Senior Program Manager - Marketing

USHE (US Higher Education) is SEI's higher education segment, encompassing Strayer University and Capella University. This role sits within USHE Marketing, reporting to the VP of Marketing, USHE. The role is responsible for prioritizing and driving forward work streams across Brand, AEO/SEO, Media, and Web.

This role does not own any of the four disciplines directly — it exists to remove cross-team friction, surface and resolve dependencies, and keep execution moving against shared priorities, coordinating and influencing team leads across marketing.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

• Program Governance & Cross-Team Alignment
  • Build and maintain cross-functional relationships with AEO/SEO, Web, Media, and Brand leads to ensure alignment on priorities, timelines, and dependencies.
  • Own the end-to-end program calendar across all four work streams, surfacing conflicts and sequencing issues before they affect delivery.
  • Facilitate recurring cross-team syncs and program reviews to track status, risks, and blockers.
  • Arbitrate conflicts and trade-offs when AEO/SEO, Web, Media, or Brand leads disagree on prioritization or sequencing. Escalate to Marketing Leadership Team as needed.
  • Maintain a single source of truth for cross-team initiative status; ensure standardization and consistent use of current tools, methods, and processes.
  • Work across marketing teams to curate and prioritize a list of legal topics to support ongoing conversations about organizational risk tolerance.
• AEO/SEO
  • Work with AEO/SEO specialist to prioritize identified opportunities.
  • Coordinate deliverables from the 2 Content Strategists (reporting to the Director, AEO & SEO) — briefs, page builds, editorial calendar — against dependent Web, Media, and Brand milestones.
  • Track content production status against program timelines and flag risk to on-time delivery.
• Web
  • Partner with the Web Automation and Activation teams to sequence page builds, template changes, and technical dependencies against content and campaign timelines.
  • Work with AEO/SEO specialist and Web Automation team to implement technical site changes to support AEO/SEO optimization.
• Media
  • Align Media campaign launch timelines with content and web readiness to avoid launching against incomplete assets or unpublished pages.
  • Coordinate budget and flight-date visibility across programs so Media has accurate lead time.
• Brand
  • Ensure Brand review/approval checkpoints are built into program timelines rather than treated as a late-stage gate.
  • Coordinate with Brand on asset requests and creative timelines tied to cross-functional launches.

Job Skills:

• Proven track record of identifying issues and implementing solutions across multiple stakeholder groups with competing priorities.
• Organizational Skills — manage multiple complex programs simultaneously with a high degree of accuracy and attention to detail; prioritize and self-direct while following through on assigned tasks.
• Communication Skills — mediate, negotiate, and resolve cross-functional conflicts with professionalism and credibility; communicate program status clearly to stakeholders at varying levels of seniority.
• Interpersonal Skills — build trust and positive working relationships across teams with differing priorities and working styles.
• Strong analytical and decision-making skills — analyze workflow and dependency patterns, identify risk early, and make sound trade-off recommendations when priorities conflict.

Work Experience:

• 5 - 8 years of experience in marketing program/project management.
• Experience in education or a learning & development setting preferred.
• Experience coordinating across content, web, media, and/or brand functions preferred.

Education:

• Bachelor’s degree from a regionally accredited university.

Other:

• Must be able to travel occasionally should a business need arise. For most roles travel would not be common. Travel may involve planes, car or metro. In accordance with ADA policies, reasonable accommodations regarding travel limitations can be provided. Travel will be more common for roles such as Account Executives (25 - 50%), senior leaders (10 – 20%) or Capella Core Faculty (5 – 10%). 
• Ability to work onsite in Corporate or Campus location (in a typical office environment) may be required based on role. If so, this would include being mobile within the office, including movement from floor-to-floor using elevators or stairs.
• If offsite or hybrid role, must have access to work in setting which enables meeting all requirements of the role (including privacy, reliable internet access, phone, ability to video conference, etc.) at a remote location.
• Faculty and Federal Work Study roles require access to work in setting which enables meeting all requirements of the role (including computer, privacy, reliable internet access, phone, ability to video conference, etc.) at a remote location.
• This role may require lifting, however reasonable accommodations will be provided in accordance with our ADA policies.
• Must be able to meet critical thinking and problem solving aspects aligned to job duties, as well as effectively communicating with co-workers.
• Must be able to work more than 40 hours per week when business needs warrant. Accommodations related to schedule may be considered. 
• Able to access information using a computer.
• Other essential functions and marginal job functions are subject to modification.

SEI offers a comprehensive package of benefits to employees scheduled 30 hours or more per week. In addition to medical, dental, vision, life and disability plans, SEI employees may take advantage of well-being incentives, parental leave, paid time off, certain paid holidays, tax saving accounts (FSA, HSA), 401(k) retirement benefit, Employee Stock Purchase Plan, tuition assistance as well as entertainment and retail discounts. Non-exempt employees are eligible for overtime pay, if applicable.

Careers - Our Benefits, Strategic Education, Inc

SEI is an equal opportunity employer committed to fostering an inclusive and collaborative culture where individuals can grow their careers and contribute fully. We strive to attract talent with broad experiences, skills and perspectives. We welcome applications from all. While it is not typical for an individual to be hired at or near the top end of the pay range at SEI, we offer a competitive salary.  The actual base pay offered to the successful candidate may vary depending on multiple factors including, but not limited to, job-related knowledge/skills, experience, business needs, geographical location, and internal pay equity. Our Talent Acquisition Team is ready to discuss your interest in joining SEI. The expected salary range for this position is below.

$106,500.00 - $159,800.00 - Salary

If you require reasonable accommodations to complete our application process, please contact our Human Resources Department at [email protected].