Director of Web Development and Marketing

The Office of Marketing and Communications at Ripon College has an outstanding opportunity for a full-time Director of Web Development and Marketing to join a high-energy team. The position will report directly to the Vice President for Advancement, Marketing and Communications and will be responsible for providing strategic direction and management for all external and internal college web properties and landing pages, including information architecture, SEO content development, user experience web design, and analytics reporting. The Director will be a self-starter and highly motivated to keep all web properties current and effective in a competitive higher education environment.

This position works closely with marketing/public relations, video, social media, design and IT staff as well as with freelance designers and developers to ensure consistent standards and best practices. This position also provides training for designated student interns and other staff in basic web editing. This role must communicate successfully with stakeholders at all levels throughout the college.

Candidates are required to have knowledge of WordPress CMS editing and development environment, user-centered design, accessibility, SEO, analytics and branding. Experience managing multiple projects simultaneously is a top priority.

Primary Duties and Responsibilities

Manage all internal and external college web and touchscreen properties as well as the creation of new web properties.

Lead project planning and management for assigned projects, providing ongoing status updates and proactively solving problems as they arise.

Manage competing interests and priorities of multiple stakeholders with diverse lines of operation, balancing urgent and long-term needs.

Translate user requests into technical specifications.

Keep current on the latest technology and best practices of web marketing and user experience design.

Develop and maintain WordPress plugins and themes. Work with freelance designer and developer to ensure sites conform to industry standards.

Implement consistent e-Commerce strategy across web properties and integrated events module.

Create relationships with faculty and staff across the college to ensure the desired communication with constituents via web tools is being met.

Respond to content support requests from users and train designated content owners.

Use Google Analytics, web logs, WordPress tools and user testing to measure, evaluate and optimize site structures, processes and content.

Implement Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) and accessibility best practices and ensure they are maintained across all web properties.

Assist the Editorial team with other content creation efforts as needed and assigned to ensure accuracy and consistency.

Collaborate with the IT team to ensure cross-functioning systems are supported.

Interact with various departments to ensure accuracy, required documentation and functionality are present.

Support the Vice President of Advancement, Marketing and Communications by approaching work with a positive, self-starting attitude, high attention to detail, and analytical data-decision driven philosophy toward meeting departmental and college goals.

Additional duties as assigned.

Basic Requirements

Applicants are required to have a Bachelor’s degree from a four-year college or university and three plus years of progressive web marketing experience.

Preferred Qualifications

Demonstrated track record of building and optimizing web experiences to drive growth.

Working knowledge of Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO), User Experience (UX) tools, and A/B testing best practices.

3-4 years of experience managing edits for a WordPress site with ability to understand custom post types and the possibilities for WordPress development.

At least 3 years of Google Analytics, Tag Manager and Data Studio experience 

At least 2 years of utilizing basic HTML and CSS for frontend development

At least 2 years of experience managing the UX and information architecture of a website

Experience with paid social/streaming/web ad analytics

Experience using heatmap tools 

Excellent project management skills

Fluent in Adobe Creative Suite, especially Photoshop.

How to Apply

Interested applicants should provide a cover letter, resume and relevant portfolio of work addressed to Shawn Karsten, Vice President for Advancement, Marketing and Communications. The cover letter should outline how your background matches the responsibilities of this position.  These materials should be emailed to Kim Scanlon at advancementsearch@ripon.edu. To request a full job description please email advancementsearch@ripon.edu. Review of applications will begin immediately and will continue until the position is filled.

EOE