Senior Manager, Marketing

If you're passionate about building a better future for individuals, communities, and our country-and you're committed to working hard to play your part in building that future-consider WGU as the next step in your career.

Driven by a mission to expand access to higher education through online, competency-based degree programs, WGU is also committed to being a great place to work for a diverse workforce of student-focused professionals. The university has pioneered a new way to learn in the 21st century, one that has received praise from academic, industry, government, and media leaders. Whatever your role, working for WGU gives you a part to play in helping students graduate, creating a better tomorrow for themselves and their families.

The salary range for this position takes into account the wide range of factors that are considered in making compensation decisions including but not limited to skill sets; experience and training; licensure and certifications; and other business and organizational needs.

At WGU, it is not typical for an individual to be hired at or near the top of the range for their position, and compensation decisions are dependent on the facts and circumstances of each case. A reasonable estimate of the current range is:

Job Description

What You'll Do:

The Senior Marketing Manager role is expected to demonstrate creativity, strategic thinking and planning, and to develop ideas from the ground up and oversee their implementation. This position deploys a wide range of marketing initiatives that drive awareness and enrollment goals. This role will work with various stakeholders, in particular Partnership Relations and Business Development, on high-level projects and programs that promote WGU to prospective and existing partners, to include annual marketing programs strategies, creative projects, website needs, direct marketing, and other core elements of the marketing effort. The Senior Manager will have a proven track record in developing and executing brand marketing, direct marketing, digital marketing, and non-digital marketing efforts. This role requires a strategic thinker and a results-driven, data-focused, detail-oriented, highly organized team player who can work in a rapidly- evolving environment. The Senior Marketing Manager provides leadership and direction to a small team. As a member of our Marketing Leadership team, you will be responsible for helping develop, implement, and track WGU Business-to-Business (B2B) marketing initiatives.

This individual will work collaboratively with the Director of B2B Marketing and the Directors for Portfolio Strategy and Growth, Healthcare Partnerships, Community College Partnerships, Military Engagement and School District Partnerships.

Main Responsibilities Include:

• In partnership with the Director of B2B Marketing and Partnership Relations, helps identify and develop the strategy for marketing programs, including messaging, audience segmentation, timing, creative, flow, and results in analysis.

• Manages day-to-day operations for assigned areas, which may include the production of complex campaigns including creation, set up, segmentation, scheduling, and tracking.

• Develops and executes marketing plans while working with writers, designers, and developers to develop message direction, marketing collateral, and website updates.

• Manages the Manager of Communications and leads copywriting efforts, including external copywriting projects.

• Develops and creates email tests and other types of test strategies to refine communication performance, including content, images, colors, messages, subject lines, etc.

• Provides support for a continuous research effort, tracking competition, evaluating alternative product strategies, and exploring new ways to deliver the WGU message to partnerships persuasively.

• Provides support to the Director for the annual marketing plans and related budget.

• Ensures project deadlines are met and followed to completion.

• Guides implementation and execution of marketing campaigns in support of other WGU Partnership Relations, such as Business Development and Partnership Success.

• Maintains effective reporting capabilities that track performance against targets, and provides strategic guidance with analytic efforts - e.g. website analytics, conversion analysis, etc.

• Participates in training programs and professional development workshops and conferences as appropriate to maintain currency in skills and trends related to sales, marketing, enrollment, market research, management, and higher education.

• Creates a department culture in which individuals hold themselves accountablefor assignedprojects and areas of responsibilities. Provides useful feedback and works with employees to correct deficiencies and recommends and implements corrective action and discipline.

• Coaches, mentors, and assists in the professional development of managers and team members.

• Supports employee engagement and performance recognition programs.

• Participates in department and area staffing activities, including candidate interviewing and selection.

• Communicates and collaborates with all WGU leadership to ensure coordination of operational activities and initiatives are streamlined and effective.

• Performs other related duties as assigned.

Knowledge, Skill and Abilities You'll Need to Be Successful:

• Detailed/deadline-oriented with excellent project management skills.

• Strong analytical skills, including experience with testing design, customer segmentation, tracking, and interpreting results.

• Strong leadership acumen and the ability to coach direct reports for high performance.

• Deep experience with marketing and communications copywriting and messaging.

• Superior knowledge of B2B marketing strategies.

• Ability to build relationships and influence at all levels in a highly matrixed environment.

• High-level understanding of and advanced experience with marketing principles and tactics for both digital and non-digital channels.

• Robust strategic analysis skills -- the ability to review data and research reports and identify significant trends, implications, and opportunities.

• Disposition for data-driven decision making.

• Excellent Excel and reporting analytics capabilities.

• Basic understanding and knowledge of HTML.

• Experience with Salesforce CRM, and Google Analytics, or equivalents.

• Ability to develop and lead contractors.

• Proven experience participating in and collaborating with cross-functional teams and personalities successfully.

• Results-oriented, with the ability to make decisions quickly and guide projects efficiently, while following sound strategy.

• Ability to lead, build, and coach high performing teams to ensure projects, initiatives, or other work functions are performed successfully.

• Ability to lead change and maximize team contributions.

• Ability to build strong relationships with direct reports, inspire employee engagement, support a positive environment, and help remove obstacles for team members.

• Ability to effectively teach colleagues and direct reports to facilitate growth in their careers and to help the organization scale.

• Knowledge and ability to practice selfless leadership, possessing an unwavering commitment to supporting the entire team to be successful.

• Proficient in MS Office Suite, particularly Excel, Word, and PowerPoint.

Minimum Qualifications:

Education:

• Bachelor's degree required

Experience:

• 7 years relevant experience (e.g marketing, B2B, Strategic partnership experience, etc.) with a minimum of 3 years leading a team.

• Requires significant management knowledge to lead the department. Generally, has advanced level knowledge and skills within a specific technical or professional discipline with an understanding of the impact of work on other areas of the University.

Preferred Qualifications:

• MBA

• Deep experience in both digital and non-digital marketing

• 5+ years of experience in marketing campaign planning and execution.

• 4+ years of people-leading experience, leading teams in meeting marketing program goals and objectives.

Physical Requirements:

• Prolonged periods sitting at a desk and working on a computer.

• Must be able to lift up to 15 pounds at times.

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Position & Application Details

How to Apply: If interested, an application will need to be submitted online. Internal WGU employees will need to apply through the internal job board in Workday.

Additional Information

Disclaimer: The job posting highlights the most critical responsibilities and requirements of the job. It's not all-inclusive.

Accommodations: Applicants with disabilities who require assistance or accommodation during the application or interview process should contact our Talent Acquisition team at recruiting@wgu.edu.

Equal Employment Opportunity: All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to any protected characteristic as required by law.