Manager, Growth Marketing

Sesame Workshop; New York (NY); Hybrid; USD 90,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

Sesame Workshop is building a growth marketing function in New York City. The Growth Marketing Manager will scale high‑quality leads to drive newsletter signups, donations, viewership, and engagement with Sesame.org.

You'll manage the paid media program (primarily Meta) and expand platforms, while guiding the agency and internal teams on strategy, creative testing, and conversion optimization. The role reports to the Audience Development Strategy Director.

Qualifications

• 3–5 years of paid media/growth marketing or digital advertising experience.
• Experience managing Meta and programmatic campaigns with targeting, optimization and reporting.
• Experience managing external agencies or vendors and accountability for outputs.
• Technical marketing skills in personalization, segmentation, data analysis and multi-touch attribution.
• Experience with first‑party data acquisition (email lists, registrations) as a campaign objective.
• Nonprofit or media experience is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Own paid media strategy across channels, manage the agency relationship, and ensure KPI-aligned execution.
• Lead development of paid assets and copy, run A/B tests, and ensure on-brand, high converting creative.
• Drive first-party data capture through paid channels and collaborate on landing page strategy and optimization.
• Own paid media performance reporting (CPM, CPC, CTR, ROAS) and translate data into actionable decisions.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams within Marketing & Communications and educate colleagues on paid media capabilities.

Skills

Paid media

Digital advertising

Meta ads

Programmatic

Data analysis

First-party data

Nonprofit/Media experience

Tools

Meta Ads Manager

Programmatic Advertising

Job description

About Sesame Workshop

Sesame Workshop is the global nonprofit behind Sesame Street and so much more. For over 50 years, we have worked at the intersection of education, media, and research, creating joyful experiences that enrich minds and expand hearts, all in service of empowering each generation to build a better world. Our beloved characters, iconic shows, outreach in communities, and more bring playful early learning to families in more than 190 countries and advance our mission to help children everywhere grow smarter, stronger, and kinder. Learn more at www.sesame.org and follow Sesame Workshop on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and X.

Job Summary

We’re building a growth marketing function from the ground up, and this is the person who builds it with us. You will be focused on scaling the growth of high-quality leads to drive email newsletter sign-ups, recurring individual donations, viewership of Sesame Street, and engagement with educational resources on Sesame.org.

The Manager, Growth Marketing manages Sesame Workshop’s paid media program — currently anchored in Meta, with a mandate to expand platforms and strategy as necessary to achieve our ambitious goals. You’ll manage day-to-day contact with our paid media agency, own the internal strategy and accountability layer that the agency executes against, and lead the development and optimization of creative assets and copy. Additionally, you’ll collaborate with teammates across Marketing & Communications on conversion optimization and our holistic D2C strategy.

The Manager, Growth Marketing reports to the Audience Development Strategy Director.

Responsibilities and Delivery

Paid Media Strategy & Execution

• Manage Sesame Workshop’s paid media strategy across all channels.
• Manage the paid media agency relationship day-to-day: delivering campaign materials, setting direction, reviewing plans, holding them accountable to KPIs, and ensuring timely execution.
• Develop and maintain media plans — audience targeting, budget allocation, flight schedules, channel mix — in collaboration with the agency and the Audience Development Strategy Director.
• Stay current on platform changes, emerging ad products, and shifts in the paid landscape; bring recommendations proactively rather than reactively.
• Own paid media budget tracking and pacing, ensuring spend is deployed effectively and efficiently and reported clearly.
• Concept and build audience segments, and upload to platforms as directed or needed.

Creative & Copy Development

• Lead the development of paid assets and copy— briefing Brand Creative, writing or editing copy and scripts, tracking best practices, and curating or adapting organic content for paid use.
• Run creative testing programs: A/B testing of copy, creative formats, audience segments, and calls to action with a disciplined approach to learning and iteration.
• Ensure paid creative is consistently on-brand while also built to convert.

1st Party Data Capture

• Manage the paid strategy layer of Sesame’s first-party data ambition — using paid media to drive traffic to owned properties where email and other data capture happens
• Work closely with the Director, Web Strategy & Email Marketing on landing page strategy and conversion optimization.
• Track cost-per-acquisition of first-party data relationships — email addresses, registered users, event sign-ups — as a primary performance metric alongside traditional paid KPIs.
• Contribute to the broader D2C strategy: which audiences are most valuable to capture, which campaigns generate the highest-quality relationships, and what paid mechanisms drive recurring rather than one-time engagement.

Performance Measurement & Reporting

• Own paid media performance reporting: CPM, CPC, CTR, CPLPV, ROAS, etc.
• Build and maintain reports, as needed, that give the team clear, real-time visibility into what’s working.
• Synthesize performance data into actionable recommendations — not just reporting on what happened, but driving decisions about what happens next.
• Collaborate with the Manager, Audience Analytics on cross-channel attribution and campaign measurement.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Serve as a key stakeholder in the cross-functional Individual Giving team, under the leadership of the Director of Individual Giving.
• Coordinate with Brand Creative on paid asset production — briefing clearly, respecting creative expertise, and advocating for what the data says works.
• Support the Strategy Director on how paid and other growth levers amplify specific campaign and content objectives.
• Serve as the internal expert on paid media for the broader organization— educating colleagues on what paid can and can’t do, and helping teams understand performance in plain language.

This role may perform other related duties as needed to support team and organizational priorities.

Required Qualifications

Experience

• 3-5 years of experience in paid media, growth marketing, or digital advertising — with hands-on platform experience.
• Demonstrated experience managing Meta and programmatic campaigns: campaign setup, audience targeting, optimization, and reporting.
• Experience managing an external agency or vendor relationship, with accountability for their output.
• A technical marketer who has a strong understanding of and proficiency in personalization, segmentation, data analysis, and multi-touch attribution models.
• Experience with first-party data acquisition as a campaign objective— email list growth, lead generation, user registration — in addition to traditional brand or conversion goals.
• Nonprofit or media experience is a plus.

Skills & Capabilities

• Strong analytical instincts — you live in the data, you know what the numbers mean, and you can explain them clearly to people who don’t.
• Copy fluency — you can write and edit paid copy that converts, and you understand how copy and creative work together.
• Platform literacy across the paid ecosystem — Meta, TikTok, and Google (YouTube and programmatic display).
• Budget management discipline — you track spend carefully, flag pacing issues early, and think about efficiency as seriously as scale.
• Clear, direct communication — you work with creative teams, agency partners, analytics colleagues, and senior leaders; you can adjust register without losing substance.
• Comfort with ambiguity — this function is being built, not inherited; you’ll need to set up systems and processes, not just operate ones that already exist.

Sesame Workshop Hybrid Work Policy

This position is based at our headquarters office in New York (Manhattan) at 1900 Broadway, New York, NY, and follows a hybrid work model. In-office requirements vary by role and employee group, and currently range from two to five designated in-office days per week.

Pay Transparency Policy Statement

As a federal contractor, Sesame Workshop follows Pay Transparency and non-discrimination provisions as guided by the U.S. Department of Lab

Equal Opportunity Employment (EOE) Statement

Sesame Workshop is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, ethnicity, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, national origin, predisposing genetic characteristics, pregnancy-related condition, familial status, domestic violence victim status, or protected veteran status and will not be discriminated against on the basis of disability.

PSEA Statement

Sesame Workshop is an equal-opportunity employer. All employment decisions are based on the business needs, job requirements & suitability of the candidate. Sesame Workshop strictly follows the Child Safeguarding Policy, and the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Policy. These have been developed to ensure the maximum protection of program participants from exploitation and to clarify the responsibilities of Sesame Workshop staff, consultants, visitors to the program and partner organization, and the standards of behavior expected from them.