New

Vice President, Marketing Strategy

Western Governors University
life insurance, flexible benefit account, parental leave, paid time off, paid holidays, sick time
United States, Utah, Salt Lake City
3949 South 700 East (Show on map)
Mar 03, 2025
If you're passionate about building a better future for individuals, communities, and our country-and you're committed to working hard to play your part in building that future-consider WGU as the next step in your career. Driven by a mission to expand access to higher education through online, competency-based degree programs, WGU is also committed to being a great place to work for a diverse workforce of student-focused professionals. The university has pioneered a new way to learn in the 21st century, one that has received praise from academic, industry, government, and media leaders. Whatever your role, working for WGU gives you a part to play in helping students graduate, creating a better tomorrow for themselves and their families. Job Description The Vice President, Marketing Strategy is a visionary leader responsible for driving brand awareness, audience engagement, and market growth for WGU across B2C and B2B audiences. This role leads a high-performing team of brand, audience, and product marketers to enhance WGU's reputation, connect prospective students with educational and professional opportunities, and support individuals in beginning their journey with the organization. Reporting directly to the Head of Marketing, the Vice President plays a critical role in shaping organization-wide growth strategies. This includes developing deep audience insights, understanding product-market fit, and analyzing competitive landscapes to inform strategic direction. The Vice President works with senior department leadership to allocate a $XXXM budget across various audiences, geographic regions, and academic/business entities to drive long-term brand development and enrollment growth. Essential Functions and Responsibilities: Strategic Leadership: Leads a large team of marketing leaders to develop and execute brand, audience, product, market, channel, and competitive insights that drive growth strategies and action plans. Enterprise-Wide Influence: Partners with senior executives and cross-functional leaders to define and implement annual operating plans and budgets that align with WGU's mission and long-term strategic vision. Brand & Reputation Development: Establishes a compelling long-term brand vision that drives WGU's reputation across strategic B2C and B2B audiences and markets, while also meeting short-term performance and efficiency targets. Performance Optimization: Oversees marketing investments, working closely with creative, media, web, and agency teams to ensure brand consistency, campaign effectiveness, and optimization of performance marketing initiatives. Data-Driven Decision Making: Defines KPIs and oversees reporting, forecasting, and root-cause analysis to ensure marketing strategies deliver measurable results and adapt dynamically to market trends. Cross-Functional Collaboration: Fosters strong relationships with executive leaders, particularly VP- and Officer-level stakeholders, to facilitate enterprise-wide information sharing, cooperative strategy development, and cross-organizational alignment. People & Team Development: Mentors and develop leaders within the Marketing Strategy organization and across the department, fostering a high-performance culture and continuous innovation. Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities: Strategic & Analytical Acumen: Strong ability to synthesize complex data, identify key trends, and translate insights into impactful business strategies. Innovative & Visionary Thinking: Insatiable curiosity and the ability to anticipate industry trends, challenge the status quo, and turn ambitious ideas into tangible results. Action-Oriented Leadership: Proactively drive strategy execution, balancing vision with tactical implementation and readiness to pivot based on outcomes. Ownership & Continuous Improvement Mindset: Relentless commitment to growth, innovation, and operational excellence. Comprehensive Marketing Expertise: Deep fluency across diverse marketing disciplines, including brand marketing, digital and traditional media, SEO, content marketing, partnerships, and event marketing. Executive Stakeholder Management: Experience in managing direct relationships with senior executives (up to C-level), providing strategic counsel, and influencing decision-making. Exceptional Communication: Ability to articulate complex marketing strategies persuasively to executive audiences, cross-functional teams, and external stakeholders. Project & Organizational Leadership: Expertise in managing large-scale projects, ensuring seamless execution of initiatives, and meeting critical deadlines. People Leadership & Talent Development: Proven success in hiring, mentoring, and managing teams of individual contributors and people leaders to achieve ambitious performance targets. Influence & Cross-Functional Collaboration: Ability to drive alignment and action both with and without direct reporting authority across diverse teams and senior leadership. Qualifications: Minimum Qualifications: Bachelor's degree in a relevant field. 10+ years of progressive experience in multi-disciplinary marketing (i.e., brand, product, performance, etc.), demonstrating increasing levels of responsibility, leadership, and strategic impact across diverse marketing disciplines and functions. 8+ years of leadership experience managing and developing high-performing teams. Preferred Qualifications: Industry experience in higher education and/or areas relevant to WGU schools (e.g., healthcare, K12 education, technology). MBA, MS Marketing, or other relevant graduate degree. Client-facing agency experience. Working Conditions Based in WGU's Salt Lake City office; primarily in-person. Occasional travel (up to 20%) is required. #LI-ZARD Position & Application Details Full-Time Regular Positions (classified as regular and working 40 standard weekly hours): This is a full-time, regular position (classified for 40 standard weekly hours) that is eligible for 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; and 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, and other paid leaves, including up to 12 weeks of parental leave. How to Apply: If interested, an application will need to be submitted online. Internal WGU employees will need to apply through the internal job board in Workday. Additional Information Disclaimer: The job posting highlights the most critical responsibilities and requirements of the job. It's not all-inclusive. Accommodations: Applicants with disabilities who require assistance or accommodation during the application or interview process should contact our Talent Acquisition team at recruiting@wgu.edu. Equal Opportunity Employer: We are an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability or protected veteran status.