Fast Facts

WGU is seeking a Senior Regional Marketing Manager to lead strategic marketing initiatives in Long Beach, CA, enhancing regional impact and driving operational efficiency through data-driven decision making in a collaborative environment.

Responsibilities: Primary responsibilities include leading regional marketing strategies, managing budgets, optimizing marketing processes, and partnering with key stakeholders to enhance community engagement and marketing effectiveness.

Skills: Candidates should have a strong background in stakeholder management, exceptional communication skills, and deep expertise across various marketing disciplines, including digital media, brand development, and analytics.

Qualifications: 7+ years of relevant marketing experience is required, along with a Bachelor's degree in marketing or related field. Preferred candidates may have a Master's degree, media buying experience, and familiarity with multicultural marketing.

Location: This position is based in Long Beach, CA, with up to 10% travel required.

Compensation: $97100 - $145600 / Annually

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: Professional 311Pay Range: $97,100.00 - $145,600.00

Job Description

Responsibilities

Primary Responsibilities

• Leads data-driven decision-making by analyzing, synthesizing, and reporting on regional marketing outcomes to measure impact and optimize strategy, ensuring insights drive strategic recommendations and continuous improvement. Serves as a key strategic partner to the schools and regional supporting teams, proactively identifying opportunities to enhance regional impact through informed marketing initiatives. 
• Drives operational efficiency and service excellence by developing and leading initiatives that optimize processes, improve performance, and elevate regional marketing effectiveness. 
• Holds full accountability for assigned projects, ensuring strategic execution, alignment with institutional goals, and measurable results. 
• Leads the development and execution of a hyper-local, regional marketing strategy that aligns with the goals of the schools, Academy, and Craft Education—ensuring initiatives are tailored, impactful, and data-informed. 
• Partners with the Regional VP and other leaders to build a strong team culture while leading marketing strategy development.  
• Leverages expertise to align cross-functional efforts, drive alumni engagement, and enhance community impact. 
• Manages regional marketing budget
• Leads brand building and lead generation efforts in partnership with central marketing teams, including Integrated Marketing (Media, Brand, Creative) and Marketing Operations (SEO, Web Ops, Email, and Project Management), ensuring alignment with regional goals and enterprise strategy. Serves as a key marketing stakeholder in partnership with the Strategic Partnerships team to shape and support regionally driven initiatives, ensuring strategic alignment and impactful marketing execution. Acts as a strategic contributor alongside regional leaders in Government Relations, Advancement, Strategic Partnerships, and Communications to co-develop and implement integrated outreach plans that support key institutional priorities. Builds localized media relationships with a thorough knowledge of media channels and media buying as the regional/DMA level media subject matter expert.
• Responsible for effective planning and execution of localized marketing tactics and campaigns to influence key regional audiences. Coordinates team efforts with region-based External Communications (PR), Government Relations, and Alumni teams; helps orchestrate an overall market plan that includes tactics from each of these areas
• Drives regional, state, and DMA level forecasting, reporting, and root cause analysis within the region; coordinate efforts with College & Program Marketing to drive insights at the intersection of geography, audiences, and program offerings.
• Establishes and continually refine geography- and audience-specific messaging that powerfully communicates WGU’s positioning, attributes, and proof points in tailored, culturally appropriate ways.
• Builds and inspires emerging marketing leaders through coaching and mentorship, fostering professional growth and strengthening overall team impact. Provides strategic guidance, coordination, and dotted-line leadership to cross-functional teams and local marketing partners within the region to ensure the successful execution of regional marketing initiatives. Influence without direct authority to align stakeholders, drive collaboration, and ensure alignment with overall business and brand objectives.

Qualifications

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

• Significant client or key stakeholder management experience.
• Executive-level communication ability. Must be able to clearly and persuasively communicate both verbally and in writing with staff at all levels of the university.
• Drive and ability to influence others to act without direct reporting authority.
• Methodical, systematic, and highly organized
• Highly organized and methodical with exceptional project and time management skills; adept at prioritizing multiple initiatives in dynamic environments.
• Excellent written and verbal communicator capable of building strong relationships across contributors and teams, including C-level executives
• Deep expertise across a wide range of marketing disciplines, including traditional and digital media, SEO, content, brand development, creative, paid media, social, events, and analytics.
• Innovative and inclined to explore new approaches via constant learning and optimization
• Strong critical thinker capable of making smart judgments under pressure
• Ability to manage time and resources for multiple projects at one time
• Exceptional research, analytical, and critical thinking skills with an ability to source and synthesize a variety of data sources to create actionable strategies
• Advanced research and analytical skills with the ability to synthesize complex data, assess market trends and competitive dynamics, and develop actionable strategies.
• Experience operating in a disaggregated marketing model; able to make decisions and drive business forward in a highly complex, multi-faceted organization
• Success working across marketing disciplines, including brand development, creative, paid media, social media, interactive products, email, field marketing, PR, and analytics
• Comfort working as part of a hybrid in-person/remote team
• Proven collaborator with a successful track record of leading and executing complex, cross-functional initiatives that drive strategic outcomes.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to engage executive stakeholders, synthesize complex information, and present clear, actionable recommendations.
• Innovative and inclined to explore new approaches via constant learning and optimization
• Ability to manage time and resources for multiple projects at one time
• Demonstrated success in leading diverse teams, including hiring, coaching, and managing individual contributors and people leaders to achieve performance targets.

Education          

• Bachelor’s degree in marketing, communications, or related field required

Experience

• 7+ years of marketing domain experience, including a broad range of tactics (i.e., television (DRTV, OTT, CTV), OOH, print, radio and digital audio, conferences/events, partner marketing, video, display, social media, email, SEM, and website
• Budget management experience, including responsibility for marketing budgets Extensive data and Analytics experience to include deep knowledge of working with Excel, Tableau, Adobe Analytics, and Google Analytics

Preferred Qualifications

• Media buying experience
• Marketing budget management of $5M+
• 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

Working Conditions

• Some travel required (up to 10%)

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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 [email protected].

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