About Inline
Inline is a civil engineering field services firm with 500+ team members across operations, finance, HR, BD, project administration, and other shared services functions. With a growing national footprint, Inline is investing in how it tells its story, builds its brand, and connects its people.
Following recent business acquisitions, including Challenger, Inline is operating multiple brands, websites, social channels, and employee populations that are not yet fully integrated. This creates a unique opportunity for a hands-on marketing and communications leader to bring structure, strategy, and consistency to how the combined organization presents itself externally and communicates internally.
Role Overview
The Manager, Marketing and Communications is accountable for what Marketing and Communications does, why it does it, how priorities are set, and what outcomes are achieved - while actively working alongside the Marketing/Design Generalist to deliver day-to-day output.
This is explicitly a player-coach role. Inline is not looking for a purely strategic marketer who directs work from a distance. The successful candidate must be capable of owning brand strategy, annual planning, budget, and the internal communications framework, while also writing content, drafting press releases, reviewing creative, and getting deliverables out the door.
The role covers external marketing, digital presence, internal and executive communications, acquisition and integration communications, and company-wide engagement activity. It works closely with the Senior Leadership Team, Operations, HR/People Operations, and Business Development.
Core Mandate
The role is built around five core pillars:
- Brand, Marketing Strategy & Annual Planning
- Digital Presence: Social, Website & Search
- Internal, Executive & Company-Wide Communications
- M&A, Integration & Public Relations
- Team, Vendor & Execution Leadership
Core Responsibilities
Brand, Marketing Strategy & Annual Planning:
- Own brand strategy and creative direction, ensuring consistency of voice, visual identity, and messaging across all channels and materials.
- Create and own the annual marketing plan, including priorities, budget, initiatives, and measures of success.
- Set and manage marketing priorities so effort is directed at the highest-value work rather than reactive requests.
- Directly participate in the execution of initiatives and deliverables alongside the team.
- Establish a clear intake and prioritization process for marketing and design requests from across the business.
Digital Presence: Social, Website & Search:
- Own social media strategy, including audience and channel strategy, roadmap, analytics, and KPIs, reviewed monthly and quarterly.
- Manage social media planning and the content calendar, supporting content creation and writing, with content divided by category to distribute work across the team.
- Review and approve all social media content prior to posting, and secure stakeholder approvals where required (cadence of 2–3 posts per week).
- Own website strategy, including SEO and AI searchability, analytics, and KPIs, while the Generalist owns day-to-day edits and administration.
- Lead blog and news article planning, content development, and writing support on a monthly cadence.
- Manage ongoing updates to project pages, including the creation of project profiles in partnership with Operations leaders.
- Monitor and oversee response to social media comments and messages.
Internal, Executive & Company-Wide Communications:
- Manage and oversee company-wide communications.
- Build and own an internal communications plan, including:
- What is communicated, at what cadence, and by whom (team member updates and departures, events, feedback, etc.)
- Communication groups and distribution structure
- Own content strategy and overall ownership of the intranet/internal communications space, with functional content developed by subject matter experts - bringing a connected space together as the organization grows and becomes inherently less connected.
- Own the All Hands (AHO) content process end to end: collect content from the Inline and Challenger teams, including project updates, team updates, and TOM/POM submissions and winner selection, on a monthly cadence.
- Treat AHO content collection as upstream content gathering that feeds downstream marketing and communications - social calendar, newsletter, and blog content.
- Support newsletter production quarterly, including content collection, edits, reviews, and written content, with the Generalist compiling and designing; assist with in-person newsletter logistics and mailing.
- Draft and manage executive and internal announcements, templates, and e-signature standards.
M&A, Integration & Public Relations:
- Own communications and messaging for acquisitions, both internal and external.
- Draft press releases, announcements, and campaigns; own messaging and issue response for media and public relations matters.
- Work with the Senior Leadership Team on internal announcements, alignment, and sequencing of acquisition communications.
- Lead integration planning for branding and marketing assets, and assist with execution of integration initiatives and rollout.
- Deliver outstanding integration items, including: a combined social media strategy; a combined blog and website strategy and integration plan; branding decisions for Challenger and its subsidiaries.
Team, Vendor & Execution Leadership:
- Manage the Marketing/Design Generalist, set clear expectations, and actively facilitate their development and skill growth.
- Act as a player-coach: lead and prioritize while staying close enough to the work to write, review, produce, and contribute directly when required.
- Facilitate weekly marketing meetings and maintain a clear view of in-flight work, deadlines, and capacity.
- Manage external partners, agencies, printers, and vendors where applicable, ensuring clear scope, cost control, and quality.
- Oversee company-wide social committees from each office - offering support, checking in, and ensuring community investment and volunteer goals are being met - and share event communications and updates internally.
- Support company-wide health and wellness initiatives, which are managed day to day by the Generalist.
- Support Edmonton and Calgary-based events including planning and facilitation where needed (Christmas parties, H&W events, days of learning, employee appreciation events, BBQs, and local volunteering opportunities).
- Support client events such as the Stampede BBQ and Christmas events, including advertising, communications, RSVP management, coordination and logistics, and client gifts.
- Assist with distribution and coordination of in-person marketing materials.
Ideal Candidate Profile
Experience:
- 7+ years of progressive marketing and communications experience, ideally in a mid-sized, multi-location organization with field operations, construction, engineering, or professional services complexity.
- Demonstrated success in a hands-on, player-coach marketing role where both strategy and personal execution were required.
- Experience owning internal and executive communications, not only external marketing.
- Experience supporting acquisition, or integration, activities across the marketing and communications spectrum.
- Experience managing or developing at least one direct report, and managing external agencies, printers, and vendors.
Functional & Technical Capability:
- Strong writer and editor - press releases, executive announcements, blog and website content, campaign copy, and internal messaging.
- Practical familiarity with AI tools in a marketing and communications context - using them to accelerate drafting, editing, research, content repurposing, and campaign ideation without sacrificing brand voice or accuracy.
- Comfortable using AI for audience, competitor, and market research, and for drafting first-pass messaging that is then refined with business and subject matter input.
- Aware of the risks around AI-generated content, including accuracy, disclosure, brand voice drift, confidentiality of company information, and copyright/likeness considerations in generated imagery.
- Curious and current - actively tracks how AI tooling is evolving in marketing, communications, and design, and evaluates new capability pragmatically against real business value.
- Working knowledge of social media management and analytics across LinkedIn and Facebook, including planning tools and performance reporting.
- Practical understanding of website management and WordPress, SEO and emerging AI search visibility, and web analytics; able to direct a web developer without needing to be one.
- Comfortable in the Adobe Creative Suite and Canva environment - able to review, direct, and produce creative even if design is not the primary strength.
- Comfortable working in a Microsoft 365 environment (Teams, SharePoint, Outlook) for internal communications and intranet content.
- Able to build and manage a marketing budget and make practical trade-off decisions.
Leadership & Business Partnership
- Strong cross-functional collaborator who can work with business leaders, and executives to extract content and drive alignment.
- Able to manage up, sideways, and down, translating business activity into clear, compelling internal and external messaging.
- Comfortable chasing content and holding contributors accountable to deadlines across multiple offices and brands.
- Sound judgment on tone, timing, and risk for sensitive internal announcements, acquisition news, and media response.
- Pragmatic, accountable, and willing to get into the work while maintaining a leadership view of priorities and outcomes.
Education & Certifications
- Bachelor's degree in Marketing, Communications, Public Relations, Journalism, Business, or a related field is preferred; equivalent practical experience will also be considered.
- Relevant certifications in digital marketing, communications, project management, or change management are considered assets.
Working Style
- Hands-on, practical, and output-oriented - comfortable owning both the plan and the deliverable.
- Strategic without being detached from the content, the calendar, and the execution details.
- Structured and organized, with a bias toward documented plans, cadences, and clear ownership.
- Comfortable operating in a growing, evolving company where priorities shift and integration work requires both structure and adaptability.
- Strong bias toward clarity, consistency, and bringing a dispersed organization together.
Why Join Inline?
- Take care of what matters most – Enjoy health care benefits for you and your family.
- Personal wellness is a priority – Use your Health and Wellness Spending Account to support your hobbies and passions.
- Investing in you – Take advantage of our Annual Training and Development Allowance to boost your skills.
- Plan for your future – Take advantage of our RRSP matching program to help you save for retirement.
- Future growth opportunities – Inline Group Inc. is growing, and so are the opportunities for you to take on new challenges and grow your career!
