Senior Manager, Paid Marketing

When you join Sallie, you become a champion for all students.

Sallie’s Education Services team is a diverse group of growth-obsessed entrepreneurs, data analysts, engineers, and developers with a passion for imagining and building scalable businesses for students and families on their unique journey to-through and immediately after higher education. We’re on a mission to revolutionize how students and their families plan, pay and complete this journey with confidence.  Join a team of seekers, challengers and creative thinkers to change the way students plan for their future for the better.

What You'll Contribute

As a Senior Manager, Paid Media, you will be responsible for leading integrated, full-funnel paid media and affiliate marketing efforts for Education Services to acquire new members, drive engagement, and monetize relationships. You’ll oversee strategy, execution, and orchestration across search, social, display, and affiliate channels, pushing the boundaries of digital advertising and keeping us ahead of the curve.

This role requires a deep understanding of the performance marketing landscape and a sharp focus on emerging technologies, platforms, audience-led strategies, and scalable distribution approaches. The ideal candidate is data-driven and analytical, with a passion for testing, optimization, and using insights to guide decision-making in a fast-moving environment.

What You'll Do

• Strategy & Execution: Oversee the planning, execution, and orchestration of paid media and affiliate marketing programs
• Full-Funnel Optimization: Manage integrated campaigns across search, social, display, and affiliate channels to drive acquisition, engagement, and monetization
• Budget & Mix Management: Drive investment and marketplace mix strategies, leveraging data insights to optimize ROI
• Audience Planning & Targeting: Lead segmentation, audience strategy, and alignment across paid media platforms to ensure effective and orchestrated targeting
• Testing & Innovation: Design and implement testing frameworks for creative, targeting, and channel strategies, including piloting new tools, platforms and formats
• Performance Analysis: Establish, track, analyze, and report on program performance, leveraging insights to optimize channel strategies
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partner with organic social, content, digital operations, creative, analytics, marketplace and other teams to align on goals and execution
• Team Leadership: Mentor and support junior team members to foster growth and elevate execution

What you have

Minimum education, skills and experience required.

• 5+ years of experience in performance marketing, with hands-on execution across paid search, social, and display
• Proven track record of managing paid media budgets and hitting acquisition and efficiency targets
• Experience overseeing affiliate or partner marketing programs, including onboarding, performance management, and contract terms
• Ability to analyze data and use insights to drive decision-making
• Deep understanding of audience segmentation, funnel optimization, and testing frameworks
• Ability to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced, high-growth environment
• Proficiency in developing and presenting strategic plans and results to leadership
• Inherent bias for action and understand the need for speed and urgency
• Proven track record of developing and implementing successful digital marketing strategies that have driven business growth.

Preferred education, skills, and experience.

• Bachelor's degree in marketing, communications, or a related field. A master's degree is a plus.
• Background in lead generation or marketing in the education vertical
• Familiarity with marketing automation and audience targeting platforms
• Experience utilizing LTV models to drive value-based bidding
• Exposure to landing page testing, CRO, and SEO strategies
• Experience mentoring or managing junior team members
• Financial acumen and ability to understand P&L impacts
• A passion for exploring emerging platforms and technologies, with a demonstrated ability to discover and scale new traffic sources and ad channels

The Americans with Disabilities Act

The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) prohibits discrimination by employers, in compensation and employment opportunities, against qualified individuals with disabilities who, with or without reasonable accommodation, can perform the “essential functions” of a job. A function may be essential for any of several reasons, including: the job exists to perform that function, the employee h