Marketing Automation & Optimization Manager

Marketing Automation and Optimization Manager
American Public Education Inc.

The Marketing Automation and Optimization Manager is charged with supporting enterprise-wide marketing automation solutions that fuel the customer experience for a portfolio of educational institutions. The role will be responsible for participating in strategic development while managing the execution of customer campaigns and supporting of customer journeys. A liaison between technical and business stakeholders, the Manager, Marketing Automation and Optimization will stay connected to the latest trends and best practices in email marketing, marketing automation and Salesforce Marketing Cloud to administer best-in-class communication experiences for prospective and current learners. The ideal candidate will have the ability to think “big picture” in supporting the crafting of short term and long-term strategy while also navigating the demands of the day-to-day operations.

Responsibilities:

• Work with the Customer Journey and Marketing strategy teams to deploy targeted lead nurturing and loyalty campaigns that support business objectives.
• Partner in the development and implementation of automated campaigns primarily across email and SMS, leveraging CRM system integrations and Salesforce Marketing Cloud.
• Set up and build email templates for campaigns that leverage dynamic content and variable data fields (e.g. AMPscript) to support highly personalized messages to a wide array of current and prospective customers.
• Maintain the deployment calendar to ensure clear visibility and preparation for all communication launches. Proactively monitor send schedules to ensure timing availability, prevent audience overlap, and collaborate closely with stakeholders to align on messaging cadence.
• Monitor campaign vital signs and optimization requirements including deliverability, inbox rankings, accessibility, mobile formatting, and template style consistency.
• Partner with analytics and strategy teams to understand performance dashboards that measure against established benchmarks and vital signs.
• Able to provide recommendations for continuous improvement based on performance.
• Collaborate cross-functionally with internal and external marketing, admissions, IT, analytics, and student support teams to build and optimize student journey campaigns and align automation initiatives to business goals.
• Develop, refine, and adhere to internal workflows and procedures that ensure quality, accuracy, compliance, and overall project efficiency and uphold all approval and sign off procedures.
• Performs other duties as assigned. 

Requirements:

• 5+ years of Salesforce Marketing Cloud (SFMC) experience required.
• Experience building dynamic and responsive emails within SFMC Content Builder.
• Experience working in Einstein Analytics and creating Intelligence Report dashboards and interpreting insights to support data-driven decision-making.
• Basic experience with front-end development is a plus - HTML, CSS, jQuery, and JavaScript.
• Understanding of the lead funnel and strategies to optimize lead conversions.
• Marketing experience as it relates to email nurturing, funnel optimization, and database management.
• Excellent verbal, written and presentation communication skills.
• Ability to interpret non-expert feedback to provide thoughtful recommendations and responses.
• Highly organized with an interest and curiosity for crafting efficiencies that further streamline processes.
• Familiar with business process and organizational change management.
• Proven ability to manage priorities and multiple projects and tasks simultaneously while maintaining attention to detail, consistent progress and follow-through in a fast-paced environment.
• Experience working in higher education is a plus.

Education:

• Bachelor's degree in Marketing, Business, or related field required
• Certifications in Salesforce Marketing Cloud (SFMC) required 

About Us:

Online, on campus and in the workplace, we provide higher education and training to our country’s heroes – military service members, veterans, nurses, government employees, and motivated professionals that want to make a difference. American Public Education, Inc. educates service-minded students, ranging from the military, public service, federal agencies, and nursing communities, through American Public University System (APUS), Hondros College of Nursing (HCON), Rasmussen University and Graduate School USA (GSUSA).

It is the policy of American Public Education, Inc. (APEI) to afford equal opportunit