Job Title: Engagement Marketing Specialist

Location: Austin, TX or San Diego, CA

Ascent Funding is an award-winning, rapidly growing company on a mission to revolutionize the way people pay for higher education. We’re looking for an Engagement Marketing Specialist to contribute to our rapid growth by building engagement through digital channels.

We aim to fix a broken higher education system by being transparent and offering products that support a greater population of students through our Ascent College Loans (cosigned and non-cosigned student loans for undergraduate and graduate school) and Bootcamp Loans (consumer loans and Income Share Agreements (ISAs) for technical bootcamps and accelerated skills training programs) financing options.

We believe education is an investment in your future, and we want to empower you, and students of all economic backgrounds and disciplines, to maximize your return on that investment. Ascent offers exclusive benefits (such as 1% cash back, scholarships, a Refer A Friend, a Rewards Program, and more) as well as free resources that set students and families up for financial success.

The Engagement Marketing Specialist will maintain positive, engaging relationships with our audiences online by sharing Ascent’s exciting story with the world. As a marketer focused on the customer lifecycle, you will play a crucial role in retention and customer experience.

Qualities we’re looking for:

• Be excited about sharing Ascent’s story via digital platforms.
• Enjoy learning about Ascent’s audience of students, school leaders, and education & finance experts.
• Be able to build meaningful relationships with our audience through excellent communication and engagement strategies.
• Understand the importance of brand consistency and authenticity across all channels.
• Enjoy creating initiatives that engage and convert – then testing and optimizing through new segments, workflows, and creative (content/imagery).
• Be willing to challenge the status quo. We are revolutionizing the way people pay for higher education in a highly regulated industry, so we must be disruptive and creative problem solvers. 
• Enjoy tracking trends and best practices in customer engagement, community management, and digital marketing.
• Be comfortable in an analytics-driven environment and review data to identify meaningful insights while recommending new initiatives to drive growth and engagement across channels. 
• Enjoy being challenged to ask questions, actively grow your skills, and contribute to a highly motivated team.
• Be diligent about managing owned projects daily while partnering with team members to find new and exciting opportunities to expand and improve Ascent’s marketing activities.

In this role you will:

• Develop and optimize digital marketing campaigns across several channels to encourage meaningful engagement, promote products and services, provide value to our audiences, and drive conversions.
• Identify and implement ways to surprise and delight students and become the most-loved higher education brand
• Collaborate on event strategy and objectives; spearhead event initiatives and logistics to meet objectives based on lead generation, customer and industry engagement, and more.
• Support engagement initiatives across the customer journey, including collecting user-generated content and feedback, identifying opportunities to delight our customers, contributing to the development of a dedicated platform for Ascent’s growing student community, and more. 
• Partner with Ascent’s content and engagement teams to develop creative automated email campaigns for Ascent’s customers and prospects.
• Regularly track, analyze, and report on all campaign results, translating metrics into actionable next steps to improve marketing and engagement strategies.
• Contribute to monthly content calendars with the social media, content, and engagement teams.
• Assist in the development of informative and empowering resources and campaigns for students and schools.
• Build relationships with other brands and partners to further promote the Ascent brand.
• Monitor competitive landscape, best practices, and platform updates; identify new digital marketing and engagement trends for Ascent, such as emerging email marketing strategies; and make actionable recommendations to the team.

You could be a fit if you have:

• Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing, Integrated Marketing Communications, or relevant field.
• Minimum of 1+ years of experience in digital marketing campaigns.
• Understanding of digital marketing and engagement concepts and best practices.
• Experience generating compelling content and engagement opportunities for unique audiences across digital channels.
• Experience creating, analyzing, and optimizing email marketing campaigns.
• Experience with event marketing, including planning, executing, and follow-up reporting.
• Experience with community management, including gathering feedback and user-generated content from customers and audience members.
• Strong time management, organizational skills, and the ability to coordinate multiple projects in a fast-paced environment.
• Experience with Hubspot, Campaign Monitor, SEO, Wordpress, Google Analytics, Google AdWords, SEMRush, and Canva (or similar) is a plus!

Competitive pay with bonus, and comprehensive benefits package that includes, but not limited to:

• 401(k) + Company Match
• Medical, dental, and vision coverage
• Annual HSA contribution of $1,500
• Life insurance, disability, and critical illness
• Birthday Holiday
• Unlimited snacks and drinks (when we are in the office)
• Tuition reimbursement program
• Generous paid leave policies including unlimited PTO
• $2,000 Vacation Incentive Plan after 3 years + $1,000 Sabbatical day
• Community, Wellness funds and more

Learn more about our benefits by viewing our 2021 Employee Benefits Guide.