Employment Opportunities
Family Vacation Critic is published by The Independent Traveler, Inc., based in Pennington, New Jersey, near Princeton. The Independent Traveler Inc. is a publisher of online travel resources, including Cruise Critic, the largest cruise site of its kind, reaching over nine million unique visitors each year. The Independent Traveler, Inc. is a subsidiary of TripAdvisor LLC, which is an operating company of Expedia, Inc. We offer a rewarding and enjoyable entrepreneurial environment with opportunities for professional development and growth, competitive salary and comprehensive benefits.
To apply for one of the following job openings, please email your resume and cover letter to jobs@cruisecritic.com. If interested in writing for Family Vacation Critic, please send an email, with a resume and at least two writing samples to our Editorial Team. Due to the volume of e-mails we receive, we are unable to respond to all inquiries.
Current Opportunities
PHP Developer
SEM Analyst
Ad Trafficker and Sales Coordinator
PHP Developer
Location: Pennington, New Jersey (near Princeton, NJ)
Education Required: Bachelors
Experience Required: 5-7 Years
Relocation Provided: To be determined
Position Description
We are growing, dynamic and fun company, seeking a highly motivated and experienced PHP/LAMP developer to join our software development team.
The ideal candidate is highly motivated, passionate about new web technologies, and will enjoy working closely with our product development, content and marketing teams to development new features for our Web sites. This position requires being able to communicate well with both technical and non-technical staff, be committed to delivering quality work on an aggressive schedule, and must be able to function independently as well as part of a collaborative team.
Required Skills
- 5-7 years server side web development in LAMP, PHP 4.x OR 5.x multi-tiered environment
- Ability to write code quickly and accurately
- Object-oriented development and design patterns, rapid build and release cycles are a must
- Must document code faithfully and take good coding practices seriously
- Experience with version control software such as SVN or CVS
- MySQL and RDBMS proficiency; Microsoft SQL a plus
- JavaScript / DHTML programming experience
- Strong object-oriented programming skills and design pattern knowledge
- vBulletin and Cold Fusion knowledge a plus
Education
Bachelor's degree from a four-year college or university
SEM Analyst
Our Traffic Acquisition team is passionate about global search engine marketing. Are you? Our team is high-energy, analytical, modest, and inquisitive and we are looking for a smart and experienced marketing professional to serve as Search Marketing Analyst. This position is responsible for analyzing our reach with thorough reports on our search engine marketing efforts.
Job Responsibilities:
- Working closely with the team to identify optimization strategies to increase profit generated per search engine referral.
- Work with a cross-functional team of search marketing analysts to establish priorities and define strategies to reach profit and referrals goals across multiple points of sale.
- Communicating performance progress to goals, key issues and new initiatives to the team.
- Working with key constituents across our organization including senior management as well as engineering, commerce, product and sales teams.
- Measuring performance of new initiatives and identifying key areas of improvement - including ad text, meta descriptions, page titles and landing page optimization.
- Monitoring the competitive landscape, identifying and implementing new strategies in search marketing to increase profit and referrals.
- Establishing, communicating and maintaining a reporting suite measuring KPIs for SEO, SEM and Email performance.
- Locating top performing keywords and monitor natural search rankings daily.
Hiring requirements:
- Minimum 2-4 relevant years experience including at least 1+ years SEM experience.
- Established mastery of Excel.
- Excellent presentation skills.
- Specific experience in successfully creating and managing large keyword lists.
- Experienced business judgment, BS/BA required.
- Highly detail-oriented and analytic skills absolutely required
- Excellent communication skills at all levels of an organization.
In addition, the ideal candidate will demonstrate the following competencies:
- Flexible and open to change and new information; adapts behavior and work methods accordingly
- Grasps the essence of new information; recognizes own strengths and weaknesses; pursues self-development; seeks feedback.
- Exhibits integrity though fair and ethical behavior toward others and a demonstrated sense of corporate responsibility and commitment.
- Treats colleagues and partners with respect: considers and responds appropriately to the needs, feelings, and capabilities of different people
- Can be relied upon to ensure that projects within areas of specific responsibility are completed in an appropriate and timely manner and acknowledges mistakes, learns from those events and is able to move forward productively
- Identifies and analyzes problems; distinguishes between relevant and irrelevant information.
- Ability to balance time to market with a solution and make the right trade-offs along the way
- Strong analytical skills: understands and utilizes metrics relevant to role
- Clear communication through expression of facts and ideas in a clear, convincing and organized manner
- Good business judgment when making decisions and always considers the relevance/impact of each decision on the business
Ad Trafficker and Sales Coordinator
We are looking for a client-service oriented individual who can support our sales team with all tasks related to the implementation of online advertising campaigns, including trafficking ads, monitoring campaigns, managing sponsorships and campaign schedules. This position requires a very high-level of accuracy, keen attention to detail, and proficiency with office applications such as Word, Excel and Outlook and strong communication and organization skills. Applicant must also have working knowledge of an ad server, DFP/DART preferred. Must be able to establish priorities, meet deadlines, work proactively and support the entire sales department.
Job Responsibilities:
- Traffic and monitor online advertising campaigns across the network, including uploading, testing, optimization and troubleshooting.
- Ensure campaign goals are met, including start and end dates, impressions delivery, and any associated actions.
- Work with advertisers and sales staff to ensure timely delivery of all materials and compliance with site ad guidelines and specs.
- Set up automatic advertising campaign reports for advertisers campaigns
- Monitor and analyze campaign reports and make recommendations on actions to ensure campaigns deliver in full.
- Manage sponsorship calendar and schedules, sent out updates as needed.
- Update CPC text links campaigns
- Coordinate production of sponsorship products with various internal departments as well as ensuring that advertisers are notified as to when assets are due and are in compliance with ad specs
- Approve weekly cruise sails placements with advertisers and, add weekly Deal and LMCS sponsorships
- Collaborate with Accounting dept to resolve any billing issues
- Send screenshots to clients when campaigns go live
- Update weekly sales agenda for Sales Meeting and follow-up action items
- Support the Sales Team with all tasks related to the creation of sales support materials
Hiring requirements:
- Knowledge of an ad server such as DFP/DART
- Familiar with online advertising, marketing, and sales concepts
- 2 - 3 years experience supporting a sales organization
- Basic understanding of CPM and CPC based ad campaigns
- Highly organized
- Must have strong communication skills, both verbally and via email
- Comfortable and accurate with numbers
- Strong organizational and planning skills
- Ability to work well within a team environment
- Proficient in Excel, Word and PowerPoint
- Knowledge of HTML a plus
Education:
- Bachelor's degree from a four-year college or university
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