Vice President, Marketing - Encourage

Role Overview

Are you passionate about helping students find their path to college and career success? Encoura is looking for a VP of Marketing to lead growth for our Encourage high school student and educator programs, including nationwide adoption and engagement of the Encourage student app and educator platform. Encourage is the nation’s largest free college and career planning and exploration program for students in grades 8–12. Reporting to the Chief Marketing Officer, this role will own B2B and B2B2C marketing strategy and execution, driving student and educator acquisition, engagement, lifecycle marketing, partnerships, and integrated campaigns in close collaboration with Product, Engineering, Creative, Research, and Digital teams.

This is a hands-on leadership role for a strategic, data-driven marketer who can see the big picture while also driving execution. The VP will optimize marketing systems and channels, identify new opportunities for growth, and build and develop a high-performing team to expand Encourage’s reach and impact. We’re looking for a trusted thought leader and people leader who is passionate about education, energized by Encoura’s mission, comfortable navigating ambiguity, and ready to bring creativity, resourcefulness, and a student-centered mindset to the work.

A Day in the Life

• You will own all levers and aspects of student and high school educator marketing, including national education partnerships, digital and social campaigns, direct mail campaigns & operations, lifecycle marketing, media placements, events, website evolution, paid acquisition, SEO/SEM/ASO/AEO/GEO, and other channels and activities that you help define
• Build and grow a great team: Develop our existing team members, fill in any gaps where we need them to execute against our strategy, and build a culture of excellence; define roles and responsibilities for each position; manage professional development for all direct reports by setting clear goals, objectives, and career paths
• Drive all B2B2C marketing initiatives: achieve student, family and educator growth objectives, new customer acquisition, and engagement activities
• Own strategy execution: lead acquisition marketing efforts to build, grow and optimize all channels, including paid social, paid search, display, affiliate, direct mail, in-classroom, digital signage, and more
• Manage systems optimization through Salesforce CRM and MarketingCloud
• Co-Lead Encourage brand strategy: in partnership with CMO and Creative team, build on, develop and execute on the overall brand strategy across paid and unpaid channels (including social media, PR and partnerships). Identify key brand pillars across our products and mission and develop innovative strategies to build on and reinforce them.
• Work with our Create and Digital teams to execute a winning marketing strategy: product/growth marketing, positioning, messaging, demand generation, channel, content, sales enablement, partner marketing, social media, PR, AR and marketing operations
• Integrate deeply across the company: Marketing should be connected into everything we do! We want you to help ensure our teams across the company in content, product, design, engineering, support, sales, finance, operations and HR, are working with marketing to tell our story and put our programs in the hands (literally) of students.

Role Progression

• Within 1 month, you’ll: Learn all aspects of Encourage including products, teams, internal and external collaborations, company goals, and the importance of the connection to our higher ed products and services.
• Within 3 months, you’ll: Be actively participating in planning and strategy for marketing and expanding the Encourage program to students, families, and educators, as well as attending event(s) to promote the program and network with educators, including national partnerships
• Within 6 months, you’ll: Take the lead in making strategic decisions and driving new ideas around product/growth marketing, positioning, messaging, demand generation, channel, content, sales enablement, partner marketing, social media, PR, AR, and marketing operations.

About You

• 15+ years of experience or equivalent demonstrated impact, with strong leadership, product marketing, business development and operational skills; a track record of successfully launching and growing B2B2C offerings in K12
• Bachelor’s degree in Marketing, Business, Communications or a related field (MBA a plus) or equivalent demonstrated impact
• Expert level knowledge of paid media channels, including: social, search, affiliate, display, ASO, podcasts, webinars, etc.
• Experience in mobile app user acquisition, and using the above channels to attract and convert students in our large ecosystem to Encourage users
• An understanding of marketing automation and site management (web analytics, a/b/n testing, tag management, content management)
• Experience with Salesforce CRM & Marketing Cloud
• Passionate about education and helping students find their ideal path to success
• Creative and analytical, with exceptional problem-solving skills
• Strong leadership and communication skills
• An entrepreneurial mindset
• Successful candidates will be required to complete and pass a CLEAR™ identity verification as part of the pre-employment screening process
• CLEAR™ Candidate FAQ

The annual base salary range for this exempt position is $170,000 - $190,000 and reflects the midpoint through maximum of the established range for this role. Encoura establishes compensation using national market data, internal equity considerations, and organizational budget factors to ensure fairness and consistency across the organization. Certain roles may also be eligible for variable compensation in addition to base salary. Employees in this role are eligible for Encoura’s comprehensive benefits package, which includes health insurance, retirement contributions, paid time off, and other programs that support employee well‑being.

About Us

Encoura’s mission is to empower students and institutions to create meaningful connections so everyone can make the most informed decisions to achieve their goals. Since 1972, the Company has evolved its products and services to better represent the link between students and higher education institutions and to create the highest probability of student success.

Encoura’s expertise now spans enrollment, research, marketing, student success, and advancement and provides an unmatched combination of higher education experience and innovative solutions for colleges and universities. The Company also offers Encourage® — the nation’s largest free college and career planning program used by millions of high school students and educators nationwide.

It is the policy of the Company to provide equal employment opportunities to all qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, protected veteran or disabled status, or genetic information. All applicants must be eligible to work in the U.S.

Encoura endeavors to make reasonable accommodations for applicants with disabilities and disabled veterans pursuant to applicable federal and state law. If you are an individual with a disability and require reasonable accommodation to complete any part of the application process or are limited in the ability and need an alternative method for applying, please contact the Talent Team.

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