Reporting directly to the VP of Member Benefit Communications, the position will lead a cross-functional, highly matrixed team responsible for effectively communicating the value of AARP membership in our digital properties.
The role is responsible for the overarching digital member benefit communication strategy for both social mission and commercial member value. This Director ensures alignment between business goals and digital product development to deliver member benefit communications in a world-class member experience.
This Director establishes the digital member benefits communication strategy, goals, and standards and is responsible for communicating and ensuring compliance with these. This includes significant leadership of an agile digital development team for Member Benefit Communications, integration for both standard and highly complex offerings made available through our scopes of work with the wholly owned subsidiary, AARP Services and our social mission offerings from AARP. This leader will regularly consult with leaders across the enterprise as new value is developed to ensure the offering is designed with the best possible member experience. The addition of significant value is planned for the enterprise and will require this leadership.
In addition to matrix management, this role will also manage multiple vendors and consultants in the successful completion of this work and serve on the leadership team for both Member Benefit Communications and the larger Integrated Marketing and Member Benefits Team.
This role impacts the successful achievement of the dashboard and ensures a healthy membership as members are aware of and engage with their benefits.
- Leads and directs the overarching member benefit digital transformation strategy and roadmap to better educate and engage members in their member benefits digitally. Specifically, oversees the strategy, roadmap, execution and ongoing measurement of member benefit digital assets on aarp.org and partners with channel owners to ensure we implement benefit strategies consistently across other digital platforms such as email and mobile.
- Leads and orchestrates the daily activities of the Member Benefits digital agile team known as a Pod. Manages the delivery of digital strategies by overseeing and coordinating project prioritization, establishing processes, UX, Product design and development within cross-functional Pod structure. Resolves challenges as they arise and works directly with leadership to secure needed resources.
- Oversees the team responsible for the Member Benefits Communication experience on aarp.org, which includes digital strategy, design, UX, channel selection, placement, accuracy, integration with third party providers and other sites as needed. Member Benefit placements will be rapidly expanded throughout aarp.org and this role will determine the strategy, integration and placement of the benefit communicated. Includes performance management.
- Oversees the Digital Benefit Content Repository (DBR) within Adobe CMS including content enhancements, workflow optimization, and expansion into other member facing channels.
- Partners with key stakeholders across the organization to embed member benefits into content and platforms across digital channels, meeting members where they are with benefit information.
- Develops the overarching strategy for digital benefit personalization by using the relevant member-level data and technology to create a compelling member experience that drives engagement.
- Partners with digital colleagues to create an effective member validation / authentication strategy for accessing member benefits. Ensures the best possible member experience. Reviews and approves UX, workflows, tracking and reporting. Optimizes performance overtime. As the enterprise expands the ability to capture and report data and leverage the data to optimize experience, this leader will play a critical role in that work as it relates to the communication of member benefits.
- Sets the communication standards and provides upfront UX consulting when launching new member benefits with a large digital presence. Oversees ongoing UX and journey map assessments of our 3rd party provider web experiences. Develops, manages and enhances standards, guidelines and best practices for this work and deploys and trains across the enterprise to ensure understanding of this work.
- Plays a critical role in the strategy and development of Digital Membership onboarding programs and specifically in the expansion and improvement of the mobile member benefits experience.
- Ensures that member feedback from Voice of the Customer programs is collected and addressed in digital strategies and programs, wherever possible. Embeds customer experience best practices with a continuous focus on improving the member benefit experience at all touchpoints. This includes working directly with our wholly owned subsidiary, AARP Services.
- Establishes KPIs and reporting performance plans for member benefit communication digital programs and channels. Partners with Digital Analytics team and other enterprise teams as needed on reporting for web analytics to share with stakeholders and providers, ensuring efficient and effective web marketing and communications internally and externally.
- 10 – 15+ years’ experience in marketing, communications and/or strategic consulting, with significant experience in the digital and mobile space.
- 5+ years of management experience in a team-oriented, matrixed, workplace, preferred.
- Agency experience and/or expertise in oversight and management of external vendors and consultants is strongly desired.
- Experience in leading and managing multiple stakeholder requests and day-to-day operations to achieve success. Strong organizational skills and ability to meet high standards for quality and accuracy.
- Significant multi-channel digital marketing experience with proven track record. Proven strategic thinking and analytical skills to drive successful digital programs. Ability to develop, deploy and ensure standards, guidelines, and best practices.
- Must be able to work independently and to manage projects in a timely manner. Innovative thinker that proactively recommends solutions and options to senior leaders.
- Must be a self- starter, excellent initiator and outstanding communicator with solid presentation experience
- Excellent oral and written presentation skills with the ability to convey key takeaways simply and convincingly to senior leaders and matrix teams. Experienced in operations, data & technical requirements, reporting processes etc. Able to lead multi-discipline teams to achieve complex goals according to project plan. Able to resolve challenges and escalate to risks and opportunities as needed.
AARP offers competitive benefits with a 401K, 100% company funded pension plan, health, dental, vision and life insurance, STD/LTD, paid vacation and sick, and other benefits.