Director of Marketing

Job description

Be the one who makes a difference! At Vertex Education we are a team of high achievers, courageous leaders, and passionate believers in changing lives through education. As a purpose-led education services provider, our mission is destined to benefit many and yet it starts with just one person inspired to work together with us to make a memorable and meaningful difference for our clients, schools, students, and communities. Be the one who makes a difference—with us. As Director of Marketing, you are a hands-on leader who builds, runs, and continuously improves the marketing engine behind Vertex's growth as a service provider to schools and education organizations. You own the strategy and execution that strengthen the Vertex brand, generate qualified demand, expand market awareness, and create measurable pipeline alongside the Partnerships function. This is not a role for a distant strategist. You translate Vertex's growth priorities into focused plans, set clear performance expectations, review results rigorously, and lead a disciplined cadence of testing and optimization across paid media, organic channels, content, events, conferences, partnerships, and other demand-generation work — tying every investment to measurable outcomes: marketing-qualified leads, partnership pipeline, customer acquisition efficiency, and revenue influence. You also own the function's operational backbone — clear priorities, strong project management, and disciplined execution. You build systems that move work efficiently from strategy to launch, manage budgets, timelines, vendors, and dependencies, and keep Marketing, Partnerships, and other central-service teams tightly coordinated. Success means a differentiated, credible Vertex brand; a healthy, measurable pipeline of prospective partners; tight Marketing–Partnerships alignment; disciplined investment of marketing resources; and a marketing organization that consistently drives Vertex's growth. ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS: Demand Generation, Performance Marketing & ROI: Own Vertex’s demand-generation strategy across paid, organic, referral, event, partnership, and other acquisition channels. Establish clear performance targets for marketing-qualified leads, pipeline creation, customer acquisition efficiency, and marketing ROI. Manage marketing budgets and continuously shift investment toward the highest-performing channels, campaigns, and audiences. Lead external agencies, vendors, and consultants with clear expectations for performance, quality, efficiency, and delivery. Establish a disciplined reporting cadence that provides clear visibility into marketing performance, attribution, pipeline contribution, and ROI. Partnerships Alignment & Revenue Funnel: Partner closely with the Partnerships team to align marketing priorities, campaigns, target audiences, and growth opportunities. Define and improve the process for generating, qualifying, routing, nurturing, and converting marketing-qualified leads. Own visibility into the marketing-to-partnership funnel, identifying conversion gaps and opportunities to improve pipeline performance. Use CRM and marketing data to identify the audiences, channels, messages, and campaigns generating the strongest opportunities. Develop sales enablement tools, including case studies, presentations, customer stories, and other materials that strengthen Vertex’s go-to-market efforts. Brand, Content & Organic Growth: Own Vertex’s brand positioning and ensure a clear, differentiated value proposition across all market-facing channels. Lead Vertex’s website strategy, improving organic traffic, user engagement, lead generation, and conversion. Build a content and SEO strategy that strengthens Vertex’s visibility, credibility, and authority with priority audiences. Develop customer stories, case studies, thought leadership, and other content that demonstrates Vertex’s expertise and impact. Develop and manage webinar programs in partnership with Vertex service line leaders to engage prospective and existing clients and support both greenfield growth and cross-selling opportunities. Partner with organizational leaders and subject-matter experts to translate Vertex’s capabilities and insights into compelling market-facing narratives. Conferences, Events & Strategic Partnerships: Own Vertex’s conference, event, sponsorship, and association strategy, prioritizing investments based on audience fit and business impact. Establish clear goals and ROI measures for events, including qualified leads, relationship development, pipeline creation, and brand visibility. Partner with the Partnerships team on coordinated pre-event, on-site, and post-event strategies that maximize each investment. Identify strategic partnerships, referral relationships, co-marketing opportunities, and associations that expand Vertex’s reach. Position Vertex leaders and subject-matter experts for relevant speaking opportunities, panels, and industry thought leadership. Campaign Strategy & Optimization: Build integrated campaigns around priority audiences, service offerings, customer needs, and organizational growth opportunities. Establish a disciplined testing approach across messaging, creative, audiences, channels, offers, and conversion experiences. Use campaign, website, CRM, and pipeline data to quickly identify what is working and course-correct what is not. Capture campaign and testing insights and translate them into repeatable playbooks and stronger future campaigns. Maintain a regular optimization cadence that reinforces speed, accountability, learning, and measurable business impact. Marketing Operations & Team Leadership: Own the marketing operating system, including planning, prioritization, project management, campaign workflows, and execution standards. Lead and develop the marketing team through clear roles, expectations, accountability, coaching, and performance management. Oversee CRM, marketing automation, analytics, website, and other marketing technology needed to support effective execution and measurement. Develop and manage the annual marketing budget and ensure resources remain aligned to Vertex’s highest-priority growth initiatives. Serve as the senior marketing lead for public relations, external communications, and crisis communications. KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS, & ABILITIES: Required: 7+ years of progressive B2B marketing experience owning demand generation, customer acquisition, and pipeline across paid, organic, content, digital, event, and partnership channels. Proven ownership of marketing performance and ROI — setting targets, managing budgets, and reallocating investment based on channel results. Strong command of B2B revenue funnels (MQLs, nurturing, conversion, attribution) and a track record of building shared pipeline with sales or business-development teams. Strong analytical skills, turning marketing, CRM, and pipeline data into decisions, plus experience developing differentiated positioning and campaigns for complex services. Strong marketing operations and project management capability, including budgets, workflows, and managing events, sponsorships, agencies, and vendors against measurable value. Experience leading marketing teams against measurable outcomes and communicating performance to senior leaders; bachelor's or graduate degree in Marketing, Business, or a related field. Preferred: Marketing B2B services to schools, school systems, education organizations, government entities, or other complex institutional buyers. Marketing for a multi-service or professional-services organization with relationship-driven sales cycles, including account-based strategies for defined segments. Building organic traffic and leads through SEO, content strategy, thought leadership, and conversion optimization. Conference, association, sponsorship, or field-marketing strategies that generate measurable pipeline, plus sales enablement materials, case studies, and customer stories. Ownership of CRM and marketing automation platforms such as HubSpot (lead scoring, lifecycle stages, attribution, pipeline reporting), and senior-level public relations or crisis communications. ​ BACKGROUND CHECKS: The candidate in this position will be required to pass a criminal history background check. Must be able to obtain and hold a valid IVP Level One Fingerprint Clearance Card at all times. PHYSICAL AND TRAVEL REQUIREMENTS / WORK ENVIRONMENT: Travel for conferences, customer meetings, organizational events, and other business needs may be required from time to time. This position requires the ability to lift objects up to 25 pounds on occasion. This position may require sitting for long periods at times, talking on the phone, standing, kneeling, stooping, and extended periods of concentration. Local, in-state, and out-of-state travel may be required. Be excited to be a part of our team and grow your career with us! ​ Be the one who enables us to positively impact over 258,000 students across multiple states while driving our growth forward so we can enrich even more lives. Be the one who helps us achieve excellence for over 226 schools that we support with academics, finance, technology, human resources, communications, marketing, facilities, construction, and food services. Be the one who is a diverse thinker, a team player, a smart risk taker, an innovator, and a difference maker by encouraging others to climb higher and reach farther to further education. Be yourself surrounded by wonderful people who care about you, value your unique skills, and lift you up. Be supported in your work by caring leaders and team members who want you to succeed. Be empowered to make a difference and climb higher and reach farther to change lives through education. Be well in all aspects of your life from your physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing to your finances. Enjoy industry-leading pay, rewards, referral bonuses, with unlimited flexible paid time-off for performance. Be able to care for your health and your family with comprehensive medical, dental and vision benefits and invest in your future with 401(k) plans with a 6% employer match on your contributions. Enhance your growth and development with mentoring and money to take training classes. Thrive in a welcoming, supportive, and inclusive environment where we treat others with fairness and respect, celebrate diversity, and elevate equality and inclusion as an equal opportunity employer. Be the one who makes a difference! With an innovative mind, a hungry heart, and engaging spirit you can change lives through education. Be a part of Vertex Education and let’s make a difference together. Apply Today!