Director of Digital Strategy

The Lupus Foundation of America seeks someone who is passionate about the function and progression of digital communications for a rewarding position that plays a key role in helping to improve the lives of people suffering from lupus. 

The Director of Digital Strategy is a hands-on technical role with primary responsibility for the development, progressive enhancement, and management of all of the Lupus Foundation of America’s (LFA) public-facing websites, social media channels, email platforms, and ad campaigns, as well as the statistics, data management, and reporting of the content on those channels. The Director is responsible for managing digital platforms that include our Content Management System (CMS), email platform, and digital editorial calendar and overseeing our Social Media and Digital Communications Specialist who handles our social media. The Director of Digital Strategy regularly works with vendors and contractors to manage website development, advertising campaigns, and email campaigns and provides training and documentation to internal and regional staff on using the CMS and other internal editorial processes.  

The Director, supported by the Social Media and Digital Communications Specialist position, oversees the social media strategy and digital content calendar and conceives and executes digital engagement strategies via email, SEO, organic social media, and paid digital advertising. This position serves as a counselor as needed to the Foundation’s national network, including regional offices and chapters, with their online presence, and plays a leadership role in nurturing and generating leads via donation and email from UX and automated welcome emails. This individual should possess an interest in current web and online trends and a passion for building an amazing online experience for constituents that will motivate them to regularly engage with the Foundation. 

This is a highly networked and collaborative position, with work unfolding via cross-departmental project teams from Marketing, Research, Education, Advocacy, and Development. Ultimately, we are looking for someone who will actively and patiently engage with colleagues and provide data and technical knowledge to implement and improve our work. 

The Director of Digital Strategy is a member of the Marketing and Communications Department, reporting to the Vice President of Communications.

Job Responsibilities:

Responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

• Continually review and administer public-facing websites (users, content, features) and seek to improve information architecture, site navigation, site content, and design to support the users’ experience within all of the LFA’s web properties.
• Manage the email sending workflow: maintain the editorial calendar and put together the emails, often using email frameworks and advanced email coding.
• Train and support regional and other internal staff to use content management systems to update their web pages, including providing documentation and guidance on best practices. 
• Manage technical integration with third-party software providers tied to online communications (e.g. Luminate Online, Raiser’s Edge, Teamraiser, Qualtrix).
• Monitor web traffic and analyze statistics using Google Analytics, Google Sheets (via Supermetrics), and CSV data exports.
• Provide analysis of web, email, social, and constituent data indicating how metrics support our goals, identify trends, and provide recommendations for changes or updates based on data. 
• Contribute to post-campaign SWOT reporting, documenting what worked and what didn’t, the results of any A/B tests, and documenting and distributing suggested improvements.
• Implement effective search engine optimization strategies and communicate these to internal staff that are constructing web pages.
• Manage the Foundation’s Google Grants strategy, paid AdWords campaigns, partner advertisements on lupus.org, and social media advertising projects, often with support from external vendors.
• Conceptualize and design outcomes-focused webpages, email templates, and forms.
• Maintain knowledge of leading and latest digital technologies and communicate important upcoming changes in understandable ways to non-technical internal staff.
• Track content updates and requests in our project management platforms, moving items through processes and updating information on tasks.
• Monitor web server and site technical performance. Handle support calls to hosting providers when issues arise.
• Maintain and ensure digital infrastructure, including the regular renewal of SSL certificates; domain purchasing and renewal; data security and storage; and updates and QA of the CMS.
• Create and implement website, social media, and online communications policies, procedures, and other documentation. Work with the Design team and other internal project managers to act as a brand steward, ensuring consistency is represented from a visual and messaging perspective online.
• Oversee content publication to social media sites (Facebook, X, LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube). 

Qualifications:

• At least 3-5 years of experience in a similar role.
• Ability and willingness to do research to find the answers to coding challenges, best practices, and creative solutions. 
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, communications, public relations, or marketing from an accredited college or university; or equivalent education/experience.
• Experience in website project management, expansion, and maintenance (portfolio or links highly encouraged) with a strong knowledge of graphic editing and optimization. 
• Strong knowledge and experience with HTML and CSS for website and email formatting. Experience with text editors like VS Code or Sublime and code frameworks like MJML or Foundation for Email is a plus.
• Familiarity and understanding of Google Analytics implementation; Google Tag Manager or similar; A/B testing tools for web and email; Google Search Console/Bing Webmaster tools and other SEO-management platforms like ahrefs, Moz, and SEMrush.
• Strong knowledge of data structure, best practices, and editing. 
• Deep understanding of how data can be used to increase donations, event registration, and constituent engagement in a nonprofit health setting. 
• Familiarity with Luminate Online and other Blackbaud products or similar nonprofit-focused platforms that encompass email, constituent management, surveys, donation forms and DIY fundraising.
• Familiarity with image editing techniques like resizing, resampling and layers; and image editing tools like Adobe Creative Suite (including Photoshop) and Canva.
• Proficient in SEO best practices and Google AdWords. 
• Excellent verbal communication skills with the ability to present ideas and information clearly.
• Extreme attention to detail and outstanding organizational skills.
• Experience with collaboration, productivity, and project management tools such as Google Drive/Docs/Sheets, Slack, and Kanban-based project management.
• Ability to manage multiple projects effectively, as well as manage and meet deadlines.
• Familiar with open-source software and common content management systems like Drupal and WordPress. 

Familiarity with nonprofit applications for fundraising and advocacy, and experience developing for social media (e.g., Facebook applications) and mobile outreach (text messaging, iPhone, iPad, Android, etc.) is preferred. Experience in mobile app creation and management is a plus.

BENEFITS

The Lupus Foundation of America prioritizes the health and well-being of its employees. The Foundation offers a highly competitive benefits package including medical, dental, vision, and life insurance covered at 100% for the employee. We provide sick, vacation, and personal leave, and we follow the federal government for most holiday closures. Other benefits include Flexible Spending Accounts, a technology stipend, and an Employee Assistance Program at no cost to the employee.