Senior Manager, Brand and Audience Marketing

Western Governors University•Salt Lake City, UT

7d•$101,000 - $181,800

About The Position

The Senior Manager, Brand & Audience Marketing defines and drives the strategy that connects WGU’s brand positioning with the needs and motivations of key audiences. This role leads, develops, and elevates a team of brand marketers—providing strategic direction, coaching, and mentorship to help them deliver differentiated brand storytelling, effective audience strategies, and disciplined execution across channels. As the steward of both brand integrity and audience insight, this leader ensures unified messaging, clear differentiation, and measurable growth across all priority segments and schools. Working closely with Marketing leadership, School Marketing leaders, External Communications, Regional Operations, and Partnerships, this leader develops and executes marketing strategies that expand awareness, strengthen brand equity, and increase new student intenders and applications. The role balances strategic planning with hands-on execution, overseeing the team’s work across brand platforms, audience definition, creative input, and market insights—all in service of WGU’s mission to expand access to higher education.

Requirements

Ability to strategize and develop successful multi-channel marketing campaigns to grow audience, engagement and conversion
Exceptional strategic thinking, communication and stakeholder influence
Strong quantitative and qualitative skills with the ability to synthesize insights.
Expertise in audience segmentation, campaign analytics, and messaging development.
Adept and managing complex projects and competing priorities.
Experience with AI and martech platforms to enhance performance and efficiency.
Bachelor’s degree in marketing, communications, or related field
7+ years in marketing strategy, brand management, or audience marketing.
Proven success in developing integrated B2C and B2B campaigns with $5M+ annual budgets.
Demonstrated experience leading cross-functional initiatives and managing teams.
Deep knowledge of higher education or mission-driven consumer sectors preferred.

Nice To Haves

Multicultural marketing experience
Industry experience in higher education and/or areas relevant to WGU colleges (e.g., business, healthcare, K12 education, IT)
Master’s degree in marketing, communications, or related field

Responsibilities

Brand & Messaging Strategy Partner with senior leaders across the organization to ensure brand consistency and alignment with the One WGU brand policy and related visual identity.
Manage brand health tracking (awareness, familiarity, perception, and consideration) and translate insights into actionable initiatives.
Lead the strategy and execution of seasonal and hero campaigns for WGU taking overarching brand messages tomarket to drive Intender and Application growth.
Collaborate with media, creative, and analytics teams to implement fully integrated programs across TV, OTT, radio, OOH, digital, and partner channels.
Audience Marketing & Campaign Execution Develop and execute audience-specific marketing plans for high-priority segments (e.g., Military, Community College, Hispanic learners).
Leverage deep understanding of audience behaviors, motivations, and emotional drivers to craft culturally relevant, insight-driven campaigns.
Collaborate with media, creative, and analytics teams to implement fully integrated programs across TV, OTT, radio, OOH, digital, and partner channels.
Translate research into compelling creative briefs and campaign messaging that connect audience insight to WGU’s brand purpose.
Cross-Functional Collaboration Serve as liaison between Marketing, Partnerships, Regional Operations, and Enrollment to ensure unified go-to-market efforts.
Support field and partner marketing teams with audience insights, creative assets, and localized campaign execution.
Coordinate efforts with External Communications, Government Relations, and Alumni to build consistent market presence.
Leadership & Innovation Hire, coach, and inspire a high-performing team of brand marketers—setting clear expectations, nurturing growth, and providing strategic mentorship in brand positioning, audience targeting, and marketing best practices.
Oversee team workflows across brand strategy, audience segmentation, insights development, and cross-channel messaging to ensure quality, consistency, and alignment with university priorities.
Manage multimillion-dollar budgets to ensure efficiency, accountability, and measurable ROI across brand and audience programs.
Champion the responsible use of AI and emerging marketing technologies to enhance personalization, insights, and efficiency—guiding the team in adopting innovative tools while maintaining strong brand governance and integrity.

Benefits

bonuses
medical, dental, vision, telehealth and mental healthcare
health savings account and flexible spending account
basic and voluntary life insurance
disability coverage
accident, critical illness and hospital indemnity supplemental coverages
legal and identity theft coverage
retirement savings plan
wellbeing program
discounted WGU tuition
flexible paid time off for rest and relaxation with no need for accrual, flexible paid sick time with no need for accrual
11 paid holidays
other paid leaves, including up to 12 weeks of parental leave