Director, Performance Marketing

Director, Performance Marketing

Navient (Nasdaq : NAVI) helps students and families confidently manage the cost of higher education. We create long-term value for customers and investors through responsible lending, flexible refinancing, trusted servicing oversight, and decades of portfolio management expertise. Our employees thrive in a culture of belonging, where they are supported and proud to deliver meaningful outcomes.

The Director, Performance Marketing will drive acquisition strategy across all major channels-Paid Digital, Partnerships, Lifecycle, Direct Mail, and OOH. This role combines big-picture strategy with hands-on execution, managing multimillion-dollar budgets and optimizing campaigns to deliver scalable, sustainable growth for our in-school lending product. As a key leader, you'll set channel strategy, mentor a talented team, and collaborate cross-functionally to ensure marketing performance aligns with company goals. If you're a data-driven marketer with deep expertise in SEM, paid social, display, video, and OTT-and you thrive on blending strategy with execution-this is your opportunity to make a measurable impact on growth and ROI.

Areas of Responsibility :

Performance Marketing Strategy and Leadership

Own performance marketing strategy across all channels : Paid Digital, Partnerships, Direct Mail, and Lifecycle Marketing.

Translate company goals into actionable acquisition and retention plans, balancing efficiency and scale.

Manage annual and quarterly channel budgets; forecast volume, spend, and efficiency metrics (CPFL, SLV, ROI).

Partner with Analytics and Finance to ensure consistent tracking, attribution, and financial accuracy across channels.

Present channel performance, strategy updates, and growth forecasts to senior leadership.

Paid Digital Channel Ownership

Serve as in-house expert and hands-on owner for Paid Search, Paid Social, Display, Video, and OTT channels.

Build, manage, and optimize campaigns across Google Ads, SA360, Meta Ads Manager, DV360, YouTube, and other platforms.

Test and implement bidding strategies, audience segmentation, and creative variations to drive acquisition and efficiency.

Maintain deep understanding of platform algorithms, tracking mechanisms, and emerging features to ensure the company stays ahead of digital trends.

Partner with creative and analytics teams to continually refine messaging and targeting.

Team Management and Cross-Channel Coordination

Directly manage and mentor the Direct Marketing Manager, Lifecycle Marketing Manager, and Partnership Marketing Manager, providing guidance, coaching, and clear performance expectations.

Foster collaboration among channel owners to ensure consistency in targeting, messaging, and measurement.

Build alignment with Product Marketing, Creative, and Data teams to ensure cross-channel campaigns support broader brand and product initiatives.

Identify skill gaps and development opportunities to strengthen the performance marketing function.

Optimization, Testing, and Reporting

Establish a unified testing roadmap across all channels focused on conversion rate optimization, creative performance, and audience expansion.

Implement a robust measurement framework in collaboration with Analytics to assess the incremental impact of campaigns and inform reallocation decisions.

Develop and deliver weekly and monthly reports summarizing spend, performance, and insights across all paid channels.

Leverage A / B and multivariate testing to refine campaign performance and inform long-term strategy.

Continuous Improvement and Industry Awareness

Stay ahead of trends in digital advertising, marketing technology, and data privacy to ensure innovation and compliance.

Evaluate new tools, platforms, and agency relationships that improve efficiency and scale.

Pilot emerging channels or technologies (e.g., Connected TV, influencer partnerships, AI-driven optimization) that align with our audience and goals.

Minimum Requirements

Bachelor's Degree Marketing, Business, or a related field. Additional equivalent experience above the required minimum may substitute.

8+ years of performance or growth marketing experience, including 3+ years leading multi-channel marketing teams.

Proven ability to manage 7-figure budgets and deliver measurable efficiency and growth outcomes.

Deep hands-on expertise in Paid Search (Google, Bing), Paid Social (Meta, LinkedIn, TikTok), Display / Programmatic (DV360, The Trade Desk), and Video / OTT.

Experience overseeing affiliate, direct mail, or lifecycle marketing programs.

Strong analytical mindset with experience in attribution modeling, multi-touch measurement, and data visualization tools (e.g., Looker, GA4, PowerBI).

Excellent end-to-end understanding of digital marketing ecosystems, bid management, and conversion optimization.

Familiarity with direct mail, CRM, and partnership marketing strategies.

Understanding of consumer lending or financial services marketing performance metrics (CPFL, NII, ROI).

Exceptional analytical, budgeting, and forecasting skills.

Expert-level proficiency with Google Ads, SA360, Meta Ads Manager, DV360, and marketing automation platforms.

Strong project management and organizational skills with ability to lead multiple concurrent initiatives.

Excellent written and verbal communication, with the ability to distill complex insights for executive audiences.

Ability to lead a team while maintaining direct ownership of high-impact channel execution.

Ability to balance strategic planning with hands-on optimization.

Ability to drive alignment across teams and motivate channel owners toward shared goals.

Ability to operate independently, prioritize effectively, and deliver results in a fast-paced environment.

Preferred Qualifications

Experience working cross-functionally in financial services or other regulated industries.

Important Notices

All offers of employment are contingent on standard background checks. Navient and certain of its affiliated companies are federal, state and / or local government contractors. Should this position support a Federal Government contract, now or in the future, the successful candidate will be subject to a background check conducted by the U.S. Government to determine eligibility and suitability for federal contract employment for public trust or sensitive positions. Positions that support state and / or local contracts also may require additional background checks to determine eligibility and suitability.

EOE Race / Ethnicity / Sex / Disability / Protected Vet / Sexual Orientation / Gender Identity. Navient Corporation and its subsidiaries are not sponsored by or agencies of the United States of America.

Navient is a drug free workplace.

Navient (Nasdaq : NAVI) Delivers Technology-Enabled Financing and Support

Our mission is to enhance the financial success of our clients by delivering innovative solutions and insights with compassion and personalized service.

We leverage our decades of experience and performance, and our data-driven culture, to deliver exceptional results for our customers. Learn more at navient.com.

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Navient (855) 281-1828

Talent_Acquisition@navient.com