Executive Director for Performance Marketing (Hybrid Opportunity)

About UMass Amherst

UMass Amherst, the Commonwealth's flagship campus, is a nationally ranked public research university offering a full range of undergraduate, graduate and professional degrees. The University sits on nearly 1,450-acres in the scenic Pioneer Valley of Western Massachusetts and offers a rich cultural environment in a bucolic setting close to major urban centers. In addition, the University is part of the Five Colleges (including Amherst College, Hampshire College, Mount Holyoke College, and Smith College), which adds to the intellectual energy of the region.

 

Job Summary

The Executive Director of Performance Marketing plays a pivotal leadership role in advancing strategic marketing planning and practices across the UMass campus system in alignment with the university’s strategic goals. This position leads transformative initiatives that position the university for sustained success, elevate its visibility as a national brand, and attract and retain diverse student populations that enable a dynamic and coveted learning community.

The role requires an individual with vast experience in full-cycle marketing with deep knowledge in marketing technology, expertise in site/search/campaign analytics, brand fluency, and an acute strategic sensibility. The Executive Director will pioneer a tiered service model, ensuring that all marketing efforts are fully integrated, data and consumer insights driven, and aligned with the University’s critical objectives. Through continuous optimization of digital and traditional marketing efforts, this position will bring a consultative approach, forward thinking mindset and executive presence as a skilled partner that plans, implements, and measures highly strategic and innovative marketing solutions.

 

Essential Functions

• Builds and implements comprehensive growth marketing plans to successfully achieve UMass Amherst brand and campus partner strategic goals.
• Ensures that the marketing roadmap leverages current technologies and emerging digital marketing innovations to achieve optimal outcomes.
• Analyzes and applies prospective and current student journey data to measure and optimize marketing campaign impact on student recruitment, engagement and retention.
• Implements a best practice internal marketing model. Ensures marketing strategies are aligned with institutional priorities in a tiered service model.
• Fosters strong cross collaborative relationships with internal teams with University Relations, particularly Media and Community Relations. Collaborates with key stakeholders to ensure that plans are cohesive, support institutional goals, and promote the university’s mission.
• Builds and maintains relationships with external vendor partners to enhance marketing capabilities and leverage industry expertise. Serves as lead partner in consultation with agencies for development and implementation of best-in-class programs.
• Effectively leads, mentors and develops team members to foster a high-performing, collaborative, and innovative work culture.
• Develops a team of account managers capable of developing and executing high impact annual marketing plans and cultivating collaborative relationships with key partners on a campus wide basis.
• Implements systems for tracking key performance indicators (KPIs) across all marketing campaigns. Assesses campaign and content strategy performance, ensures that tactics are being executed as planned, and adjusts as needed to optimize outcomes with a focus on achieving measurable results.
• Drives development and evolution of the brand strategy to position UMass Amherst as a national player, ensuring the positioning resonates with target audiences and articulates the UMass Amherst value proposition to effectively differentiate and competitively position the University in the market.
• Analyzes and applies market research, customer insights, data analytics, and target segmentation analyses to inform strategic marketing planning and execution. Applies an inventive mix of current and emerging marketing tools and strategies for maximized results.
• Oversees the end-to-end growth marketing funnel strategy, from awareness to enrollment and seamlessly integrates front and back-end strategies.
• Leverages technology including advanced data analytics, CRM tools, and marketing automation platforms. Utilizes business intelligence methodology and influences direction of strategy through data insights.
• Leads campaign optimization efforts, oversees the creation and execution of multi-channel marketing campaigns (digital, social media, email, etc.) ensuring continuous optimization based on real-time data and A/B testing results.
• Delivers compelling, user-centered messaging through a strong understan