Head of Operations & Business Management

The Communication, Marketing and Brand division uses creative and strategic tools to further the mission of the National Geographic Society, while maintaining our place as one of the world’s most trusted nonprofit organizations and global brands. The division’s creative minds develop and execute mission‑driven, on‑brand strategies, unifying our efforts across our owned and operated channels, strategic partners and earned media. Creative Studio, Integrated Brand Marketing, Partnership Marketing, MarCom Operations and Internal Communications, Strategic Communications, Executive Communications, and Crisis Communications and Public Relations.

The Manager, Email Operations will serve as the Society’s central email and SMS role, managing the end‑to‑end strategy, including planning, scheduling, implementing best practices and analyzing performance metrics. As part of the Social Media and Digital Engagement team within Integrated Brand Marketing, this role plays an integral part in omnichannel alignment to drive user acquisition, engagement and retention across audiences to realize business objectives.

The Manager, Email Operations is responsible for the execution and optimization of the Society’s email and SMS strategy to nurture subscribers. Partnering with teams across the Communications, Marketing and Brand division and cross‑functional stakeholders, this role will manage email campaign planning, segmentation, personalization, automation, testing and analytics, while also ensuring compliance with audience management principles, contact strategy rules and regulatory requirements. This position will focus on experimentation and testing to help make data‑driven recommendations and meet email key performance indicators (KPIs).

The Manager, Email Operations will support embedded marketing teams’ email efforts, which include managing a central email calendar to reduce friction, partnering with Audience Engagement and Growth and MarTech to build email journeys and implement dynamic email content to optimize audience touchpoints, and deploying emails. Email Management (40%)

Implement the Society’s email and SMS strategy through the entire email lifecycle from acquisition to engagement to retention.

Build and deploy monthly newsletters, special edition emails, conversion campaigns and SMS in partnership with marketing teams. Partner with the Content Strategy and Marketing teams to ensure email content is optimized for the channel while remaining on‑brand and maintaining consistent voice.

Collaborate across digital channels to create omnichannel engagement plans for campaigns and other marketing initiatives.

Implement personalization strategies and dynamic content to ensure highly relevant email experiences for the Society’s diverse audience segmentations and reduce content duplication.

Partner with the Creative Studio team to build, test and maintain a library of email templates.

Manage email assets and partner with the Photography team to source high‑quality imagery for emails.

Email Operations (40%)

Manage a central email calendar for all Society emails, aligning with marketing teams embedded throughout the Society on email sends and resolve scheduling conflicts to ensure the Society is effectively engaging audiences.

Partner with Audience Engagement and Growth, MarTech and Advancement teams on audience list definitions and segmentation, accurate data synchronization and campaign tracking.

Grow and maintain healthy email lists, partnering across marketing on acquisition strategies and optimized sign‑up experience.

Email Platform Health and Performance Optimization (20%)

Follow compliance with email marketing regulations (CAN‑SPAM, GDPR and other applicable laws) while maintaining high deliverability and sender reputation scores.

Partner with the Manager, Analytics and Insights to share insights and data on email campaigns as part of larger analytics initiatives.

Bachelor’s degree in a related field (Marketing, Public Relations, Communications).

5+ years of email marketing or email operations experience.

Expert‑level knowledge of Salesforce Marketing Cloud (Email Studio, Journey Builder, Content Builder and Automation Studio).

Experience with Customer Data Platforms (BlueConic) and proficiency in using SQL queries for audience segmentation.

Familiarity with marketing compliance such as CAN‑SPAM, CASL and GDPR.

Ability to work on multiple projects, under deadlines, with changing priorities in a dynamic, fast‑paced environment.

Excellent verbal and written communication skills and the ability to maintain a consistent brand voice.

Ability to work independently to drive forward projects while also working collaboratively and in a team environment to achieve goals and objectives.

Experience managing email operations for a brand, nonprofit organization or fundraising organizations.

Supervision
Our compensation structure and transparent pay philosophy are based on industry‑specific market data for similar‑sized nonprofit organizations. In addition, the National Geographic Society offers a comprehensive benefits package that includes medical, dental, vision insurance; 401(k) retirement savings plan with matching after 6 months; flexible paid time off; 12 paid holidays; adoption and surrogacy expense reimbursement; Lifestyle Spending Account; pre‑tax transportation benefits; life and disability insurance; Hybrid - staff work at Base Camp two days each week: every Tuesday and Wednesday. We want to help you grow and in return, you help us grow into a stronger, more inclusive organization.

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