Marketing Automation Strategist

Job Location: Raleigh, NC

Department: University Communications and Marketing (UComm)

About the Department

University Communications and Marketing (UComm) is NC State’s dedicated communications agency. Our team provides leadership, strategy, services and support to advance the NC State brand and help the university achieve its core mission. We build campaigns that bridge the digital and the physical, and show the world what “Think and Do” means.

Wolfpack Perks and Benefits

As a Pack member, you belong here, and can enjoy exclusive perks designed to enhance your personal and professional well-being. As you consider this opportunity, we encourage you to review our Employee Value Proposition and learn more about what makes NC State the best place to learn and work for everyone.
What we offer:

• Medical, Dental, and Vision
• Flexible Spending Account
• Retirement Programs
• Disability Plans
• Life Insurance
• Accident Plan
• Paid Time Off and Other Leave Programs
• 12 Holidays Each Year
• Tuition and Academic Assistance
• And so much more!

Attain Work-life balance with our Childcare benefits, Wellness & Recreation Membership, and Wellness Programs that aim to build a thriving wolfpack community.

Disclaimer: Perks and Benefit eligibility is based on Part-Time or Full-Time Employment status. Eligibility and Employer Sponsored Plans can be found within each of the links offered.

Essential Job Duties

In this role you will lead the implementation and growth of marketing automation across NC State. Reporting to the Assistant Director of Marketing Strategy, you will manage University Communications and Marketing’s (UComm) audience journey program across email, text messaging, and digital advertising while helping campus partners develop effective, data-driven campaigns.

This role translates marketing and communication goals into targeted, personalized audience journeys, overseeing strategy, development, testing, launch, and performance measurement. This role also trains campus partners, maintains program standards, and promotes the adoption of segmentation, personalization, and dynamic content to deliver more relevant communications.

Duties include:

Journey and Email Marketing Strategy

• Consult with UComm teams and campus partners to understand goals, audiences, and timelines, recommending appropriate channels and campaign approaches.
• Design audience journeys across email, text messaging, and digital advertising for recruitment, engagement, stewardship, events, and internal communications.
• Develop university-level automation programs, including welcome, nurture, and re-engagement journeys.
• Define audience segments and recommend personalization and dynamic content strategies to improve relevance.
• Develop A/B testing plans for subject lines, content, calls to action, and send times.
• Coordinate with content creators, designers, advertising, social media, web, and other UComm teams to ensure timely campaign delivery.

Campaign Development, Testing, and Launch

• Build and manage automated journeys, scheduled campaigns, and segmented communications across email, text messaging, and digital advertising.
• Configure text messaging campaigns with appropriate consent, timing, and opt-out requirements.
• Partner with the advertising team to activate audience segments on platforms such as Meta and Google.
• Develop and maintain email templates, content blocks, and landing pages that meet NC State brand and accessibility standards.
• Implement basic personalization and conditional content in coordination with technical leads.
• Execute A/B tests and apply findings to improve future campaigns.
• Thoroughly test campaigns before launch, including rendering, links, personalization, suppression rules, and journey entry and exit behavior.

Partner Training, Onboarding, and Support

• Train campus communicators to use the platform, from basic campaign execution to advanced segmentation and dynamic content.
• Create and maintain user guides, templates, quick-start resources, and recorded training materials.
• Coordinate onboarding for campus units based on program capacity and implementation priorities.
• Provide day-to-day platform support and escalate technical issues to the appropriate technical leads.
• Explain marketing automation concepts clearly and help campus partners adopt more targeted, personalized communication practices.

Measurement, Reporting, and Optimization

• Establish success measures for each journey and campaign before launch.
• Monitor and report on deliverability, engagement, conversions, and cross-channel performance using platform analytics.
• Apply consistent UTM tracking to measure email-driven traffic to NC State websites.
• Present actionable findings and recommendations to campus partners and UComm leadership, using results to optimize campaigns.
• Track overall program performance, including platform adoption, campaign volume, and results across campus units.

Program Management, Standards, and Compliance

• Manage request intake, campaign scheduling, and priorities while communicating timelines and expectations to partners.
• Maintain standards for list management, consent, opt-in and opt-out processes, preference centers, suppression, CAN-SPAM compliance, and TCPA text messaging requirements.
• Develop and document governance practices for campus use of the shared platform.
• Collaborate with technical leads to assess requests, evaluate feasibility, and balance implementation effort with expected impact.
• Support vendor relationships, platform release planning, and budget tracking as needed.

This position offers you the opportunity to strengthen NC State’s university-wide marketing capabilities by combining strategic planning, technical execution, partner support, and data-driven optimization. You will help campus teams deliver more relevant, measurable, and effective communications while building a scalable marketing automation program that supports the university’s goals.

Other Responsibilities

• In addition to the core responsibilities of this role, there may be occasional opportunities to take on additional duties. This offers an opportunity to build on your skills, explore new areas, and gain a deeper understanding of the department’s operations.

Minimum Education and Experience

• Bachelor’s degree and three years of experience related to the area of assignment; or equivalent combination of training and experience. All degrees must be received from appropriately accredited institutions.

Other Required Qualifications

• At least two years of hands-on experience with a marketing automation platform, such as Salesforce Marketing Cloud, Marketo, HubSpot, Pardot or Acoustic.
• Experience developing multi-step audience journeys, including nurture and drip campaigns, using segmentation, personalization and dynamic content.
• Knowledge of email marketing best practices, including testing, list management, consent and preference centers, and CAN-SPAM compliance; basic HTML and CSS skills for email development.
• Ability to analyze campaign performance using tools such as GA4, Excel or Tableau and translate results into actionable recommendations.
• Communication and relationship-building skills, with the ability to explain technical concepts clearly and train colleagues with varying levels of technical expertise.
• Project management skills, including the ability to coordinate multiple campaigns, manage competing priorities and meet deadlines.

Preferred Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in marketing, communications, digital marketing, information systems or a related field.
• Hands-on experience with Salesforce Marketing Cloud, including Journey Builder, Content Builder and data extensions, along with familiarity with Slate, Salesforce or other CRM platforms.
• Salesforce Marketing Cloud Email Specialist or Consultant certification, or certification in another marketing automation platform.
• Proficiency using AMPscript or similar scripting tools to personalize marketing content and developing multichannel campaigns.
• Knowledge of email accessibility standards, including WCAG guidelines, and text messaging consent and compliance requirements, including the TCPA.
• Experience supporting higher education marketing, enrollment, advancement or internal communications.
• Skills in transitioning organizations between email platforms, onboarding users to shared marketing systems, and developing training materials.
• Expertise implementing UTM strategies and tracking campaign performance across digital channels.

Required License(s) or Certification(s): N/A

Valid NC Driver's License required: No

Commercial Driver's License required: No

Job Open Date: 10/22/2026

Anticipated Close Date: Open Until Filled

Special Instructions to Applicants

Please include as attachments a resume/CV, cover letter, and contact information for at least 3 professional references.

This position is not eligible for visa sponsorship. Applicants must be authorized to work in the United States without the need for current or future sponsorship.

Position Number: 00041695

Position Type: EPS/SAAO

Full Time Equivalent (FTE) (1.0 = 40 hours/week): 1.00

Appointment: 12 Month Recurring

Mandatory Designation - Adverse Weather: Non Mandatory - Adverse Weather

Mandatory Designation - Emergency Events: Non Mandatory - Emergency Event

Department ID: 281001 - Payroll

If you have general questions about the application process, you may contact Human Resources at (919) 515-2135 or workatncstate@ncsu.edu.

Organization

NC State: Think and Do

NC State was founded with a purpose: to create economic, societal and intellectual prosperity for the people of North Carolina and the country. We began as a land-grant institution teaching the agricultural and mechanical arts. Today, we're a pre-eminent research enterprise with 12 colleges excelling in all major academic fields.

Our 34,000 high-performing students take what they learn in the classroom and apply it in the real world by conducting research, working in internships and co-ops, and performing acts of world-changing service. That experiential education ensures that they leave here ready to lead the workforce. NC State's 13:1 student-faculty ratio is one of the reasons why we're the best college for your money in North Carolina (Money) and the No. 5 best value among public universities nationally (U.S. News & World Report).

Overcoming Challenges, Improving Lives

NC State is one of only two universities in the nation leading two National Science Foundation Engineering Research Centers — one developing wearable, self-powered health monitors, and the other researching smart-grid technology. We’re also leading interdisciplinary efforts to curb nuclear proliferation, help farmers confront climate change and build a new American manufacturing sector.

Our research doesn't just get published in a journal or sit on a shelf; it makes an impact. NC State is No. 6 nationwide in commercialization agreements based on university research, and we're No. 2 among universities without a medical school. Our Cooperative Extension Service provides research-based information to citizens in all 100 North Carolina counties. In addition, our industrial extension unit — Industry Expansion Solutions — has created an economic benefit for the state's manufacturers averaging $149 million per year since 2005.

Bright Minds Creating a Bold Future

NC State’s 9,000 faculty and staff are world leaders in their fields, bridging the divides between academic disciplines and training high-caliber students to meet tomorrow’s challenges. NC State students won two Goldwater scholarships, five Fulbright scholarships, one Churchill scholarship and a record-breaking 25 National Science Foundation graduate research fellowships in the 2016-2017 academic year. In addition, 25 faculty are members of the National Academies.

Our Centennial Campus, an award-winning public-private research campus, is home to more than 70 partner organizations working alongside more than 70 NC State research and academic units. Centennial is also the location of the innovative Hunt Library, which Time magazine has dubbed “the library of the future.”

In Raleigh and Around the World

It all happens in one of the best cities in America. A top spot for job-seekers and tech professionals, Raleigh is nationally recognized as a leading urban center:

• No. 2 hot spot for tech jobs (Forbes, 2016)
• No. 3 best city for young professionals (Forbes, 2016)
• No. 4 best city for jobs (Glassdoor.com, 2017)
• No. 4 best place to live (U.S. News & World Report, 2016)
• Best big city in the Southeast (Time, 2016)
• Selected as a Google Fiber expansion city

With Durham and Chapel Hill, Raleigh anchors the Research Triangle, a national hotspot for high-tech enterprise. The top companies in the region — including IBM, Cisco Systems, SAS Institute, Biogen Idec and GlaxoSmithKline — are among the country’s best employers. They also lead the way in hiring new NC State graduates.

More than 130 years after its creation, NC State continues to make its founding purpose a reality. Every day, our career-ready graduates and world-leading faculty make the fruits of learning and discovery available to people across the state, throughout the nation and around the world.