Vice President, Marketing Operations

Compensation Range:

Position Summary

The Vice President, Marketing Operations is a senior strategic leader responsible for designing, scaling, and shaping the operating model that powers National University’s marketing and enrollment performance. This role sits at the intersection of strategy, technology, analytics, and execution, ensuring the marketing organization operates with efficiency, agility, and measurable impact in a changing discovery and enrollment environment shaped by AI, platform shifts, and changes in student behavior.

The Vice President, Marketing Operations oversees critical functions including performance marketing operations, marketing technology and automation, user experience, integrated media operations, and marketing insights. In addition to day-to-day execution, this role is accountable for modernizing how marketing works by leveraging data, AI enabled tools, and experimentation to improve targeting precision, pipeline visibility, and return on investment as acquisition models continue to change.

This leader partners closely with Enrollment, Brand, Communications, IT, and senior university leadership to drive clarity, governance, and execution while leading teams through ongoing change. Success requires strategic vision, operational rigor, technical fluency, and the ability to lead confidently through ambiguity.             

Essential Functions:

• Lead the development and execution of a long-term marketing operations strategy that enables scale, efficiency, and performance in a changing marketing and enrollment environment.
• Lead the use of data, analytics, automation, and AI enabled capabilities to improve targeting, personalization, forecasting, and decision making across the inquiry to start lifecycle.
• Provide executive oversight of performance marketing operations, marketing technology platforms, CRM and automation integrations, analytics, and UX optimization to ensure systems are effective, scalable, and aligned.
• Establish and maintain governance frameworks and workflow standards that balance speed with rigor, ensuring compliance, data integrity, and operational excellence.
• Lead marketing insights functions to deliver actionable recommendations on channel mix, spend allocation, conversion improvement, and pipeline performance.
• Serve as a strategic operating partner to Enrollment leadership, aligning demand generation, lead management, and operational execution to improve efficiency and student outcomes.
• Lead teams through organizational, process, and technology change by providing clarity, prioritization, and momentum during periods of change.
• Own the marketing operations and media budget, ensuring disciplined investment, strong ROI, and alignment with institutional priorities.
• Manage vendor and agency relationships including selection, contracting, and performance oversight.
• Attract, develop, and lead a high performing marketing operations organization, fostering accountability, collaboration, and continuous improvement.
• Other duties as assigned.

Supervisory Responsibilities: Leads the Marketing Operations team, including internal staff and agency partners. Responsible for hiring, performance management, coaching, and long-term capability development.

Requirements:

Education & Experience:

• Bachelor’s degree in marketing, Communications, Business, Analytics, or a related field. Master’s degree preferred.
• 15 or more years of progressive experience in marketing operations, performance marketing, analytics, or related disciplines.
• Minimum of 6 years in a senior or executive leadership role.
• Demonstrated experience leading marketing operations during periods of significant change.
• Experience in higher education or similarly complex, regulated environments preferred.

Competencies/Technical/Functional Skills:

• Proven ability to design, implement, and scale modern marketing operating models that drive efficiency, transparency, and measurable outcomes.
• Strong experience in marketing technology ecosystems including CRM, marketing automation, analytics, attribution, and experimentation platforms.
• Clear understanding of AI driven marketing trends and their impact on discovery, targeting, content, and performance measurement.
• Strong analytical skills with the ability to translate complex data into clear, executive level insights and recommendations.
• Demonstrated success partnering across Marketing, Enrollment, Brand, Communications, IT, and Analytics within a cross functional organization.
• Experience leading teams through ambiguity, transformation, and evolving performance expectations.
• Strong executive presence with the ability to influence senior leaders and guide decision making.
• Champions National University’s Ways of Working by building a culture of trust, accountability, and executional discipline, providing clarity, direction, and momentum for teams navigating significant organizational and market change.
• Commitment to embedding diversity, equity, and inclusion principles into team culture, processes, and outcomes.

Location: Remote, USA

Travel: up to 20% travel

#LI-Remote

Candidate receiving offers will be offered a salary/pay rate commensurate with experience that vary based on a candidate’s qualifications, skills, and competencies.  Absent exceptional circumstances, candidates will be offered a salary within this range for this position. The minimum salary will be offered based on the minimum exemption threshold based on state of residency. Base pay is one component of National University’s total rewards package, as we are dedicated to supporting the needs of the “whole you” with our holistic approach to employee benefits by offering comprehensive well-being benefits for you and your family.  For full details about our benefit plan offerings, please visit benefits.nu.edu. For Part-time benefits, please click here.

National University is committed to maintaining a high-quality workforce representative of the populations we serve. National University employs more than 4,500 faculty and staff and serves over 45,000 students. We are united in our mission to meet the global education demands of the 21st Century and are dedicated to creating a supportive academic and work environment that allows students, faculty and staff to develop their interests and talents while experiencing a sense of community. With programs available both online and at our many campus locations, National University is a leader in creating innovative solutions to education and meeting the needs of our student population, including adult learners and working professionals.

National University (NU) is proud to be an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate against any employee or applicant per applicable federal, state and local laws. At NU, a mix of highly talented, innovative and creative people come together to make the impact of a lifetime for each of our student learners. All qualified applicants will receive equal consideration for employment, education, and admission at National University.