Vice president, marketing

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Academy of Art University is seeking an exceptional Vice President of Marketing to lead the University’s marketing strategy at a pivotal moment for higher education and the creative industries. Reporting directly to the President, the Vice President will serve as the University’s senior marketing leader, responsible for strengthening market position, advancing enrollment objectives, improving marketing performance, and maximizing the impact of marketing investments. This is a high-impact opportunity for a leader who combines strategic vision, analytical rigor, and operational depth.

The successful candidate will have the mandate to assess and strengthen the University’s marketing ecosystem across digital acquisition, media investment, prospective student engagement, analytics, attribution, technology, agency partnerships, and internal capabilities. Working closely with leaders across Admissions, Finance, Online Education, Student Affairs, and Brand Storytelling, the Vice President will build an integrated, measurable approach to marketing and sustainable growth.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop and lead an integrated marketing strategy aligned with the University’s mission, strategic priorities, enrollment objectives, and long-term institutional sustainability.
• Serve as a strategic advisor to the President and senior leadership on market trends, competitive positioning, prospective student behavior, emerging technologies, and growth opportunities.
• Strong experience developing marketing strategies for both domestic and international student population.
• Lead marketing across the prospective student journey (from awareness and inquiry through application, enrollment, start and retention) and understanding the complexity of the enrollment lifecycle.
• Partner closely with Admissions to optimize and strengthen lead quality, nurture, re-engagement, conversion, and overall funnel performance.
• Establish clear visibility into key performance measures, including inquiries, applications, registrations, starts, acquisition costs, conversion, and return on marketing investment.
• Lead strategy and performance across paid media, search, social, SEO, content, email, CRM-supported nurture, retargeting, partnerships, and emerging channels.
• Build a rigorous test-and-learn culture across audiences, media, creative, messaging, offers, and conversion pathways.
• Strengthen analytics, attribution, forecasting, and executive reporting so that investment decisions are grounded in credible, actionable data.
• Partner with Brand Storytelling and institutional leaders to strengthen market positioning and communicate the distinctive value of an Academy of Art University education.
• Develop differentiated strategies for undergraduate, graduate, online, on-campus, transfer, readmission, domestic, and international audiences.
• Provide senior oversight of and holding accountable, external agencies, consultants, media partners, and technology vendors, with clear expectations for transparency and performance.
• Evaluate and responsibly deploy emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence and automation, to improve personalization, efficiency, analytics, and prospective student engagement.
• Build strong cross-functional alignment across Marketing, Admissions, Finance, academic leadership, and other key partners.

Qualifications

• Experience in higher education required (with proven experience with education technology, consumer services, subscription businesses, marketplaces, and other sectors with complex, high-consideration customer journeys).
• Significant progressive leadership experience in marketing, growth, customer acquisition, enrollment marketing, or a related field.
• Demonstrated success leading complex, multi-channel strategies tied to measurable business, revenue, customer, or enrollment outcomes.
• Deep expertise in performance marketing, digital acquisition, analytics, attribution, conversion optimization, and customer journey strategy.
• Experience managing significant marketing investments and making disciplined resource allocation decisions.
• Proven success leading and holding agencies, consultants, vendors, and strategic partners accountable for performance.
• Strong analytical judgment and the ability to translate complex data into clear executive decisions and action.
• Exceptional communication skills and the executive presence to work effectively with senior leadership and governance bodies.
• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent combination of education and significant relevant experience.

The Leader We Are Seeking:

We are looking for a leader who is strategic and hands-on, analytically rigorous, commercially disciplined, collaborative, curious, and decisive. The successful candidate will distinguish activity from impact, challenge assumptions constructively, move from analysis to action, and bring a deep commitment to expanding opportunity through creative education.

Benefits:

Academy of Art University offers full-time employees health insurance, 401k options, paid vacation based on years of service (15 days' accrual at start), paid holidays, paid sick leave and a commuter benefit program. The Academy also offers full-time employees an opportunity to take one undergraduate course tuition free each semester.

Compensation:

$125,000.00 - $155,000.00 annually Based on experience and location

Application Deadline: July 27, 2026

IND 123 Academy of Art University is an equal opportunity employer. All applicants will be considered regardless of age, Aids or HIV positive status, marital status, domestic partnership, medical condition or genetic characteristics, race or national origin, pregnancy, religion, sex, gender identity, gender or sexual orientation, name change, citizenship, physical or mental disability, veteran status or other status protected by federal, state, local or other law. Academy of Art University will consider for employment all qualified applicants with criminal histories in a manner consistent with the requirements of the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance. Equal access to the hiring process, services, and employment is available to all persons. Applicants requiring accommodations to the application and/or interview process should contact the Human Resources Department at HR@academyart.edu.

Academy of Art University, established in 1929 by Richard S. Stephens, transforms aspiring students into professional artists and designers. For three generations, the Stephens family has been devoted to the development of aspiring artists and has held the fundamental belief that with proper instruction, hard work and dedication, students can learn the skills necessary to become artistic professionals.