Sr Automation Specialist

This position offers a hybrid work option up to 50% remote and is based out of the Lakeville, MN; Sun Prairie, WI; or Bloomington, IL office location(s).

The contributions you will make:

This position leads the strategy, execution and optimization of personalized, data-driven customer journeys across email, SMS, web and other digital channels. Provides campaign planning expertise by translating campaign objectives, audience needs, and communication strategies into the appropriate actions. Blends advanced technical platform expertise with strategic marketing insight to deliver sophisticated and high-impact campaigns that drive engagement, conversion and loyalty. Works cross-functionally to translate complex business objectives into actionable Salesforce Marketing Cloud (SFMC) solutions, leveraging deep knowledge of tools such as Email Studio, Journey Builder, Automation Studio and Mobile Studio to reach the right audience at the right time while ensuring data accuracy, compliance and continuous performance improvement. Provides expertise during campaign planning, helping shape how campaigns can be efficiently executed and scaled while identifying opportunities to improve the overall campaign experience. Serves as a subject matter expert, identifying opportunities for innovation and driving continuous optimization through insights and experimentation.

A typical day:

Performance, Optimization and Collaboration

• Reviews campaign management workflows and processes to identify inefficiencies, reduce unnecessary steps, and improve how work moves from planning through execution.
• Partners with sales enablement, inside sales, and marketing teams to align demand generation programs, enhance lead tracking methodologies, and improve the accuracy and clarity of performance reporting.
• Partners with the enterprise data team to design and develop segmentation strategies, maintain data quality standards and ensure marketing efforts are supported by accurate, actionable data.
• Leads relationships with marketing automation vendors to ensure the platform continues to support evolving business requirements.
• Leverages comprehensive analysis of campaign performance, customer behavior and engagement trends to drive continuous improvement.
• Designs and delivers reporting and performance insights through dashboards and executive summaries, etc., enabling stakeholders to measure success against KPIs and make data-driven decisions.
• Oversees deliverability, engagement rates and compliance with regulations such as CAN-SPAM and GDPR.
• Stays at the forefront of Salesforce Marketing Cloud capabilities, digital marketing trends and industry best practices, recommending and experimenting with new tools and methods to drive innovation.
• Serves as the subject matter expert for marketing automation platforms, providing strategic consultation, training and support to internal users.
• Leads knowledge-sharing sessions, mentoring team members and enabling cross-functional partners to effectively leverage marketing automation insights and tools.
• Drives adoption of best practices across the organization by establishing standards, playbooks, and ongoing education for marketing automation use.

Marketing Automation Strategy Execution and Reporting

• Manages the strategic use of the organization’s Salesforce Marketing Cloud platform, ensuring accurate data, advanced audience segmentation and seamless campaign execution across email, SMS, landing pages and automated journeys.
• Develops and optimizes digital assets, including dynamic content, landing pages and campaign-specific creative, that drive lead generation and support lifecycle journeys and event promotion.
• Leverages SFMC Personalization to deliver relevant, audience-specific experiences across digital channels, using customer behavior, attributes and engagement data to determine the right content and experience for each audience.
• Oversees end-to-end execution of marketing automation programs supporting integrated campaigns, webinars, tradeshows, as well as client-facing and internal initiatives, ensuring alignment with business goals, audience targeting and performance outcomes.
• Partners with business marketing leads to design and deliver demand generation strategies, ensuring campaign architecture and messaging align with overall objectives.
• Develops and refines lead scoring practices to better identify and prioritize marketing-qualified leads, ensuring stronger alignment between marketing efforts and performance.
• Collaborates with product marketing teams to deliver tailored content streams and campaigns for account-based and personalized marketing initiatives.
• Leads cross-functional collaboration with stakeholders to align timelines and deployments with business priorities, forecasts and stakeholder expectations.
• Leverages data insights to optimize nurture programs that align with customer journey stages to deepen engagement and brand loyalty.
• Provides training, mentoring and guidance to marketing automation users and stakeholders, helping build platform expertise across the team.
• Establishes and documents best practices for campaign builds, data management and optimization to support scalability and knowledge transfer.

Industry Expertise

• Evaluates and integrates emerging trends, innovations and advanced methodologies in marketing automation and email marketing to drive strategic advantage.
• Mentors and trains team members on segmentation best practices, data governance and integration workflows to build broader organizational experience.
• Identifies and assimilates industry best practices, strategic innovations and partnership opportunities to optimize the team's campaign effectiveness.

The skills and experience we prefer you have:

• Bachelor’s degree in marketing, communications, or related field; or an equivalent combination of education and experience sufficient to perform the essential functions of the job.
• Minimum 7 years of marketing experience with demand generation and marketing automation exposure or other applicable experience. Proven hands-on experience of Salesforce, Marketing Cloud as well as experience with integrations between SFMC and CRMs like Salesforce Sales or Service Cloud.
• Financial industry experience preferred.
• Salesforce Marketing Cloud certifications.
• Deep knowledge of key SFMC modules: Email Studio, Journey Builder, Automation Studio, Contact Builder.
• Background in developing journey maps or customer lifecycle frameworks.
• Strong understanding of client segmentation based on product ownership data to tailor custom product, service propositions and/or thought leadership content.
• Strong understanding of digital marketing concepts, customer lifecycle strategies and data privacy 
  compliance.
  • Demonstrated experience managing campaign builds from strategy through to deployment and 
  reporting.
  • General knowledge of the financial industry and competitor’s products. 
  • Strong listening, written and verbal communication skills, with ability to communicate at all levels 
  of the organization. 
  • Strong grammatical and proofreading skills and the ability to adapt writing copy to various 
  audiences, purposes or media.
  • Solid creative style skills.
  • Strong problem solving, decision making and organizational skills. 
  • Demonstrates creativity, out-of-the-box thinking and resourcefulness to consistently help the team meet goals
  • Ability to handle multiple facets of projects at multiple phases of development and implementation.
  • Strong interpersonal skills with the ability to establish and maintain cooperative working relationships with internal and external partners.
  • Advanced computer skills, including MS Office applications and customer relationship management (CRM) programs.
  • HTML skills to build email templates and advanced analytical skills with attention to detail.
  • Familiarity with Datorama/Intelligence or other analytics platforms.
  • Valid driver’s license.

#IND100

How we will take care of you:

Our job titles may span more than one career level (associate, senior, principal, etc.). The actual title and base pay offered is dependent upon many factors, such as: training, transferable skills, work experience, business needs and market demands. The base pay range is subject to change and may be modified in the future. This role is eligible for variable compensation and other benefits.