About the job

Regular Full-time, Market Range 09

Using a multi-disciplined approach, this position coordinates and disseminates information concerning University of Tennessee Athletics programs and communicates information to media and other groups such as alumni, letterwinners, faculty, students, prospective students and fans. This position establishes relationships with local and national media in an effort to generate positive publicity for the University of Tennessee.

Job Function

Responsibilities

This position’s primary responsibility is to serve as the primary media relations contact for multiple Tennessee athletic programs, serving as liaison between the athletic department and media, general public and university community. This individual is responsible for developing and executing a publicity and social media strategy for their assigned sport(s). They must collaborate closely with local, regional and national media outlets—as well as Tennessee’s VFL Films and 151 Creative staffs—to pitch and execute story ideas promoting teams and individual student-athletes and staff members.

• One of this position’s primary sports will be Tennessee’s tradition-rich swimming and diving program.
• Ensure accurate and up-to-date information on their assigned sport(s) is available daily via Internet (UTsports.com) and social media platforms for sport(s) as assigned.
• Manage media relations logistics associated with their teams’ respective athletic events. For competition events away from home, this individual may travel with the team and execute their responsibilities at the competition site. Thus, this individual must be willing to work/travel on nights and weekends, and should be available to work home football games when the fall sports schedule allows.
• For all competition events that feature a live broadcast, this individual is responsible for the production of a thorough and up-to-date “game notes“ package that is used by broadcasters to prep for the event.

• Other duties as assigned, such as assisting colleagues at other sports’ competition events when their availability allows (while not currently planned, sport-specific responsibilities may change from year to year).
• For applicants currently working with an active spring sport, we can be flexible on the start date for this position.

Education Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree required preferably in journalism, communications, public relations or sports management.
• Master’s degree preferred in journalism, communications, public relations or sports management.

Required

Level/type Of Experience

At least one year of previous experience in an NCAA Division I media relations/communications office, professional sports franchise, or comparable work environment.

Preferred Level/type Of Experience

It’s preferable that this individual have previous experience as a primary sport contact at the Division I or professional sports level.

Preferred Knowledge, Skills, And Abilities

Preferred abilities include 1) the ability to create compelling and engaging, live social media content; 2) advanced operational knowledge of PC and Apple computers; 3) basic video-editing skills and basic HTML coding ability.

Competencies/Qualifications

This individual must possess a demonstrated ability for strategic thinking and strong public relations sensibilities. This individual also must possess strong writing and verbal communications skills. Certain technical knowledge is required, including demonstrated experience with Adobe InDesign, Microsoft Word, Adobe Photoshop, SIDEARM and The Automated Scorebook (Stat Crew) and Genius statistical software. A broad working knowledge and familiarity with NCAA and SEC rules also is required.

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