About the Position:
Role: Head of Media
Location: Roanoke, Virginia
Salary Range: $80,000 – $100,000
Benefits: 12.5% healthcare stipend (no group health insurance available), Employer-contributed Delta Dental and Vision Insurance, Employer-contributed Unum Life Insurance and AD&D Insurance, Employer-contributed Unum Short- and Long-Term Disability, Praxis SIMPLE IRA Plan with dollar-for-dollar match up to 3% of eligible compensation, Book allowance ($100/year), Educational assistance available with supervisor approval, 10 days paid vacation (first three years; increases with tenure), 9 paid holidays annually, Sick leave, parental leave, bereavement leave, and other benefits per the Employee Handbook.
Status: Full-Time, Exempt
The Head of Media is responsible for overseeing all media production, publication, and distribution at HeartCry Missionary Society (“HeartCry”). This role leads a team of writers, editors, photographers, and videographers in creating content that faithfully communicates the work God is doing through HeartCry’s indigenous missionary partners across more than 70 countries. The Media Department produces the quarterly HeartCry Magazine, an annual calendar, website content, social media, YouTube video content, and regular donor communications (emails and letters). The Head of Media serves as a steward of HeartCry’s public voice, ensuring that all communications reflect the organization’s values, theological convictions, and commitment to glorifying God rather than promoting itself.
Essential Distinction
This is not a marketing or fundraising role. In keeping with HeartCry’s financial principles — following the example of George Müller — all media communications exist to inform, edify, and give glory to God, but never to advertise our needs or solicit funds. The head of media must embrace this conviction wholeheartedly. There is zero tolerance.
Core Responsibilities:
Department Leadership & Management
- Oversee the day-to-day operations of the Media Department, including planning, prioritizing, and assigning work to writers, editors, photographers, and videographers.
- Establish and maintain production schedules for all recurring publications (magazine, calendar, donor letters, emails) and ensure deadlines are met.
- Conduct quarterly performance evaluations in alignment with HeartCry’s evaluation process, setting quarterly goals for each team member and holding them accountable to excellence.
- Foster a departmental culture shaped by HeartCry’s six core values—Disciples, Branches, Fellow-Workers, Stewards, Servants, and Soldiers—and by the “one another” passages of Scripture.
- Manage the departmental budget and submit expense reports in a timely manner per organizational policy.
- Collaborate with the President, Director of Operations, and other department heads to ensure media content aligns with organizational priorities and the Missions Department’s field updates.
Publication Management
- Quarterly Magazine: Oversee the editorial planning, writing, editing, photography, design coordination, and production of the HeartCry Magazine, including the annual Financial Year in Review feature.
- Annual Calendar: Coordinate the concept, photography, design, and production of the HeartCry annual calendar.
- Donor Communications: Oversee the writing, design, and distribution of regular donor emails and letters, ensuring tone and content are consistent with HeartCry’s convictions about prayerful dependence on God rather than persuasive fundraising appeals.
- Website: Oversee the maintenance and updating of the HeartCry website, ensuring content is current, accurate, and reflective of the ministry’s work.
Digital Media & Video Production
- Oversee the planning and production of video content for YouTube and other platforms, including missionary field reports, conference coverage, promotional pieces, and teaching content.
- Direct and coordinate videographers and editors on both in-house productions and field footage captured during coordinator travel.
- Oversee HeartCry’s social media presence across all platforms, ensuring posts are intentional, edifying, and consistent with HeartCry’s public relations policy (all official communications require the Director of Operations and General Counsel approval).
- Ensure all digital content adheres to HeartCry’s content standards—avoiding gratuitous language, imagery, or themes contrary to the character and will of God.
Visual Media & Photography
- Coordinate photography for publications, the annual calendar, social media, and the website, including both studio and field photography.
- Manage the organization’s photo and video asset library, ensuring proper cataloging, storage, and usage rights.
- Ensure that all visual media depicting missionaries, churches, and field work is handled in cooperation with our Missions department with cultural sensitivity, respect for the autonomy of local churches, and appropriate confidentiality where circumstances require.
Brand & Messaging Consistency
- Serve as the guardian of HeartCry’s voice and tone across all platforms, ensuring that communications consistently reflect the organization’s essential convictions, financial principles, and statement of faith.
- Without usurping the primacy of Christ, ensure that missionaries and donors are portrayed as the “heroes” of the ministry—not statistics or tools, but brothers and sisters in Christ—in keeping with HeartCry’s value of being Servants of God’s Servants.
- Work closely with the President, Director of Operations and General Counsel on any public statements, press communications, or responses to external inquiries, per HeartCry’s public relations policy.
Qualifications:
Spiritual & Doctrinal
- A mature Christian who can give evidence of conversion, Christian character (as described in Matthew 5:1-16; Galatians 5:22-25; I Timothy 3:1-12; Titus 1:5-9), and spiritual growth.
- Active member in a local church that professes and adheres to the same or similar doctrinal confessions as HeartCry (HeartCry has adopted the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith as its official statement of faith).
- Commitment to spiritual disciplines, biblical principles regarding home life, and unity of doctrine and purpose with the HeartCry team.
- Genuine and wholehearted agreement with HeartCry’s financial principles—particularly the conviction that the ministry does not fundraise, prod, or manipulate, but trusts God through prayer to provide.
Professional & Experience
- Minimum of 5 years of experience in media production, communications, journalism, or a related field, with at least 2 of the years in a supervisory or leadership role.
- Demonstrated proficiency in editorial planning, publication management, and content strategy across print and digital platforms.
- Working knowledge of video production, photography, graphic design workflows, and content management systems.
- Experience managing creative teams (writers, photographers, videographers, designers) with a collaborative and servant-hearted leadership style.
- Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to write and edit compelling, theologically faithful content.
Personal
- Self-motivated and detail-oriented, with the ability to manage multiple projects and deadlines simultaneously.
- Humble, teachable, and open to correction—committed to the “one another” ethic of the New Testament.
- Ability to travel internationally on occasion to capture field content and visit missionary partners (approximately 1–2 trips per year).
- Commitment to maintain strict confidentiality regarding HeartCry’s information, donor records, and sensitive field details.
Working Conditions & Expectations
- Schedule: Standard workday of 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM, with an hour lunch break, at the HeartCry office in Roanoke, Virginia. Flexibility may be discussed with the Director of Operations on a case-by-case basis.
- Remote Work: Full-time remote work is not permitted for this role. Infrequent remote work is allowable only under special circumstances (international travel, medical/personal emergencies, adverse weather) and subject to supervisor approval per the organization’s remote working policy.
- Travel: Occasional domestic and international travel for field content gathering, conference coverage, and church visits. Travel time off will be granted per HeartCry policy (one day off per five-workday workweek traveled; one day off per weekend traveled).
- Dress Code: Professional in-office attire per HeartCry policy; adaptable for external events and travel.
- Spiritual Development: The Head of Media is encouraged to pursue ongoing personal, professional, and spiritual development through the book allowance and educational assistance benefits.
Pay: $80,000.00 - $100,000.00 per year
Benefits:
- Dental insurance
- Health insurance
- Life insurance
- Paid time off
- Parental leave
- Retirement plan
- Vision insurance
Education:
Experience:
- Media Production: 5 years (Preferred)
- Communications: 5 years (Preferred)
- Journalism: 5 years (Preferred)
- Supervising: 3 years (Preferred)
- Print and Digital platforms: 3 years (Preferred)
- Content management systems: 3 years (Preferred)
- Managing creative teams: 3 years (Preferred)
- Ministry: 3 years (Preferred)
Ability to Commute:
- Roanoke, VA 24019 (Preferred)
Ability to Relocate:
- Roanoke, VA 24019: Relocate before starting work (Preferred)
Work Location: In person
