Manager, Integrated Marketing Operations

Travel Alberta•Calgary, AB

About The Position

At Travel Alberta, we are redefining what it means to be a tourism and economic development leader in Canada. As the provincial destination management organization, we’ve embraced an ambitious goal: doubling the tourism sector to $25 billion in annual visitor spending by 2035. This bold vision reflects our commitment to transforming Alberta into a premier destination for both visitors and investors, driving sustainable economic growth while creating unforgettable itineraries and experiences that showcase our breathtaking landscapes, vibrant cities, and rich cultural heritage. The Manager, Integrated Marketing Operations reports to the Executive Director, Brand & Integrated Marketing Strategy and works closely with the Manager, Brand & Content within Travel Alberta’s integrated marketing model. Together, the Manager, Brand & Content and the Manager, Integrated Marketing Operations provide the operational leadership foundation for Travel Alberta’s integrated marketing function. While the Manager, Brand & Content leads brand storytelling, creative development, and content production, the Manager, Integrated Marketing Operations leads the distribution, activation, and performance optimization of marketing programs across paid, owned, earned, and creator and influencer channels. This role is responsible for the day-to-day leadership, execution, and optimization of integrated, always-on marketing activity. The manager ensures marketing programs are delivered in alignment with strategic priorities while leveraging data, automation, and emerging AI-enabled marketing capabilities to improve performance and responsiveness. A primary goal is driving destination awareness and converting audience engagement into high-quality referrals and measurable commercial value for Alberta’s tourism industry. The manager provides direct leadership to marketing specialists and functional direction to agency and vendor partners, ensuring high-quality execution, accountability, and alignment with approved strategies. Serving as a key steward of financial and operational discipline, this role acts as an expenditure officer for consumer marketing budgets. This includes forecasting, monitoring, and optimizing investment decisions using performance insights to ensure the efficient and accountable use of resources. Overall, this role is critical in ensuring Travel Alberta’s marketing strategy is translated into high-performing, insight-driven marketing programs that deliver audience growth, partner value, and measurable business outcomes. Success in this position is grounded in collaboration, disciplined execution, data-informed decision-making, and a strong understanding of evolving traveler behaviour and global destination marketing trends.

Requirements

Post-secondary degree in Marketing, Business, Communications, Digital Media, Commerce, or a related discipline.
A minimum of 5 years of progressively responsible experience in integrated marketing, digital marketing, media execution, marketing operations, performance marketing, or related disciplines.
3+ years of people leadership experience.
Experience in tourism, destination marketing, travel, hospitality, or consumer brand environments is considered an asset.
Experience contributing to marketing programs that support commercial or business outcomes such as engagement, referrals, or conversions.
Leading and/or supporting multi-channel marketing programs across paid, owned, earned, and social channels, preferably within a destination marketing, tourism, consumer brand, public sector, or agency environment.
Managing agency relationships, media execution, and marketing budgets with accountability for delivery and performance outcomes.
Using data, analytics, and performance insights to inform marketing decisions, optimize campaign performance, and support investment allocation decisions.
Coordinating cross-functional initiatives involving marketing, digital, analytics, communications, and external partners.
Experience working in complex, fast-paced environments with multiple stakeholders and competing priorities.
Supporting or leading integrated marketing campaigns with responsibility for execution, coordination, and performance tracking.
Working with external agencies and vendors, including briefing support, campaign coordination, and performance review processes.
Collaborating with analytics or business intelligence teams to interpret reporting and apply insights to marketing execution.
Supporting the optimization of marketing investments across multiple channels, audiences, and campaigns.
Demonstrated success in environments requiring adaptability, responsiveness, and strong organizational skills.
Strong understanding of integrated marketing execution, channel coordination, audience targeting, and campaign activation.
Working knowledge of digital marketing channels, including paid media, search, social media, content distribution, and emerging platforms.
Ability to interpret marketing performance data and translate insights into clear recommendations for optimization and improvement.
Experience working with marketing analytics platforms, dashboards, reporting tools, and performance measurement frameworks.
Understanding of evolving traveler discovery and decision-making behaviours, including search, social, creator, and emerging AI-enabled discovery environments.
Familiarity with marketing automation tools, AI-enabled marketing capabilities, and performance optimization practices.
Experience supporting procurement processes, agency coordination, and budget tracking within structured governance environments.
Ability to align day-to-day marketing execution with approved strategic priorities.
Strong analytical thinking skills with the ability to interpret performance data and identify opportunities for improvement.
Ability to assess issues, trade-offs, and priorities in a fast-paced, evolving environment.
Demonstrated ability to use data and insights to support practical marketing decisions and recommendations.
Ability to understand how marketing performance contributes to broader organizational and industry objectives.
Strong written and verbal communication skills with the ability to clearly present marketing information to internal stakeholders.
Ability to translate performance data and technical insights into clear, actionable recommendations.
Proven ability to build effective working relationships with agency partners, vendors, and internal teams.
Ability to provide clear direction and feedback within defined scope of responsibility.
Comfort operating in cross-functional environments and contributing to aligned execution across teams.
Ability to lead and support marketing specialists and contribute to team development in a manager capacity.
Strong collaboration skills with the ability to coordinate across marketing, digital, analytics, and partner teams.
Ability to support alignment across multiple stakeholders and keep initiatives moving forward effectively.
Commitment to contributing to a positive, accountable, and collaborative team environment.
Highly organized with strong ability to manage multiple priorities and deadlines.
Ability to adapt to changing priorities, market conditions, and campaign requirements.
Comfortable working in environments with ambiguity and evolving direction.
Strong attention to detail while maintaining focus on execution and outcomes.
Commitment to continuous learning, including emerging marketing tools, platforms, and AI-enabled capabilities.

Nice To Haves

A graduate degree is considered an asset.
Experience in tourism, destination marketing, travel, hospitality, or consumer brand environments is considered an asset.

Responsibilities

Lead the execution and optimization of integrated marketing programs across paid, owned, earned, and creator and influencer channels.
Ensure marketing programs are activated in alignment with strategic priorities while leveraging audience insights, automation, and emerging marketing technologies to improve targeting, timing, and effectiveness.
Coordinate the distribution feedback loop by providing performance-led insights to the Manager, Brand & Content, ensuring future content and creative development is informed by audience behaviour and market response.
Drive integration across brand, digital, social, search, and partner ecosystems to create a connected traveler journey.
Identify opportunities to improve marketing effectiveness through emerging channels, technologies, and evolving audience behaviours.
Act as the primary lead for the media agency by developing strategic briefs that translate marketing priorities into high-performing campaigns while collaborating closely with digital and creative agency partners led by other departments.
Provide functional direction to agency partners, holding them accountable for campaign performance, channel efficiency and effectiveness, and alignment with organizational objectives.
Evaluate agency recommendations and media plans to ensure they maximize audience reach, engagement, and business impact across priority markets.
Lead campaign and channel performance reviews with agency partners, ensuring optimization decisions align with organizational priorities, budget parameters, and audience objectives.
Lead the transition from manual campaign management to increasingly automated and AI-enabled optimization approaches in partnership with external vendors.
Optimize distribution strategies to drive high-quality referrals to industry partners through the ATIS platform and directly to partner websites.
Maintain an active information exchange with the partnership team to stay informed of initiatives involving destination marketing organizations (DMOs), airlines, tourism operators, and other strategic partners, identifying opportunities for coordinated marketing efforts.
Ensure paid search, social, and emerging discovery strategies reflect evolving traveler discovery and decision-making behaviours, including generative and conversational search environments.
Monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of marketing programs in driving measurable commercial value for Alberta’s tourism ecosystem.
Support integrated opportunities that strengthen alignment between consumer marketing initiatives and industry partner priorities.
Serve as the primary marketing lead partnering with the Business Intelligence (BI) team to define reporting needs, interpret performance insights, and support data-informed decision-making.
Partner with the Insights team to translate analytical outputs into clear, practical recommendations that support Director- and Executive Director-level decisions.
Collaborate with agency and internal partners to surface emerging trends and market opportunities that support more timely and informed marketing decisions.
Support the development of automated reporting and insight frameworks that improve consistency, accessibility, and timeliness across the marketing team.
Champion the use of data and performance insights to support continuous improvement and resource allocation decisions.
Act as the expenditure officer for assigned consumer marketing budgets, ensuring disciplined forecasting, monitoring, and reconciliation practices.
Manage procurement processes, including vendor selection, contract oversight, and performance evaluation, ensuring the effective and responsible use of public resources.
Optimize investment allocation across channels, audiences, and markets using performance insights to maximize return on marketing investment.
Monitor budget performance and recommend adjustments based on changing market conditions, campaign results, and organizational priorities.
Provide direct leadership and mentorship to marketing specialists, supporting workload prioritization, capability development, and professional growth.
Foster strong collaboration between distribution and content teams to ensure the integrated marketing model remains agile, responsive, and effective.
Coordinate cross-functional execution across marketing, digital, analytics, and partner teams to ensure integrated campaign delivery and operational alignment.
Promote a culture of experimentation, continuous improvement, and learning related to emerging marketing technologies, audience engagement practices, and performance optimization approaches.
Contribute to a high-performing, collaborative team culture that encourages accountability, innovation, and continuous learning.