Associate Director, Digital Experience

Compensation Range:

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

Position Summary:

This role supports the advancement of core and innovation product experiences across the prospective student journey, with a focus on key digital touchpoints such as landing pages, application flows, and engagement tools. Sitting within the UX team, this is a senior individual contributor role that drives day-to-day experience insights, journey analysis, and optimization efforts. The role works closely with cross-functional partners across Marketing, Enrollment, Product, and Data to inform and influence experience outcomes. Operating under the direction of the UX Director, this role helps bring experience strategy to life by ensuring all core experiences and emerging innovations are user-centered, insight-driven, and continuously improving

Essential Functions:

Digital Product Experience Optimization

• Own day-to-day optimization, testing, and experience QA of core digital experiences, including key landing pages, application flows, and engagement tools (e.g., chat, forms).
• Ensure experiences are functioning as intended and aligned to UX standards, identifying and addressing gaps in experience quality.
• Define and drive A/B testing and experimentation opportunities, including hypothesis development, experience variations, and success criteria.
• Translate insights into clear, actionable recommendations and partner with Product and Engineering to ensure improvements are implemented and measured.

Journey Intelligence & Personalization

• Lead the optimization of end-to-end user journeys across web, CRM, and enrollment touchpoints, ensuring a seamless and connected experience.
• Identify and address journey-level friction points and gaps, driving improvements across lifecycle stages.
• Translate user behavior and journey insights into personalization opportunities, aligned to user intent, lifecycle stage, and key decision moments.
• Contribute to and help shape personalization strategies and pilots, ensuring they are scalable and measurable.
• Partner across teams to operationalize journey improvements leveraging UX research and behavioral insights to influence design and product decisions, working closely with designers and product partners.

Research & Reporting

• Work in partnership with UX leadership to define and track UX and product analytics and KPIs across core and innovation experiences, tools and products.
• Leverage performance data, dashboards, and reporting to monitor experience health and identify opportunities.
• Develop and deliver regular performance reporting, translating insights into clear recommendations and prioritized actions.
• Lead biannual competitive and technology audits to inform both optimization and innovation opportunities.

Innovation & Experience Development

• Contribute to the development of the innovation roadmap, identifying new product and experience opportunities
• Bring forward ideas informed by user behavior, research, competitive audits, and emerging technologies
• Partner on the design, rollout, and measurement of new digital product experiences and pilots
• Support AI and innovation initiatives by ensuring experiences are user-centered, journey-aligned, and measurable
• Other duties as assigned.

Supervisory Responsibilities:

• Individual contributor role that provides leadership through influence and expertise; scope may evolve over time based on organizational needs.

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

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 .

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