Senior Director, Social Media Strategy

Description

Southern New Hampshire University is a team of innovators. World changers. Individuals who believe in progress with purpose. Since 1932, our people-centered strategy has defined us — and helped us grow a team that now serves over 180,000 learners worldwide.

Our mission to transform lives is made possible by talented people who bring diverse industry experience, backgrounds and skills to the university. And today, we're ready to expand our reach. All we need is you.

This position will be partially based in the following office location:

Manchester, NH

For hybrid roles, employees must be able to commute to Manchester, NH on a regular basis.

The opportunity

The Senior Director of Social Media Strategy is a senior marketing leadership role. You will develop a unified, full-funnel social media strategy that connects storytelling, community engagement, analytics, and performance marketing. This strategy will support Southern New Hampshire University's mission, brand presence, lead generation, and enrollment growth. You will be a critical connector across SNHU's social media ecosystem, which spans a matrixed team within Marketing and a centralized team within Communications. Important partners include the AVP of Organic Marketing, AVP of Paid Social Media, VP of Communications, Organic Marketing Growth Strategist, broader Marketing leadership, and executive partners.

You will lead social media integration within a centralized hub‑and‑spoke operating model, providing strategic direction, governance in collaboration with Communications, and performance measurement. Overseeing organic social strategy, you will align content, creative, media, analytics, and search visibility to deliver, audience‑first experiences that promote engagement, qualified leads, and measurable enrollment outcomes. You will temporarily report to the Chief Marketing Officer. #LI-Hybrid

What you'll do:

• Lead the Marketing social media strategy end-to-end—integrating organic and paid efforts into a unified plan that grows brand awareness, lead generation, and enrollment growth. And unify that with the Comms social media goals and strategies.

• Strengthen the Marketing social media team by with roles, expectations, and a cohesive team culture.

• Develop a strategic roadmap with 90/180/360-day milestones tied to measurable results.

• You will work with insights teams to establish the analytics framework. This framework will refine and own KPIs, dashboards, and reporting cadences. These components tie social media activity to engagement, lead creation, enrollment pipeline, and revenue attribution.

• Use social listening, audience insights, and performance data to strategy, content, targeting, and spend.

• Ensure social content is structured, tagged, and distributed to maximize visibility in AI-driven search and answer engines (e.g., Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Perplexity).

• Track and report on SNHU's social content presence in search results; collaborate with SEO and Content Marketing to align social and search strategies.

• Familiarity with AI-driven content discovery and search optimization (AIO) strategies

• Align organic and paid social into cohesive, full-funnel campaigns that move prospective students from awareness through enrollment.

• Partner with Paid Media and Creative on messaging, targeting, and creative optimization—managing toward lead quality and cost-per-lead efficiency.

• Guide platform strategy across channels, ensuring efforts are audience-first and conversion-oriented.

• Oversee student-centered content that builds trust, drives engagement, and moves audiences toward enrollment action.

• Champion community management best practices, supporting that team led by Comms.

• Ensure SNHU is using and expanding presence on trust platforms and other non-traditional platforms (e.g., Reddit, forums, community ecosystems) with authenticity and value-driven participation.

• Foster innovation in storytelling—video, creators, and emerging formats that resonate with prospective and current students.

• Translate institutional projects—program launches, enrollment cycles, organizational transitions—into integrated social campaigns with measurable lead generation goals.

• Maintain continuity with departments previously aligned with social media to ensure responsiveness and trust through the transition.

• Stay ahead of social media trends, platform shifts, analytics methodologies, and new technologies; lead responsible experimentation with clear measurement plans.

• Manage vendor relationships, tools, and budget to ensure return on investment and resource allocation.

• Other duties as assigned

What we're looking for:

• 8+ years of experience in social media, digital marketing, or integrated media strategy with a emphasis on analytics and performance.

• Bachelor's degree

• Experience leading both organic and paid social at scale with demonstrated lead generation and enrollment/revenue outcomes

• Experience building analytics frameworks, dashboards, and attribution models for social media

• Experience leading initiatives across teams, including organizational integration or operating model transformations within a marketing function, and influencing senior stakeholders

• Hands-on experience with social and web analytics tools (e.g., Google Analytics, Sprout Social, Tableau)

• Experience in higher education or a mission-driven organization

• Experience with influencer, creator, or partnership strategies

We believe real innovation comes from inclusion - where different experiences, perspectives and talents are celebrated. So if you're wondering whether SNHU is right for you, take the leap and apply. You might be just the person we're looking for.

Compensation

The annual pay range for this position is $94,130.00 - $150,634.00. Actual offer will be based on skills, qualifications, experience and internal equity, in addition to relevant business considerations. We expect this position to be hired in the following target hiring range $104,012.00 - $140,723.00.

Exceptional benefits (because you're exceptional)

You're the whole package. Your benefits should be, too. As a full-time employee at SNHU, you'll get:

• High-quality, low-deductible medical insurance

• Low to no-cost dental and vision plans

• 5 weeks of paid time off (plus almost a dozen paid holidays)

• Employer-funded retirement

• Free tuition program

• Parental leave

• Mental health and wellbeing resources