Marketing & Communications Associate

The Marketing & Communications Associate plays a key role in shaping and sharing the voice of Karp Strategies across channels—elevating the firm’s visibility, supporting business development, and helping articulate our impact and values through strategic storytelling.

This is a highly collaborative, hands-on role that spans writing, design, strategy, and execution. The Associate will lead and support the development of proposals, marketing campaigns, presentations, branded content, and social media efforts, while also helping maintain our marketing infrastructure and brand systems. From supporting new business pursuits to leading our 10-year anniversary communications, this person will help elevate Karp Strategies’ visibility and competitive edge.

The Associate will also project manage timelines and assets, oversee work from vendors and junior staff, and explore emerging tools—including AI and automation technologies—to support smarter, more scalable marketing operations.

Reporting to the Managing Principal, Strategy + Operations, and working closely with the CEO, Principals, Senior Associate for Business Development, and project-facing teams, this highly visible role functions as a connector across departments, helping align messaging, priorities, and project execution.

Occasional travel may be required for conferences or internal events.

Please submit your application by July 7th, though we will begin reviewing applications on a rolling basis. Early submissions are encouraged. Please include your resume, portfolio or work samples, and a brief cover letter.

We recognize that candidates may not meet every requirement. If you’re excited about this role and our mission, we encourage you to apply.

Key Responsibilities

Marketing + Brand

• Lead the development and execution of firmwide sales and marketing campaigns in collaboration with the CEO, Leadership Team, and external vendors.
• Write and design branded content that reflects the firm’s voice and values and wins project work, including newsletters, firm bios, project one-pagers, and service overviews.
• Maintain and evolve brand consistency across channels—including presentations, reports, digital content, and visuals.
• Direct overall content strategy for social media, website, and newsletters and day-to-day execution (content creation, scheduling, engagement tracking, analytics).
• Support and lead PR initiatives in collaboration with external vendor(s), including press releases, award submissions, media engagement, and executive visibility.

Proposal & Business Development Support

• Project manage and contribute to the full lifecycle of proposal development—content writing, layout/design, submission, and interview preparations.
• Write and design persuasive proposals and pitch decks that respond to client needs and align with our brand.
• Represent marketing in teaming meetings with external partners and clients; lead content coordination and follow-up strategy with internal and external collaborators.
• Support internal go/no-go and prioritization discussions by bringing marketing perspective to pursuit strategy.
• Maintain proposal infrastructure, including templates, resume libraries, and project content databases.

Content + Design Oversight

• Write and design a wide range of visual and written marketing materials—including proposals, presentations, project collateral, and digital content—with a focus on clarity, strategic alignment, and brand consistency.
• Lead the development of high-impact visual and editorial content by producing original work and directing junior staff or external creatives as needed.
• Apply strong visual storytelling and layout skills to create compelling graphics, templates, and slide decks that communicate complex ideas clearly and accessibly.
• Review and refine content produced by others to ensure it meets brand standards, communicates clearly, and aligns with marketing and business development strategy.
• Balance both execution and direction by contributing content directly while mentoring junior team members and managing vendor contributions.

Marketing Operations + Technology Integration

• Design, implement, and manage marketing operations systems (e.g., Trello, SmartSheets, HubSpot, Insightly, Mailchimp, etc) that streamline content production, workflows, and planning.
• Build infrastructure that enables accountability and transparency—ensuring deadlines, contributors, approvals, and assets are clearly tracked and aligned with firm priorities.
• Proactively manage timelines and workflows, using systems to keep team members and contributors on task, elevate high-priority items, and surface blockers, risks, or resource gaps to leadership as needed.
• Champion internal adoption of new tools and processes by training users, creating templates, and aligning tools with cross-functional needs.
• Analyze and report on performance data across marketing channels (e.g., social media, newsletters, proposals), using insights to refine strategies and demonstrate ROI.
• Research, test, and integrate AI and automation tools to improve efficiency and scalability of content creation, design, project management, and campaign execution.
• Act as a systems champion across the team—ensuring marketing tools and workflows are well-integrated, user-friendly, and aligned with firm-wide goals.

Strategic + Cross-Functional Growth

• Collaborate on long-term planning for firm visibility, brand positioning, and marketing investment.
• Contribute to visibility initiatives including the firm’s 10-year anniversary campaign, thought leadership, and conferences.
• Serve as a bridge across teams, ensuring that marketing reflects insights from our project work and client partnerships.

Skills, Knowledge and Expertise

We’re looking for a creative, detail-oriented marketing professional who brings both strategic vision and hands-on skills—someone excited to work at the intersection of urban strategy, equity, and communications.

• 3–6 years of experience in marketing, communications, or business development in a mission-driven or professional services setting.
• Expert fluency in English, with exceptional command of grammar, tone, and structure across formats and audiences.
• Excellent writing and editing skills—able to craft persuasive, engaging content in both sales-driven and layperson-friendly language for proposals, pitches, social media, press, and digital platforms.
• Strong visual communication skills with the ability to either design high-impact content directly (e.g., in Adobe Express/Canva, Adobe Creative Suite, InDesign, Wix, Figma) or effectively manage and direct external designers and content creators.
• Project management expertise—comfortable managing timelines, priorities, and deliverables across cross-functional contributors and stakeholders.
• Demonstrated experience using marketing data and KPIs to evaluate campaign and channel performance, and refine strategy accordingly.
• Familiarity with website content management, including direct experience managing and updating websites using Wix (highly preferred) or similar tools.
• Curiosity and comfort with emerging technologies, including AI tools and automation for content creation, marketing operations, and process improvement.
• Deep cultural competency and demonstrated commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging—able to incorporate inclusive storytelling and audience awareness into all communications.
• Familiarity with platforms like Insightly, MailChimp, HubSpot, Airtable, Smartsheets, Trello, Google Suite, or other marketing and CRM systems.
• Adaptable, organized, collaborative, and excited to contribute both big-picture strategy and day-to-day execution.

Benefits

• Wellness: Access to in-person and remote wellness services via Primary.
• Health: Medical, dental, and vision insurance; membership to One Medical.
• Rest: 20 PTO days + 7 sick/safe days, with flexible hours and remote work options.
• Savings: 401(k) with employer match; access to HSA, FSA, and commuter benefits.