Journey Coordination Lead

Western Governors University; United States; On-site; USD 75,000 - 113,000; Full time

Job summary

Western Governors University seeks a Journey Coordination Lead to own the Student Experience Clearinghouse and drive cross-functional coordination for student engagement campaigns across channels. You will partner with Product, Enterprise Architecture, Academic Operations, and Student Support to define requirements and shape a roadmap for system consolidation and improved student outcomes.

The role emphasizes business ownership, experience design, and governance, with a focus on reducing

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree required in a related field.
• Five or more years of progressively responsible experience in student experience, customer experience, journey management, or related work.
• Experience partnering with product, technology, analytics, architecture, operations, or communications teams to define business needs and influence roadmaps.

Responsibilities

• Provide functional leadership and day-to-day guidance to Student Journey Coordinators and Student Interns.
• Establish and improve a journey coordination operating model for intake, triage, prioritization, governance, and post-launch evaluation.
• Guide design and development of systemic student journey campaigns and experiences.
• Partner with cross-functional stakeholders to define requirements and roadmap inputs for streamlining student-facing systems.
• Coordinate cross-channel journey coordination workflows across email, SMS, in-app notifications, chats, and other channels.
• Develop and maintain governance routines, playbooks, and templates for planning and measurement.

Skills

Functional leadership

Student experience strategy

Process governance

Business ownership

Systems thinking

Cross-functional influence

Executive-level communication

Consulting and facilitation

Analytical mindset

Campaign and experience planning

Quality and accessibility

Change management

Operational excellence

Mission alignment

Education

Bachelor’s degree

Master’s degree preferred

Tools

Pendo

Mainstay

Salesforce

Tealium

Genesys

Tableau

Databricks

Job description

If you’re passionate about building a better future for individuals, communities, and our country—and you’re committed to working hard to play your part in building that future—consider WGU as the next step in your career. Driven by a mission to expand access to higher education through online, competency-based degree programs, WGU is also committed to being a great place to work for a diverse workforce of student-focused professionals. The university has pioneered a new way to learn in the 21st century, one that has received praise from academic, industry, government, and media leaders. Whatever your role, working for WGU gives you a part to play in helping students graduate, creating a better tomorrow for themselves and their families. The salary range for this position takes into account the wide range of factors that are considered in making compensation decisions including but not limited to skill sets; experience and training; licensure and certifications; and other business and organizational needs. At WGU, it is not typical for an individual to be hired at or near the top of the range for their position, and compensation decisions are dependent on the facts and circumstances of each case. A reasonable estimate of the current range is: Grade: Professional 308 Pay Range: $75,200.00 - $112,700.00.

Journey Coordination Lead serves as the primary owner of the Student Experience Clearinghouse, the system that coordinates how students interact with WGU. It is a lead individual contributor role on the Student Journey Measurement team responsible for providing functional leadership, subject matter expertise, and cross-functional coordination to advance processes, systemic campaigns, and experience design practices that create a more cohesive student journey across WGU. This role guides repeatable operating models for intake, prioritization, experimental design, campaign planning, journey coordination, channel alignment, launch readiness, and post-launch learning across student-facing engagement touchpoints, including email, texting, in-app notifications, chats, and other emerging channels. The role partners closely with Product, Enterprise Architecture, Academic Operations, Student Support, Decision Intelligence, and other cross-functional stakeholders to define business needs, clarify ownership boundaries, document requirements, and shape a roadmap for system consolidation and process streamlining. The Journey Coordination Lead approaches this work from a business-ownership and experience-outcome perspective, while partnering with technical and communications teams for platform execution, channel standards, and implementation details.

Primary Responsibilities

• Provide functional leadership, subject matter expertise, and day-to-day guidance to Student Journey Coordinators and Student Interns, including work prioritization, quality standards, problem solving, knowledge sharing, and capability development, without direct people management responsibility.
• Establish and continuously improve a journey coordination operating model that supports intake, triage, prioritization, documentation, governance, readiness review, delivery planning, and post-launch evaluation for student experience initiatives.
• Guide the design and development of systemic student journey campaigns and experience interventions that reduce fragmentation, improve relevance, and align to WGU retention, progression, onboarding, support, and student success priorities.
• Partner with Product, Enterprise Architecture, Business Process Engineering, Decision Intelligence, Academic Operations, Student Support, and communications stakeholders to define business requirements and roadmap inputs for streamlining student-facing systems and processes.
• Serve as the business lead for cross-channel journey coordination workflows, ensuring student-facing engagement initiatives are planned, sequenced, measurable, testable, and aligned to the intended student experience across touchpoints such as email, texting, in-app notifications, chats, and other digital engagement tools.
• Develop and maintain standards, playbooks, templates, and governance routines for campaign planning, audience definition, stakeholder review, launch coordination, student-impact assessment, measurement expectations, and continuous improvement.
• Identify patterns in ad-hoc requests, duplicated touchpoints, competing student-facing messages, and disconnected process handoffs; recommend opportunities to consolidate, standardize, automate, sequence, or retire processes that contribute to fragmented student experiences.
• Translate student journey insights, behavioral signals, Voice of Student feedback, focus group outputs, stakeholder needs, and operational constraints into clear experience requirements, prioritization recommendations, and decision-ready documentation.
• Coordinate cross-functional decision-making around journey experience design, ensuring work is aligned to broader Student Journey Measurement and Orchestration capabilities, including Student Compass, Student Friction Index, persistent profile, and journey measurement practices.
• Partner with analytics and research teams to define success measures, monitor campaign and intervention outcomes, interpret results, and recommend iteration based on student impact and operational learning.
• Facilitate recurring governance routines, stakeholder reviews, and decision forums that create visibility into upcoming student-facing experience work, dependencies, risks, ownership boundaries, and trade-offs.
• Model a collaborative, consultative approach with senior leaders and working teams, advising partners on project scope, delivery expectations, student-impact considerations, stakeholder readiness, and process implications.
• Support change management by communicating process expectations, role clarity, documentation standards, adoption needs, and governance practices to internal partners.
• Stay current with trends and research in student experience, behavioral design, digital engagement, content strategy, accessibility, journey orchestration, and process governance, applying relevant practices to improve student outcomes.
• Performs other job-related duties as assigned.

Qualifications

• Functional leadership: Ability to guide work, mentor colleagues, establish clear standards, coordinate priorities, and build accountability and collaboration through influence rather than direct supervisory authority.
• Student experience strategy: Strong understanding of student journey management, experience design, service design, journey mapping, segmentation, personalization, lifecycle engagement, and intervention planning.
• Process governance: Ability to establish operating models, intake workflows, prioritization standards, documentation practices, readiness criteria, decision forums, and cross-functional governance routines.
• Business ownership and requirements translation: Ability to translate strategic objectives and stakeholder needs into clear business requirements, roadmap inputs, success measures, process designs, and enablement plans for product and technical partners.
• Systems thinking: Ability to understand how multiple student-facing systems, channels, teams, and processes interact and where consolidation, sequencing, automation, or standardization may improve the student experience.
• Cross-functional influence: Strong ability to work across Product, Enterprise Architecture, Analytics, Academic Operations, Student Support, Communications, and other stakeholder groups without relying solely on formal authority.
• Executive-level communication: Ability to synthesize complex issues into concise recommendations, decision briefs, process documentation, and leadership-ready updates.
• Consulting and facilitation: Skilled at facilitating alignment sessions, guiding discovery conversations, documenting decisions, navigating ambiguity, and helping stakeholders converge on practical next steps.
• Analytical mindset: Ability to use data, journey insights, student feedback, experiment results, and operational signals to identify challenges, prioritize work, and evaluate impact.
• Campaign and experience delivery planning: Familiarity with planning coordinated student experience initiatives across channels such as email, SMS/texting, in-app notifications, chats, portals, and other digital engagement platforms.
• Quality and accessibility orientation: Strong attention to detail and commitment to inclusive, accessible, student-centered experience design across digital touchpoints.
• Change management: Ability to support adoption of new processes, clarify roles, manage stakeholder readiness, and help teams move from ad-hoc execution to scalable journey coordination practices.
• Operational excellence: Strong organization, prioritization, dependency management, structured problem solving, follow-through, and judgment across multiple concurrent initiatives.
• Mission alignment: Commitment to improving student outcomes, reducing unnecessary friction, and advancing equitable, data-informed support across the student journey.

Education

Bachelor’s degree required. Degree in business, communications, education, experience design, behavioral science, operations, information systems, analytics, organizational development, or a related field preferred.

Experience

• Five or more years of progressively responsible experience in student experience, customer experience, journey management, campaign operations, digital engagement, product operations, service design, business process improvement, communications strategy, or related work.
• Two or more years of experience serving as a subject matter expert, mentoring professionals, managing complex projects, or leading cross-functional workstreams through influence and collaboration; experience driving results without direct supervisory authority preferred.
• Experience developing processes, playbooks, governance routines, requirements, content or campaign standards, operating models, or stakeholder decision frameworks that support coordinated experience delivery across multiple teams or channels.
• Experience partnering with product, technology, analytics, architecture, operations, or communications teams to define business needs, influence roadmaps, improve systems, and streamline processes.
• Experience using data, stakeholder feedback, student or customer insights, research, testing results, or operational signals to prioritize improvements and measure outcomes.
• Demonstrated ability to manage competing priorities, influence stakeholders, make informed recommendations, and deliver high-quality work in a fast-paced, ambiguous environment.
• Experience in lieu of education Minimum qualifications for a role must be met. Education, certain certifications, and experience may be substituted one for the other, if relevant, on a year for year basis. All equivalency determinations are made on a case‑year basis at the discretion of the hiring manager and contingent upon approval by the Compensation team.
• Preferred Qualifications: Master’s degree in business, communications, organizational development, education, experience design, analytics, or a related field preferred.
• Experience in higher education, student success, academic operations, lifecycle marketing, student engagement, learner experience strategy, or education technology.
• Familiarity with journey orchestration, personalization, CRM, CDP, chatbot, SMS/texting, email, in-app engagement, content management, product analytics platforms such as Pendo, Mainstay, Salesforce, Tealium, Genesys, Tableau, Databricks, or similar tools.
• Experience with journey measurement, friction identification, service blueprinting, voice-of-customer/student programs, behavioral economics, experimentation methods, A/B testing, or user testing.
• Experience supporting system consolidation, process standardization, product intake, roadmap planning, enterprise architecture collaboration, or business capability planning from a business-owner perspective.
• Demonstrated ability to create clear executive‑ready documentation, operating models, process maps, decision briefs, governance practices, and implementation playbooks.
• Familiarity with web accessibility standards and inclusive design practices, including alternate text, color contrast, multiple means of representation, and keyboard accessibility considerations.

Preferred Qualifications

• Master’s degree in business, communications, organizational development, education, experience design, analytics, or a related field preferred.
• Experience in higher education, student success, academic operations, lifecycle marketing, student engagement, learner experience strategy, or education technology.
• Familiarity with journey orchestration, personalization, CRM, CDP, chatbot, SMS/texting, email, in-app engagement, content management, product analytics platforms such as Pendo, Mainstay, Salesforce, Tealium, Genesys, Tableau, Databricks, or similar tools.
• Experience with journey measurement, friction identification, service blueprinting, voice-of-customer/student programs, behavioral economics, experimentation methods, A/B testing, or user testing.
• Experience supporting system consolidation, process standardization, product intake, roadmap planning, enterprise architecture collaboration, or business capability planning from a business-owner perspective.
• Demonstrated ability to create clear executive‑ready documentation, operating models, process maps, decision briefs, governance practices, and implementation playbooks.
• Familiarity with web accessibility standards and inclusive design practices, including alternate text, color contrast, multiple means of representation, and keyboard accessibility considerations.

Physical Requirements

• Prolonged periods sitting at a desk and working on a computer.
• Must be able to lift up to 15 pounds at times.

Working Condition

This position requires occasional travel of up to 20%, including required attendance at designated company summits, typically one to two per year. Additional travel may include conferences, visits to company locations, and other business-related events as needed. Additional travel may be assigned as needed to support business requirements.

Position & Application Details

This position requires occasional travel of up to 20%, including required attendance at designated company summits, typically one to two per year. Additional travel may include conferences, visits to company locations, and other business-related events as needed. Additional travel may be assigned as needed to support business requirements. Full-Time Regular Positions (classified as regular and working 40 standard weekly hours): This is a full-time, regular position (classified for 40 standard weekly hours) that is eligible for bonuses; medical, dental, vision, telehealth and mental healthcare; health savings account and flexible spending account; basic and voluntary life insurance; disability coverage; accident, critical illness and hospital indemnity supplemental coverages; legal and identity theft coverage; retirement savings plan; wellbeing program; discounted WGU tuition; and flexible paid time off for rest and relaxation with no need for accrual, flexible paid sick time with no need for accrual, 11 paid holidays, and other paid leaves, including up to 12 weeks of parental leave.

Equal Employment Opportunity

Equal Employment Opportunity: All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to any protected characteristic as required by law.

Accommodations

Accommodations: Applicants with disabilities who require assistance or accommodation during the application or interview process should contact our Talent Acquisition team at [e-mail].

In 1997, a coalition of 19 U.S. governors founded Western Governors University with a singular vision: to make higher education more accessible by offering full degree programs online. Starting small, we quickly expanded. Today, we’re one of the largest accredited online universities in the U.S.

Additional Information Disclaimer: The job posting highlights the most critical responsibilities and requirements of the job. It’s not all-inclusive.