Senior Content Strategist Higher Ed & Mission-Driven Brands

Princeton. Columbia. USC. NYU. IEEE. Make-A-Wish. United Way. These are just a few of our higher-ed and mission-driven brands that depend on our content strategy to move the needle for enrollment, giving and how a complex institution is understood. This is the kind of work you’ll help to lead.

Digital Pulp is looking for a senior, hands-on Content Strategist to shape brand messaging and architect content for brand work and for large-scale, content-heavy websites. You'll work to understand each brand, define their messaging and voice and evolve them into guidance that marketing, UX, design, and client teams can run with. You'll present to senior client stakeholders, making the case for recommendations and helping to arrive at decisions you can stand behind. You’ll establish the strategic direction and then bring them to life in collaboration with your team and the client.

The DetailsEngagement: Starts as a project-based freelance engagement that serves as a real-world audition for both sides. For the right fit, we will want to quickly expand the role to either ongoing retainer work or a path to full-time. We’re looking for someone we want to keep.

Location: Fully remote.

Reports to: Chief Creative Officer & Director of Content Strategy, with day-to-day partnership with Producers and UX/Experience leads.

Responsibilities

Most weeks, you’ll be producing artifacts in these areas:

• Brand Messaging + Voice & Tone systems. Internal and client-ready guides that define how the brand sounds and why.
• Site Audits & Content Analysis. What’s working, what’s missing, what must change — with clear rationale.
• Content Architecture. Sitemaps, taxonomy direction, and content grouping logic for expansive sites.
• Wireframe Copy. Heds, deks, and capsule copy that clarifies intent and supports UX decisions.
• Content Remapping Plans. Annotated inventories tied to objectives and messaging, including component-stacking and storytelling guidance for top-level pages.
• Microcopy Systems. Navigation labels and UI language that make control intuitive and tell a brand story.
• Branded Content Type Models. Structure, purpose, examples, and governance notes.
• Governance Strategy. Roles, workflows, maintenance cadence, and editorial standards the client team can run.
• Sample Pages & Prototypes. To demonstrate messaging, structure, and editorial direction in practice.

You’ll also participate in discovery sessions, brief and train client content teams, and present and defend your thinking to senior stakeholders.

The Path AheadFirst 1–3 months

• You’ll establish messaging and voice that clients recognize as authentic and distinctive.
• Your remapping plan and stacked-component guidance will materially sharpen page storytelling.
• UX and design will treat your outputs as build-ready direction — less rework, less subjective churn.

3–9 months

• You’ll lead content workstreams on complex engagements with minimal supervision.
• Clients will see you as a trusted advisor who can elevate the story and build internal consensus.
• Your governance and content type modeling will improve long-term editorial consistency.

Where it can go…

As you build context and trust, this role can expand beyond client delivery into shaping Digital Pulp’s own voice. There’s a growth path toward broader experience leadership. People management is not expected on day one.:

• Thought leadership on higher-ed content strategy, enrollment journeys, content governance, and content-driven UX.
• DP marketing content — case study narratives, service positioning, campaign copy.
• Pitch narrative support: translating our methods into clear, compelling language for proposals.

What You Bring

You’re an experienced, versatile strategist who is both strategic and hands-on, and who cares deeply about how content, brand, and user experience connect.

• 7+ years in content strategy, brand messaging, editorial strategy, or closely related disciplines.
• A track record of building messaging and voice/tone systems and translating them into page-level guidance.
• Strong content architecture instincts: sitemaps, taxonomy, and content grouping for large sites.
• Comfort partnering with UX on wireframes and page flows, and writing wireframe copy that clarifies hierarchy and intent.
• Experience producing annotated content remapping plans that client teams can actually execute.
• Strong interface copy skills — navigation labels and UI language that support brand and usability.
• Confidence presenting to senior stakeholders and defending recommendations with clear rationale.
• A practical orientation: you produce artifacts teams use, not just conceptual decks.
• Responsible AI fluency: you use AI to accelerate synthesis and drafting while respecting accuracy, confidentiality, and client restrictions.
• A current view on content structures that drive AI visibility — how content gets surfaced in AI-powered search and LLM responses, not just Google.

Nice to have

• Higher education, research, or nonprofit experience.
• Familiarity with CMS ecosystems and comfort collaborating with engineering leads.
• Accessibility-aware practice (WCAG familiarity).

About Digital Pulp

Digital Pulp has been shaping brands and building digital experiences for higher ed, nonprofits, healthcare and mission-driven organizations since 1996. We believe in our clients’ missions and help them to communicate through brand and content strategy that differentiates. Our visual design inspires and engages while our engineering embraces efficiency and stability.

Our work can be seen across organizations like Princeton, Columbia, USC, NYU, Carnegie Mellon Tepper, Georgetown, IEEE, Make-A-Wish America, United Way Worldwide, Colonial Williamsburg, and the State of New Jersey. Our work is bespoke and in-house. No handoffs, no silos, no decks that promise more than the build delivers.

We're a small shop by choice. The people pitching the work are the people doing the work, and the work is better for it.

How to Apply

• Hit the 1-Click Apply button on LinkedIn if you want to “phone it in” on this opportunity.
• If you’re particularly interested, send your resume and a cover letter to design-job@digitalpulp.com with the subject line “Senior Content Strategist – Your Name.”
• The cover letter matters. Tell us why this role and our content-driven UX approach fit how you work.
• Please include a link to relevant work samples — especially wireframe copy and one strategy or synthesis example.