Senior Director, Email Marketing

At 2U, we are all in on purpose. We are motivated by our mission – to eliminate the back row in education – and connected by our shared passion to deliver world-class digital education at scale. As the parent company of edX, the world’s leading online learning platform, 2U powers more than 4,000 online higher education offerings – from free courses to full degrees. Together with more than 230 colleges, universities, and corporate partners, we are helping to unlock human potential.

Summary of Job:

The Senior Director of Email Marketing will lead a global team responsible for the email marketing strategy, execution, analysis, and performance across four business lines and the full portfolio of products across 2U/edX. This role is accountable for driving results through sophisticated email marketing tactics, automation, and data-driven insights while ensuring flawless, on-time execution. 

You will collaborate closely with senior leaders across product, engineering, compliance, partner and marketing functions, including CRM, to influence the technical and data roadmaps, proactively manage email deliverability and reputation, and troubleshoot issues across multiple teams. A key focus of the role is to create scalable, automated solutions that support full lifecycle marketing—from content design to technical deployment.

You will thrive in a fast-paced, matrixed environment, be adaptable to shifting priorities, and possess a deep understanding of email monetization, audience targeting, test design, and technical implementation. The ideal candidate is results-driven, highly analytical, and possesses a strong background in cross-functional collaboration.

Key Roles and Responsibilities: 

Leadership & Strategy 

• Lead, mentor, and develop a global email marketing team, overseeing operations across multiple levels of management.
• Foster a culture of innovation, accountability, and data-driven decision-making.
• Set and communicate team goals, aligning email marketing strategy and targets with broader business objectives.
• Manage the email marketing budget in collaboration with the SVP of Marketing, overseeing investments in tools and technologies.
• Maintain key vendor relationships, including Salesforce Marketing Cloud, ensuring alignment with business and technical needs.

Stakeholder & Cross-Functional Collaboration 

• Build strong relationships with senior leaders across product, engineering, compliance, marketing, and partner teams to ensure alignment between email marketing and broader business goals.
• Influence cross-functional roadmaps and strategies to integrate email marketing needs into product, marketing, and technical initiatives.
• Ensure compliance with global regulations (GDPR, CAN-SPAM) through collaboration with compliance, cybersecurity, and legal teams, optimizing performance while mitigating risks.

Email Channel Innovation & Operations 

• Drive email channel innovation by collaborating with product and engineering teams to influence technical roadmaps and deliver scalable, automated solutions.
• Leverage data insights and past successes to enhance email deliverability, performance, and automation.
• Regularly evaluate and improve team workflows, manage capacity, and reallocate resources as needed to ensure efficient processes and support long-term growth.

Email Analytics, Strategy & Performance Optimization 

• Monitor and analyze email performance metrics, with a focus on audience segmentation, list ingestion, and automation accuracy.
• Implement anomaly detection procedures to maintain email deliverability and operational continuity.
• Use data-driven insights to refine email strategy, segmentation, content, and campaign design, continuously optimizing results.

Expertise & Best Practices 

• Act as the internal subject matter expert on email marketing, providing training, maintaining documentation, and sharing insights with key stakeholders.
• Stay informed of industry best practices, emerging trends, and evolving regulations to ensure compliance and sustained success in email marketing.

Education and Experience:  

• Bachelors’ degree required; MBA or relevant master’s degree a plus
• 8+ years of experience in marketing, 5+ years of people management experience
• 5+ years of experience in enterprise level Email Service Provider (ESP) systems such as Salesforce Marketing Cloud, Braze
• 3+ years experience with Salesforce CRM, including integration with ESP systems
• Advanced understanding of email platform c