Assistant Vice President of Marketing

Flexible Learning Options & Online Degrees•Columbia, MO

3d•Remote

About The Position

The Assistant Vice President of Marketing is a strategic leader who shapes how Columbia College tells its story, attracts and retains students, and grows its national brand. Reporting to the Vice President of Communications, Marketing, and Brand Strategy, the AVP leads the marketing function across paid, owned, and earned channels and is responsible for translating institutional strategy into measurable marketing outcomes. This is a builder role. The AVP will modernize the College’s marketing operation by integrating data-driven decision making, artificial intelligence, and rigorous analytics into every stage of the funnel, from awareness through enrollment, retention, and alumni engagement. The AVP will partner closely with peers leading Strategic Communications, Community Relations and Guest Experience, and Operations to deliver one coherent brand voice for Columbia College. The successful candidate is equal parts brand storyteller, performance marketer, AI-fluent operator, analytics leader, and people-first manager.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in marketing, communications, business, or related field.
Minimum of 8–10 years of progressive marketing experience, including at least 3 years leading a team.
Demonstrated success building and executing integrated marketing strategies that drove measurable business outcomes.
Strong working knowledge of digital marketing platforms, marketing automation, CRM, web analytics, and paid media.
Hands-on experience applying AI tools to marketing work, with clear examples of measurable impact.
Strong analytical skills, including comfort interpreting data, building dashboards, and presenting insights to senior leaders.
Excellent written, visual, and verbal communication skills.
Proven ability to manage agencies, vendors, and complex projects on time and on budget.
Track record of leading, developing, and retaining strong teams.
Student-centered and mission-driven, with genuine care for the people Columbia College serves.
Strategic thinker who can also roll up sleeves and execute.
Calm, collaborative, and credible across a wide range of internal and external audiences.
Curious and intellectually honest, especially about what is and is not working.
Strong judgment, integrity, and discretion in handling sensitive information.

Nice To Haves

Graduate degree.
Experience in higher education, nonprofit, or another mission-driven sector.
Experience marketing to adult learners, online students, and military-affiliated populations.
Familiarity with Slate, Salesforce, HubSpot, Google Analytics 4, Google Ads, Meta Ads platform, and modern marketing AI tools.
Experience supporting brand work during a moment of institutional growth, repositioning, or transformation.

Responsibilities

Develop and execute an integrated annual marketing plan that advances enrollment, brand awareness, advancement, and student success goals.
Lead full-funnel marketing strategy across traditional campus, online (Columbia College Global), and military-affiliated student populations.
Translate the College’s strategic vision into compelling, audience-specific marketing campaigns for prospective students, families, alumni, donors, employers, and partners.
Steward the Columbia College brand in partnership with the VP and the Senior Director of Strategic Communications, ensuring consistency in voice, visual identity, and message architecture across all channels.
Oversee creative direction for advertising, digital content, video, web, and print, working with internal team members and external agencies as needed.
Champion the responsible, strategic integration of artificial intelligence across the marketing function, including generative AI for content, predictive models for audience targeting, and AI-assisted workflows for personalization, copy, design iteration, and campaign optimization.
Build and maintain the team’s AI playbook, including tool selection, prompt standards, brand guardrails, quality review, and ethical use guidelines aligned with institutional policy.
Identify and pilot emerging marketing technologies that improve speed, personalization, cost efficiency, and creative quality.
Develop the AI fluency of the marketing team through training, hands-on experimentation, and structured learning.
Own the marketing measurement framework, including KPIs across awareness, engagement, lead generation, application, yield, and retention.
Build and maintain dashboards that give the VP, the President’s Cabinet, and the Board of Trustees clear visibility into marketing performance and ROI.
Lead web, search, social, email, paid media, and CRM analytics, and translate insights into action with enrollment management, advancement, and academic affairs partners.
Establish a culture of test, measure, and iterate, prioritizing budget toward what works and reallocating quickly when it does not.
Partner with institutional research and IT to ensure clean data flows between marketing platforms, the CRM, and the student information system.
Oversee the College’s digital presence including ccis.edu, paid media programs, SEO, organic and paid social, email marketing, and marketing automation.
Drive ongoing optimization of the website as the College’s most important marketing asset, in partnership with IT and academic units.
Manage agency, vendor, and platform relationships, holding partners accountable to clear scopes, timelines, and outcomes.
Lead, coach, and develop a high-performing marketing team, setting clear goals, providing meaningful feedback, and creating opportunities for growth.
Build a team culture grounded in curiosity, accountability, collaboration, and a student-first mindset.
Recruit and retain talent with the right blend of strategic, creative, technical, and analytical skills.
Foster strong working relationships with peer leaders on the Communications, Marketing, and Brand Strategy team: the Senior Director of Strategic Communications, the Director of Community Relations, Events, and Guest Experience, and the Director of Operations.
Serve as the primary marketing partner to Enrollment Management, Columbia College Global, Advancement, Academic Affairs, and the President’s Office.
Contribute to institutional initiatives, including new program launches, capital campaigns, recruitment campaigns, and brand moments.
Represent the marketing function in cross-departmental working groups and on relevant cabinet-level initiatives at the request of the VP.
Manage the marketing budget with discipline and transparency, optimizing spend across channels and tying investments to measurable outcomes.
Partner with the Director of Operations to align planning, project management, procurement, and reporting standards across the office.