Director of AI Strategy and Communications

Job Profile:
Administrative Operations Specialist 4
Job Family:
Administrative Operations
Time Type:
Full time
Apply before 11:59 PM Arizona time the day before the posted End Date.
Minimum Qualifications:
Bachelor's degree and seven (7) years of experience appropriate to the area of assignment/field; OR, Any equivalent combination of experience and/or training from which comparable knowledge, skills and abilities have been achieved.
Job Profile Summary:
Provides leadership and support in planning, managing, developing, and evaluating departmental strategy, initiatives and activities.
Job Description:
Salary: $105,000-125,000 per year; offer dependent upon experience.
Artificial intelligence is rapidly reshaping how communications teams discover stories, conduct research, create and distribute content, monitor issues and understand audiences. It is also a defining area of ASU research, teaching and public impact. Media Relations & Strategic Communications (MRSC) is seeking a Director of AI Strategy and Communications to help the department apply AI responsibly across its work and strengthen how ASU's AI expertise, strategy and impact are communicated to internal and external audiences.
MRSC's Visual Communications team, which includes the department's designers, web developers and AI developers, leads the product strategy, design, development and maintenance of MRSC's custom AI tools in partnership with the teams that use them. The Director of AI Strategy and Communications will complement that work by advancing AI adoption across MRSC, building staff fluency, establishing responsible-use practices and shaping communications about ASU's AI work.
Media Relations & Strategic Communications is the central communications team for Arizona State University, one of the largest public research universities in the country. ASU is a new type of American university, one grounded in both excellence and access. An R1 research university with more than $1 billion in annual research expenditures, ASU is a national leader in fields including microelectronics, engineering, space exploration, climate and sustainability. In a given year, 200,000 people enroll at ASU either in person or online.
The Director of AI Strategy and Communications will report to the Vice President for Media Relations & Strategic Communications.
The successful candidate will help MRSC:
Use AI well across the department
* Develop and lead MRSC's AI adoption strategy in partnership with team leaders. Identify opportunities across the department and recommend priorities informed by communications needs, potential impact and available capacity.
* **Partner with Visual Communications and relevant MRSC teams to identify communications needs and opportunities for AI, develop use cases, establish content standards and evaluation criteria, and support adoption of AI initiatives.** Potential applications include story discovery and background research; media targeting and identification of niche outlets, journalists, podcasts and creators; media pitch development; issue and trend monitoring; message and scenario analysis; and content adaptation and distribution. MRSC takes a human-first approach to AI.
* Modernize and enhance daily workflows. Identify opportunities to reduce repetitive work and expand staff capacity while preserving human judgment, editorial standards, accuracy and accountability. Evaluate whether AI, existing tools or workflow changes would best address identified needs.
* Build AI fluency and adoption across MRSC. Provide training, coaching, shared resources, demonstrations and practical playbooks that meet employees at different levels of experience and comfort.
* Advise on content standards, accuracy and evaluation for public-facing AI experiences such as the ASU News chatbot, in partnership with Visual Communications and ASU News.
* Advance adoption of AI-assisted research, monitoring and knowledge-management capabilities. Help MRSC identify stories and experts across ASU, track developments in higher education and the broader AI ecosystem and prepare timely briefing and communications materials in partnership with MRSC and enterprise technical teams.
* Establish and promote responsible AI practices for communications. Align MRSC practices with ASU requirements for human review, factual verification, source attribution, privacy, intellectual property, accessibility, bias mitigation, disclosure and use of approved tools.
* Measure and report on MRSC's AI initiatives. Evaluate adoption, usefulness, effectiveness, quality, risk and lessons learned, and recommend which approaches should be scaled, revised or discontinued.
Tell ASU's AI story
* Lead MRSC's communications strategy for ASU's work in AI. Coordinate with MRSC leadership, Enterprise Technology, Knowledge Enterprise, Enterprise Brand Strategy and Management, academic units and other partners to develop accurate, consistent and compelling messaging about AI across ASU research, teaching, operations and public impact.
* Maintain an active network across the AI ecosystem. Stay closely connected to AI research, industry, policy, advocacy, technology media and relevant online communities; monitor emerging technologies, companies, regulation, public debates and narrative shifts; and translate those developments into communications opportunities and risk guidance for MRSC leadership.
* Position ASU as a trusted authority on AI in higher education. Identify timely storylines, experts, media opportunities, thought-leadership platforms and public conversations in which ASU can make a meaningful contribution.
* Help MRSC anticipate and prepare for AI-related issues. Monitor misinformation, synthetic media, privacy, intellectual property, bias, transparency, regulation and changing public expectations, and develop appropriate communications guidance and response plans with relevant university partners.
Desired Qualifications:
* At least two years of demonstrated experience applying AI in communications or a related professional setting, including:
* identifying and prioritizing use cases
* using generative AI and related AI technologies for research, analysis, content development, monitoring and distribution
* designing and evaluating AI-enabled workflows
* applying responsible AI practices
* At least seven years of progressively responsible experience in strategic communications, public affairs, journalism, digital communications, technology communications or a related field.
* Strong communicator with practical AI fluency and the ability to translate among editorial, communications, technical and leadership teams.
* Sound communications judgment, curiosity, hands-on AI experience and the ability to lead change.
* Experience leading cross-functional initiatives through influence and collaboration across communications, product, design and development teams.
* Ability to explain complex technical and policy developments clearly, collaborate productively with developers and Enterprise Technology teams, and train colleagues with different levels of AI experience.
* Ability to build trusted partnerships across communications, technology, legal, privacy, compliance and leadership teams.
This is not a software-development position.
Relevant experience may come from AI- or technology-focused journalism, an industry association, a technology company or other complex, mission-driven institutions.
Working Environment:
* Office is located in Tempe, AZ
* Frequent standing for varying lengths of time and walking moderate distances to perform work.
* Frequent bending, reaching, lifting, pushing, and pulling up to 25 pounds
* Regular use of standard office equipment, including, but not limited to: computer workstation/laptop (keyboard, monitor, mouse), printer, fax, ca