Director, Marketing Operations
September 30, 2021
Marketing Operations Director
AgFirst Farm Credit Bank provides financing, as well as a range of technology and other services, to a network of agricultural lenders in the United States and Puerto Rico. Located on Main Street in Columbia, S.C., AgFirst is committed to providing a comfortable, inclusive work environment. We believe in investing in our employees so they can help lead our $37 billion company into the future. Do you share our passion for making an impact on the world? You may be a great fit for our AgFirst family.
AgFirst is seeking a Director, Marketing Operations who will be responsible for managing the Bank’s marketing and communications team, including the execution of marketing campaigns and programs and day-to-day management of the marketing team’s execution work. In addition, this role owns the vision, roadmaps and operation of the bank’s marketing channels and capabilities, including its corporate website and microsites, digital media, email, market research and marketing content. In scope for the role is also the management of a communications team that is in charge of internal and external communications, as well as product communications strategies and execution.
As part of the role, the Marketing Operations Director works closely with the bank’s Marketing Strategists to fully understand business objectives of district associations and internal Bank clients and, based on best marketing and communications best practices, proposes the appropriate channel mix, content strategy and measurement plan to achieve stated objectives.
Functions and capabilities under management include:
• Graphic design
• Web development and design (corporate websites, microsites and landing pages)
• Market research and insights
• Communications (internal and external)
• Digital Marketing
• Media planning and buying (display, SEM and paid social media)
• Content Development
• Social Media
• Marketing performance metrics and analytics
• Customer Experience
The Marketing Operations Director, will work closely with the bank’s Product team to strategize, plan and execute product marketing and communications plans. As part of that partnership, in scope for the role is close collaboration with the CRM team and the Product Data & BI teams to jointly develop strategies and programs to fully exploit data to propel the growth of district associations. In addition, the Marketing Operations Director will channel market research and insights resources and tools (such as Qualtrics) to support the bank’s Customer Experience program.
The Marketing Operation Director is responsible for team resource allocation and capacity planning, identifying trends and bottlenecks in the workflow process, determining creative direction for campaign initiatives and performance management. In order to ensure that the team meets its commitments and agreed SLAs with a high degree of creativity and accuracy, the Marketing Operations Director will hire, develop and mentor employees and contractors as needed. Equally important is managing the relationship of strategic agencies and partners used by the department to augment the capacity of team.
The role requires knowledge of marketing channel capabilities and best practices, as well as familiarity with common marketing Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), with a focus on digital marketing. Additionally, the Marketing Operations Director will partner with the bank’s Marketing Strategists in maintaining open communications channels with the associations’ marketing managers. This collaboration is designed to ensure smooth day-to-day operations, exchange of best practices and development of synergies.
The Marketing Operations Director, who reports directly to the bank’s Executive Director of Brand, Marketing and Product Management, is also responsible for tracking emerging trends in marketing to ensure that the bank’s capabilities and tools stay current, thus allowing associations to stay competitive in the marketplace.
In scope for the role is oversight of the bank and Farm Credit system’s brand to ensure that all marketing assets deployed within and outside the bank adhere to brand guidelines. This includes the ownership and maintenance of necessary brand style guides and the supervision of the team’s work product to ensure compliance.
Budgetary responsibilities to ensure the highest level of fiscal accountability that aligns with Bank objectives and strategic initiatives.
Duties and Responsibilities:
Marketing Operations
• Management of day-to-day operations of the Bank’s marketing and communications function, including resource planning, scheduling and supervision of campaigns, programs and other deliverables in time and on budget.
Marketing Channel and Capabilities Management
• Ownership of the bank’s marketing and communications channels and other capabilities, including their roadmaps, as well as introducing new tools and technologies necessary to support associations and internal bank clients.
Emerging Trends and Marktech Knowledge
• Stays abreast of marketing and communications emerging trends and technologies and uses that knowledge to make recommendations for campaigns and programs.
• Familiar with one or more leading marketing automation tools, content management systems and other building blocks of an enterprise marketing stack.
Other Accountabilities
• Responsible for campaign and program budget planning
• Building strong, collaborative relationships with associations, product teams and senior management
Requirements:
• Bachelor’s degree in marketing, communications or business administration
• Minimum 5 years of marketing agency or internal marketing agency operations experience
• Very strong written and verbal communications
• Experience in leveraging data to drive campaign and program results
• Proven experience managing integrated marketing and communications teams
• Demonstrable experience in delivering integrated marketing campaigns with a focus on digital
• Strong soft and people skills
• Ability to handle a wide variety of programs simultaneously and react flexibly to changes that may occur
Candidates can apply via the AgFirst careers’ website at https://www.agfirst.com/
