
• Takes a holistic approach to learning about the organization by actively seeking diverse perspectives and building cross-functional relationships.
• People-orientation- able to interact effectively, politely, and productively with all types of people from all types of backgrounds and experience and in all types of situations.
• Comfortable working with culturally diverse stakeholders
• Demonstrates emotional resilience and poise while rising to the challenge
• Energetic, diplomatic, adaptable - comfortable moving between the strategic and tactical
• Holds a good sense of humor - Fairyland is a place of joy.
• Passionate about the mission, vision, and goals of Fairyland and possesses an understanding of how this position contributes to the organization’s success. 
• Strong work ethic with an orientation toward process improvement.
• Deeply committed to diversity, equity and inclusion as a practice, not a checkbox
• Impeccable integrity and honesty

Physical Requirements

This position is primarily located in an office environment. Able to perform the following duties with or without accommodation:

• Sit at a desk, conference room or workstation for more than three (3) hours at a time;
• Traverse the distance of the park in performance of duties
• Access transportation to local, state and national events or meetings with external stakeholders
• Communicate in clear speaking voice in person, before large audiences and over audio or video-based communications applications (e.g. phone, Zoom)
• Able to occasionally lift 40-50 pounds with assistance

Benefits & Compensation

This is a regular, full-time, exempt position scheduled Mondays through Fridays, with occasional weekends and evenings for events. The salary range for this role is $106,558 - 112,167 annually. Full-time employees are eligible to participate in benefits the first of the month following 60 days of service. Benefits include:

• Medical, dental and vision coverage at 100% for employees and 50% for children dependents
• Accrue up to 10 days of PTO in your first year AND separate paid sick leave bank of up to 10 days per year AND three floating holidays per year (available to use after 90 day introductory period)
• 401k plan available 
• Family membership to Fairyland or 6 guest passes annually
• Discounts on Fairyland merchandise and Café