Senior Manager, Brand and Audience Marketing

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.

The salary range for this position takes into account the wide range of factors that are considered in making compensation decisions including but not limited to skill sets; experience and training; licensure and certifications; and other business and organizational needs.

At WGU, it is not typical for an individual to be hired at or near the top of the range for their position, and compensation decisions are dependent on the facts and circumstances of each case. A reasonable estimate of the current range is:
 

Grade: Management_Executive 608

Pay Range: $101,000.00 - $181,800.00

Job Description

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.

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.

Qualifications

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

• 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

Experience

• 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.

Preferred Qualifications

• 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

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 Employment Opportunity: All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to any protected characteristic as required by law.