Director of Marketing and Branding

Are you a data driven marketing executive who knows how to build an elite, emotionally resonant brand?

Charter One is experiencing incredible growth, and we are searching for a highly strategic Director of Marketing and Branding to join our team at our brand-new headquarters in Mesa, Arizona.

As a leading Education Management Organization (EMO), Charter One acts as the operational engine behind a charter school network of approximately 30 charter schools serving over 30,000 students across Arizona, Utah, and the Carolinas. We handle the complex back-office functions—including facility management, human resources, financial planning, and regulatory compliance—so that educators and administrators can focus entirely on fostering academic excellence. We are on a mission to foster academic excellence in a diverse array of communities in urban and suburban environments by supporting educators, children, and families. We thrive in a vibrant, fast-paced corporate culture where bold ideas and leadership are celebrated.

In this executive-level role reporting directly to the CEO, you will be the ultimate guardian of our brand identity, the owner of our marketing budget, and the strategic force driving our enrollment growth across multiple states.

The Mission

Your goal is to lead a strategic evolution of our brand presentation in order to facilitate accelerated growth. You will pivot our historical messaging to craft an elite, aspirational brand narrative rooted in "quiet luxury." You will position our network of schools as a premier, future-shaping choice for discriminating parents, while maintaining an authentic, modern campus culture that deeply engages today’s students.

What You’ll Do

1. Strategic Leadership & Vision;

• Drive the Strategy: Develop macro-marketing strategies, ambitious enrollment targets, and seasonal campaigns across carefully selected channels that are aligned with multi-state school admissions calendars.
• Craft the Vision: Architect the shift toward a quiet luxury brand identity, ensuring all messaging emphasizes intrinsic value, depth, and excellence over loud or traditional public school marketing approaches.
• Aesthetic Gatekeeping: Serve as the final reviewer and approval authority for all public-facing visual and editorial assets, ensuring a consistent brand presentation across all channels.
• Brand Aesthetics: Lead efforts to increase the overall aesthetic appeal of our brand to parents of school-age children.

2. Agency Accountability & Budget Management;

• Direct External Partners: Select and manage external agencies (Creative/Brand and Performance/Ad Buying), holding them strictly accountable to budgets, brand guidelines, ROAS, and CPA targets. Additionally, you will lead the migration to a new CRM that will replace our current Salesforce instance.
• Executive Reporting: Manage the overall marketing budget allocation, deliver streamlined performance dashboards directly to the CEO, and report on marketing effectiveness to management, developing the requisite reports and dashboards to justify confidence in specific marketing activities.

3. Team Leadership & Ecosystem Management;

You will lead a high-performing internal team and select and manage top-tier external vendor relationships, including:

• Internal Direct Reports: Marketing Operations & CRM Manager, Campus Content & Social Coordinators, and Graphic Design Coordinators (not a fully inclusive list).
• External Managed Vendors: Premium Onshore Creative & Brand Agency (driving flagship campaigns and high-impact media) and performance ad buying agency (executing hyper-targeted paid media across Meta, Google Search, and YouTube).
• Campus Support: Provide comprehensive graphic design support to individual campus locations.

If you are a data-driven visionary with an uncompromising eye for high-end brand aesthetics and the expertise to drive significant enterprise growth, we want you at the helm of our marketing department.

Charter One offers a competitive salary that is individually determined based on education and experience. We offer health benefits, paid time off, and 401k investment options including employer contributions.

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