Chief Marketing Officer

ABOUT JAZZ AT LINCOLN CENTER

The mission of Jazz at Lincoln Center is to entertain, enrich and expand a global community for jazz through performance, education, and advocacy.

We believe jazz is a metaphor for Democracy. Because jazz is improvisational , it celebrates personal freedom and encourages individual expression. Because jazz is swinging , it dedicates that freedom to finding and maintaining common ground with others. Because jazz is rooted in the blues , it inspires us to face adversity with persistent optimism.

Jazz is one of America’s most profound and enduring cultural contributions, inseparable from the story of this country, its history, its struggles, its democratic ideals, and its continuing evolution. We are stewards of that legacy. The three pillars of our work— performance , education , and advocacy —are one mission expressed three ways, each reinforcing and requiring the other two. You cannot perform without honoring the history that gives the music meaning. You cannot educate without the conviction that what you are teaching deserves to outlast you. You cannot advocate without the lived experience of the art itself. We look for people who feel that wholeness in full, across all three pillars.

POSITION DESCRIPTION

Jazz at Lincoln Center (JALC) seeks an accomplished and visionary Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) to lead the evolution of the institution’s marketing efforts, including brand strategy, creative, communications, digital marketing innovation, audience development, and stakeholder engagement.

As a member of the Leadership Team, the Chief Marketing Officer will shape how Jazz at Lincoln Center connects with audiences, donors, students, artistic and business partners, staff, and communities around the world. The CMO will lead a centralized marketing function that equitably serves the entire organization, ensuring engagement with the global community for jazz through creative, compelling branding and storytelling with measurable outcomes.

Reporting to the Executive Director, the CMO will play a critical role in advancing JALC’s mission and strategic ambitions by strengthening institutional visibility, increasing audience engagement, supporting earned and contributed revenue growth, and ensuring that Jazz at Lincoln Center remains the leading global voice for jazz performance, education, and advocacy.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Enterprise Leadership

Serve as a member of the Leadership Team and contribute to organizational strategy and planning.

Establish Marketing as a strategic partner and service organization supporting all areas of JALC.

Collaborate with senior leadership to understand and prioritize organization-wide marketing needs, aligning strategy, resources, and execution with institutional goals.

Provide leadership on institutional positioning, stakeholder engagement, audience trends, and market opportunities.

Partner with leadership team to ensure clear and consistent communication of institutional priorities and major initiatives to internal and external constituents.

Carry responsibility for JALC’s branding – whenever and wherever JALC’s brand is represented publicly, the CMO is the accountable leader for that representation and the impression it creates.

Oversee marketing budget to ensure resources are aligned with institutional priorities and deliver measurable impact.

Establish goals and performance measures to evaluate marketing effectiveness, audience growth, brand health, and organizational impact.

Brand & Institutional Positioning

Strengthen JALC’s position as the world’s leading organization dedicated to jazz.

Lead the development and stewardship of our brand, ensuring consistency of voice, messaging, visual identity, and stakeholder experience across the institution.

Build visibility and influence through strong brand stewardship, audience engagement, strategic marketing, and external visibility initiatives.

Oversee Public Relations and External Communications fuction as part of JALC’s broader institutional positioning strategy.

Audience Growth & Revenue Strategy

Develop and execute strategies that increase audience participation, engagement, loyalty, and retention.

Support organizational revenue objectives across performances, memberships, education programs, events, and digital initiatives.

Leverage data, research, and audience insights to guide decision-making and investment.

Partner with Development to strengthen fundraising communications, donor engagement, and campaign visibility.

Content Strategy & Institutional Narrative

Shape and steward a compelling institutional narrative that advances JALC’s artistic excellence, educational leadership, cultural impact, and strategic priorities

Ensure content, messaging, and storytelling support audience engagement, fundraising, brand growth, and organizational objectives.

Oversee content strategy and communications functions that support the broader goals of the institution.

Provide counsel to the Leadership Team on institutional messaging and stakeholder engagement.

Creative Leadership

Provide strategic oversight of JALC’s creative function, ensuring creative excellence and brand consistency across all institutional communications, campaigns, and audience experiences.

Foster a culture of innovation, collaboration, and high creative standards.

Partner across the organization to translate strategic priorities into compelling creative work and storytelling.

Digital Innovation & Audience Engagement

Lead digital strategy across web, CRM, email, social media, content, and emerging platforms.

Champion innovation and a data-informed approach to audience engagement.

Expand JALC’s reach and impact through digital experiences and technology-enabled engagement.

Team Leadership

Lead and develop a high-performing Marketing team.

Foster a culture of collaboration, innovation, accountability, and service.

Build capabilities and systems that enable Marketing to effectively support stakeholders across the organization.

QUALIFICATIONS

The ideal candidate will be an accomplished executive leader with a demonstrated record of success leading marketing, communications, brand, and audience development functions within a complex and mission-driven organization.

They will combine strategic vision with operational excellence and bring exceptional relationship-building skills, intellectual curiosity, creativity, sound judgment, and a commitment to organizational partnership.

The ideal candidate will possess:

Significant senior leadership experience in marketing, communications, brand strategy, audience development, or related disciplines.

A track record of driving institutional visibility, brand engagement, audience growth, and revenue outcomes.

Sophisticated understanding of digital marketing, analytics, CRM strategies, and audience behavior.

Genuine intellectual curiosity and active engagement with emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence — with the ability to evaluate, adopt, and apply new tools to advance marketing effectiveness and creative output.

Exceptional communication and collaborative leadership skills with a proven ability to build, inspire, and unite high-performing teams and diverse stakeholders around a bold, shared vision.

An exceptionally creative mind — someone who will bring genuine artistic originality, bold ideas, and high aesthetic standards to every aspect of the organization.

An appreciation for JALC’s brand, mission, and cultural significance, and the ability to make it relevant and meaningful to every stakeholder in the broader community.

A presence that garners the respect of senior colleagues, board members, artists, and external partners.

WORKING AT JAZZ AT LINCOLN CENTER

The music is present here, literally and philosophically, and the people who thrive are the ones who feel that and lean into it. They are Fans, Advocates, Musicians, and Educators who know that you cannot shape what comes next without first honoring what came before — who ask why something is the way it is before they presume to know what it should become. They find their own work more meaningful because of its proximity to something larger, and they understand that excellence in any role, regardless of function, is connected to what happens on stage and in classrooms and communities around the world. The passion that runs through this organization can be felt on your first day, and it is the thing people miss most when they leave.

We are a live-events organization, and our schedule reflects that energy: we expect full presence when the work and the art call for it. Within that, we strive to create real flexibility for our people. Flex Mondays give staff the freedom to work from wherever suits them best, and Tuesday through Friday our teams come together in person, with the understanding that the work and the art will sometimes ask for more. We trust our people to know the difference, and we build around that trust.

Benefits reflect the same investment in our people: comprehensive health, retirement, and a seat inside the life of this organization. Staff have access to the breadth of JALC programming—from live performances to access at Dizzy's Club to world-class jazz education through Swing University and beyond—because we believe the people who do this work deserve to experience it, not just support it.

HOW TO APPLY

Click the button above to apply. Please include a cover letter and salary requirements with your application.

Jazz at Lincoln Center is an equal opportunity employer that affords equal opportunities to all applicants, employees, contractors, and other covered persons, and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local laws. Jazz at Lincoln Center is committed to creating an inclusive, open, and respectful culture that reflects and embraces diversity.