IT Communication Manager

TechForce Foundation is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) working nationwide to support technical education and the professional technician workforce. We help students explore the career path, pursue their technical training through scholarships and grants, and connect with apprenticeships and jobs in the automotive, trucking, collision, aviation, restoration, motorsports, HVAC, welding, stationary engines, and numerous other industry sectors that rely on this skilled workforce.

Position Summary

The IT Communication Manager is responsible for designing, building, and maintaining TechForce's automated communication ecosystem across SendGrid, HubSpot, and internal database systems. This role constructs the communication "skeleton" for the entire user lifecycle from early interest to scholarship completion to job placement and ensures alignment between student journeys, partner communication, and development lead routing. The IT Comm Manager partners closely with Marketing, IT, Scholarships, Development, and Schools to ensure sequencing is accurate, automated, scalable, and strategically aligned with TechForce's pipeline-to-placement goals

Job Duties

Lifecycle Architecture & Journey Design

Build the foundational "skeleton" of all lifecycle communication journeys across SendGrid and HubSpot. Use existing audits to establish accurate structure, logic, sequencing, and cross-platform alignment. Ensure all journeys clearly follow the user lifecycle—from initial interest to scholarship completion to job readiness—while eliminating overlap, gaps, or conflicting automations.

SendGrid Automation Management (Students)

Design, maintain, and optimize all student-facing email and SMS sequences for a database of over 250,000 users. Implement stage-based workflows that support exploration, scholarship application progress, award notifications, and job placement steps. Ensure high deliverability, clean segmentation, and reliable progression through all pipeline stages.

HubSpot Automation for Schools, Partners & Events

Develop and manage workflows for school contacts, donors & partners, events, and scholarship-related communication inside HubSpot. Ensure accurate routing, task automation, and communications that support engagement, follow-through, and organizational priorities across departments.

Scholarship & Career Readiness Sequencing

Create automated touchpoints and reminders that prevent scholarship applicants from becoming stuck in draft or stalled in Academic Works. Build communication flows that guide recipients from award status to training completion and into job readiness. Ensure transitions between scholarship and career stages are clear, timely, and fully supported by automated sequencing.

Lead Generation & Routing for Development

Implement systems for capturing and routing website leads directly into HubSpot. Ensure proper categorization, automation, and follow-up workflows that support donor engagement and partnership development.

Cross-Department Coordination

Collaborate with Marketing, Scholarships, Development, Schools, and IT to ensure all communication workflows align with stakeholder needs and the overall pipeline-to-placement strategy. Integrate sequencing with existing processes and fill structural gaps as needed.

Other duties as assigned.

Knowledge, Skills, & Abilities

Must-Haves

• Strong understanding of lifecycle automation and communication sequencing
• Proficiency with SendGrid, HubSpot workflows, and related integrations
• Experience designing email/SMS journeys based on user behavior and lifecycle stage
• Strong analytical and technical problem-solving skills
• Ability to translate business goals into technical workflow logic
• Detail-oriented mindset with strong quality assurance habits
• Ability to work cross-functionally across IT, marketing, scholarships, and development

Nice-to-Haves

• Experience with Academic Works, CRMs, or student information systems
• Experience with data routing, segmentation, and lead scoring
• Understanding of skilled career education, workforce development, or nonprofit programs
• Familiarity with Google Analytics, UTMs, or API-based integrations

Education & Experience

• 5+ years of experience building complex, multi-stage automation systems across platforms such as SendGrid, HubSpot, Salesforce, Braze, or comparable martech tools.
• Bachelor's degree in Information Systems, Computer Science, Marketing Technology, Communications, or a closely related field required. Advanced certificates in automation, CRM architecture, or martech platforms are a plus.
• Demonstrated expertise in lifecycle sequencing, including behavior-based triggers, conditional logic, cross-platform data flows, and end-to-end journey architecture for large audiences (100k+ users).
• Proven ability to diagnose and resolve automation, routing, and data-mapping issues between CRMs, databases, APIs, and communication platforms.
• Experience leading automation projects across multiple departments, translating business needs into technical workflows that reduce manual workload and improve pipeline movement.

Skills

• Lifecycle journey mapping
• Email/SMS automation architecture
• CRM workflow development
• Data routing & logic mapping
• Documentation & system auditing
• Collaboration with multi-department stakeholders

Work Environment

• Professional, corporate office environment or the opportunity to work remotely, including from a home office location.
• Regular business hours, occasionally skewed to accommodate different time zones.
• Most work is performed indoors in a climate-controlled environment. The occasional exception to this occurs in the context of special events which can include outside work in varying weather conditions.

Travel Requirements: Willingness and ability to travel as needed, estimated at 10% travel.

TechForce is an Equal Opportunity Employer and does not discriminate against applicants or employees due to race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, gender identity and sexual orientation), national origin, age, disability, genetic information or any other federal, state or local protected class.

This position description has been designed to indicate the general nature and level of work performed by jobholders within this role. Job descriptions are not intended as, nor should be construed to be, exhaustive lists of all responsibilities, skills, efforts, or working conditions associated with a job. These requirements are representative, but not all-inclusive, of the knowledge, skills, and abilities required. They are intended to be accurate reflections of those principal job duties and responsibilities essential for making fair pay decisions about the job.

Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform these essential functions. To perform the job successfully, an employee must perform each essential responsibility satisfactorily.