When you join Sallie, you become a champion for all students.

Sallie’s Education Services team is a diverse group of growth-obsessed entrepreneurs, data analysts, engineers, and developers with a passion for imagining and building scalable businesses for students and families on their unique journey to-through and immediately after higher education. We’re on a mission to revolutionize how students and their families plan, pay and complete this journey with confidence.

Join a team of seekers, challengers and creative thinkers to change the way students plan for their future for the better.

What You’ll ContributeAs a Paid Search Manager, you will lead the strategy, execution, and optimization of paid search programs across our Education Services digital growth portfolio. You’ll play a critical role in driving member acquisition, engagement and mid-funnel performance through Google Ads, Microsoft Ads, and emerging platforms.

This role requires a data-driven operator who understands how modern search platforms function in an automation-first environment. You will manage marginal efficiency, scale investment responsibly, and ensure paid search contributes profitable growth across multiple products.

What You’ll DoChannel Strategy & Ownership: Own paid search strategy across Google Ads and Microsoft Ads, driving profitable volume across products and lifecycle stages.

Full Ecosystem Execution: Lead execution across Search, Performance Max, YouTube, and remarketing, leveraging value-based bidding and structured signal inputs to maximize long-term return.

Account Architecture: Build and maintain scalable account structures aligned to acquisition, engagement, and revenue goals.

Investment & Bidding Strategy: Lead budget allocation, automated budding strategies, and marginal efficiency optimization to improve conversion and ROAS performance.

Audience & Keyword Expansion: Develop keyword, query, and audience expansion frameworks to drive incremental growth.

Performance Analysis & Optimization: Analyze performance data, identify trends, and implement ongoing optimization to improve efficiency, scale, and conversion outcomes.

Testing & Experimentation: Design and execute structured test-and-learn roadmaps across campaign types, ad formats, creative, targeting, bidding, and landing pages.

Forecasting & Planning: Own paid search forecasting and investment planning aligned to business targets and acquisition goals.

Measurement & Signal Integrity: Ensure accurate tracking, value signals, audience inputs, and attribution frameworks are properly configured to drive platform performance.

What You’ll Need

Basic Qualifications

4+ years managing paid search at scale in acquisition-focused environments
Hands-on experience with Google Ads and Microsoft Ads
Demonstrated experience optimizing toward LTV or value-based metrics
Experience managing $1M+ annual budgets
Strong understanding of automation-first campaign structures (Smart Bidding, Performance Max)
Demonstrated ability to scale programs under aggressive growth targets while maintaining efficiency discipline
Advanced performance analysis skills (marginal return evaluation, forecasting)

Preferred Qualifications

Bachelor’s degree in marketing, business, economics, analytics, or a related field
Background in lead generation or marketing in the education vertical
Experience managing multiple products or business lines simultaneously
Exposure to landing page testing, CRO, and SEO strategies
Proactive approach to testing new platform features, betas, and optimization tools
The Americans With Disabilities Act
The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) prohibits discrimination by employers, in compensation and employment opportunities, against qualified individuals with disabilities who, with or without reasonable accommodation, can perform the “essential functions” of a job.
A function may be essential for any of several reasons, including: the job exists to perform that function, the employee holding the job was hired for his/her expertise in performing the function, or only a limited number of employees are available to perform that function.
Feeling Your Best Helps You Do Your Best
Our benefits take care of the whole you—so you can build your work around your life (not the other way around!).
Competitive base salaries Bonus incentives Generous PTO, Floating Holidays and 12 Federal Holidays observed
Support for financial-well-being and retirement 401k with employer match
Comprehensive medical, dental, vision, hospital indemnity, critical illness, pet insurance and more
Employer paid short-term/long-term disability and basic life insurance Flexible hybrid working arrangements.
Paid parental leave and adoption reimbursement programs
Free access to on-site staffed fitness centers (in Delaware) and gym subsidy (for locations outside Delaware) Confidential counseling support (EAP), Health Advocacy services and Wellness program with financial incentives
Tuition Reimbursement and Family Scholarship Programs
Career development and training opportunities
Not the right fit?
Let us know you're interested in a future opportunity by clicking Introduce Yourself in the top-right corner of the page or create an account to set up email alerts as new job postings become available that meet your interest!

Sallie Mae is proud to be an equal opportunity (EEO) employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, age, genetic information, gender identity, disability, Veteran status or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local law.

Click here to view the U.S. Pay Transparency Policy, here for federal job applicant notices, and here to view the California Employee Privacy Notice.

Reasonable accommodations are available for applicants with disabilities in all phases of the application and employment process. To request an accommodation please call (855) 756-2007 and choose option 9. All information you provide will be kept confidential and will be used only to the extent required to provide needed reasonable accommodations.