Responsibilities

- Operationalize and continue to mature the department’s annual performance effectiveness plan, championing the program with energy and discipline until data-informed decision-making becomes second nature to our entire department during the regular planning and execution of our work. - Help teams move beyond activity-based reporting toward a deeper understanding of outcomes, impact, audience behavior, and strategic effectiveness. - Oversee large-scale annual brand perception studies and smaller pulse studies to assess audience sentiment, brand awareness, and gaps in knowledge. - Analyze performance across paid, earned, shared, owned, and brand-related channels to assess how effectively University Communications is reaching, engaging, and influencing key audiences. - Analyze and report on the performance of content, channels, initiatives, and campaigns to determine their impact and effectiveness. - Design and implement A/B tests to evaluate and refine communication strategies, ensuring messaging resonates effectively with target audiences across various platforms and demographics. - Serve as a consultative partner to teams across University Communications, helping colleagues interpret data and apply insights to planning and execution. - Provide a clear, evidence-informed point of view on how results should shape communications strategy, content development, channel planning, and audience engagement. - Translate complex data and research findings into concise, compelling narratives for leaders, communicators, and cross-functional partners. - Provide training on interpreting and utilizing data, including metrics, trends, audience engagement, and brand perception. - Build and oversee annual brand perception studies to assess the strength and clarity of UVA’s brand; understand audience behaviors and sentiment; evaluate messaging resonance; identify implications for our work. - Manage and optimize the department’s custom performance effectiveness dashboard, including the product roadmap for dashboard enhancements, in partnership with channel owners. - Analyze UVA's online reputation, including social sentiment, community engagement, and earned media, to ensure proactive brand reputation management. - Communicate key findings and recommendations to the Leadership Council and other stakeholders to assess performance and, where needed, inform strategic adjustments. - Ensure that research findings are translated into action to improve and optimize our communications and marketing efforts.

Requirements

- Education: Bachelor’s degree in marketing, communications, business, data analytics, or a related field; advanced degree preferred. - Minimum of 2 years of experience in marketing research, data analytics, business intelligence, or a related field. - Required Knowledge, Skills and Abilities: Expertise in evaluating marketing metrics, audience behavior, and brand health. - Proven ability to translate research data into actionable insights that inform strategic decisions. - Experience with A/B testing, social sentiment analysis, and online reputation management. - Excellent communication skills, with the ability to communicate complex data and research findings clearly to non-technical audiences and demonstrate how insights can be applied to their strategies and work. - Strong leadership skills, with experience in managing research programs and driving data-informed decision-making. - Strong consultative skills, with the ability to collaborate across teams and influence work through insight, evidence, and clear recommendations. - Excellent organizational and project-management skills, with the ability to manage multiple priorities and recurring reporting cycles. - High attention to detail and commitment to data accuracy, clarity, and usefulness. - Curiosity, sound judgment, and the ability to ask strong questions that help teams better understand performance and audience behavior.

Preferred

- Proficiency with tools such as Excel, Snowflake, GA4, Data Studio, SQL, and other tools used for data manipulation, analysis, and reporting. - Experience with web and social media analytics, media monitoring, email analytics, and campaign reporting. - Experience in higher education, nonprofit, agency, media, marketing, or other complex mission-driven organizations. - Experience helping teams adopt new measurement practices, dashboards, reporting processes, or data-informed ways of working. - Project management experience.

Benefits

- This is an exempt-level, benefited position. - Learn more about UVA benefits.