Sr Manager, Conversion Experimentation; CRO

Cape Town, South Africa

At 2U, we are all in on purpose. We are motivated by our mission – to eliminate the back row in education – and connected by our shared passion to deliver world-class digital education  the parent company of edX, the world’s leading online learning platform, 2U powers more than 4,000 online higher education offerings – from free courses to full degrees.

Together with more than 230 colleges, universities, and corporate partners, we are helping to unlock human potential.

What We’re Looking For:

2U is seeking a results-oriented Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) Senior Lead
* to drive the acquisition optimization strategy for our Executive Education (Short Course) business line. In this role, you will own the performance of the high-velocity “first touch” digital experience, focusing on both our Paid Landing Page (PLP) portfolio and Organic Program Pages.

Sitting at the intersection of Organic Search, Paid Media, and User Experience, you will be responsible for ensuring that traffic generated from high-value channels - Paid Search, Paid Social, and Organic Search, lands on experiences designed to convert. You will work alongside a dedicated testing squad - partnering with Designers and Web Developers to execute a rigorous roadmap of A/B tests aimed at maximizing Session-to-Lead and Lead-to-Enroll rates across our Executive Education partner portfolio.

* Internal job title:
Sr Manager, Conversion Experimentation (CRO)

Responsibilities Include, But Are Not Limited To:

• Own the “Always-On” experimentation roadmap for the Executive Education portfolio, prioritizing tests that address high-volume traffic sources (both paid and organic) and revenue opportunities.
• Serve as the primary CRO partner to both the Paid Media and Organic Search teams. For Paid, develop innovative strategies to improve “Ad Scent” (consistency between ad copy and landing page), ensuring PLP experiences are tailored to specific audience segments and intent levels. For Organic, ensure program page content and UX align with SEO intent signals to maximize conversion without undermining search performance.
• Analyze traffic performance by channel (Paid Search, Paid Social, Organic Search, Direct) to identify underperforming segments and deploy targeted page variations: PLPs for paid traffic and optimized program pages for organic traffic, to improve Quality Scores and overall conversion efficiency.
• Partner with the SEO team to develop and test on-page optimizations for organic program pages that improve both search visibility and conversion rate, ensuring CRO interventions are SEO-safe.
• Translate quantitative data (GA4, funnel drop-off) and qualitative insights (user research, heatmaps) into robust, testable hypotheses across both PLP and organic program page surfaces.
• Articulate specific testing strategies for hypotheses and test scenarios (pre/post, A/B, multi-arm, etc.), accounting for the distinct traffic behaviors and user intent differences between paid and organic audiences.
• Establish clear success criteria as well as performance guardrails for high-value tests, with separate KPI frameworks for PLP performance (Quality Score, Cost-per-Lead) and organic page performance (Session-to-Lead rate, bounce rate).
• Write clear, data-driven creative briefs for the UI/UX Design and Web Production teams. You define what needs to be built and why; they execute the vision.
• Oversee the end-to-end testing lifecycle, from hypothesis generation to QA and launch, ensuring a high velocity of experiments across both page types without sacrificing quality.

Performance Analysis & Optimization

• Analyze test results to determine statistical significance and business impact. Move beyond simple click-through rates to understand how…