Senior Manager, Partner Brand Strategy

Academic Partnerships · United States · posted today ago

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About this role

Risepoint is an education technology company that helps regional universities launch and grow online programs for modern learners. Risepoint supports more than 100 universities and colleges across five countries, with programs concentrated in high-demand fields including nursing, healthcare, teaching, business, technology, and public service. Our suite of products and services supports the full student journey and each university’s long-term goals. Together, we increase access to affordable education that delivers a strong return on investment for learners and meets employer and community needs. Learn more at risepoint.com.

The Impact You Will Make

As Sr. Partner Brand Strategist, you’ll lead the Partner Brand Strategy workstream for Risepoint’s portfolio of 100+ university partners. You’ll establish how the discipline runs: intake, prioritization, positioning and messaging standards, brand kit frameworks, creative brief standards, and scalable ways of working across the portfolio. You’ll set the standard for partner “brand kits”: the voice, proof points, and answer engine optimization (AEO) guidelines that shape how each partner shows up in AI tools like ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews. You’ll lead a small team of Brand Strategists, setting team priorities and allocating resources across partners and initiatives based on complexity, business needs, launch priorities, and capacity. You’ll lead the most complex, highest-impact brand initiatives yourself and serve as the senior escalation point for the discipline. You’ll lead cross-functional alignment with Integrated Marketing, Content Strategy, SEO/AEO, Paid Media, Lifecycle, and Digital Experience on Brand Strategy priorities and approaches. And you’ll bring an AI-fluent approach to how the team researches and scales its work. This role reports to the Sr Director, Partner Content & Brand Strategy.

How You Will Bring Our Mission to Life

What You Will Do

Own the brief pipeline: you and your Brand Strategists translate marketing briefs into creative briefs, with approved copy and messaging, for channel campaigns (paid social, email, SMS, flyers), making sure student insights and key brand messages come through clearly.

Develop differentiated brand positioning and messaging for partners and their program portfolios, grounded in competitive landscape mapping; identify portfolio-wide brand opportunities and use campaign, AEO, and performance insights to evolve Brand Strategy practices and improve effectiveness across partners.

Lead cross-functional alignment with Integrated Marketing, Content Strategy, SEO/AEO, Paid Media, Lifecycle, and Digital Experience on Brand Strategy priorities and approaches.

In partnership with Integrated marketing, build and maintain partner “brand kits” for every partner and vertical: positioning, voice, proof points, and AEO guidelines that determine how each partner shows up in AI search results. Roughly half the team’s time is reserved for this work.

Partner closely with the Content Strategy function to make sure brand positioning and messaging inform content briefs, editorial priorities, and AEO content across the portfolio.

Build student personas and partner with Research & Insights and Community Engagement to gather insights that inform brand messaging.

Lead the Partner Brand Strategy workstream end to end: intake, prioritization, positioning and messaging standards, brand kit frameworks, and creative brief standards. Manage and coach the Brand Strategist team, set team priorities, and allocate Brand Strategy resources across partners and initiatives based on complexity, business needs, launch priorities, and capacity; set the working rhythm with our external creative agency.

Lead the most complex and high-impact brand initiatives and serve as the senior Brand Strategy resource for complex or escalated partner needs; brief creative and content teams on larger brand campaigns; stay fluent in AI workflows and use AI tools to scale the team’s work.

What Success Looks Like

Select partners have distinct, differentiated brand positionings and messaging that stands out across their program portfolio.

Creative briefs and content plans consistently reflect student insights and key brand messages, and the resulting work, from our teams and the external agency alike, lands in partner voice and tone.

Partner “brand kits” are in place for every partner and measurably strengthening how partners show up in AI search.

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Messaging consistently informed by insights from Research & Insights and Community Engagement, and aligned with Content Strategy, Integrated Marketing, and channel teams.

Brand kits delivered and in use across partner AEO content.

Brand Strategist team staffed, coached, and producing sharp, differentiated briefs that the agency and channel teams can execute without rework.

What You’ll Bring to the Team

Experience That Matters Most

6-8 years as a brand strategist or brand planner, including experience leading a team and building or scaling a practice; agency background or experience managing work through an external agency preferred.

Experience developing brand positioning, messaging, and brand architecture across multiple brands or accounts.

Strong research and insights skills — able to build student personas and turn first-party data into a clear brand narrative.

Working knowledge of answer engine optimization (AEO): how brand positioning and content show up in AI search and answer engines, and how to build guidelines teams can execute against.