Website Manager & Content Strategist

Website Manager & Content Strategist

The University of Lynchburg a private regional university in the beautiful foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Central Virginia is seeking applicants for a full-time Website Manager position in the Department of Marketing and Communications.

This position reports to is supervised by and evaluated by the Executive Director of Marketing. The evaluation of work performance will be ongoing and will be carried out by the Vice President for University of Outreach. It will include the specific duties and responsibilities of this position description plus employee attitude and general working behavior.

Job Type: FT/RPT (Benefits Eligible)

Job Purpose:

• The Website Manager & Content Strategist is the technical and editorial owner of the University of Lynchburgs digital presence. This is a strategic role responsible for the intersection of content strategy web performance and AI-driven discoverability. The Website Manager ensures our digital platforms serve prospective students current students faculty and the broader community with clarity and speed while serving as the bridge between creative marketing goals and technical execution.

Core Responsibilities:

• Content strategy & governance: Own the Universitys content strategy across the web establishing voice structure and editorial standards. Develop and enforce a centralized intake and governance model to manage requests from 40 departments.
• Centralized content execution: Serve as the hands-on creator and editor for website updates. Review intake requests reorganize content for web best practices and build pages using Elementor with an eye toward conversion and clarity.
• Information architecture: Audit map and continuously improve site navigation and page hierarchy to reduce friction for prospective students and key audiences. Lead periodic IA reviews tied to enrollment goals.
• AI-era SEO & discoverability: Ensure content is optimized for traditional organic search and emerging AI-discovery engines (ChatGPT Perplexity Google AI Overviews). Implement structured data FAQs and entity-based content strategies.
• Platform & infrastructure administration: Manage the WP Engine hosting environment including staging/production workflows server-side performance optimization and plugin governance.
• Design & brand governance: Establish and maintain design guidelines and global Elementor templates to ensure a cohesive brand presence across all web platforms.
• Accessibility & compliance: Ensure 100% of site content meets WCAG 2.1 AA standards. Own the annual accessibility audit process and remediation roadmap.
• Analytics & reporting: Own GA4 implementation and reporting. Deliver monthly dashboards to leadership connecting web performance to enrollment funnel metrics.
• AI tool integration: Identify and implement AI-assisted tools to accelerate content production metadata generation image alt-text and A/B testing while maintaining brand and accuracy standards.
• Supervise the student Digital Media Assistant and serve as a mentor for emerging web and content professionals.

Specific Job Duties:

• Develop and own the Universitys web content strategy including voice structure and editorial standards across all digital platforms.
• Build and enforce a centralized content intake and governance model to manage requests from departments across the University.
• Execute hands-on website updates and page builds using WordPress and Elementor reorganizing content for web best practices and audience clarity.
• Audit map and continuously improve site navigation and information architecture to reduce friction for prospective students and other key audiences.
• Manage the WP Engine hosting environment including staging and production workflows server-side performance optimization and plugin governance.
• Establish and maintain global Elementor templates and design guidelines to ensure a cohesive brand presence across all web platforms.
• Ensure 100% of site content meets WCAG 2.1 AA accessibility standards and own the annual audit and remediation process.
• Optimize content for both traditional organic search and AI-discovery engines including structured data FAQ strategy and entity-based content approaches.
• Own GA4 implementation and deliver monthly analytics reports to leadership connecting web performance to enrollment funnel metrics.
• Identify and implement AI-assisted tools to accelerate content production metadata generation and A/B testing while maintaining brand and accuracy standards.
• Maintain and develop an editorial calendar aligned to the academic year admissions cycle and University events.
• Supervise the student Digital Media Assistant and serve as a mentor for emerging web and content professionals.
• Collaborate across departments via Asana email and Google Workspace while enforcing centralized governance standards.

Starting Salary: Dependent on experience

Benefits:

• Generous paid vacation personal days paid sick time and family leave comprehensive insurance (medical dental vision etc.) and retirement plans flexible spending account tuition remission life and long-term disability insurance and more. Learn more about employment benefits at the University of Lynchburg.

Schedule:

• 8:30 am - 5:00 pm (7.5 hours/day with some evenings and weekends to meet needs of the department may be required)

Experience/Skills:

• Minimum of 5 years of progressive experience in website management digital content strategy or web marketing preferably in higher education or a mission-driven organization.
• Demonstrated experience owning a large multi-stakeholder website (500 pages) from both a strategic and technical standpoint.
• Proven track record of developing and executing a content strategy that improved measurable outcomes such as traffic leads time-on-site or enrollment inquiries.
• Background working in environments with decentralized content contributors and centralized governance ideally in higher education healthcare or government.
• Advanced hands-on experience with WordPress and Elementor including custom CSS template hierarchy and plugin management.
• Proficiency with WP Engines hosting platform staging environments CDN configuration and performance tooling.
• Working expertise in technical SEO including Core Web Vitals schema markup canonical tags and XML sitemaps.
• Solid working knowledge of HTML and CSS sufficient to write and debug custom code within WordPress.
• Experience auditing and remediating WCAG 2.1 AA issues using tools such as Siteimprove axe or WAVE.
• Familiarity with AI writing assistants and emerging LLM-powered content tools such as Gemini Notebook LM ChatGPT Claude Jasper or Surfer SEO.
• Experience with project management and intake tools such as Asana or similar platforms.

Physical Demands: (Please include - see example)

• Prolonged periods of sitting and wrist movement

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelors degree in Communications Marketing Journalism Information Science or a related field. Equivalent experience may be considered.
• Minimum of 5 years of experience in website management or digital content strategy.
• Advanced proficiency in WordPress and Elementor.
• Demonstrated knowledge of SEO best practices and GA4 analytics.
• Working knowledge of WCAG 2.1 AA accessibility standards.
• Strong written communication skills and ability to enforce editorial standards across a large organization.

Preferred qualifications:

• Experience in a higher education marketing or communications environment with fluency in the enrollment funnel as it applies to prospective students.
• Familiarity with CRM integrations such as Slate or Salesforce and how web forms connect to enrollment systems.
• Experience with heatmap and UX research tools such as Hotjar or Microsoft Clarity.
• Working knowledge of email marketing platforms and how web content connects to audience nurture campaigns.
• Experience with AI-powered SEO tools such as Surfer Clearscope or SEMrush AI and an understanding of how large language models surface institutional content.
• Background in brand management or experience maintaining a design system or style guide at scale.
• Certifications in Google Analytics HubSpot Content or a recognized SEO platform.
• Experience with video podcast or multimedia content strategy as the University expands its content formats.

Education:

• Bachelors degree required.

Work Remotely:

• No

We seek candidates who are committed to the University of Lynchburgs efforts to create an environment that fosters a student-centered environment develops the breadth of knowledge associated with liberal education respects and supports diversity equity and inclusion values and celebrates diverse faith traditions and sustains close working relationships among faculty staff students alumni and community partners.

Candidates must successfully pass a background check that is satisfactory to the University.

Submita cover letter résumé and three professional references to:

Human Resources Jobs Page

The University of Lynchburg is dedicated to inclusive excellence. We celebrate the diversity of our common life affirming our different histories realities and identities. All belong here.

As a testament to our strong commitment to accessibility diversity and inclusion we will attract celebrate and retain a community of diverse students staff and faculty; foster belonging; and create a campus environment that embraces civil discourse and accountability for our words and actions.

The University of Lynchburg embraces diversity in its broadest sense. We will cultivate an inclusive equitable and safe campus climate grounded in mutual respect and understanding where all members of our diverse learning community - alumni employees learners visitors and volunteers- can thrive.

The University of Lynchburg is an equal-opportunity employer