Organization
The Flynn is where the unexpected meets the familiar—where strangers become neighbors through shared wonder. We light up stages and communities alike with performances that inspire and moments that transform. Here, bold art feels personal—and belonging takes center stage.
The Flynn welcomes international, national, and regional artists to its stages, presenting a diverse range of performances designed to create transformative experiences for audiences. Its programming includes world-class music, Broadway, theater, dance, family performances, intimate events in Flynn Space, the annual Burlington Discover Jazz Festival around the city, and statewide art in public space presentations throughout the year.
The Flynn’s facilities include a 1,439-seat Main Stage theater, Flynn Space (a smaller black-box performance venue), education and dance studios, and a visual art gallery. These spaces support a wide range of performances, educational activities, and community events. In addition to presenting its own season and programs, the Flynn provides a performance venue for organizations such as the Vermont Symphony Orchestra, Vermont Youth Orchestra, Lyric Theatre, UVM Lane Series, and other local and touring groups.
Education and community engagement are central to the Flynn’s work. The Flynn serves participants through programs such as the Student Matinee Series, which connects schools with live performances, as well as classes, camps, and workshops for children, teens, and adults. Outreach efforts extend beyond the building, bringing performances into schools, public spaces, and communities across Vermont. Initiatives such as artist residencies, public-space performances, and student ticket programs help remove barriers to access and ensure broad participation, including partnerships with social service agencies and opportunities for emerging and local artists. Welcoming more than 165,000 attendees each year through more than 100 performances and programs, the Flynn continues to be a cultural anchor for Vermont, presenting bold, diverse, and high-quality artistic experiences that celebrate global perspectives, elevate local voices, and invite the entire community to take part in the transformative power of live performance.
The Flynn has a 22 member board of directors led by Board Chair Chiuho Sampson. The Director of Marketing reports to the Chief Growth & Impact Officer. For the fiscal year ending June 30, 2025, the Flynn reported $10.3 million in total revenue, including 53% from program services, 29% from contributions and grants, and 18% from investment income.
Sources: edited from flynnvt.org; propublica.org
Community
Burlington, Vermont, is a welcoming, highly livable lakeside city, combining neighborhood character, civic engagement, cultural activity, and abundant outdoor amenities on the shores of Lake Champlain. With a 2024 estimated population of 44,432, Burlington is a highly educated community, where 60.5% of residents age 25 and older hold a bachelor’s degree or higher. The City’s comprehensive planning work, known as planBTV, serves as Burlington’s principal guide for land use policy, long-range decision-making, and future public and private investment. Through planBTV 2050, Burlington is advancing a unified citywide vision that brings together planning, transportation, parks and recreation, and community and economic development to reflect how Burlingtonians live, work, and move through the city.
Burlington’s community life is shaped by its waterfront, parks, downtown, and arts infrastructure. The City’s Department of Parks, Recreation and Waterfront oversees more than 35 parks, more than 550 acres of open space, four public beaches, street trees and greenways, community gardens, Miller Recreation Center, Leddy Ice Arena, North Beach Campground, the Community Boathouse Marina, and a wide range of recreation programs. Residents enjoy year round access to biking and walking paths, sailing and paddling on the lake, and easy proximity to Vermont’s renowned skiing and outdoor recreation areas.
Local food culture, farmers’ markets, independent shops, and a strong sense of neighborhood identity contribute to Burlington’s appeal as a place where residents can enjoy both small city accessibility and a rich, creative community life. In this setting, Burlington offers the scale and accessibility of a close-knit Vermont city with the quality of life, natural beauty, and cultural energy of a community actively shaping an inclusive and sustainable future.
Sources: edited from burlingtonvt.gov; census.gov
Position Summary
The Director of Marketing (Director) will be a dynamic, revenue-minded brand leader responsible for building the Flynn Center for the Performing Arts’ (the Flynn) audience, accelerating ticket sales, and turning organizational priorities into compelling campaigns that move people from awareness to action. As a key leader within the Growth & Impact system, the Director will shape and execute high-performing marketing strategies across channels, using data, creativity, and audience insight to drive conversion, deepen engagement, and strengthen the Flynn’s visibility in the marketplace. Working in close partnership with Strategic Communications and Advancement, the Director will help deliver integrated campaigns that elevate the Flynn’s story, expand participation, and generate measurable results, while maintaining clear accountability for earned revenue, audience growth, and marketing ROI.
Roles and Responsibilities
Revenue & Audience Growth
• Lead marketing strategies that drive ticket sales, membership acquisition, and earned revenue growth.
• Set, track, and achieve revenue and attendance goals in alignment with organizational targets.
• Oversee audience segmentation, pricing alignment, and promotional strategy to maximize conversion and yield.
• Support priorities that strengthen the Flynn community and contribute to shared organizational success.
• Embrace other revenue and audience growth responsibilities as needed.
Campaign Strategy & Execution
• Plan and execute integrated marketing campaigns for performances, festivals, rentals, and institutional initiatives.
• Translate organizational priorities into clear, actionable marketing plans that deliver measurable results.
• Manage campaign timelines, budgets, and workflows to ensure efficiency and impact, including setting up systems that allow staff to be creative and plan work thoughtfully.
• Embrace other campaign strategy and execution responsibilities as needed.
Sales Integration & Performance
• Partner with outbound sales and rentals functions to ensure coordinated messaging, offers, and revenue strategies.
• Support effective collaboration with promoters, Broadway producers, and other partners connected to earned revenue success.
• Align marketing efforts with box office operations to optimize the full sales funnel.
• Monitor campaign performance and continuously adjust tactics to improve conversion, attendance, and revenue.
• Embrace other sales integration and performance responsibilities as needed.
Channel Management & Optimization
• Oversee paid and owned marketing channels with a focus on performance, conversion, and ROI.
• Lead paid social media strategy, digital advertising, email marketing, and audience targeting efforts.
• Partner with Strategic Communications to coordinate organic and paid social media strategies, ensuring alignment of voice, content, timing, and performance goals across shared channels.
• Use data, CRM insights (Tessitura), and analytics tools to refine targeting and optimize campaigns.
• Ensure marketing systems and tools evolve with changing audience behavior and technology.
• Embrace other channel management and optimization responsibilities as needed.
Collaboration Across Growth & Impact
• Partner with Strategic Communications to align campaigns with institutional voice, messaging, and visibility goals.
• Collaborate with Advancement to support membership acquisition and audience-to-donor pathways.
• Work across departments to align marketing strategies with programming, public-space work, and organizational priorities.
• Prioritize effective support for staff and the Flynn community.
• Embrace other collaboration across growth and impact responsibilities as needed.
Traits and Characteristics
The Director of Marketing will be a results-oriented and data-informed leader who is driven by audience growth, earned revenue, and measurable campaign performance, with curiosity about data and a feedback-focused approach to learning what is working. They will bring a strategic and practical approach to marketing, translating organizational priorities into clear plans that support ticket sales, membership acquisition, attendance, and long-term audience development, while helping the team understand and advance institutional priorities. Highly collaborative and responsive, the Director will work effectively across marketing, sales, box office, communications, advancement, programming, and rentals to ensure coordinated messaging, aligned strategies, and strong execution, bringing flexibility, realistic goal-setting, and a team-focused approach rather than working in a silo. They will be analytical and adaptable, using audience segmentation, CRM insights, campaign data, and performance metrics to refine targeting, improve conversion, and maximize return on investment. Organized and action-oriented, they will manage timelines, budgets, workflows, and channels with discipline and efficiency while remaining receptive to changing audience behavior, new technologies, and emerging opportunities. With sound judgment, creativity, and a focus on continuous improvement, the Director of Marketing will strengthen marketing operations and elevate audience engagement.
Other key competencies include:
• Time and Priority Management – The aptitude to ascertain competing priorities, resolve difficulties, and overcome obstacles, and maximize the use of time and resources to attain the desired outcomes.
• Goal Orientation and Decision Making – The ability to set and pursue goals, while analyzing all aspects of each situation to consistently make sound decisions.
• Problem Solving and Flexibility – The facility to analyze a problem and formulate a solution while remaining adaptable and responsive to change.
• Teamwork – The proficiency to work effectively and cooperatively as part of a team.
Qualifications
A minimum of seven to 10 years of experience in marketing leadership, audience development, or a related field is highly desirable. Demonstrated success driving earned revenue through marketing strategy and execution is highly valued, as is an understanding that success extends beyond ticket goals to ensuring broad awareness of the Flynn’s full range of activities. Strong analytical skills and comfort working with performance data, metrics, and campaign results are essential, including curiosity about real data, data fluency, and measures of impact beyond attendance alone. Experience leading teams, managing complex campaigns, and translating audience insights into effective marketing strategies is needed, particularly within producing and/or presenting environments where organizations and audiences are navigating both traditional and hybrid engagement models. Demonstrated fluency with evolving digital marketing tools, platforms, and audience engagement strategies is highly valued. Experience with Tessitura is necessary. A bachelor’s degree is desirable, and an advanced degree or equivalent experience is preferred.
Compensation and Benefits
The Flynn offers a comprehensive compensation and benefits package, including an annual salary range of $120,000 to $125,000, and a benefits package that includes health, dental, and vision insurance coverage, Safe Harbor 401(k) contributions, and paid time off.
Applications and Inquiries
To submit a cover letter and resume with a summary of demonstrable accomplishments (electronic submissions preferred), please visit https://artsconsulting.com/opensearches/flynn-center-for-the-performing-arts-seeks-director-of-marketing/
The Flynn is committed to creating an inclusive workplace that promotes and values diversity. We strive to be diverse in age, gender identity, race, sexual orientation, physical or mental ability, ethnicity, and perspective. Our goal is to build and maintain an organization where everyone can do their best work. We believe that people of color, people from working class backgrounds, women, and LGBTQ people must be centered in the work we do, we strongly encourage applications from people with these identities or who are members of other marginalized communities.