Chief Marketing Officer
Company
Edmentum, a global leader and pioneer in online education solutions, is dedicated to making it easier for educators to individualize learning for every student through simple technology, high-quality content, and actionable data. Founded in innovation, Edmentum’s powerful learning solutions blend technology with individual teaching approaches. Edmentum is committed to being educators’ most trusted partner in creating successful student outcomes everywhere learning occurs.
Established in 2012, Edmentum™ was formed through the merger of PLATO Learning and Archipelago Learning. Headquartered in Minneapolis, with 1000 employees, Edmentum serves over 7 million students in 40,000 schools in the United States, United Kingdom, and across 20 additional countries. With a mission of helping all kids reach their full potential and a vision of positively impacting students all around the world, Edmentum keeps teachers at the center of their operations and are relentlessly focused on a strategy that balances growth with impact. Edmentum’s emphasis on great programs that are flexible, rooted in strong pedagogy, and designed to meet the needs of today’s diverse classrooms ensures that they build school around every student.
In December 2020, The Vistria Group (“Vistria”), a Chicago-based private investment firm, announced a strategic growth investment in Edmentum. Existing investors New Mountain Finance Corporation and BlackRock recapitalized their investments to partner with Vistria. The equity infusion will strengthen Edmentum’s position as a global leader in comprehensive K-12 digital curriculum and assessments for learning and accelerates Edmentum’s opportunities for continued growth. Edmentum is profitable, well funded, mission-driven, and growing.
About The Vistria Group
The Vistria Group is a Chicago-based private investment firm focused on investing in middle-market companies in the healthcare, education, and financial services sectors. Vistria’s team is comprised of highly experienced operating partners and private equity executives with proven track records of working with management teams in building innovative, market-leading companies.
About New Mountain Finance Corporation
New Mountain Finance Corporation (Nasdaq: NMFC) is a business development company primarily focused on lending to middle-market companies in “defensive growth” industries. We aim to generate current income and capital appreciation through investments in debt securities at all levels of the capital structure.
About BlackRock
BlackRock’s purpose is to help more and more people experience financial well-being. As a fiduciary to investors and a leading provider of financial technology, our clients turn to us for the solutions they need when planning for their most important goals. As of September 30, 2020, the firm managed approximately $7.81 trillion in assets on behalf of investors worldwide.
Opportunity
Edmentum’s Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) is the executive catalyst for brand obsession, simple and powerful strategic communications, competition-destroying product marketing, and world-class sales enablement. As CMO, you will demonstrate servant leadership, foster and scale a marketing function that supports Edmentum’s high-performance, high-creativity, and highly collaborative global environment.
As a key member of the executive leadership team, the CMO will inspire performance within the marketing function and across the organization that elevates Edmentum’s brand and promotes their story. You will drive innovation, development, and execution of Edmentum’s comprehensive marketing philosophy, research and thought leadership, marketing business strategy and strategic brand direction of the organization. This role will oversee the organization’s branding, digital and product marketing, sales enablement, event planning, communications, public relations, community outreach programs, and marketing business analytics.
The Chief Marketing Officer will report to CEO and collaborate closely with Edmentum’s Chief Operating Officer, Chief Product Officer, SVP of Sales, and Chief Strategy Officer.
Primary responsibilities:
- Lead all aspects of the company’s marketing initiatives across B2B/B2G institutional marketing, including demand generation, brand strategy, digital strategy, social strategy, and advertising
- Make and drive data-driven decisions and establish effective frameworks, metrics, and strategies to inform the company’s approach to both brand building and channel marketing strategies
- Provide a strategic vision for the company’s brand and ensure robust, integrated, and flawless execution of its mission
- Build a streamlined and cohesive PR and Communication strategy and lead high-quality communication across all channels globally
- Translate research outcomes, and student impact, to demand and loyalty programs
- Ensure rigor and discipline across company-wide programs that support integrated marketing and business development (sales enablement)
- Work closely with key internal stakeholders to develop and execute dynamic campaigns that drive growth for target segments
- Lead an international marketing team organized across acquisition, retention, brand strategy, design, and PR
- Serve as a key change agent in evolving company brands, industry liaison, executive peer partner, and holistic servant leader.
- You should be able to flow back and forth between leadership and hands-on operation/execution in an agile, SaaS environment while also being quantitative and directly tying marketing investment to financial performance. You need to believe in the idea of test, measure, and optimization.
- Advance the awareness of and positive connection to Edmentum’s brand within our target markets. Ensure the consistency of the brand both internally and externally.
A future at Edmentum includes:
- Working with a talented, respected, low ego, and highly collaborative executive team
- Playing a central role in a high growth, well-funded company with strong products, a strong culture, and a strong management team
- Working in a company with a clear vision and big goals, and the ability to make your mark on how those goals are met.
- The opportunity to positively impact students and teachers all around the world
- The ability to live and work anywhere in the US
Travel will be 25-30 % in a year. Once normal travel has resumed – note: Edmentum subscribes to the new “post-Covid” normal which means we are a distributed workforce that is highly collaborative and we will travel when it makes sense.
Compensation will include salary, performance bonus, and equity commensurate with the individual’s experience.
Ideal Candidate
The Chief Marketing Officer Role role requires the following experiences and skillsets:
- 10+ years of senior marketing leadership experience, ideally as head of marketing / CMO at a rapidly growing B2B SaaS technology brand with a focus on brand development and demand generation. Some education experience strongly preferred.
- Proven success as a servant leader and coach/mentor with success in hiring and fostering the growth of your team
- Exposure to substantial and significant scale. Experience operating and leading a marketing organization backed by private equity. PE experience is strongly preferred.
- Deep knowledge of how to use digital & offline channels and tools to build a brand, customer base, and community-driven content
- Extensive M&A experience in evaluating, consolidating, and scaling company, product brands. Also experience in strategic M&A marketing communications across all audiences and stakeholders
- Above average executive financial acumen – you can tie marketing investment to ROI and you are comfortable with a P&L.
We’re Also Looking For
- Growth mindset relentless in pursuing the opportunities associated with Edmentum becoming the preeminent education leader
- Highly analytical, operationally oriented, and metrics – driven. You are slightly more of a scientist than an artist.
- Both tactically and strategically minded. You should be able to operate in the weeds, but also be the strategic leader with the ability to build integrated brand/marketing architecture and frameworks, and communicate this effectively to Edmentum leadership, the full organization, the Board/investors, and the global market
- Outstanding leadership and people management skills with the ability to successfully motivate and challenge a team of talented and creative people at all levels of the organization
- Humility, collaboration, confidence, transparency, and passion
- Passionate about education – it’s part of your ethos, made you who you are, you have personal life experiences that drive you to give back and move education forward
- The courage and decisiveness, to prioritize, to succeed – or to fail fast and move forward
- Proven ability to remain objective, balanced, and exercise common sense at all times
Learn More
The Knowledge Leaders search process is thorough and may include: a written assessment, multiple interviews (recorded and in-person), background and social media checks, employment and education verifications, a drug screen, and professional reference checking. After all, our mission is to transform education by recruiting the best world leaders.
If you have not already, submit your resume to Alison Thompson at Knowledge Leaders Alison@knowledgeleadersgroup.com .
Knowledge Leaders, LLC provides equal employment opportunities to all applicants and candidates for employment. Knowledge Leaders, LLC prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type based on race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws.
