Associate Vice President, Marketing

American College of Surgeons; Chicago (IL); Hybrid; USD 170,000 - 210,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Tuition Reimbursement

Medical coverage

Dental, Vision, Prescription drugs

403(b) Matching

Pension Plan

Flexible Spending

Employee Assistance Program

Job summary

The American College of Surgeons in Chicago seeks an Associate Vice President of Marketing to build and scale ACS's marketing engine, driving member growth, engagement, and retention. You will own strategy, execution, and optimization across email/CRM, paid media, SEO/SEM, social, and campaign analytics.

You will lead a high-performing team of five, set KPIs, and ensure ROI targets are met while collaborating with Education, Quality Programs, and Business Development.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or higher from an accredited college or university.
• 10-12 years of progressive marketing experience with data-driven, multichannel campaigns; healthcare experience a plus.
• Proven success building/testing programs (A/B, multivariate) and translating results into strategy.
• Experience owning marketing automation and CRM/AMS platforms; Marketo experience preferred.
• Demonstrated ability to market to various personas across healthcare environments.
• Strong analytics skills with experience interpreting campaign performance data; Power BI preferred.
• Experience with personalization, segmentation, and lifecycle marketing.

Responsibilities

• Design and lead an integrated marketing strategy to drive member acquisition, engagement, and renewal, plus adoption of Quality Programs and educational offerings.
• Build a modern marketing function and drive the full funnel end-to-end with test, measure, and scale discipline.
• Establish KPIs, attribution, and dashboards to visualize marketing ROI and optimize campaigns.
• Direct paid digital and search investments alongside owned channels to maximize acquisition and engagement.
• Own ROAS and CPA targets across paid channels in partnership with web and social teams.
• Serve as the marketing owner of ACS's automation and CRM/AMS ecosystem (Marketo) and data architecture.
• Mentor and manage a team of professionals, collaborating across departments to translate priorities into campaigns.
• Champion responsible use of AI tools to accelerate content creation and optimization.

Skills

Multichannel marketing

Data-driven decision making

Marketing analytics

A/B testing

CRM/AMS (Marketo)

Power BI

Team leadership

Budget management

Education

Bachelor's degree

Advanced degree preferred

Tools

Marketo

Power BI

Stripo

Job description

About the American College of Surgeons

The American College of Surgeons (ACS) is a professional and educational organization of surgeons that was founded in 1913 to raise the standards of surgical practice and improve the quality of care for surgical patients. The College is dedicated to the ethical and competent practice of surgery. Its achievements have significantly influenced the course of scientific surgery in America and have established it as an important advocate for all surgical patients. The College has more than 95,000 members and is the largest organization of surgeons in the world. For more information, visit www.facs.org.

Our Mission

The American College of Surgeons is dedicated to improving the care of the surgical patient and safeguarding standards of care in an optimal and ethical practice environment.

Our Vision

To create a healthcare landscape where surgeons thrive and every patient has access to and benefits from the highest standards of surgical care, driven by innovation, education, leadership, and trust.

Summary:

The Associate Vice President (AVP), Marketing is a senior leader within the Division of Strategic Marketing and Communications responsible for building and scaling ACS's marketing engine. The AVP, Marketing will drive measurable growth in member acquisition, engagement, and retention, as well as awareness and adoption of ACS's Quality Programs and educational products. This role owns the strategy, execution, and continuous optimization of ACS's multichannel marketing portfolio, including email/CRM marketing, paid digital and search, organic and paid social optimization, search engine optimization (SEO), search engine marketing (SEM), answer engine optimization (AEO), generative engine optimization (GEO), and campaign analytics.

The AVP brings a rigorous, test-and-learn, metrics-first approach to marketing, setting clear KPIs, building attribution and reporting infrastructure, and holding channels and campaigns accountable to conversion, engagement, and ROI targets. This is a hands-on leadership role for someone who will build a modern marketing function within a mission-driven organization, as well as create an infrastructure for operating continuous optimization.

This position partners closely with the AVP, Strategic Communications, and manages a high-performing team of five direct reports: two Marketing Managers, Senior Manager, Marketing Intelligence, Senior Social Media Strategist and Social Media Coordinator.

This exempt position will report to the VP, Strategic Marketing and Communications in the Division of Strategic Marketing and Communications. It is based in our Chicago office and is a hybrid role: 3 days per week in the office/2 days per week remote.

The anticipated salary range for this position is $170,000 - $210,000 (commensurate with related experience).

Major Responsibilities:

Growth Strategy & Execution

• Design and lead an integrated marketing strategy that drives measurable growth in membership acquisition, engagement, and renewal, as well as adoption of Quality Programs, educational offerings and other resources and services.
• Build a modern marketing function, driving the full funnel end-to-end, from awareness through conversion and retention, with the systems and discipline to test, measure, and scale what works.

Accountability & Analytics

• Establish KPIs, attribution models, and dashboards (e.g., Power BI/AI) that make marketing ROI visible and actionable.
• Build a culture of continuous testing, including A/B and multivariate testing on creative, offers, audiences, and channels, to systematically improve conversion and cost efficiency over time.

Paid and Owned Channel Leadership

• Direct paid digital and search investment (Google Ads, LinkedIn, Meta, display) alongside owned channels (email, web, organic social) to maximize acquisition and engagement at the lowest sustainable cost.
• Own return on ad spend (ROAS) and cost-per-acquisition targets across paid channels, in close partnership with the social media and web teams.

Marketing Technology & Data Infrastructure

• Serve as the marketing owner of ACS's automation and CRM/AMS ecosystem (e.g., Marketo), ensuring the platform, segmentation, and data architecture support increasingly sophisticated targeting, personalization, and lifecycle marketing at scale.
• Partner with the IT team to optimize data sources for marketing opportunities.

Team Leadership & Development

• Build, mentor, and manage a team of marketing professionals, instilling a rigorous, data-informed, and growth-oriented culture.
• Partner with Membership, Quality Programs, Education, and Business Development to translate organizational priorities into marketing campaigns with clear, trackable business outcomes.
• Champion the responsible use of AI tools to accelerate content creation, segmentation, personalization, and campaign optimization, keeping ACS at the leading edge of marketing practice.
• Partner with the VP, Strategic Marketing and Communications on the marketing budget, allocating spend across channels based on demonstrated performance, and reporting results transparently to senior leadership.

Required Education and/or Experience:

• Bachelor's degree or higher from an accredited college or university is required; advanced degree preferred.
• 10-12 years of progressive marketing experience with a demonstrated track record of driving measurable growth in acquisition, engagement, or revenue through data-driven, multichannel campaigns; healthcare experience a plus.
• Proven success building and scaling testing programs (A/B, multivariate) and translating results into strategy.
• Experience owning marketing automation and CRM/AMS platforms. Marketo experience at a strategic and technical level preferred.
• Demonstrated ability to market to various personas and stakeholders across the healthcare and hospital systems environments.
• Deep, hands-on experience with paid digital/search advertising, conversion rate optimization, and marketing analytics with a demonstrated track record of managing and improving ROAS across paid channels.
• Knowledge of PropFuel preferred; proficiency with Stripo or equivalent email design tool required.
• Demonstrated experience in performance marketing and paid digital advertising (Google Ads, LinkedIn, Meta or similar platforms).
• Strong analytical skills with experience interpreting and presenting campaign performance data; Power BI experience preferred.
• Experience with CRM/AMS systems and using data to drive segmentation and targeting decisions.
• Fluency with AI tools for marketing applications (e.g., ChatGPT, Claude, or similar).
• Experience with personalization, behavioral segmentation, and lifecycle marketing.
• Strong attention to detail, QA discipline, and ability to manage multiple campaigns and deadlines independently.
• Strong working knowledge of Microsoft Office (Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint); Power BI and analytics tools preferred.
• Experience managing marketing budgets with clear ROI accountability.
• People leadership experience, including managing high-performing, metrics-driven teams.
• Comfortable being held accountable to numbers, including conversion rates, cost per acquisition, engagement, retention.
• Ability to translate data into clear narratives and recommendations for non-technical stakeholders and executives.
• Partners effectively across a complex, mission-driven organization with many stakeholders.
• Has a high degree of integrity, discretion, and professional maturity, as well as strong executive presence and credibility.

Comprehensive Benefits:

We're committed to attracting and retaining top talent via valuable benefits!

• Vacation, personal, and sick hours including 13 paid holidays per year
• Tuition Reimbursement
• Medical-comprehensive coverage through BlueCross BlueShield
• Dental, Vision, and Prescription drug program
• 403(b) Matching Program
• Pension Plan
• Flexible Spending Medical/Dependent Care
• Employee Assistance Program
• Short Term/Long Term Disability
• Life Insurance
• Domestic Partner Coverage

The American College of Surgeons is committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodations to individuals with disabilities. If, because of a medical condition or disability, you need a reasonable accommodation for any part of the employment process, please send an e-mail to [e-mail] or call [phone] and let us know the nature of your request and your contact information.

Equal Opportunity Employer/Protected Veterans/Individuals with Disabilities This employer is required to notify all applicants of their rights pursuant to federal employment laws. For further information, please review the Know Your Rights notice from the Department of Labor.