Manager, Community Engine (Events & Experience Marketing)

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About the role

The Events & Experience Marketing team is looking for a Manager, Community Engine to lead the strategy, team, and evolution of a modern global community capability. This role will transform fragmented, episodic user-group activity into year-round engagement that builds stronger relationships with priority users, customers, and advocates, delivering measurable business impact. The leader will connect global strategy with regional activation, balancing consistency with local relevance while integrating Community with flagship experiences, digital programs, and priority go-to-market initiatives.

Responsibilities

• Define and evolve the global Community strategy and portfolio—establishing purpose, audience priorities, program portfolio, operating principles, investment approach, and roadmap for a scalable, modern community capability aligned to SAS business and marketing priorities.
• Lead year-round community growth and engagement—translating audience, industry, product, and market priorities into coordinated campaigns and a mix of digital, local, educational, peer-to-peer, and flagship-event experiences that drive awareness, participation, repeat engagement, and sustained community relationships.
• Integrate Community with the broader customer and marketing journey—partnering with the Strategy & Marketing Engine on audience strategy, campaign planning, and measurement, while ensuring community relationships and insights inform flagship experiences, digital programs, customer and partner initiatives, and sales activation.
• Directly manage and develop the Community team and extended delivery network—setting priorities and accountabilities, coaching performance and development, assigning portfolio ownership, leading agency execution, and establishing governance that enables regional and market partners to activate effectively within one global framework.
• Build influential internal and external partnerships—working across Marketing, Industry Sales, Customer Success, R&D, regional teams, community leaders, and advocates to understand needs, shape programming, earn participation, and strengthen SAS's connection to its user and customer communities.
• Own measurement, investment effectiveness, and optimization—establishing common measures for participation, engagement, conversion, impact, cost, and portfolio return; managing the Community portfolio budget and using insights to determine where to scale, optimize, redesign, or recommend shifts in resources.
• Embrace curiosity, passion, authenticity, and accountability—values that influence everything we do.

Requirements

• Minimum 8 years of experience in Marketing, Community, Customer Engagement, Customer Advocacy, Event/Experience Marketing, or a related field.
• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Marketing, Communications, or another related field. An equivalent combination of related education, training, and experience may be considered.
• Demonstrated ability to operate as a modern marketer, combining strategic thinking, creative problem-solving, analytical decision-making, and strong brand orientation.
• Significant experience developing marketing strategy, translating business priorities into clear strategies, integrated plans, tactical roadmaps, and measurable outcomes.
• Demonstrated people-leadership capability, including setting direction, developing talent, establishing accountability, and driving performance.
• Strong understanding of contemporary customer community, advocacy, and engagement strategies, including approaches that support customer success, learning, retention, advocacy, and growth.
• Demonstrated ability to develop audience acquisition, engagement, and retention strategies, including campaign-based approaches that drive awareness, registrations, attendance, and community growth.
• Working knowledge of enterprise technology, analytics, and AI-related topics, with the ability to evaluate and curate content and programming that aligns with business priorities, customer interests, and market trends.
• Strong business leadership skills, including budget management, executive communication, and cross-functional influence that extends the reach and impact of community programs.

Skills

• Catalyzes change—creates momentum by taking immediate action and encouraging others to improve organizational culture, processes, or products/services; offers resources and direction to support implementation; breaks down cultural and operational barriers to change; recognizes and rewards those who contribute to change efforts.
• Leads through vision and values—translates the organization’s vision and values for employees and organizational partners by linking them to daily responsibilities; shapes team or group priorities to reflect the vision and values; rewards associates whose actions support the organization’s vision and values.
• Clarifies performance expectations—clearly communicates the importance and parameters of delegated tasks, including scope, decision-making authority, performance standards, time constraints, and expected outputs and their impact; identifies others’ issues and concerns; summarizes to ensure shared expectations.
• Maintains high attention to team's KPIs and annual goals—assures that teams and individuals perform as expected according to Performance and Development Plans.
• Initiates action—takes action, within parameters set by higher-level leaders, to achieve improved results despite the uncertainty of outcomes; confronts difficult problems early.

Benefits

• Comprehensive medical, prescription, dental, and vision plans with multiple options, including a PPO with low annual deductible and copays, and an HDHP combined with a health savings account (HSA) with a SAS contribution.
• Onsite Health Care Center (HQ) free to employees and family members enrolled in the PPO plan, including a pharmacy that ships prescriptions at no additional charge for remote employees.
• Industry-leading 401k plan.
• Tuition Assistance Program and resources to support professional development.
• Generous time off, including vacation, paid holidays, a U.S. Winter Wellness Break between December 25 and January 1, Volunteer Time Off, parental leave, and unlimited paid sick days.
• Generous childcare benefits for all full-time employees.

Applicants must be legally authorized to work in the United States and should not require, now or in the future, sponsorship for employment visa status. SAS is an equal opportunity employer.