Spotlight On: Rafael (Raf) Zorrilla, Senior Director, Digital Optimization

Last updated on: February 6, 2023

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Rafael Zorrilla believes in the transformative power of education. In 2017, he joined Wiley to use his marketing expertise to improve the education journey for students around the world.

“Education has always been big for me, and I still see it as a noble effort,” Raf said. “It’s a noble thing to better yourself, to move onward. What keeps me in education is that I still believe I’m doing a good thing.”

Deciding to further your education and ultimately picking a school and program takes time and dedication. As our Senior Director of Digital Optimization, Raf coordinates with team members across our organization to create messaging and tools to make this process as easy as possible.

He loves the scientific nature of creating these solutions. His work involves optimizing SEO, creating microsites and landing pages, AB testing, and analyzing data — all so learners can find the specific information they need.

“You’re looking at observations. You’re making a hypothesis. We don’t have a Bunsen burner, but we can create experiments, see the results, and make a confident call on how to move forward,” he said.

He’s most proud of a recent initiative: creating and finetuning student-focused features like our tuition calculator. It’s an easy-to-use widget that allows prospective students to estimate their tuition costs and ask admissions questions in real time.

Raf is furthering his education journey by participating in the McKinsey Academy Hispanic & Latino Executive Leadership Program. This program gives him a chance to work closely with McKinsey coaches and other Hispanic executives to learn how to advance racial equity and drive change through thoughtful leadership.

“My heritage shouldn’t hold me back; it’s now my super-power,” he said.

In addition to being an innovative marketer and lifelong learner, Raf loves the outdoors. As an avid mountain biker, he has cycled in locales from North America to South America and Europe. Always up for a challenge, Raf recently completed a 100K race through the Hoosier National Forest. The kicker? Instead of going solo, he raced on a tandem bike with a teammate.

“We finished in five hours and 46 minutes. We beat roughly 50% of people who were on the single bikes, so we were pretty proud of ourselves,” he said.

That experience shows how much we can achieve when working together. Are you interested in joining our team? Check out our Careers page for details about what we do, our benefits, and our current openings.

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