Senior Director, Content Marketing

Risepoint assists primarily regional universities in increasing their access and impact by making their academic programs available to students online. Founded in 2007, Risepoint's mission is to expand access to high-quality, affordable, and workforce-relevant education, especially for working and adult students. Risepoint brings single-minded dedication to student success, an integrated set of services, and data-driven performance to our collaboration with university partners.

The Partner Brand & Creative team at Risepoint is a multidisciplinary group of project managers, writers, editors, designers, and video producers.

We partner closely with teams across marketing, student success, and university partnerships to build meaningful, high-impact, full-funnel creative that helps universities to grow by moving students to enroll.

Our goal is that every deliverable is driven by strategy and business goals, grounded in insight, powered by collaboration, and built to inspire action.

Job Summary
Reporting to the VP of Partner Brand and Creative, the Senior Director, Content is a strategic and hands-on leadership role responsible for shaping the future of content across Risepoint’s partner ecosystem. You’ll lead a team of writers and editors and drive the development of marketing copy and content that connects, converts, and reflects the values of our university partners.

You will own content strategy across the full student journey ensuring every touchpoint is insightdriven, brand-aligned, and optimized for discoverability and conversion across digital platforms. 

You’ll pioneer new approaches to discoverability, community-driven engagement, and hyper-personalized experiences, blending AI efficiency with human storytelling to deliver credibility and impact. You will collaborate closely with leaders in Brand Strategy, Creative, Digital Experience, SEO/AEO, AI Enablement, and Student Success to ensure content fuels measurable performance, drives enrollment, and strengthens the long-term reputation of our partners.

Key Duties and Responsibilities

Stategic Leadership
• Build and own a scalable, insight-driven content strategy that maximizes discoverability across channels, ensuring partner programs surface in traditional search, AI-Enabled search (AEO) and emerging discovery platforms (Reddit, Tiktok, etc). 
• Develop full-funnel content frameworks that clearly define audience, purpose, 
messaging hierarchy, and channel-specific formats. Establish how messaging 
ladders into SEO/AEO requirements while still reflecting brand storytelling and 
audience needs. 
• Act as a thought leader on AEO/SEO content. 
• Translate complex partner brand strategies into clear, differentiated content 
plans that resonate with prospective students
• Define and maintain editorial standards, voice guidelines, and review processes that ensure quality, clarity, and consistency
• Act as the strategic content lead across campaigns and initiatives, connecting 
storytelling to measurable business outcomes
• Evangelize the use of emerging tech and AI to streamline and optimize workflows and deliverables

Content Intelligence & Optimization
• Lead the integration of AEO/SEO best practices into every content type and 
channel. 
• Use analytics, performance dashboards, and student behavior data to continuously refine content strategies and priorities
• Build a roadmap for content testing and experimentation including messaging 
variants, format tests, and modular content strategies
• Lead the integration of structured content and metadata strategies that support personalization, AEO, and omnichannel performance
• Leverage search and AI insights to proactively identify emerging topics, gaps, 
and high-opportunity content areas
• Support keyword strategy ensuring content aligns with the evolving ways students search.

Team Leadership & Operations
• Lead, mentor, and grow a team of writers, editors, managers and strategists, 
and their direct reports
• Align team structure, roles, and processes to support evolving business needs 
across a portfolio of university partners
• Establish performance goals, workflows, and review cadences to improve 
speed, quality, and impact of content delivery
• Champion a culture of creativity, collaboration, and accountability within the 
content team and across functions
• Oversee onboarding, training, and upskilling programs to ensure the team remains current on best practices, tools, and trends

Cross-Functional Collaboration
• Serve as the strategic bridge between Brand, Content, and Creative teams to 
ensure integrated, high-impact storytelling 
• Collaborate with Digital Experience, particularly SEO/AEO and Integrated Marketing to align content with student journey stages and product narratives and create a unified discoverability strategy. 
• Partner with paid media to ensure paid/organic discoverability are integrated, 
maximizing both scale and efficiency. 
• Partner with the AI Enablement Lead to embed generative AI tools into planning, briefing, and production workflows 
• Work closely with Partner Marketing and Field teams to localize content strategies and align with institutional needs 
• Represent the content function in leadership forums and cross-functional 
planning meetings, providing a strong POV on content’s role in growth 
• Build strong relationships with cross-functional stakeholders, proactively setting and managing expectations around content scope, timelines, and outcomes to ensure alignment and accountability across initiatives 
• Manage relationships with cross-functional stakeholders across Marketing, 
Paid Media, Digital Experience, Brand, Content, and Partner teams, ensuring 
creative alignment, clarity of expectations, and timely feedback loops

Additional Position Responsibilities
• Perform in accordance with Risepoint Policies
• Perform other duties as assigned

Qualifications
Bachelor’s Degree Journalism, Communications, English, Marketing, or a related field
Master’s Degree Strategic Communication, Integrated Marketing Communications, Digital Media
10+ years of experience in content strategy, brand storytelling, editorial 
leadership or SEO/AEO content strategy within a fast-paced, marketing driven, digital-first organization (inhouse and agency experience preferred)

Skills/Knowledge/Abilities
• Proven experience building fullfunnel content strategies that align with business objectives, brand voice, and audience needs — from awareness to 
conversion and beyond
• Proven expertise in SEO strategy, AI-enabled search and content discoverability with measurable results in driving organic growth across multiple channels. 
• Deep knowledge of search algorithm evolution, structured data, 
schema and metadata strategies that improve content ranking and visibility in AI-driven ecosystems. 
• Experience leveraging search intelligence tools to inform strategy and execution. 
• Advanced knowledge of keyword research, clustering, and semantic optimization with proven success scaling organic visibility and traffic. 
• Experience building keyword driven editorial strategies and 
connecting them to measurable outcomes. 
• Deep understanding of messaging development, narrative structure, and content channel strategy (web, social, email, video, paid, etc.)
• Strong editorial judgment and exceptional writing/editing skills able to balance creativity with precision, and brand storytelling with performance goals
• Experienced leader and mentor with a track record of building 
and scaling content teams, elevating quality, and fostering a culture of accountability, collaboration, and growth
• Comfortable working across complex, matrixed environments with multiple stakeholders and competing priorities
• Strong analytical mindset —able to use data and insights to drive decision-making, experimentation, and optimization
• Adept at partnering with design, UX/DX, and video teams to bring 
cohesive narratives to life across touchpoints
• Experience with AI-driven content creation tools or large-scale 
personalization programs such as Jasper, Claude, Boords, and Katalist

Risepoint is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an equitable environment for all employees. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable state or federal laws