Associate Director, Digital Experience

Compensation Range:

Annual Salary: $78,496.00 - $105,974.00

Position Summary

This role drives the execution and optimization of user-first digital experiences across the prospective student journey. Sitting within UX, this role operationalizes experience strategy, ensures alignment across Enrollment, AI-driven initiatives, and digital products, and continuously improves performance through data and insights.

This role partners closely with Marketing Automation, IT/Product, Enrollment, and Data teams, supporting and influencing product and experience outcomes without owning product build or campaign execution. This role operates within the experience strategy and frameworks defined by UX leadership.

Essential Functions:

Enrollment, Innovation & Experience Strategy Execution

Partner with Enrollment, Marketing, and Product teams to:

• Identify and recommend new products and experience opportunities based on Journey and User Insights and competitive audits
• Translate business needs into user-first experience concepts
• Map, optimize, and operationalize end-to-end journeys across Web, CRM, and Enrollment touchpoints
• Partner on integrating user journeys for New Digital Product launches and measuring performance and user journeys for on-going optimization
• Lead Cross Functional work sessions for ideation and alignment on Digital Experiences
• Support AI and innovation initiatives by ensuring experiences are user-centered and measurable

Journey Intelligence & Personalization

• Develop a deep understanding of end-to-end user journeys across web, CRM, and enrollment touchpoints
• Identify friction points, drop-offs, and experience gaps
• Biannual Competitive and Technology Audits
• Partner on Personalization Roadmaps and explore partners. Translate insights into Personalization strategies ensuring personalization efforts are aligned with user behavior, lifecycle stage, and business goals
• Partner with UX leader on Digital Product reporting for User KPI’s ensuring building reporting and metrics.

Research & Insight-Driven Experience

• Leverage UX research and behavioral insights to inform experience and product decisions.
• Translate insights
• Experience improvements.
• Recommendations for new product features or enhancements.
• Ensure all product, pilot, and AI initiatives are grounded in real user needs and behaviors.

Cross-Functional Experience Leadership

• Act as a connector across UX, Data, Marketing Automation, Enrollment, and IT/Product teams
• Ensure alignment between:
• Experience strategy.
• Product development.
• Marketing execution.
• Provide experience and performance input into prioritization discussions, in partnership with UX leadership, product and marketing owners.
• Other duties as assigned.

Supervisory Responsibilities:

• May have direct reports over time (e.g., UX engineering, analytics, or experience-focused roles) based on organizational needs
• Leads and directs work through cross-functional partners, including Marketing, Enrollment, CRM/Automation, Product, and Engineering teams
• Overseas and manages external agency partners and vendors, ensuring quality, alignment, and delivery against experience and performance goals
• Operates with a high degree of autonomy, influencing outcomes without relying on formal authority
• Acts as the experience owner across initiatives, ensuring user-centric thinking is consistently applied across all products and journeys

Requirements:

Education & Experience:

• Bachelor’s degree in design, human-computer interaction, or a related field.
• 7+ years of experience in digital experience, product strategy, personalization, or innovation roles, with a demonstrated ability to shape user-facing products and end-to-end journeys, not solely optimize existing experiences.
• Proven experience partnering closely with CRM and marketing automation teams, including hands-on familiarity with platforms such as Salesforce, and a strong understanding of lifecycle journeys, triggers, segmentation, and user signals.
• Demonstrated experience driving personalization and experience intelligence, leveraging behavioral, CRM, and intent-based signals to inform scalable, high-impact experience improvements.

Competencies/Technical/Functional Skills:

• Strong experience and performance orientation, with the ability to define KPIs, work with GA4 and behavioral analytics, and translate user data into actionable experience and product recommendations.
• Solid foundation in human‑centered design, journey mapping, and experience strategy, with the ability to guide solutions across complex digital ecosystems.
• Demonstrated ability to operationalize experience strategy, connecting insights to prioritized initiatives across web, CRM, enrollment, and digital product touchpoints.
• Experience partnering with CRM, marketing automation, and data teams, with a working understanding of lifecycle journeys, segmentation, and behavioral signals.
• Familiarity with experimentation and optimization frameworks, using qualitative and quantitative inputs to support continuous improvement.
• Working knowledge of accessibility (WCAG), responsive design principles, and content structure, with the ability to advocate for inclusive, scalable experiences.
• Experience collaborating within design systems and shared UX frameworks, partnering with designers rather than owning detailed design execution.
• Exposure to or experience supporting AI‑driven or personalization‑based experiences, with the ability to assess impact on user journeys and outcomes.
• Strong cross‑functional leadership and influence skills, aligning UX, Product, Enrollment, Marketing Automation, IT, and Data teams without relying on formal authority.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to translate complex experience and data concepts for both technical and non‑technical audiences.

Location: Remote, USA

Travel: up to 10% travel

#LI-Remote

Candidate receiving offers will be offered a salary/pay rate commensurate with experience that vary based on a candidate’s qualifications, skills, and competencies. Absent exceptional circumstances, candidates will be offered a salary within this range for this position. The minimum salary will be offered based on the minimum exemption threshold based on state of residency. Base pay is one component of National University’s total rewards package, as we are dedicated to supporting the needs of the “whole you” with our holistic approach to employee benefits by offering comprehensive well-being benefits for you and your family. For full details about our benefit plan offerings, please visit benefits.nu.edu. For Part-time benefits, please click here.

National University is committed to maintaining a high-quality workforce representative of the populations we serve. National University employs more than 4,500 faculty and staff and serves over 45,000 students. We are united in our mission to meet the global education demands of the 21st Century and are dedicated to creating a supportive academic and work environment that allows students, faculty and staff to develop their interests and talents while experiencing a sense of community. With programs available both online and at our many campus locations, National University is a leader in creating innovative solutions to education and meeting the needs of our student population, including adult learners and working professionals.

National University (NU) is proud to be an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate against any employee or applicant per applicable federal, state and local laws. At NU, a mix of highly talented, innovative and creative people come together to make the impact of a lifetime for each of our student learners. All qualified applicants will receive equal consideration for employment, education, and admission at National University.