Job Description

We are seeking an Assistant Director of Strategic Events to join the team at Johns Hopkins University’s Data Science and AI Institute (DSAI), an interdisciplinary institute dedicated to advancing education, research, and the real-world translation of trustworthy AI and data-driven discovery. DSAI will include 110 new faculty who will join existing faculty and researchers across disciplines dedicated to the development, application, and understanding of the opportunities and challenges of data science and AI across a range of critical and emerging fields.

The Assistant Director will develop and oversee high impact and highly visible public programs and events for DSAI as well as DSAI’s participation in non-Hopkins major AI conferences, helping to shape the public presence, positioning, and voice of DSAI. They will work within DSAI’s communications, marketing, and branding team and will collaborate closely with DSAI’s leadership team, faculty, and senior leaders across the university on events strategy, planning, and execution including but not limited to identifying themes, potential speakers, internal and external collaborators, budget planning, and more. Reporting to the Executive Director of Strategic Communications and Marketing, they will also be responsible for collaborating with other communications colleagues in DSAI and across the university to create and execute communications and marketing strategies for DSAI’s signature public events, to build audience, to create reach, and to amplify DSAI’s role in shaping conversations on AI.

DSAI is currently located in its temporary home at the Johns Hopkins Mt. Washington campus (6225 Smith Ave., Baltimore, MD) and will relocate to the Homewood campus once its permanent home, now under construction, opens.

The role requires a detail-oriented strategic thinker with an understanding about the role that public and internal events and programs play in developing a respected brand and voice in today’s complex and evolving data science and AI landscape. The ideal candidate will have a proven track record in managing complex events involving prominent speakers, outside vendor involvement, media interactions, on-site logistics coordination, budget oversight, and more. Strategic events for DSAI will span intimate private gatherings of high-level stakeholders (industry, government, philanthropic, academic) to large scale public conferences with multiple formats, speakers, and participants and will be offered in multiple locations including JHU’s campuses in Baltimore and Washington, DC, but also additional sites. The assistant director will be responsible for developing and managing event funding budgets.

The Assistant Director will design and lead the communication efforts for a designated division, department, or center with a need for complex support requiring specialized knowledge and expertise. The Assistant Director will develop and implement a comprehensive communications strategy to support the designated area's strategic priorities.

Specific Duties & Responsibilities

• Serve as internal communications lead for a division, department or center.
• Develop an internal communications plan for the designated area’s strategic plan including relevant reports, events, memos, and websites.
• Plan, create, oversee, and edit internal communications strategies to keep faculty, staff, and students informed about important initiatives, goals, and events.
• Ensure the efficiency and efficacy of communications between school leadership and faculty, staff, students, and other stakeholders.
• Follow established university branding standards in all communications.
• Liaise with members of related communication teams.
• Write clear and effective content for audiences.
• Pivot writing styles based on the format, message, audience, and purpose.
• Lead the development of a cohesive internal communications strategy that builds community and positions the designated area as a vital part of the university.
• Develop and maintain an internal communications calendar, ensuring efficient coordination of communications activities
• Manage print and digital collateral.
• Curate content from websites, social media, and news media to amplify the strategic plan across multiple platforms.
• Advise and work with the communications team to write remarks and messages for leadership.
• Coordinate internal crisis communications announcements with the division and university.
• Edit content and manage editors for internal websites and SharePoint sites.
• Contract and manage external vendors as needed.
• Interact with communications experts across the university on various issues and best practices.
• Execute strategies for cross-divisional communications efforts with other communications offices.
• Ensure consistent use of university brand standards across all projects.
• Other duties as assigned.

In addition to the duties described above

• Will develop and manage a series of DSAI signature events along with other public and internally facing convenings and programs for DSAI in partnership with DSAI leadership, faculty, students, and external partners including DSAI Annual Symposiums (every fall and spring), Celebrating Women in Data Science and AI Symposium, and more. FY 27 will see the growth of the signature event series including at least 2 additional large scale public events or conferences.
• Will serve as the DSAI staff lead on all DSAI’s public programs, co-developing and otherwise coordinating event content, design, and implementation with relevant DSAI faculty, fellows, staff, students, other faculty partners at JHU, as well as external partners.
• Directly supervise DSAI’s Sr. Special Events Coordinator.
• Identify and develop best practices for the execution of signature large format events, including through the use of emergent technologies and systems.
• Serve as a resource to students and faculty across the university interested in promoting data science and artificial intelligence in their own courses and elsewhere on campus and identify ways to engage students as part of signature events
• Collaborate with key university stakeholders and across various departments within the University on all of the above, working in close partnership with the Whiting School of Engineering, the Office of the President, Homewood Student Affairs and University Special Events, Office of Student Affairs, and student organizations; facilitate relationships with Whiting School of Engineering and university leadership and key stakeholders to brainstorm and conceptualize new programs.
• Design and coordinate implementation of public programs that are hosted by external partners and co-hosted or co-sponsored by DSAI: serve as the main point of contact for external event partners generally as the senior representative of events for DSAI.
• Serve as DSAI liaison to other internal schools, divisions, and groups such as the Hopkins Bloomberg Center, SAIS, School of Government and Policy, School of Medicine, and more on the ideation and promotion of their events related to data science and AI
• For DSAI events, determine the content and format, ensuring relevance to DSAI’s mission and strategic goals, research speaker/performer options, draft and send invitations and event memos for speakers and other stakeholders, draft event copy, draft talking points or scripts for university and DSAI principals, lead planning meetings and prep calls with speakers and other stakeholders, work with the DSAI Administrator regarding financially associated costs, work with DSAI’s leadership on partnership agreements where necessary, be the main decisionmaker on public event logistics generally, then supervise DSAI’s Sr. Special Events Coordinator in implementation of those logistics (venue set-up, travel logistics, production, coordination with vendors, etc.).
• Oversee DSAI’s overall arc of public programming to ensure the best cadence, quality, alignment with mission and potential for impact.
• Field requests and invitations to host, co-host, or co-sponsor public programs, ensuring they align with DSAI’s mission and strategic goals, as well as ensuring their feasibility.
• Exercise independent judgment and work with limited supervision/direction.
• Perform other duties as assigned in furthers of DSAI’s mission.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree in a related field.

• Five years of related experience.

• Additional education may substitute for required experience and additional related experience may substitute for required education beyond high school diploma/graduation equivalent, to the extent permitted by the JHU equivalency formula.

Preferred Qualifications

Technical Qualifications or Specialized Certifications

• Demonstrated knowledge of Microsoft applications such as Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Teams, Co-Pilot, and SharePoint. Facility with AI tools including ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and others.
• Master’s Degree.
• Seven plus years of experience in facilitating programs across formats from small confidential gatherings of key stakeholders to live streamed events on large stage, to large scale conferences with mix of formats from panel discussions to keynote speakers and more. developing substantive programming, including but not limited subject areas related to data science and AI or other scientific or policy related fields

Technical Skills & Expected Level of Proficiency

• Branding - Advanced
• Communications Planning - Advanced
• Crisis Communications - Advanced
• Digital Communications - Advanced
• Editing - Advanced
• Internal Communications - Advanced
• Media Relations - Advanced
• Project Management - Advanced
• Stakeholder Engagement - Advanced
• Vendor Relationship Management - Advanced

The core technical skills listed are most essential; additional technical skills may be required based on specific division or department needs.

Classified Title: Communications Associate III
Job Posting Title (Working Title): Assistant Director of Strategic Events (Data Science and AI Institute)
Role/Level/Range: ATP/04/PF
Starting Salary Range: $85,500 - $149,800 targeted; Commensurate w/exp.)
Employee group: Full Time
Schedule: M-F, 37.5 hrs wkly
FLSA Status: Exempt
Location: Hybrid/Mount Washington Campus
Department name: DSAI Institute
Personnel area: Whiting School of Engineering