Manager, Salesforce Marketing Cloud Email QA

Role Purpose

Create, manage, execute, and optimize strategic testing plans for quality assurance. Develop robust testing plans to identify, test, and solve issues prior to email deployment. The manager will supervise a team of UAT specialists and collaborate closely with marketing, technology, analytics, and CRM teams to maintain high standards of accuracy and performance. This role will execute and create testing plans in support of IHG’s customer-centric email marketing program, ensuring flawless delivery while driving channel efficiencies and effectiveness.

Key Accountabilities

• Quality Assurance Leadership: Oversee QA processes for email campaigns and SFMC journeys to ensure compliance with brand standards and technical requirements.
• Develop and maintain comprehensive testing frameworks for functional and cross-platform testing.
• Serve as the subject matter expert (SME) for all aspects of IHG’s email QA marketing program, including use of data, various testing methodologies, technology solutions, and processes.
• Develop and execute a comprehensive, QA strategy and implementation for customer-centric email portfolio – including lifecycle, promotional and/or transactional marketing campaigns – that drives engagement, conversion, and lifetime value.
• Design and execute UAT plans for new email templates, dynamic content, personalization logic, and triggered journeys.
• Validate data integrations, segmentation, and automation workflows within SFMC.
• Apply knowledge of email marketing and communication QA principles, concepts, industry practices, and standards in the delivery of testing to ensure overall project effectiveness.
• Allocate resources and prioritize testing schedules to meet project deadlines.

Key Skills & Experiences

Education

• Bachelor's or Master’s Degree in Marketing, Communications, Digital, Marketing Technology or an equivalent combination of education and work-related experience

Experience

• 5 years work- related experience and demonstrated proficiency in email marketing, digital marketing, preferably in an international business and/or within travel/hospitality industry
• 2-4 years managing teams and/or significant complex projects across stakeholders
• Experience engaging and influencing cross-functional working partnerships in a global organization
• Experience of working within a complex business with a range of stakeholders with different needs
• Ability to maintain a service-oriented team culture that delivers consistent, high-quality work for IHG’s complex stakeholder group
• Creative problem solver who can frame issues effectively for leadership
• Ability to prioritize work based on alignment to broader IHG commercial objectives
• Strong project management skills to juggle multiple projects with tight deadlines
• Excellent organizational skills with extreme attention to detail, accuracy, and accountability
• Strong interpersonal and above-average communication skills
• Salesforce certifications a plus
• Aptitude with Mobile Studio preferred.
• Proficiency with responsive design.

Technical Skills and Knowledge

• Demonstrated knowledge of the email marketing landscape, principles, and industry best practices 
• • HTML & CSS-Ability to build and troubleshoot email templates, ensure correct rendering and compatibility across clients (e.g., Gmail, Outlook, Apple Mail). 
  • Responsive Design & Email Rendering-Expertise in crafting mobile-friendly layouts and previewing emails across device types and email clients to ensure consistency. 
  • Email Automation Platforms- Proficiency in tools like Salesforce, Mailchimp, HubSpot, Marketo, SendGrid to build, segment, automate, and run campaigns.
  • Verifying visual and functional consistency across email environments; catching broken links, personalization issues, and typos.
  • Ensuring links route correctly, tracking parameters are intact, and personalization tokens (e.g., first-name fallbacks) resolve accurately.
  • Checking font fallback, alt text, semantic structure, and ensuring compatibility across older email clients and assistive technology
  • Rapidly diagnosing issues (e.g., rendering bugs, dynamic content errors, broken links) and identifying root causes
• Ability to develop and present data-driven recommendations successfully, promote items persuasively, and shape the opinions of others
• Experience engaging and influencing cross-functional working partnerships in a global organization
• Experience of working within a complex business with a range of stakeholders with different needs
• Ability to maintain a service-oriented team culture and mindset, that delivers consistent, high quality work for IHG’s complex stakeholder group
• Creative problem solver that can frame issues effectively for leadership
• Ability to prioritize work based on alignment to broader IHG commercial objectives
• Strong project management skills to juggle multiple projects often having tight deadlines
• Excellent organizational skills with extreme attention to detail, accuracy and accountability
• Strong interpersonal and above-average communication skills