Director, Journey Automation & Marketing Data Operations

JOB SUMMARY

The Director, Journey Automation & Marketing Data Operations leads the strategy, operations, governance, audience development, and journey execution capabilities required to deliver data-driven marketing across Universal Destinations & Experiences (UDX).

This role owns the development of executable audiences and the execution of automated guest journeys, ensuring guest and marketing data can be reliably translated into actionable targeting strategies, personalized experiences, campaigns, and journeys. The Director oversees Marketing Data Operations and Journey Automation, establishing scalable processes, governance, and operational standards across UDX destinations and channels.

Working across Marketing, Commercial Analytics, Digital, Technology, Privacy, and Marketing Operations, this leader will strengthen UDX’s ability to use first-party guest data, Analytics-developed insights and models, and measurable learning to advance modern marketing capabilities across platforms including Snowflake, Adobe Experience Platform (AEP), and Adobe Journey Optimizer (AJO).

MAJOR RESPONSIBILITIES

Audience Strategy, Targeting & Activation

• Own the development, creation, validation, and activation of executable marketing audiences across UDX channels and destinations.
• Lead the operational strategy for audience segmentation, targeting, eligibility, suppression, personalization, and activation across campaigns and automated journeys.
• Translate Marketing business objectives into scalable audience and targeting strategies, working with Commercial Analytics to incorporate audience insights, segmentation, predictive models, propensity scores, recommendations, and measurement learnings.
• Clarify and manage the handoff between Analytics-developed strategy, insights, and models and this function’s ownership of executable audience development and activation.
• Establish reusable audience frameworks, naming conventions, validation standards, and operating processes across campaigns and guest journeys.
• Enable lifecycle, behavioral, trigger-based, and personalized marketing use cases through reliable audience development and activation practices.
• Partner with Marketing, CRM, Media, Digital Experience, Commercial Analytics, and destination teams to improve audience activation effectiveness.
• Translate complex technical and data topics into clear business decisions and recommendations.

Guest Data Operations & Governance

• Own the operating model for guest and marketing data used for audience activation and personalization.
• Establish standards for data readiness, quality, validation, taxonomy, documentation, and lifecycle management.
• Ensure guest profiles, attributes, and audiences are reliable and available for marketing use.
• Establish SLAs, controls, monitoring, and escalation processes for guest data operations.
• Partner with Data Engineering and Technology on data issues, dependencies, and capability requirements.
• Empower technical managers and leads to own day-to-day implementation while removing barriers and resolving cross-functional dependencies.

Journey Automation Execution & Marketing Data Enablement

• Own the execution of automated marketing journeys, including journey configuration, launch readiness, activation, monitoring, and operational optimization in Adobe Journey Optimizer or comparable platforms.
• Provide business and operational leadership for the data, audience, and journey capabilities that support data-driven marketing activation, including Adobe AEP and AJO.
• Ensure audiences, attributes, triggers, eligibility rules, analytical segments, propensity scores, recommendations, content dependencies, and data requirements are ready for journey execution.
• Operationalize Analytics-developed segments, scores, and recommendations with agreed refresh schedules, validation routines, and monitoring standards.
• Establish repeatable processes from business requirements through data readiness, audience creation, journey configuration, QA, activation, monitoring, and optimization.
• Support both batch and near-real-time marketing use cases, including triggered, behavioral, lifecycle, and personalized journey execution.
• Partner closely with campaign automation, creative, production, and destination teams while maintaining accountability for audience development, journey setup, execution readiness, and operational performance.

Operational Excellence, Privacy & Controls

• Establish the governance and operational discipline required to scale guest data activation, audience development, and journey execution responsibly.
• Define KPIs and service levels for audience delivery, journey launch readiness, data quality, freshness, activation performance, issue resolution, measurement readiness, and learning adoption.
• Ensure audience membership, journey exposure, treatment/control assignment, response, and activation performance data are available to Commercial Analytics for measurement and optimization.
• Partner with Commercial Analytics before launch to implement agreed holdouts, treatment/control logic, tracking requirements, and learning plans for tests, campaigns, and journeys.
• Drive root-cause analysis and continuous improvement, using test findings and performance insights to improve future audience activation and journey design.
• Partner with Privacy, Legal, Security, and Data Governance to embed consent, preference, suppression, and responsible data-use requirements into audience development and journey execution processes.
• Identify opportunities to automate, simplify, and improve manual processes across audience development, QA, journey execution, and performance monitoring.

People Leadership & Strategic Partnership

• Lead and develop the Journey Automation & Marketing Data Operations teams.
• Establish clear roles, priorities, career development, and accountability for audience development, journey execution, data operations, and cross-functional delivery.
• Manage capacity and resources against enterprise demand.
• Serve as the senior escalation point for guest data, targeting, audience development, audience activation, journey execution, and journey performance issues.
• Represent the function with senior Marketing, Commercial Analytics, Digital, Data, and Technology leadership.
• Understands and actively participates in Environmental, Health & Safety responsibilities by following established UO policy, procedures, training and team member involvement activities.
• Performs other duties as assigned.

QUALIFICATIONS

• Strong understanding of audience development, segmentation, targeting, identity, customer profiles, personalization, journey execution, and marketing activation.
• Strong working knowledge of first-party data activation and the operational requirements needed to support batch, near-real-time, and triggered marketing use cases.
• Understanding of modern customer data architectures and the relationship between source data, cloud data platforms, identity, audience creation, and downstream activation.
• Working knowledge of data privacy, consent, preference management, suppression logic, and responsible use of customer data.
• Ability to translate business and marketing objectives into clear data, audience, and technical requirements.
• Strong operational mindset with demonstrated ability to create repeatable processes, standards, controls, and performance measures.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to identify root causes and drive resolution across complex dependencies.
• Ability to communicate complex data and technology concepts clearly to both technical and nontechnical audiences.
• Strong executive presence and ability to influence across functions without direct authority.
• Demonstrated ability to lead through ambiguity, balance competing priorities, and operate effectively in a fast-paced enterprise environment.
• Working knowledge of SQL and data structures is valuable; direct engineering expertise is not required.
• Demonstrated ability to partner with analytics teams on experimentation, business-impact measurement, and deployment of analytical outputs into marketing platforms.

EDUCATION

• Bachelor’s degree in Marketing, Business, Information Systems, Data Analytics, Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent combination of education and relevant professional experience.
• Advanced degree or relevant industry certifications in marketing technology, data, analytics, or digital transformation are beneficial.

EXPERIENCE

• 10+ years of progressive experience in marketing technology, customer data, CRM, audience management, targeting, personalization, digital marketing operations, or related disciplines.
• 5+ years of people leadership experience, including responsibility for team development, organizational priorities, and cross-functional delivery.
• Demonstrated experience operationalizing first-party customer or guest data for marketing use cases.
• Experience owning audience development, segmentation, targeting, customer profile activation, journey orchestration, and journey execution capabilities.
• Experience working within modern cloud data and marketing technology ecosystems, including Snowflake, Adobe Experience Platform (AEP), and Adobe Journey Optimizer (AJO) or comparable platforms.
• Experience establishing scalable operating models, data-quality controls, service levels, governance standards, and issue-resolution processes.
• Experience partnering across Marketing, Data, Technology, Analytics, Privacy, Legal, and other enterprise functions.
• Experience partnering with Commercial Analytics or comparable analytics teams to translate segmentation, predictive models, propensity scores, recommendations, experimentation plans, and test findings into executable marketing audiences, automated journeys, and measurable activation.