Director, Marketing Planning & Operations

National Geographic; Washington (District of Columbia); Hybrid; USD 143,000 - 150,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, and vision insurance

Wellness program

401(k) retirement plan

Flexible paid time off

National Geographic discounts and perK

Hybrid work arrangement

Job summary

The National Geographic Society seeks a Director of Marketing Planning and Operations to lead the MarCom function's execution, governance, and technology strategy. You will design end-to-end workflows, oversee an enterprise marketing tech roadmap, and drive operational excellence across seven departments while collaborating with Legal and IT.

You bring 10+ years in marketing operations, strong data governance, and the ability to translate complex concepts for diverse partners.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in marketing, business, or information systems.
• MBA or equivalent preferred.
• Experience in a complex, multi-stakeholder nonprofit environment is highly preferred.

Responsibilities

• Develop and optimize marketing operations, ensuring alignment with budgets and goals.
• Lead and govern a multi-year marketing technology roadmap across MarCom and IT.
• Partner with Legal, Technology, and other units to scale capabilities and improve speed-to-market.

Skills

Customer Data Platform

CRM systems

Salesforce Marketing Cloud

MarTech

Project management

Agile methodologies

Stakeholder management

Data privacy regulations

Education

Bachelor's degree

MBA or equivalent

Tools

Monday.com

Job description

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 Director, Marketing Planning and Operations is a strategic leader who oversees the execution, technical enablement, and structural optimization of the Marketing & Communications (MarCom) function. Reporting to the Vice President, MarCom Operations & Internal Communications, this role supervises two key operational pillars: Marketing Planning & Operations and Marketing Technology (MarTech). The Director bridges the gap between marketing strategy and execution by designing end-to-end operational workflows, governing a multi-year marketing technology roadmap, and instilling a culture of operational excellence across all seven integrated departments. This leader works cross-functionally across the Society, partnering with key stakeholders (Legal, Technology, etc.), and business units to scale organizational capabilities, improve speed-to-market, and maximize the return on MarCom investments.

Your Impact Responsibilities Include:

• Process Optimization and Program Management (30%)Develop and enforce project management frameworks, operational workflows, and RACI matrices across divisions to increase throughput and team-wide agility.Oversee the delivery of large-scale, cross-channel, and enterprise-level campaigns, establishing clear operational milestones and governance structures.Champion the safe adoption of emerging technologies (including GenAI and machine learning), designing governance frameworks for hybrid human-agent workflows while maintaining creative and editorial integrity.Partner with the Archives team and content creators to establish robust workflows across digital asset management (DAM/MAM) systems, ensuring strict adherence to rights management.Oversee marketing resource planning, including forecasting, capacity modeling, talent deployment, vendor utilization, and scenario-based resourcing.Standardize metrics and dashboards to track, analyze, and optimize audience growth, retention, and engagement across all owned, earned, and paid channels.Partner with the Manager, Analytics and Insights to deliver actionable pre- and post-campaign analyses, turning raw data into strategic recommendations that improve speed-to-market and effectiveness.
• Strategic Leadership, Alignment, and Governance (40%)Lead annual and quarterly strategic planning cycles across decentralized MarCom teams, ensuring marketing activities directly map to budgets, business goals, and technological capabilities.Optimize marketing operations, including intake, workflow, prioritization, and resource management to support NGS marketing initiatives.Have an ownership role in the marketing technology stack ensuring effective utilization and integration.Architect and implement a scalable multi-year marketing technology roadmap in close collaboration with the Technology division, ensuring the stack effectively supports customer lifecycle marketing, personalization, lead routing, and revenue/fundraising outcomes.Set organizational standards for marketing KPIs, dashboards, and scorecards to ensure technical tool adoption metrics and campaign execution data are leveraged for leadership decision-making.Serve as the division's primary accountable business lead for the quality, security, and compliance of audience data sets, establishing policy guardrails in partnership with IT and Legal.Define and implement a comprehensive, organization-wide measurement framework to transform marketing and communications (MarCom) efforts into clearly quantifiable, ROI-driven initiatives.Develop and scale the infrastructure required to measure audience growth, cross-channel engagement, and the long-term impact of mission-driven marketing campaigns.Partner with the Analytics and Insights function to establish clear, measurable KPIs for all MarCom efforts, shifting the division toward a highly accountable, data-informed culture.
• Team Leadership and Enablement (30%)Manage, mentor, and develop high-performing team, specifically supervising the Senior Manager, Marketing Planning & Operations, Manager, Analytics and Insights and the Senior Manager, MarTech.Foster a culture of continuous learning by establishing training frameworks, user communities, and standardized templates to maximize MarTech utilization and process adoption across all marketing cohorts.Drive a division-wide experimentation agenda (including holdout testing and digital lifecycle optimization), ensuring insights are systematically fed back to partner teams to continuously improve campaign performance.

What You'll Bring

Educational BackgroundBachelor’s degree in a related field (e.g., Marketing, Business, Communications, or Information Systems).An advanced degree (MBA or equivalent) is a plus.

Minimum Years and Type of Experience10+ years of progressive experience in marketing operations, marketing technology (MarTech), strategic planning, or program management, with at least 3 years of experience leading teams or supervising direct reports.Experience in a complex, multi-stakeholder corporate or matrixed non-profit environment is highly preferred.

Necessary Knowledge and Skills

Deep understanding of customer data ecosystems, including Customer Data Platforms (CDPs), CRM systems, marketing automation platforms (e.g., Salesforce Marketing Cloud), and project management applications (e.g., Monday.com).Proven track record of designing, scaling, and training teams on operational workflows, RACI matrices, and agile methodologies.Exceptional stakeholder management skills with the ability to build alignment and translate technical concepts to non-technical business partners across IT, Legal, Finance, and Creative departments.Strong understanding of marketing experimentation, test-and-learn methodologies, and translating analytical dashboards into business insights.Operational knowledge of global data privacy regulations

Desired Qualifications

• Familiarity with Monday.com a plus.
• Effective at building operational systems - RACI, process flows, Roadmaps, etc.
• Familiarity with core marketing and communications processes, tools and templates.

Supervision

3 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 $142,500.00 - $150,000.00.

• 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
• 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.

Who We Are

The National Geographic Society uses the power of science, exploration, education and storytelling to illuminate and protect the wonder of our world. Our mission is only complete when our staff, explorers, educators, youth and partners are seen, valued, and heard. We embrace each person’s identity, experiences, and abilities, and we commit to cultivating an environment where everyone benefits from opportunity, mutual respect and a sense of belonging. National Geographic's headquarters is located in the heart of Washington, D.C. We offer our employees a comprehensive benefits package, including health and dental benefits, generous vacation and parental leave time, a 401(k) plan, flexible work options, and career development.