Marketing Personalization Manager, Salt Lake City, UT

Salt Lake City, UT (On-site)

$73K/yr – $109K/yrMid Level5+ years expFull time

Posted 4 months ago

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Job Summary

Own and drive the personalization strategy across the student journey to improve conversions and tailor content for distinct audiences.

  • Own the primary personalization direction; align touchpoints with conversion goals and student journey.
  • Must-have: 5+ years leading website personalization or CRO with measurable results.
  • Standout: Proficiency in VWO and analytics tools (Adobe, Microsoft Clarity) with headless CMS exposure.

Job Description

Responsibilities

  • Develop and execute a comprehensive personalization strategy that optimizes individual marketing touchpoints as connected parts of a broader student journey, aligning personalization efforts on the website to both conversion goals and the overall student journey. in alignment with WGU's business objectives, creating personalized strategies that cater to different audiences, working with internal teams to develop personalized content and messaging.
  • Collaborate with internal Marketing and other Student Life Cycle teams such as email, lead generation, enrollment, scholarships, etc. to optimize each conversion path, identify opportunities for personalization, and increase marketing funnel efficiencies.
  • Work closely with the Audience Segmentation Manager to design requirements for ML/AI-driven segmentation in the CDP and effective triggers in personalization tools that target nuanced audiences.
  • Evaluate and select appropriate personalization tools and technologies to meet the company's needs.
  • Review user behavior analytics (e.g. web analytics, customer journey analytics, heatmaps and screen recording sessions) to discover personalization opportunities and evaluate performance of personalization campaigns.
  • Design personalized experiences in conjunction with UX Design and Web Operations.
  • Use data-driven insights to make informed decisions and improvements and communicate optimization performance and user behavior insights across Student Lifecycle Services.
  • Analyze user data, including behavior, preferences, psychographics, social context, and other demographics, to inform personalization efforts.
  • Work in conjunction with Marketing Research, Conversion Rate Optimization, and UX Design teams to identify and support research opportunities that support a continually developing understanding of the prospective student journey and audiences that drive a one-by-one approach to experience design.
  • Demonstrate commitment to WGU core values.
  • Assist with the conversion optimization of digital assets and campaigns across touchpoints and channels.

Requirements

  • Data-Driven Decision Making : Demonstrated experience in using data to inform operational, design, and marketing strategies, focusing on delivering personalized user experiences.
  • Strategic Vision & Innovation : Ability to align audiences and personalization use cases with broader institutional growth ambitions and improved student outcomes.
  • Human-First Ethos : Student obsession is the UX Team’s credo. This role requires you to continuously explore new ways to leverage data and empathy for improved prospective student outcomes.
  • Collaborative Leadership : Excellent communication and relationship-building skills, with a proven ability to influence cross-functional teams, build consensus, and serve as a personalization evangelist.
  • Technical understanding : Working knowledge of website development and front-end technologies (HTML, CSS, JavaScript), with familiarity in personalization approaches across client-side, server-side, and API-driven architectures and the ability to collaborate with engineering teams on scalable personalization implementations.
  • Exceptional analytical, conceptual, and problem-solving skills are required, including understanding how to interpret business and user needs and translating them into an optimized user experiences.
  • Familiarity with CMS (Content Management System) platforms (headless preferred) and knowledge of CDP (Customer Data Platform) systems and how they can be used to enhance data-driven personalization.
  • Experimentally minded : Strong understanding of experimentation and optimization methods for personalization, including A/B and multivariate testing. Working knowledge of adaptive approaches such as bandit methods—when and where they are appropriate for personalization use cases.
  • Project Management : Strong project management skills to oversee end-to-end personalization initiatives and track performance against KPIs.
  • Bachelor’s degree
  • Five years or more of experience leading conversion rate optimization, website personalization, or quantitative user research with a proven track record of executing and evaluating tests to optimize conversion.
  • Proficient in personalization and A/B testing tools (VWO preferred), and experience with analytics tools (Adobe Customer Journey Analytics, Microsoft Clarity preferred).
  • Understanding of JavaScript, HTML & CSS.
  • Experience working in a Content Management Systems (headless preferred) and of UX Design principles and tools (Figma)
  • Experience in lieu of education
  • Equivalent relevant experience performing the essential functions of this job may substitute for education degree requirements . Generally, equivalent relevant experience is defined as 1 year of experience for 1 year of education and is the discretion of the hiring manager.

Preferred

  • Certifications in Conversion Rate Optimization, Digital Analytics, and/or User Research

Benefits

  • Position & Application Details
Western Governors University logo

Western Governors University

WGU, www.wgu.edu, is an online university for the 21st century.We are driven by a mission to expand access to higher education through online, competency-based degree programs. Since its establishment in 1997, WGU has grown into a national university, serving more than 120,000 students from all 50 states.The university continues to open doors for adult learners who need flexibility to achieve their education and career goals. WGU’s innovative competency-based academic approach makes it possible, allowing individuals to fit their education into their lives, not the other way around.WGU was founded by the governors of 19 U.S. states. WGU is also supported by over 20 major corporations and foundations who believe in WGU’s commitment to producing highly competent graduates.

Founded in 1997
Salt Lake City, Utah, USA
12K employees (373 in marketing)

Traffic Signals

Monthly Visitors
9.6M
Monthly Google Ads Budget
$9.3M
Traffic Source Mix
Search
24.4%
Direct
63.4%
Referral
10.7%
Social
0.6%
Paid
0.7%

Headcount Trend

Current headcount: ~12K

Marketing Team

Marketing Team Size
276 (2% of company)
Median Career Experience
13 years
Median Tenure
4.3 years
Marketing Roles Posted (Last 30 Days)
4

Funding

Last Raise
Grant, 10 months ago

Funding History

  • May 2025
    Grant

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