Senior Manager, Marketing Planning & Operations

How You’ll Contribute The Communication, Marketing and Brand team uses creative and strategic tools to further the mission of the National Geographic Society (NGS), while maintaining our place as one of the world’s most trusted non-profit organizations and global brands. The Division’s creative minds develop and execute mission-driven, on-brand strategies and integrated strategic communications, marketing, creative and audience growth for the National Geographic Society and unifying our efforts across our owned channels, through owned channels, outside partners and earned media. The team is composed of seven integrated departments: Creative, Integrated Brand Marketing, Partnership Marketing, MarCom Operations and Internal Communications, Strategic Communications, Executive Communications, and Crisis Communications and Public Relations. The Senior Manager, Marketing Planning & Operations plays a key role in optimizing the Marketing & Communications (MarCom) function by ensuring structural and operational efficiency. This involves leading marketing planning cycles on an annual and quarterly basis, managing the delivery of large-scale campaigns, and fostering operational excellence across all MarCom activity. The role is responsible for designing process workflows, establishing shared best practices, and implementing effective systems, tools, and templates to achieve MarCom goals efficiently. This manager works across the Society with marketing, communications, data/analytics teams, and core functions like Legal and Technology to ensure the seamless, integrated, and efficient execution of all MarCom initiatives. Your Impact Responsibilities Include: Marketing Planning and Strategic Alignment (30%) Develop and manage annual and quarterly strategic planning cycles across divisional MarCom teams and with cross-functional and external partners, aligning MarCom activities with budgets and business goals. Translate marketing strategy into operational plans, global campaign calendars, and resource allocation balancing evergreen activity with key strategic initiatives. Manage planning frameworks across demand generation, brand, and lifecycle marketing. Build test and learn agenda as part of planning process in partnership with cross-divisional teams. Ensure marketing KPIs, dashboards and scorecards are defined for MarCom activity and ladder to enterprise goals for executive-level reporting. Project Management (35%) Serve as the program manager for cross-channel, cross-divisional MarCom campaigns (with focus on larger programs like Enterprise level campaigns) building and maintaining campaign project plans, timelines, and milestones and running governance structures. Serve as MarCom product lead for marketing automation and project management platform. Process and Operations Management (35%) Workshop and define standardize marketing processes, tools and project management frameworks to improve speed-to-market and campaign visibility. Design, implement, and refine operational workflows and roles and responsibilities and provide training across divisions. Build and roll-out templates to support identified processes. Ensure process supports a test and learn approach, especially in digital and lifecycle activities; including the ability to have closed-loop reporting of learnings back to partner teams. Support adoption of GenAI and automation tools where process readiness exists, ensuring governance and talent readiness for hybrid human–agent workflows. Ensure operational procedures and guidelines used by all marketing teams to ensure adherence to the Society’s information management policies and standards. Partner with other internal marketing teams to improve operational maturity, by identifying operational improvements, including how to leverage automation to make operations more efficient. What You'll Bring Educational Background Bachelor’s degree in a related field (Communications, Marketing, Education, etc.) Minimum Years and Type of Experience 7+ years of experience in marketing operations, marketing planning or campaign management Necessary Knowledge and Skills Expertise in marketing automation and project management platforms Strong oral and written communication skills; ability to work with a variety of internal constituents. Ability to handle sensitive information confidentially and exercise good professional judgement. Skilled at collaborating across multiple departments in a complex organization. Excellent attention to detail, organizational, problem-solving skills, and follow through as demonstrated through effective project management experience. Comfort multi-tasking multiple deadlines and projects. Strong analytical skills, understanding of experimentation and holdout test methodologies Demonstrated project management experience with the ability to indirectly manage and build consensus across diverse teams Desired Qualifications Familiarity with Monday.com a plus Effective at building operational systems - RACI, process flows, etc. Familiarity with core marketing and communications processes, tools and templates Supervision No direct reports Salary Information The National Geographic Society offers a competitive and holistic total rewards package. Our compensation structure and transparent pay philosophy are based on industry-specific market data for similar-sized nonprofit organizations. The salary range for this position accounts for a wide range of factors including but not limited to organizational need; specific skill sets; experience and training; certifications; and more. At the National Geographic Society, individuals are typically hired at or near the starting point of the salary range for their role, and compensation decisions are dependent on the facts and circumstances of each case. The salary range for this position is $95,000.00 - $100,000.00. In addition, the National Geographic Society offers a competitive and comprehensive benefits package that includes, but is not limited to, medical, dental, and vision insurance; engaging and comprehensive wellness program; 401(k) retirement savings plan with matching contributions after 6 months of employment; flexible paid time off benefits with up to 22 days of paid annual leave per calendar year (15 days for new hires in their first year, prorated based on the number of pay periods remaining in the year) and 10 days of sick leave; 12 paid holidays and a paid winter break between December 25 and 31 (May not apply to all roles that are required to work during high volume seasons or essential workers. Please check with the hiring manager for confirmation.); paid parental leave, adoption and surrogacy expense reimbursement, fertility benefits; learning and development opportunities; Lifestyle Spending Account; pet adoption assistance and insurance; pre-tax transportation benefits with a generous employer subsidy; employer-paid life insurance and disability benefit; and a variety of National Geographic discounts and perks. Job Designation Hybrid - At the Society, we believe in the advantages of coming together to build community, mentor and learn from colleagues, and connect more deeply with our mission. As a result, the majority of our staff are Hybrid. Our Hybrid category requires that staff work at Base Camp two days each week: every Tuesday and Wednesday. Hybrid staff are also always welcome to come in additional days each week if preferred. Candidates must be legally authorized to work in the United States. This position is not eligible for visa sponsorship. W e encourage you to apply even if your experience is not a 100% match with the position. We are looking for someone with relevant skills and experience, not a checklist that exactly matches the job description. We want to help you grow and in return, you help us grow into a stronger, more inclusive organization.