Director, Marketing Operations

Opportunity

As the Director, Marketing Operations, you will play a pivotal role in overseeing and optimizing marketing operations. You will work with the Chief Marketing Officer and Marketing Leadership to manage the department deliverables using your RACI capabilities, intake direction, marketing operations knowledge and marketing components development processes. You will support and drive the departments work on key assets and all vetted program deliverables including video, creative assets, advertising, presentations, content and copy, web assets and pages, social media posts and event support, as aligned with the marketing plans. You will manage budgets, contracts and execution of agreements with external vendors and internal stakeholders, and operational communications with agencies, staff and cross organization personnel. Your expertise in marketing operations, combined with your strategic mindset, organizational agility, and operational prowess, will be instrumental in delivering high quality effort, enhancing our brand presence, increasing marketing effectiveness, and helping us achieve our mission.

You will be responsible for optimizing our marketing processes and managing resources and capabilities to deliver high quality work on time and on budget while enhancing the overall efficiency and effectiveness of our marketing efforts. If you thrive in a fast-paced, collaborative environment, are resourceful, both strategic and willing to roll up your sleeves to get things done and are proactive in identifying risks and opportunities, this is the opportunity for you.

Responsibilities

• Operations Management:
  • From determining the scope of a project to overseeing market research on the target customers, the Director, Marketing Operations works early in the project life cycle. As each project’s foundation is established, they will assign tasks, set deadlines for team members, and manage the project’s budget and resource / workforce allocation requirements — all while adjusting over the course of the project’s duration. 
  • Oversees all marketing projects from start to finish, ensuring each project meets set deadlines, budgets, and resources, reporting process and issues, alignment and resolutions to assure quality work, on time.
  • You understand our workforce, capabilities and workload and can pivot and realign internal and external support to assure prioritized, high-quality efforts deliver correctly, approved and on time. You will lead a team of operations managers to carry out the marketing vision and plans on a granular level.
  • Manages communication with stakeholders, both internally and externally, ensuring everyone has the information and buy-in needed to get the project across the finish line. 
  • Keeps all marketing deliverables on track throughout the project lifecycle by documenting, communicating, managing, and driving accountability through marketing operations processes.
  • Establishes clear line of sight to all work in progress including step-based timelines, needs and deliverable deadlines. Understands, prioritizes and manages project workloads to assure best use of workforce both internally and externally with vendors as needed.
  • Problem solves and communicates problem and solution impacts in marketing efforts.
  • Liaises with internal creative and communications departments, as well as external vendors and freelancers. Depending on their area of focus, assign tasks and steward all types of marketing projects.
• Process Optimization:
  • Develops, aligns, implements and manages RACI process for all marketing activities, assuring that identified roles and personnel are engaged and accountable on key efforts.
  • Develops and manages an intake and approval process for all marketing work requests and creative briefs, assuring vetting and alignment to proceed or decline, establishes and adheres to SLAs and communications on all work. Building and managing project schedules that are both aggressive and realistic.
  • Continuously evaluates and improves marketing processes to increase efficiency and productivity, while reducing costs.
• Creative, Content and Campaign Development Management:
  • Leads and manages workflow through internal and external production on deliverables of critical marketing needs. Assures content calendar initiatives are on time and delivered completely.
  • Oversees the intake and supports the execution of marketing campaigns assuring work is clearly approved, delivered across various channels, including owned and paid digital channels, social media, email, and events.
  • Manages the delivery of high quality, correct assets to key partners, media and other consumer facing touchpoints in keeping with organizational plans and campaign directives.
  • Assures management and support of self-service capabilities for internal and University staff for all common marketing and communications needs.
  • Leads and manages the repository of creative, content and campaign assets.
• Budget Management
  • Works with the finance and marketing teams to assure clear resource management and identifies issues and opportunities, with recommended solves, that could impact budgets.
• Technology Management:
  • Oversee the selection and implementation of marketing technology tools and platforms to streamline marketing operations and improve results.
  • Oversees the customization of software systems to support project management with a focus on ease of implementation, clear tracking and information and useability
• Vendor Management:
  • Serve as a central point of contact for vendors, maintain an inventory of current vendors, manage contracts process and contract negotiations.
  • Manages contract renewals with vendors and leaders as necessary. Aids in the procurement process of vendors with critical marketing functions.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration:
  • Works collaboratively across marketing and other departments to ensure marketing initiatives align with overall university goals. Communicates and reports progress on key deliverables and input / approvals needed on key efforts.
• Compliance:
  • Ensure that all marketing activities are reviewed and documented with compliance through standard procedures in keeping with MarCom policies, for relevant regulations and industry best practices.
• People Leadership
  • Manages a staff of operations managers in support of the overall marketing department operations efforts. Coaches, manages and supports direct reports and builds strong working relationships with their peers.
• Other duties as assigned

Qualifications: 

• Bachelor's degree in marketing, business, or a related field.
• 7-10 years of proven experience in marketing operations, marketing project management or a related role
• Proven marketing and creative project management experience in a fast-paced environment.
• In depth knowledge of marketing practices and deliverables.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to interpret data and make strategic decisions.
• Exceptional project management skills, with a track record of successfully leading cross-functional teams. Deep and relevant RACI model experience.
• Heavy process orientation with a strong attention to detail.
• Proficiency in marketing technology and automation tools (e.g., Project management tools, CRM, marketing automation, analytics, etc).
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills.
• Ability to adapt to a fast-paced, ever-changing environment where multiple projects with varying deadlines is the norm.