Growth Manager, Student Engagement

Timing: Weeks 1–4

• Create an end-to-end view of student communications from enrollment through graduation.

• Document messages by channel, trigger, timing, and owner.

• Identify areas of overlap, gaps, or opportunities to improve clarity and effectiveness.

• Develop a prioritized list of communications opportunities tied to student retention, engagement, and graduation.

Timing: Weeks 3–8

• Audit active campaigns, segments, triggers, and templates.

• Retire outdated or duplicative workflows where appropriate.

• Establish clear naming, tagging, and organizational conventions.

• Document active workflows and ownership so teams can navigate and maintain the platform confidently.

Timing: Weeks 6–10

• Create a lightweight process for proposing, reviewing, launching, and retiring student communications.

• Establish intake, QA, and review standards.

• Create shared visibility into upcoming sends and potential communication conflicts.

• Define practical ownership and decision-making guidelines across teams.

Timing: Weeks 8–12

• Document voice and tone principles for student communications.

• Define recommended structures and standards for email and SMS.

• Establish guidance for channel selection, including when to use email, SMS, or in-product messaging.

• Create guidelines that Product Managers and operators can apply independently.

• Owning Stepful’s broader student engagement strategy or Product roadmap.

• Acquisition and top-of-funnel marketing communications.

• B2B or partner-facing communications.

• People management or squad leadership.

• Building new product surfaces that require engineering work.

If the engagement identifies product or engineering opportunities, those will be documented and handed off to the appropriate squad.

At the end of the engagement:

• Stepful has a single, up-to-date view of the student communications journey, with clear ownership across touchpoints.

• Customer.io is organized, documented, and easier for teams to navigate and maintain.

• Product and Operations teams have a clear process for proposing, reviewing, launching, and retiring communications.

• Shared voice, structure, and channel standards are documented and reflected in student messaging.

• The team has a prioritized, evidence-informed set of opportunities to improve student retention, engagement, and graduation through communications.

• Shape: Approximately 3-month contract engagement, with a midpoint check-in to assess progress and future needs.

• Commitment: Approximately 20–30 hours per week.

• Reports to: Director of Product.

• Day-to-day partnership: Student Experience Product team.

• Key collaborators: Product Managers, Operations, Design, and Data.

• Potential future opportunity: Based on business needs and the outcomes of the engagement, Stepful may evaluate whether student engagement warrants a permanent owner.

We are looking for a lifecycle, CRM, or student/customer engagement professional who has personally improved and organized an existing marketing automation environment.

Strong candidates will bring:

• Hands-on experience with Customer.io, Braze, Iterable, or a similar lifecycle automation platform.

• Experience auditing, reorganizing, and improving existing campaigns, workflows, segments, and triggers.

• Experience with lifecycle communications tied to retention, engagement, completion, or similar outcomes— especially for products with long usage periods, where retention is key.

• Strong writing judgment and the ability to create voice and messaging standards that others can follow.

• Comfort introducing structure and shared processes across cross-functional teams without formal authority.

• The ability to operate independently, make practical decisions, and leave behind documentation and systems that others can maintain.

Experience in education, healthcare training, subscription, community, or another business with a complex user journey is a plus.

The hourly rate range for this opportunity is $60.00/hour - $90.00/hour. Individual pay may vary from the target range and is determined by a number of factors including experience, internal pay equity and other relevant business considerations.

Stepful is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate in hiring or any employment decision based on race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex, marital status, ancestry, disability, genetic information, veteran status, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, pregnancy, or other applicable legally protected characteristic.