Director, Content Marketing & Strategy

Chapman University Careers•Irvine, CA

7d•Onsite

About The Position

The Director, Content Marketing & Strategy, leads Chapman University’s organic search and content ecosystem, ensuring the university’s digital presence is discoverable, authoritative, and aligned with brand and enrollment priorities. This role sets the strategic direction for SEO and AI visibility performance and editorial content across chapman.edu. The Director partners closely with web, brand, strategic & editorial comms, enrollment marketing, and agency stakeholders to ensure content strategy is embedded into broader marketing, communications, and engagement initiatives, including publications.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in a related field (marketing, communications, design, or equivalent experience).
5–7+ years of progressive experience in SEO and/or content strategy, ideally with 2+ years in a people-management role.
Demonstrated experience managing enterprise-scale websites and organic search programs (higher ed, complex multi-brand, or similarly matrixed organizations preferred).
Strong command of SEO tools (e.g., Google Search Console, SEMrush/Ahrefs, Moz, Screaming Frog, GA4) and CMS platforms.
Excellent editorial judgment and writing/editing ability, with experience setting style and governance standards.
Strong interpersonal skills to work with a diverse group of individuals at all university levels.
Demonstrated project management experience — managing timelines, stakeholders, and competing priorities.
Strong ability to document technical processes and development notes for others to easily get up to speed.
Proven ability to influence cross-functional and agency partners without direct authority.
Excellent communication skills; comfortable working with both technical (dev/IT) and non-technical (department) stakeholders.

Responsibilities

Develop and maintain a university-wide content strategy that balances brand storytelling with SEO performance, ensuring content serves search and AI visibility.
Lead the editorial vision and information architecture of Chapman’s centralized storytelling platform connecting audiences with the people, experiences, and outcomes that make the university distinctive.
Own the ongoing content management of the storytelling platform including story sourcing, publishing cadence, tagging/taxonomy for discoverability, and platform performance against reach and engagement goals.
Oversee a content calendar and workflow that balances always-on organic content needs with news updates and other campaign-driven content.
Establish editorial standards, style guidelines, and a content governance model spanning web copy, blog/news content, program pages, landing pages, and Chapman’s storytelling hub.
Write and edit compelling articles and feature stories that strengthen Chapman University’s brand and support strategic storytelling initiatives.
Ensure all content reflects brand voice, accessibility standards, and institutional accuracy.
Own SEO strategy, including technical SEO, on-page optimization, keyword architecture, and organic search performance across chapman.edu properties.
Conduct ongoing technical audits (crawlability, site speed, structured data, mobile performance, etc.) in partnership with web, IS&T, and vendors.
Conduct content gap analysis and competitive research to identify underserved topics, ranking opportunities, and areas where competitor institutions are outperforming Chapman in search and AI visibility.
Build and maintain keyword and topic-cluster strategies aligned to institutional priorities and enrollment funnels, structuring content to establish topical authority across priority program and subject areas.
Monitor rankings, organic traffic, and conversion performance; report on KPIs and translate findings into actionable roadmaps.
Stay ahead of search algorithm changes (including AI-driven search/ LLM discovery shifts) and adjust strategy and university education around these shifts proactively.
Serve as SMC’s subject-matter authority on SEO and content, ensuring organic strategy is represented in enrollment marketing initiatives rather than treated as an afterthought.
Partner with the web, brand, and digital strategy teams to ensure site architecture, campaign landing pages, and paid/organic efforts are integrated rather than siloed.
Advise academic units on content and SEO best practices for admissions and program pages.
Represent SEO /content considerations in brand governance conversations, protecting consistency and search equity during redesigns, rebrands, or campaign launches.
Manage, coach, and develop setting clear goals, workflows, and growth opportunities.
Establish processes for content production, SEO execution, and quality assurance.
Model SMC’s standards for cross-functional collaboration, mentoring the marketing coordinator on stakeholder management and prioritization.