Senior Manager, Partner Brand Strategy

Risepoint

About The Position

Risepoint is seeking a Senior Manager, Partner Brand Strategy to lead the Partner Brand Strategy workstream for its portfolio of more than 100 university partners. The role establishes and scales the discipline’s operating model, including intake, prioritization, positioning and messaging standards, brand kit frameworks, creative brief standards, and ways of working across the portfolio. It leads a small team of Brand Strategists, sets priorities, allocates resources, and serves as the senior escalation point for complex partner needs. The role reports to the Sr Director, Partner Content & Brand Strategy. The position develops differentiated partner and program-portfolio positioning and messaging informed by competitive research, student insights, campaign performance, and AEO insights. It partners with Integrated Marketing, Content Strategy, SEO/AEO, Paid Media, Lifecycle, Digital Experience, Research & Insights, Community Engagement, and an external creative agency. A major focus is creating and maintaining partner brand kits that define positioning, voice, proof points, and AEO guidelines for how partners appear in AI search and answer engines. The role also brings an AI-fluent approach to research and scalable team workflows. Success includes differentiated partner positioning, briefs and content plans that consistently reflect student insights and partner voice, brand kits in place and in use across the portfolio, stronger partner visibility in AI search, and a well-coached Brand Strategist team producing clear, executable briefs.

Requirements

6–8 years of experience as a brand strategist or brand planner, including experience leading a team and building or scaling a practice.
Experience developing brand positioning, messaging, and brand architecture across multiple brands or accounts.
Strong research and insights skills, including the ability to build student personas and turn first-party data into a clear brand narrative.
Working knowledge of answer engine optimization (AEO), including how brand positioning and content appear in AI search and answer engines and how to create actionable guidelines.

Nice To Haves

Agency background or experience managing work through an external agency.
Master’s degree in Marketing, Communications, or a related field.
Experience working across a multi-brand or multi-client portfolio, such as an agency, franchise, or higher education organization.
Hands-on experience building AEO measurement or content programs.
Experience building brand kits or toolkits for teams to use independently.

Responsibilities

Lead the Partner Brand Strategy workstream end to end, establishing intake, prioritization, positioning and messaging standards, brand kit frameworks, and creative brief standards.
Manage and coach the Brand Strategist team, set team priorities, and allocate resources across partners and initiatives according to complexity, business needs, launch priorities, and capacity.
Own the brief pipeline by translating marketing briefs into creative briefs with approved copy and messaging for channel campaigns, including paid social, email, SMS, and flyers.
Develop differentiated brand positioning and messaging for partners and their program portfolios, grounded in competitive landscape mapping.
Identify portfolio-wide brand opportunities and use campaign, AEO, and performance insights to evolve Brand Strategy practices and improve effectiveness.
Lead cross-functional alignment with Integrated Marketing, Content Strategy, SEO/AEO, Paid Media, Lifecycle, and Digital Experience on Brand Strategy priorities and approaches.
Partner with Integrated Marketing to build and maintain brand kits for every partner and vertical, covering positioning, voice, proof points, and AEO guidelines.
Partner with Content Strategy to ensure brand positioning and messaging inform content briefs, editorial priorities, and AEO content across the portfolio.
Build student personas and collaborate with Research & Insights and Community Engagement to gather insights that inform brand messaging.
Lead the most complex and high-impact brand initiatives and serve as the senior Brand Strategy resource for complex or escalated partner needs.
Brief creative and content teams on larger brand campaigns.
Set the working rhythm with the external creative agency.
Stay fluent in AI workflows and use AI tools to scale the team’s work.