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. This role is responsible for building and leading a unified, full-funnel social media strategy. The strategy connects storytelling, community, analytics, and performance to support Southern New Hampshire University's mission, enrollment growth, and lead generation goals.

There are two core Social Media teams at SNHU: Marketing and Communications. Within Marketing, it's a matrixed team and within Communications it's a single reporting team. The key partners for this role are the AVP of Organic Marketing, the AVP of Paid Social Media, and the VP of Communications. Additionally, the Organic Marketing Growth Strategist, the CMO, and the Marketing team at large are also key partners.

You will lead the integration of revised social media strategy into the centralized marketing organization using a hub-and-spoke operating model. This integration will provide deep functional expertise, strategy development, governance with Communications, and analytics. This role requires matrix management capabilities and leading through influence. The Senior Director will drive alignment and results across teams and stakeholders who may not report directly to this position.

You will oversee organic social media strategies, ensuring an integrated approach, driving meaningful engagement, generating leads, building brand presence, and contributing directly to enrollment outcomes. You will bring together content, creative, media, performance analytics, and search visibility strategies. These strategies deliver consistent, audience-first experiences across platforms. Additionally, you will establish clear governance and editorial ownership in collaboration across the social media ecosystem. For the initial three months, the Senior Director will report directly to the Chief Marketing Officer. #LI-Hybrid

What you'll do:

Strategy Development & Organizational Integration

• Lead the Marketing social media strategy end-to-end—integrating organic and paid efforts into a unified plan that drives 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 and maintain a strategic roadmap with 90/180/360-day milestones tied to measurable business outcomes.

Analytics, Performance & Lead Generation

• Work with insights teams to establish and own the analytics framework (KPIs, dashboards) which tie social media activity to engagement, lead creation, enrollment pipeline, and revenue attribution.
• Use social listening, audience insights, and performance data to continuously optimize strategy, content, targeting, and spend.

Search Presence & AI Optimization (AIO)

• 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

Organic, Paid & Full-Funnel Integration

• 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 established and emerging channels, ensuring efforts are audience-first and conversion-oriented.

Content, Community & Emerging Channels

• 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.
• Ensures SNHU is leveraging and expanding presence in 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.

Cross-Functional Partnership & Influence

• Translate institutional initiatives—program launches, enrollment cycles, organizational transitions—into integrated social campaigns with measurable lead generation goals.
• Maintain continuity with business areas previously aligned with social media to ensure responsiveness and trust through the transition.

Innovation & Stewardship

• Stay ahead of social media trends, platform shifts, analytics methodologies, and emerging technologies; lead responsible experimentation with clear measurement plans.
• Manage vendor relationships, tools, and budget to ensure strong ROI and effective resource allocation.
• Other responsibilities as assigned.

What we're looking for:

• 8+ years of experience in social media, digital marketing, or integrated media strategy with an 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 organizational integration or operating model transformation within a marketing function
• 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 leading through matrix management and influence—driving alignment and results across teams without direct reporting authority
• 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