Senior Manager, Brand Communications

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.

About the Role:

The Senior Manager, Brand Communications works directly with Marketing, External Communications, Office of the President, and other cross-organizational executives to define a clear brand communications plan for WGU based on the long-term 5-year strategy of the organization. This role is responsible for regular review and updates to the One WGU brand policy, online brand guide, messaging framework, and WGU visual identity. This position is responsible for developing a holistic understanding of strategic audiences, leveraging information from a wide range of sources, both internal and external, to derive actionable data and analysis. The Senior Manager, Brand Communications will bring a strong student and stakeholder voice in the establishment of messaging strategy and tone of voice to be activated across audience, channel, and department. The Senior Manager will lead an exceptional team responsible for:

• Coordinating communications and storytelling across departments and entities
• Ensuring messaging is unified, consistent, impactful, and relevant to all stakeholders and audiences
• Monitoring brand expression (logo use, copy, imagery, guidelines) and reviewing application across all departments and entities
• Evangelizing brand communication standards and messaging guidelines
• Measuring cross-audience brand health and working with accountable parties to recommend approaches
• Reviewing and approving WGU merchandise offerings

WGU has a range of distinct audiences and employs a full range of B2C and B2B marketing and communications tactics; as such, the Sr. Manager of Brand Communications is responsible for establishing a messaging direction that can be activated across audiences, channels, and departments. This role will be responsible for overseeing processes, policies, tools, and approaches to organize WGU’s communications, elevate key messages, and eliminate noise. The Brand Communications team’s work supports WGU’s mission of expanding educational access and attainment, enables continued growth, and aligns with strategic priorities set by the College, Region, and Strategic Partnerships teams.

Location: This position requires you to be located within 50 miles of Salt Lake City, UT with the ability to work 4 days a week in-office at our headquarters: 4001 South 700 East Salt Lake City, UT 84107 and one day from home.

What You’ll Do:

• Brand and Messaging Development – Work with the Chief Marketing Officer, Marketing VPs/Directors, and cross-organizational executives on key marketing and communication alignment, including establishment and ongoing refinement of messaging frameworks that define positioning, attributes, and proof points.

• Brand and Messaging Activation – Collaborate with partners across Marketing and other organizations to execute brand and messaging strategies. Track and report on success of initiatives and impact on relevant performance targets.
• Go-to-Market Support – Act as the liaison and voice of the WGU brand to support cross-functional teams bringing new WGU programs, courses, entities, and other offerings to market.
• Long-Term KPI Tracking – Work with internal/external resources to track and drive progress against a range of long-term brand objectives, including brand health (e.g., awareness, familiarity, consideration, perceptions) and growth of strategic audiences.
• Team Leadership – Hire, develop, and inspire a high performing Brand Communications team.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities You’ll Need to be Successful:

• Deep brand communications experience including evolving/up-leveling existing brands and bringing new brands to market through coordinated communications and messaging efforts.
• Knowledge of best practices for managing unified brand communications across multi