The Association for association professionals in Chicagoland

The American Foundry Society (AFS), the leading association serving the $52.3 billion metalcasting industry, is seeking a high-energy, detail-oriented Assistant Director of Marketing & Communications.

This role is ideal for a communications professional with 7–10 years of proven success developing and executing integrated marketing and communications campaigns.

The successful candidate will have experience managing complex websites, implementing and analyzing social media strategies, coordinating marketing calendars, setting up/kicking off webinars, and meticulously proofreading and fact-checking content to ensure accuracy and consistency.

The Assistant Director will thrive in a fast-paced, member-focused environment where clear, timely, and accurate communication is essential.

A college degree in Public Relations, Marketing, Digital Media, Corporate Communications, Business Administration, or a related field is preferred.

Key Accountabilities:

• Proactively plan and coordinate AFS-wide actions needed to ensure that AFS and Institute conferences, trade shows, programs, messages, and courses are promoted effectively on time, according to the Comprehensive Marketing Calendar via multiple media channels.
• Exercise primary responsibility for ensuring that AFS websites – afsinc.org, moderncasting.com, and castingsource.com – are current, accurate, and optimally communicating AFS messaging at all times.
• Track and monitor all digital efforts, including email, web traffic and usage, social media growth, etc. Glean insights from data to suggest plan changes if needed.
• Exercise primary responsibility for advancing AFS messaging through social media.
• Serve as Marketing Division liaison to the AFS Institute and manage communications efforts on behalf of the Institute. Advise the Institute on the best ways to segment audiences and achieve the Institute's communications goals.
• Plan, prepare, and distribute promotional e-mails for all of AFS, pulling lists from the database, consulting with IT as needed, formatting HTML if needed, etc.
• Create email blasts on behalf of advertising clients as needed.
• Schedule and coordinate the AFS webinar calendar, and host multiple 30-60-minute webinars each month.
• Post items to the website and monitor it regularly to identify documents that are obsolete or need updating.
• Assist in survey development, collection, and analysis of results as needed.
• Committee liaison duties may be assigned.
• Ability to manage multiple tasks and projects simultaneously in a fast-paced communications environment.
• Ability to learn internal AFS programs required.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

Required Skills or Experience:

• A bachelor’s degree in marketing, public relations, corporate communications, digital media, and business administration, or another relevant field is preferred.
• 7-10 years of experience in a fast-paced digital marketing, communications, or marketing setting. Association experience preferred but not required.
• Excellent writing, promotional copywriting, speaking, listening, and project-organization skills.
• Must be fluent in English, written and spoken.
• Proficiency with MS Office and social media is mandatory.
• Working Knowledge of Adobe Suite is desired.
• Experience with CRM and e-blast tools.
• Familiarity with HTML
• Familiarity with Google Analytics reporting
• Excellent project-management skills.
• Familiarity with manufacturing and business-government relations is a plus.
• Occasional Travel & Tradeshow work required.
• Must have a valid driver's license.