Senior Manager, Conversion Rate Optimization

Position Summary:

The Senior Manager, Experimentation & Optimization leads conversion rate optimization (CRO) and experimentation for National University’s website and Digital experiences. This is a strategic, data-driven role responsible for defining and executing the CRO roadmap, proactively identifying optimization opportunities, and improving website experiences based on prospective student behavior, user insights, performance data, and lifecycle stage.

The primary goal is to increase inquiry, application, and enrollment conversion through data-informed testing, continuous optimization, and an improved user experience.

Essential Functions:

CRO Strategy & Roadmap

Own the CRO and experimentation roadmap for NU’s website and Digital experiences including opportunity identification, intake, prioritization, sequencing and the testing calendar.

Define, execute, and continuously optimize data-driven testing and optimization strategies that improve user experience, engagement, conversion, and content relevance across prospect-facing web experiences.

Own website experimentation roadmap, related platform strategy, and associated vendor/partner relationships.

Establish testing SLAs, QA standards, governance, and deployment practices that prevent conflicts across concurrent tests, campaigns, and releases.

Maintain a repository of hypotheses, test results, learnings, optimization opportunities, and best practices that accelerate knowledge sharing and continuous improvement.

Experimentation & Proactive A/B Testing

Own the complete experimentation lifecycle: opportunity identification, hypothesis development, prioritization, test design, implementation, QA, launch, measurement, readout, and production rollout of winners.

Proactively source the testing pipeline from behavioral analytics, session data, UX research, and website funnel diagnostics rather than operating as a request-driven queue.

Design and run A/B, multivariate, and multi-page experiments, ensuring appropriate sample sizing, run length, and statistical significance before a result is acted on.

Optimize information architecture, content presentation, navigation, page experience, and calls-to-action using customer insight and behavioral data.

Translate experimentation outcomes into optimization recommendations that inform future website roadmaps, experience strategy, and investment priorities.

Journey Discovery and Experience Optimization

Analyze the end-to-end prospective student journey to identify friction, abandonment, and conversion opportunities using behavioral analytics, session replay, UX research, and customer feedback.

Champion continuous optimization of program discovery across web properties, including on-site search, filters, navigation, program finders, and recommendation surfaces.

Develop targeted website experience strategies using established audience segments, intent signals, engagement patterns, lifecycle stage, and experimentation insights to improve relevance, engagement, and conversion.

Develop and optimize personalized website experiences that deliver relevant messaging, content, navigation, and recommendations based on audience needs, behavioral insights, and lifecycle stage.

Partner with Marketing, Enrollment, and Digital Analytics to leverage audience segments, first-party customer data, and behavioral insights to support website personalization and optimization initiatives.

Identify opportunities to apply AI-assisted optimization, predictive insights, and behavioral decisioning to improve relevance, engagement, and conversion outcomes.

Participate and input into Journey Operations that impact Prospect Student experience in partnership with IT, Accounts, Brand and Product teams.

Measurement, KPIs & Reporting Cadence

Own measurement best practices, quarterly meta-analysis, CRO Playbook, dashboards, and the KPI framework supporting CRO, experimentation, and website personalization efforts.

Define, monitor, and communicate KPIs including experimentation velocity, win rate, conversion improvement, inquiry conversion, application progression, website conversion, journey completion, personalization effectiveness, and incremental business impact.

Establish and maintain a regular reporting cadence, including weekly program status, monthly CRO performance readouts, and quarterly roadmap and business-impact reviews for senior leadership.

Build executive dashboards and communicate test results, KPI trends, roadmap progress, and strategic recommendations to the Chief Marketing Officer and senior stakeholders.

Partner with the Digital Analytics team to establish analytical requirements, measurement plans, and dashboard reporting for UX.

Measure the maturity of National University’s experimentation program and continuously evolve optimization capabilities through data-driven insight.

Innovation & Continuous Improvement

Evaluate emerging trends in AI, personalization, experimentation, behavioral science, and digital experience optimization.

Identify opportunities to incorporate intelligent personalization, predictive experiences, and innovative optimization capabilities into National University’s prospective student website experiences.

Evaluate new technologies, platforms, and optimization capabilities that strengthen website audience engagement, experience effectiveness, and conversion performance.

Continuously benchmark industry trends, competitor experiences, customer expectations, and evolving digital behaviors to identify future opportunities for innovation and growth.

Other duties as assigned.

Supervisory Responsi bilities:

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 marketing, Business, Analytics, Statistics, Human-Computer Interaction, or a related field. Master’s degree or M.B.A. preferred.
• 7 + years of experience in conversion rate optimization and experimentation, website experience management, personalization, digital merchandising, or e-commerce.
• 2+ years of experience in a strategy, program ownership, or related manager responsibilities.
• Demonstrated ownership and administration of A/B testing and personalization platforms (Adobe Target, VWO, Optimizely, or equivalent), including governance, implementation oversight, and optimization best practices.
• Experience designing, implementing, and optimizing personalized digital experiences using audience segmentation, behavioral targeting, geo-targeting, and journey-based experience targeting.
• Proven experience developing and executing a CRO and experimentation roadmap, including KPI development, prioritization frameworks, and executive reporting.
• Experience managing vendors, agency partners, and external development resources to deliver experimentation, personalization, and digital optimization initiatives.
• Demonstrated track record of leveraging experimentation and personalization strategies to drive measurable improvements in conversion, lead generation, engagement, and business outcomes.
• Experience in higher education, edtech, or another complex, high-consideration, multi-audience environment preferred.
• Portfolio, case studies, or documented examples demonstrating measurable conversion improvements and successful optimization initiatives across complex digital ecosystems.
• Competencies/Technical/Functional Skills: Deep expertise in experimentation methodologies, including hypothesis development, test design, statistical analysis, and interpretation of results to support business decisions.
• Strong experience leading conversion rate optimization (CRO), personalization, and digital experience optimization programs at scale.
• Expertise with experimentation, personalization, and analytics platforms such as Adobe Target, Optimizely, VWO, Adobe Analytics, GA4, and FullStory.
• Strong understanding of customer data platforms, audience segmentation, behavioral targeting, and customer journey optimization.
• Ability to independently analyze, validate, and interpret complex datasets using SQL, dashboards, and analytics tools to identify opportunities and inform strategy.
• Experience developing experimentation roadmaps, success metrics, governance processes, and executive reporting frameworks.
• Strong understanding of UX principles, customer journey mapping, and the integration of qualitative and quantitative insights into optimization strategies.
• Knowledge of accessibility (WCAG), responsive design principles, content strategy, and technical considerations impacting experimentation and personalization.