Sr Director, Growth Marketing, Higher Education

We believe in the power and joy of learning     

At Cengage Group, our employees have a direct impact in helping students around the world discover the power and joy of learning. We are bonded by our shared purpose – driving innovation that helps millions of learners improve their lives and achieve their dreams through education.    

Our culture values diversity, engagement, and discovery      

Our business is driven by our strong culture, and we know that creating an inclusive and diverse workplace is absolutely essential to the success of our company and our learners, as well as our individual well-being. We recognize the value of diverse perspectives in everything we do, and strive to ensure employees of all levels and backgrounds feel empowered to voice their ideas and bring their authentic selves to work. We achieve these priorities through inclusive programs, benefits, and initiatives that are integrated into the fabric of how we work every day. To learn more, please see https://www.cengagegroup.com/about/inclusion-and-diversity/. 

Sr Director, Growth Marketing    

Joining the US Higher Education team, the Sr. Director, Growth Marketing leads all aspects of a marketing team passionate about acquiring new customers, improving customer value, and boosting revenue growth through marketing efforts. This leader is accountable for the full growth lifecycle—from awareness and pipeline generation to onboarding, retention, and expansion—across faculty and student audiences.        

What You’ll Do Here:     

Leadership and Team Management:   

- Lead the Growth Marketing team, including the Growth Marketing, Director - Acquisition and Retention Marketing, Director.    

• Guides the creation of marketing strategies aligned with go-to-market priorities, working collaboratively with various teams.     

• Manage a group of campaign managers, demand generation specialists, and marketing coordinators tasked with achieving acquisition and lifecycle goals.

• Foster a culture dedicated to excellence through strategic prioritization, teamwork, and accountability.  

Growth Marketing Strategy:    

• Own the end-to-end growth marketing strategy to deliver against share growth and customer value targets.

• Translate business priorities and product strategy into measurable campaigns that drive marketing-sourced pipeline, increase conversion efficiency, and support marketing-closed revenue.

• Align segmentation, messaging, and tactics across the funnel.   

Customer Lifecycle Ownership:   

• Drive engagement across the full customer lifecycle, from top-of-funnel acquisition to post-sale retention, upsell, and onboarding.

• Ensure faculty and student experiences are personalized, timely, and aligned with behavioral and intent data.

• Lead cross-functional teamwork to build scalable self-service programs and drive adoption efficiency.

Campaign Development and Performance:     

• Coordinate the planning and execution of full-funnel, multi-channel marketing campaigns using email, paid media, digital channels, and in-product touchpoints in partnership with Marketing Operations.

• Collaborate with RevOps or equivalent experience and Marketing Analytics to establish critical metrics and track pipeline, conversion, and performance value.

• Support a culture of experimentation and continuous optimization.    

Cross-Functional Leadership:   

• Partner closely with Product Marketing to translate GTM strategy into acquisition and lifecycle campaigns.

• Collaborate with Sales Enablement and Sales Leadership to align campaign execution to selling motions.

• Work with Institutional Marketing to coordinate customer touchpoints and with Brand to ensure messaging consistency.     

Continuous Improvement:   

• Regularly assess and optimize team structure, tools, and processes to drive greater efficiency and impact.

• Champion the use of marketing automation, segmentation, and performance analytics to scale efforts.

• Mentor the team on modern growth tactics and data-informed decision-making.   

Skills You Will Need Here:

• Bachelor’s degree in marketing, business, or a related field or master’s degree or equivalent experience.    

• Minimum of 12 years of progressive marketing experience, with 10+ years in leadership roles dedicated to customer acquisition, retention, or lifecycle marketing.

• Proven ability to lead revenue-generating marketing strategies, with clear understanding of marketing-sourced pipeline, conversion optimization, and lifecycle impact.

• Strong leadership and team-building skills, with experience leading both direct reports and matrixed execution teams.

• Deep understanding of customer journeys across both B2B and B2C environments (faculty, student, institutional).

• Expertise in multi-channel campaign strategy and modern demand generation practices, including automation, A/B testing, and funnel metrics.

• Outstanding cross-functional collaboration skills; comfortable working across Product, Sales, and Operations.

• Strong analytical skills and experience in applying performance dashboards, metrics, and measuring marketing return on investment.

• Familiarity with marketing technology platforms (e.g., Salesforce, Google Analytics, etc.).

• A growth mindset with a bias toward innovation, operational rigor, and measurable outcomes.     

Cengage Group is committed to working with broad talent pools to attract and hire strong and most qualified individuals. Our job applicants are considered regardless of race, national origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, genetic information, disability, age, veteran status, and any other classification protected by applicable federal, state, provincial or local laws. 

Cengage is also committed to providing reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities including during our job application process. If you are an applicant with a disability and require reasonable accommodation in our job application process, please contact us at [email protected] or at +1 (617)289-7917.    

About Cengage Group

Cengage Group, a global education technology company serving millions of learners, provides affordable, quality digital products and services that equip students with the skills and competencies needed to be job ready. For more than 100 years, we have enabled the power and joy of learning with trusted, engaging content, and now, integrated digital platforms. We serve the higher education, workforce skills, secondary education, English language teaching and research markets worldwide. Through our scalable technology, including MindTap and Cengage Unlimited, we support all learners who seek to improve their lives and achieve their dreams through education.      

Compensation

At Cengage Group, we take great pride in our commitment to providing a comprehensive and rewarding Total Rewards package designed to support and empower our employees. Click here to learn more about our Total Rewards Philosophy.

The full base pay range has been provided for this position. Individual base pay will vary based on work schedule, qualifications, experience, internal equity, and geographic location.  Sales roles often incorporate a significant incentive compensation program beyond this base pay range.