Marketing and Communications Specialist

Location: Toronto, ON

Employment Type: Full-Time, Permanent

Department: Programming & Partnerships

Reports to: Director of GoEU

Vacancy: This posting is for a new vacancy

Company Overview

At Toronto Business Development Centre (TBDC), we're at the center of Canada's fastest-growing startup ecosystem—where global founders come to scale, raise capital, and build their future. Through flagship programs like Horizon, Pivot, GoEU, and Land & Expand, we connect entrepreneurs with the partners, capital, and growth strategies they need to succeed. Learn more at www.tbdc.com.

As TBDC continues to strengthen Canada's position as a global destination for innovation, two flagship initiatives - GoEU and Horizon - are playing a critical role in connecting Europe's most promising startups with Canada's thriving innovation ecosystem. Together, these programs are building meaningful partnerships across Europe and Canada, helping innovative companies expand internationally while creating long-term economic impact.

About the Role

This is an exciting opportunity to join TBDC during a period of significant international growth.

We are looking for a creative, digitally savvy and execution-focused marketing professional to help tell the stories behind GoEU, Horizon and TBDC's growing portfolio of innovation programs. You will play an important role in building awareness, engaging founders and partners, and showcasing the impact these programs are creating across Europe and Canada. Working closely with the marketing team, you will create compelling content, manage digital campaigns, uncover founder success stories, execute outreach initiatives, coordinate marketing projects and support strategic communications that strengthen TBDC's international presence. We're looking for someone who embraces modern marketing technology and enjoys leveraging AI tools, automation and digital platforms to create smarter, faster and more impactful marketing campaigns.

If you enjoy storytelling, startup ecosystems, digital marketing and working in a collaborative, fast-paced environment, we'd love to hear from you.

Key Responsibilities

Content & Communications

Develop engaging blogs, articles, website content, newsletters and thought leadership pieces.
Create compelling content for GoEU, Horizon and other TBDC initiatives.
Maintain editorial calendars and publishing schedules.
Coordinate content production with designers, video partners and internal stakeholders.
Ensure consistency in messaging and brand voice across all communications.
Support development of presentations, brochures, event collateral and marketing assets.

Social Media & Digital Marketing

Manage day-to-day social media publishing across TBDC programs.
Develop monthly content calendars aligned with campaign objectives.
Create engaging posts highlighting founders, partners, events and ecosystem successes.
Monitor community engagement and respond to audiences in a timely manner.
Track performance and recommend opportunities for continuous improvement.
Manage and optimize social media using platforms such as Sprout Social.

Founder Success & Storytelling

Identify founder success stories through CRM, program teams and ecosystem partners.
Conduct founder interviews and develop compelling success stories.
Create case studies, testimonials and founder spotlights.
Build and maintain a consistent pipeline of stories showcasing program impact across Europe and Canada.

Email Marketing & Outreach

Develop and execute email marketing campaigns for founders, partners and stakeholders.
Manage audience segmentation and mailing lists.
Support automated nurture campaigns and program communications.
Monitor campaign performance and optimize future campaigns based on analytics.
Support outreach campaigns to ecosystem partners and stakeholders across Canada and Europe.

Marketing Technology & AI

Leverage AI tools to support content creation, research, campaign planning and marketing productivity.
Create effective prompts and AI workflows to accelerate high-quality marketing output.
Use AI responsibly while ensuring all content meets TBDC's quality, accuracy and brand standards.
Stay current with emerging AI tools and recommend new technologies that improve marketing effectiveness.
Support marketing automation initiatives through CRM and digital marketing platforms.
Continuously identify opportunities to streamline marketing processes using technology.

Research & Marketing Support

Research startup ecosystem trends across Canada and Europe.
Monitor innovation, entrepreneurship and investment news.
Conduct competitor, partner and market research to support campaigns.
Prepare background research, briefing notes and marketing insights.
Support marketing efforts that strengthen awareness and engagement across priority European markets.

Marketing Coordination

Coordinate marketing deliverables across multiple projects and timelines.
Work closely with designers, video editors, agencies and external vendors.
Support campaign execution from concept through delivery.
Assist with webinars, events, founder showcases and promotional activities.
Ensure projects are delivered on time and to a consistently high standard.

Qualifications

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Marketing, Communications, Business, or a related discipline.

Experience

Minimum 5 years of professional experience in marketing, communications, or digital marketing.
Exceptional writing, editing, and storytelling skills.
Experience managing social media platforms for an organization or brand.
Hands-on experience with email marketing platforms.
Excellent organizational and project management skills.
Strong interpersonal and communication skills.
Ability to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced environment.

Technical Skills

Experience using CRM platforms, preferably Zoho CRM, for campaign management, segmentation, and reporting.
Experience using social media management platforms, preferably Sprout Social.
Demonstrated proficiency using AI tools such as ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, or Microsoft Copilot to support marketing, research, and content development.
Strong prompt-writing skills with the ability to use AI effectively while maintaining quality and brand consistency.
Comfortable working across a modern marketing technology stack and quickly adopting new digital tools.

What Success Looks Like in Year One

We will define clear OKRs with you before you start, so you always know where you are driving. You will be responsible for driving marketing and communications to support the sales and recruitment, engagement, and support of 70+ companies. Broadly, success looks like:

Content drives awareness. GoEU, Horizon, and TBDC programs are supported by a consistent cadence of high-quality blogs, newsletters, website updates, social content, and campaign materials that strengthen brand visibility across Canada and Europe.
Campaigns generate engagement. Email, social, and digital campaigns produce measurable engagement, including improved open rates, click-through rates, website traffic, event registrations, and qualified interest from founders and partners.
Marketing operations are organized and measurable. Editorial calendars, campaign timelines, marketing assets, and CRM data are accurate, current, and visible, allowing senior management to understand what is being delivered, what is performing, and where improvements are needed.
Founder stories showcase impact. A steady pipeline of founder success stories, case studies, testimonials, and ecosystem highlights clearly demonstrates program outcomes and strengthens TBDC’s reputation with founders, partners, and stakeholders.
AI and marketing technology improve execution. AI tools, automation, CRM, and platforms such as Sprout Social are used responsibly to improve speed, consistency, content quality, reporting, and campaign performance.

Benefits and Perks

We offer a competitive benefits package designed to support your health, well-being, and work-life balance, including:

Comprehensive health and dental benefits

Vision care coverage
Life insurance
Paid time off
Flexible float days
Convenient on-site parking
Opportunities to participate in company events, team activities, and employee experiences

TBDC does not use AI-enabled tools to support application screening. Final hiring decisions are made by real people.

TBDC

Open Positions

Marketing and Communications Specialist