Communications and Content Manager

About CDI

The Constructive Dialogue Institute (CDI) is a non-partisan, non-profit dedicated to equipping the next generation of Americans with the skills to communicate and collaborate across lines of difference. We work with U.S. colleges and universities by providing co-curricular programming for students, professional development for faculty and staff, and strategic guidance to leadership. Our goal is to foster constructive dialogue at every level of the institution and to create the conditions for lasting organizational change. CDI was co-founded by psychologist Jonathan Haidt, the bestselling author of The Righteous Mind and The Anxious Generation .

About the Role

CDI is seeking a versatile, fast, and editorially sharp Communications & Content Manager to serve as the production engine behind our communications and thought leadership. Reporting to the VP of Strategic Communications, you will turn CDI's research and point of view into a steady stream of high-quality, on-message content that grows our audience and strengthens our reputation as a leading national voice on constructive dialogue in higher education.

This is a hands-on maker role. You will write and produce our higher education newsletter, blog, and social content; turn our flagship research into a full family of related pieces; and produce the materials that equip our Partnerships team to win new partnerships. You will support on keeping all the pieces of the shared editorial moving on a predictable cadence, coordinating closely with our subject-matter experts and Partnerships colleagues. You will also help build press relationships and contribute to CDI's media coverage, giving our VP of Strategic Communications added reach. You will partner closely with our Demand Generation lead, who runs the marketing funnel: you create the audience and the content, and they convert that attention into pipeline.

Responsibilities

Manage the editorial calendar and owned content

• Write, build, and send CDI's higher education newsletter, and produce the blog, maintaining a reliable publishing cadence, growing our audience over time, and holding a high bar for quality, accuracy, and on-message voice.
• Run a single, unified organic social calendar across brand, executive, and thought-leadership content, coordinating contributions from across the team to grow reach and engagement.
• Collaborate with Partnerships and Marketing to align communications initiatives with other key workstreams such as webinars and conferences, tailor content for target segments, and sequence content for outsized pipeline impact.

Produce and repurpose thought leadership

• Turn CDI's research (white papers, briefs, studies) into a full family of related content, blog posts, op-ed drafts, social posts, and newsletter features, maximizing the reach of each release.
• Draft and package thought-leadership content while our subject-matter experts provide the underlying substance.
• Coordinate production timelines with the Impact team and our subject-matter experts so content ships on time without overloading contributors.

Support earned media and track coverage

• Help build and maintain CDI's press lists, draft pitches, and support the VP in securing media coverage.
• Track and log CDI's media coverage and mentions, contributing to CDI's earned-media goals.
• Build more direct media relationships over time, as your familiarity with CDI's work grows.

Produce marketing collateral and maintain brand standards

• Produce audience-facing marketing collateral, directing external designers to a high standard and on deadline.
• Maintain and steward CDI's brand templates and standards (set with the VP), and run the intake and triage process for design requests.
• Produce marketing case studies and testimonials, partnering with the Demand Generation lead (who selects and secures permissions) and the Impact team (who supports research).

About You

• An experienced comms professional. You bring 5+ years in communications, content marketing, editorial, or journalism, ideally in a mission-driven, B2B, higher education, or advocacy context, with a portfolio of published work across formats (newsletters, articles or blogs, social, long-form).
• A strong editorial operator (our top priority). You think in calendars, cadences, and systems, and you can keep many pieces of content moving at once without dropping quality or missing deadlines. You have thrived in a startup or scrappy environment, driving execution independently while building for scale.
• An exceptional writer and editor. You produce clear, accurate, on-message content across many formats, and you do it fast, with a sharp editorial eye.
• A sharp cross-functional collaborator. You work fluidly across subject-matter experts, marketing, and partnerships colleagues, and you keep work on track without constant direction.
• Media-aware. You understand what makes a story newsworthy and are comfortable drafting pitches and building press relationships. Direct media experience is a plus.
• Brand- and design-minded. You have a strong eye, can direct external designers, and can maintain templates and standards that keep a brand consistent. Canva experience a plus.
• Politically astute and mission-aligned. You have the judgment to communicate constructively and credibly across ideological lines, you understand why nonpartisan restraint matters as much as visibility, and you are genuinely motivated by CDI's mission. Familiarity with the higher education landscape is a plus.
• Fluent with tools, and with AI. You are comfortable with content and marketing tools (a CMS, an email platform such as HubSpot, social schedulers), and you use modern AI tools to accelerate drafting and production while treating human editing and judgment as non-negotiable, especially on sensitive topics.