About Queen's University

Queen’s University is the Canadian research intensive university with a transformative student learning experience. Here the employment experience is as diverse as it is interesting. We have opportunities in multiple areas of globally recognized research, faculty administration, engineering & construction, athletics & recreation, power generation, corporate shared services, and many more.

We are committed to employment equity and diversity in the workplace and welcome applications from individuals from equity seeking groups such as women, racialized/visible minorities, Indigenous/Aboriginal peoples, persons with a disability, persons who identify in the LGBTQ+ community and others who reflect the diversity of Canadian society.

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Job Summary

Reporting to the Associate Vice-Principal, Marketing & Brand, the Director, Digital Marketing and Analytics plays a key leadership role in advancing digital maturity and consistency across Queen’s. This position champions the development and adoption of digital best practices, including analytics, digital quality standards, and the responsible integration of AI. By developing shared frameworks, providing expert guidance, and enabling access to self-serve tools, the Director supports marketing and communications teams across faculties and units in strengthening the collective digital capacity of the university. The role focuses on building strategic partnerships that enhance institutional effectiveness, contributing to Queen’s reputation and visibility in an increasingly competitive digital landscape.
The Director also provides strategic leadership in digital engagement, analytics, and innovation across Queen’s University. The incumbent oversees enterprise-wide digital marketing standards and plays a central role in championing AI integration, supporting experimentation, and enabling insight-driven decision-making through shared digital tools and frameworks.
The Director leads a small team and works collaboratively with peers across University Relations and campus partners to ensure alignment with brand strategy, institutional goals, and evolving digital trends. While the role is primarily strategic, the successful candidate must be comfortable regularly shifting between high-level strategic oversight and hands-on tactical execution. This includes leading digital strategy discussions and actively engaging in detailed activities such as analytics and implementation tasks. The successful candidate will demonstrate a commitment to equity, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility, and will foster a team culture that reflects these values in both workplace practices and outward-facing digital strategies.

Job Description

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:
Digital Strategy and Governance

• Lead the development and implementation of Queen’s digital engagement strategy, including lifecycle governance, performance benchmarks, QA standards, and channel-specific KPIs across web, social, email, paid media, conversational AI, and emerging platforms.

• Chair the cross-university Digital Analytics Initiatives group to drive collaboration, data alignment, and continuous improvement in marketing performance measurement.

• Collaborate with leadership across both the Marketing and Brand department and the Integrated Communications Department to ensure digital efforts support both marketing and communications objectives, and are integrated with institutional brand standards, messaging consistency, and content strategy.

Analytics and Insight Enablement

• Oversee the university’s digital analytics stack (GA4, SiteImprove, PowerBI), maintaining a single source of truth for campaign and content performance.

• Develop self-serve dashboards, data dictionaries, and training to build analytics literacy across marketing and communications teams.

• Audit data tagging and reporting to support consistent measurement across faculties and units.

Owned Media Strategy and Experimentation

• Set strategy for Queen’s organic digital presence across all public web properties; monitor crawl health, schema, and search performance.

• Lead A/B and multivariate testing, managing the experimentation backlog and applying a governance model to test execution.

Campaign Support and Performance Advisory

• Provide strategic counsel to marketing and communications teams on channel selection, targeting, and campaign design.

• Deliver performance reporting, optimization advice, and real-time campaign insights for priority initiatives.

• Create and maintain campaign playbooks, QA checklists, and post-campaign analysis frameworks.

AI and Innovation Enablement

• Pilot and evaluate generative-AI applications (e.g., content automation, predictive analytics) for marketing use cases, with quality and risk controls.

• Develop AI adoption playbooks and provide guidance to teams on responsible and effective use of AI in marketing operations.

Campus Partner and Institutional Alignment

• Cultivate strong relationships with digital and communications leads across faculties, departments, and shared service areas.

• Advise University Relations leadership on analytics trends, engagement insights, and performance optimization.

• Co-develop digital vision and OKRs with the AVP, Marketing & Brand.

Leadership and Team Development

• Provide strategic and day-to-day leadership to a team of digital marketing and analytics specialists, fostering a culture of adaptability, innovation, and continuous learning.

• Lead the team through ongoing change in the digital environment, including the integration of emerging technologies such as AI, evolving analytics capabilities, and shifts in audience behaviour.

• Support staff through change by setting a clear vision, guiding adoption of new tools and processes, and encouraging experimentation and collaboration.

• Partner with the Digital Architect and others to evolve team structure, service delivery models, and workflows to reflect the changing digital landscape and institutional priorities.

• Set goals, oversee team performance, and promote alignment with university-wide digital strategy.

People Management and Talent Development

• Evaluate job candidates and make effective recommendations on suitable hires.

• Make decisions and/or effective recommendations regarding transfers and promotions.

• Evaluate employee performance and decide on appropriate training or coaching to address lack of proficiency in carrying out responsibilities, or remedial action for staff disciplinary situations.

• Make effective recommendations on level of discipline up to and including discharge and probationary termination.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS:

• University degree in marketing, analytics, business, or a related field. A graduate degree is considered an asset.

• Eight (8) to ten (10) years of progressive experience in marketing technology or digital marketing, including at least five (5) years with a primary focus on analytics, owned (organic) media, quality assurance, or digital experimentation.

• Proven experience in planning, executing, and optimizing multi-channel digital campaigns with measurable outcomes.

• Demonstrated success using analytics to inform decision-making, and experience with platforms such as GA4, SiteImprove, and PowerBI.

• Experience in team leadership, including performance management, coaching, and supporting equity-driven workplace culture.

• Consideration will be given to an equivalent combination of education and experience.

SPECIAL SKILLS:

• Demonstrated ability to develop and implement institution-wide digital marketing strategies. Balances strategic vision with operational execution to achieve measurable outcomes across complex, matrixed environments.

• Exceptional analytical and critical thinking skills with the ability to synthesize performance data and marketing analytics into clear, actionable insights that drive decisions. Capable of building and supporting a culture of data-informed marketing.

• Proficient in evaluating and applying emerging technologies such as AI-powered analytics, automation tools, and experimentation platforms to marketing challenges. Maintains awareness of trends and proactively assesses opportunities for innovation.

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills. Able to distill complex technical concepts into language appropriate for a wide variety of audiences. Demonstrates tact, diplomacy, and professionalism when navigating campus partner relationships.

• Demonstrated core competency in EDII, including a commitment to inclusive workplace practices, equitable digital engagement strategies, and fostering environments where diverse perspectives are valued and supported.

• Strong organizational and planning skills. Ability to manage multiple concurrent priorities while delivering high-quality, timely results. Apply structured project management approaches to both team-level and cross-campus initiatives.

• Skilled in navigating organizational transformation. Able to lead teams and partners through process, technological, or cultural change with clarity, confidence, and resilience.

• Experienced in guiding the adoption of new tools, technologies, and workflows to drive innovation and align with evolving institutional priorities.

• Demonstrated ability to work collaboratively with campus partners at all levels. Capable of building consensus and advancing initiatives through influence, not authority.

• Proven ability to develop talent through active coaching, regular feedback, and creating learning opportunities aligned with individual development goals.

• Strong understanding of higher education priorities and how digital marketing advances institutional goals. Uses this perspective to guide decisions and manage resources effectively.

• Maintains a high level of accuracy in all aspects of work, including data quality, compliance with brand and accessibility standards, and performance reporting.

DECISION MAKING:

• Determines enterprise-level digital strategy, standards, and engagement benchmarks in alignment with Queen’s brand, marketing objectives, and institutional priorities.
• Makes decisions regarding the use, integration, and governance of digital tools and platforms, including analytics stacks, dashboards, experimentation technologies, and AI-enabled solutions.
• Provides strategic advice to partners and makes decisions related to digital channel mix, campaign design, and optimization techniques that support institutional visibility and effectiveness.
• Evaluates competing priorities across the digital portfolio and determines how best to allocate team resources and time to support high-impact projects.
• Determines appropriate analytics literacy-building strategies and performance reporting approaches to support decentralized teams and foster consistent insight practices across the university.
• Makes decisions on service model evolution and operational processes of the central digital team, in partnership with University Relations leadership.
• Provides strategic and tactical input into institutional digital governance bodies and cross-functional working groups.
• Balances institutional consistency and local flexibility by identifying when to adapt digital standards or escalate misalignment concerns.
• Evaluates job candidates and makes effective recommendations on suitable hires.
• Makes decisions and/or effective recommendations regarding transfers and promotions.
• Evaluates employee performance and decides on appropriate training or coaching to address lack of proficiency in carrying out responsibilities, or remedial action for staff disciplinary situations.
• Assesses investigation outcome of grievances and makes effective recommendations on appropriate course of action or next steps on grievances.
• Makes effective recommendations on level of discipline up to discharge and probationary termination.

Employment Equity and Accessibility Statement

The University invites applications from all qualified individuals. Queen's is strongly committed to employment equity, diversity, and inclusion in the workplace and encourages applications from Black, racialized persons, Indigenous people, women, persons with disabilities, and 2SLGBTQI+ persons. In accordance with Canadian Immigration requirements, priority will be given to those who are legally eligible to work in Canada.

The University provides support in its recruitment processes to all applicants who require accommodation due to a protected ground under the Ontario Human Rights Code, including those with disabilities. Candidates requiring accommodation during the recruitment process are asked to contact Human Resources at hradmin@queensu.ca.