Location: Highland Park, Illinois (On Site Only)
Salary Range: $42,000 – $62,000

Since 1999, Scholarships.com has helped more than 25 million students find money for college and today operates one of the Internet’s largest scholarship search platforms.

We are hiring a Digital Marketing & AI Operations Specialist to sit at the intersection of marketing, data, and automation. This role owns day-to-day campaign execution, scholarship data quality, and the rollout of AI-assisted workflows that make our platform and internal operations faster, smarter, and more scalable.

You will work closely with leadership and developers to turn AI tools (Claude, ChatGPT, and others) into repeatable processes that improve marketing performance, scholarship matching, and internal efficiency across Scholarships.com.

Work Location Requirement

This is a full-time, in-office position at the Scholarships.com headquarters:

Scholarships.com
513 Central Avenue, Suite 300
Highland Park, Illinois 60035

• Schedule: Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. Central Time, with a one-hour lunch break.
• Regular in-office attendance is an essential function of this position.
• This role is not remote and not hybrid.
• Scholarships.com does not offer remote or work-from-home arrangements for this position.
• Applicants seeking remote work should not apply.

Key Responsibilities

Digital Marketing Operations

• Execute and maintain email, digital, and postal marketing campaigns from brief to deployment.
• Own the campaign calendar, timelines, and coordination with internal stakeholders.
• Assist with campaign creative, email layout, QA, and deployment in our marketing platforms.
• Monitor campaign performance and client deliverables, flag issues and opportunities.
• Build recurring and ad hoc campaign performance reports for internal and client use.

AI-Assisted Marketing & Reporting

• Use AI tools (Claude, ChatGPT, and others) to support campaign analysis, optimization, and workflow automation.
• Draft AI prompts and build reusable prompt templates for reporting, summaries, and insights.
• Generate AI-assisted recommendations to improve open rates, CTR, and conversion.
• Experiment with AI to streamline routine tasks (copy variants, QA checks, data cleanup) and document successful workflows.

Scholarship Database Quality & Curation

• Review scholarship submissions from award providers and organizations for accuracy and completeness.
• Verify eligibility criteria, deadlines, award amounts, and descriptions.
• Ensure listings meet Scholarships.com quality, clarity, and editorial standards.
• Maintain the integrity, accuracy, and freshness of the scholarship database.

AI-Enhanced Platform & Product Support

• Partner with internal developers to design and refine automated workflows for scholarship review and marketing operations.
• Assist in implementing AI-driven systems to analyze user engagement and behavior on Scholarships.com.
• Help define and iterate on an AI-powered engagement score based on:
• Scholarship views
• Click and scroll activity
• Saves/bookmarks
• Application interactions
• Contribute to AI-based ranking and recommendation logic that improves how scholarships are prioritized and presented to students.

Operations, Clients, and Internal Processes

• Process client purchase orders and generate insertion orders.
• Coordinate invoicing and billing steps after campaign completion.
• Maintain accurate client, vendor, and campaign records in internal systems.
• Support special projects, data pulls, and administrative tasks across the team.
• Proactively suggest and document process improvements, especially where AI can reduce manual work.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university.
• Demonstrated technical aptitude and interest in AI tools and automation.
• Familiarity with email marketing platforms (e.g., Mailchimp, HubSpot, Campaign Monitor, or similar).
• Strong organizational skills, attention to detail, and ability to manage multiple projects.
• Clear written communication and strong grammar skills.
• Ability to interpret basic marketing metrics (opens, clicks, conversions) and draw simple conclusions.
• Comfort learning new software tools and working with structured data (spreadsheets, CSVs, dashboards).

Preferred Qualifications

• Hands-on experience using AI tools such as Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, or similar platforms in a work or academic setting.
• Experience with digital marketing analytics (e.g., Google Analytics, email reporting, dashboards).
• Familiarity with HTML, CSS, or basic web technologies and CMS tools.
• Experience with Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Canva, or similar creative tools.
• Prior collaboration with developers, product managers, or data teams.
• Experience documenting processes, SOPs, or playbooks for others to follow.

What You Can Expect from Us

• Competitive salary and benefits aligned with experience.
• Blue Cross / Blue Shield PPO health insurance.
• 401(k) retirement plan.
• 15 days Paid Time Off plus 7 paid holidays.
• Casual, collaborative office environment.
• Fully stocked break room with snacks, coffee, and beverages.
• Easy commute, short walk from the Highland Park Metra station.
• Direct exposure to leadership and product/engineering teams, with room to grow into more senior marketing, operations, or product roles.

How to Apply

Please submit the following:

• Resume
• Brief cover letter describing your interest in Scholarships.com and this role
• A short AI prompt exercise:
  • Write one prompt you would use in an AI tool to analyze the performance of an email campaign and suggest improvements.
  • Include both the prompt and 2–3 sentences on why you structured it that way.

All applications will be treated confidentially. We appreciate all interest; however, we will contact only those candidates selected for further consideration.

Please send applications to: careers@scholarships.com