Senior Director/VP of Marketing and Communications

Visit Boulder, the Convention and Visitors Bureau, is the official destination marketing organization for the City of Boulder. It promotes Boulder as a leisure, meeting, and event destination, provides visitor information, supports conference and group meeting planners, and showcases local attractions, restaurants, hotels, arts, culture, and outdoor recreation. Visit Boulder also promotes responsible travel and sustainable tourism practices that help preserve Boulder’s natural and cultural assets. Through its work, the organization strengthens Boulder’s visitor economy while enhancing quality of life for residents, enriching the visitor experience, and supporting the long-term vitality of the destination.

Position Summary

This senior leadership role is responsible for the organization’s overall marketing, communications, brand, and reputation strategy. Reporting directly to the CEO, this role sets department direction, translates organizational priorities into integrated plans, leads the Marketing and Communications team, and ensures that programs, partnerships, investments, and communications advance Visit Boulder’s mission and the long-term vitality of Boulder’s visitor industry.

Executive Strategy and Organizational Leadership

• Serve as the organization’s senior leader for marketing and communications, providing strategic counsel to the CEO, executive leadership, and Board of Directors.

• Lead the development and execution of Visit Boulder’s integrated marketing and communications strategy, establishing the department’s long-term vision, annual priorities, goals, and performance measures while aligning efforts with the organization’s strategic plan, budget priorities, community commitments, and destination objectives.

• Lead cross-functional strategic planning and initiatives by identifying emerging opportunities, audience trends, risks, and reputational issues, while coordinating timely organizational responses and aligning efforts across departments, community stakeholders, public partners, and external agencies.

• Prepare and present strategic recommendations, department performance, budget updates, and results to Visit Boulder’s Board of Directors and other key audiences.

Marketing, Brand, and Destination Strategy

• Oversee Visit Boulder’s digital ecosystem, including website strategy, user experience, content performance, SEO, conversion optimization, and digital visitor engagement.

• Set the integrated strategy for paid, earned, shared, and owned channels to increase the positive economic impact of leisure and group meeting visitation in the City of Boulder.

• Provide executive oversight of the Boulder brand, including positioning, audience strategy, message architecture, creative direction, and consistent expression across all touchpoints.

• Use research, market intelligence, performance data, and community insights to evaluate outcomes, competitive benchmarks and industry trends, and translate insights to refine marketing’s impact on visitation and economic outcomes.

• Evaluate and implement emerging marketing best practices and technologies, including AI, automation, predictive analytics, and new digital platforms to improve effectiveness.

• Provide strategic oversight for priority programs and destination initiatives, including environmental stewardship, responsible tourism, and major opportunities such as Sundance Film Festival-related initiatives.

Communications, Media Relations, and Reputation

• Direct Visit Boulder’s communications and public-relations strategy, including media relations, storytelling, executive messaging, reputation management, and crisis communications.

• Oversee media pitching, hosting, vetting, and relationship development to strengthen positive, accurate coverage of Boulder as a destination.

• Serve as a senior spokesperson for Visit Boulder and advise the CEO and other leaders on public statements, interviews, presentations, and sensitive communications.

• Ensure organizational communications are timely, coordinated, accurate, and aligned with the Boulder brand and community values.

Team Leadership and Department Management

• Lead and manage the Marketing and Communications department, establishing clear roles, priorities, standards, and accountability for staff and contractors, converting strategic priorities into campaigns, programs, partnerships, and measurable work plans.

• Set annual goals, conduct performance reviews, and support professional development and growth of department employees.

• Serve as the hiring executive for Marketing and Communications positions, including resource allocations, recruitment, selection, onboarding, and retention.

• Support the existing collaborative, inclusive, and high-performing team culture that encourages sound judgment, innovation, ownership, and effective cross-departmental partnership.

Budget, Contracts, and Operational Oversight

• Develop, administer, and monitor the annual Marketing and Communications programming budget; prioritize investments and manage additional project funding when available.

• Authorize and oversee department contracts and vendor relationships, ensuring appropriate scopes of work, procurement practices, deliverables, performance standards, contract compliance, and alignment with Visit Boulder’s strategic objectives.

• Finetune department processes, reporting practices, KPIs and reporting dashboards that support transparency, accountability, and continuous improvement.

Partnerships and External Representation

• Build and maintain productive relationships with the City of Boulder, Boulder County, community organizations, industry leaders, media, agencies, vendors, and other stakeholders.

• Represent Visit Boulder at conferences, committees, community meetings, and public events, including participation in relevant destination initiatives. Speak on behalf of Visit Boulder on marketing, communications, brand, tourism, stewardship, and visitor-economy topics.

• Perform other executive-level duties that advance Visit Boulder’s mission, annual priorities, and effectiveness.

Preferred candidate:

• Bachelor’s degree required; advanced degree preferred.
• 8–12 years of relevant marketing experience, including several years managing teams, budgets, agencies, integrated campaigns, and stakeholder relationships.
• Brings creativity and sound judgment to solving complex marketing and communications challenges.
• Proven strong PR and communications background.
• Previous Destination Marketing Organization experience strongly preferred.
• Strategic Planning and Commercial Vision.
• Crisis prevention and management.
• Team attitude and cross-functional leadership.
• Kind, thoughtful, supportive, and enthusiastic, with a collaborative and approachable leadership style.

Salary range:

The salary range for this position is $120,000-$160,000 and will depend on experience, qualifications and demonstrated success in destination marketing leadership. We offer a comprehensive benefits package including medical, dental, and vision coverage, retirement plan with employer contribution, paid time off, paid holidays, professional development opportunities, flexible work arrangements, and additional benefits designed to support employee well-being and work-life balance.