Regional Head of Marketing, Exams at the British Council

The British Council builds connections, understanding and trust between people in the UK and other countries through arts and culture, education and the English language. We work in two ways – directly with individuals to transform their lives, and with governments and partners to make a bigger difference for the longer term, creating benefit for millions of people all over the world. We help young people to gain the skills, confidence and connections they are looking for to realise their potential and to participate in strong and inclusive communities.

We support them to learn English, to get a high-quality education and to gain internationally recognised qualifications. Our work in arts and culture stimulates creative expression and exchange and nurtures creative enterprise. We connect the best of the UK with the world and the best of the world with the UK. These connections lead to an understanding of each other’s strengths and of the challenges and values that we share. This builds trust between people in the UK and other nations which endures even when official relations may be strained. We work on the ground in more than 100 countries. In 2019-20 we connected with 80 million people directly and with 791 million overall, including online and through our broadcasts and publications.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Regional Head of Marketing, Exams

Location: Lagos
Pay Band: 8
Contract Type: Indefinite Contract
Interviews: Week commencing 13 December

Overview

Marketing and Communications at the British Council is a strategic function which drives awareness, understanding and engagement with us across our diverse audiences.
We use insight, knowledge and analysis of our market and our customers to engage them with our work and our products and services in the most impactful and effective way.
We lead the development of our brand and use our expertise to tell inspiring stories to enhance our global reputation, build lifelong relationships, engage our staff and demonstrate our impact.
This role is a new role as part of Marketing and Communications Transformation programme. In line with the Global Recruitment policy, standard application and recruitment decisions will apply for this role.

Role Purpose

The Regional Head of Marketing Exams will lead the development and implementation of the regional Exams marketing strategy and plans, ensuring alignment to the global marketing strategy, including the planning, delivery and evaluation of marketing strategies across all Exams products.
The successful post holder will work with the Exams Strategic Business Unit (SBU) to ensure that regional and country marketing programmes deliver planned business targets.
They’ll also provide professional expertise to the Exams SBU within the region, share relevant knowledge and expertise with other marketing professionals, and help ensure alignment with marketing strategy across the British Council.
This role plays a proactive role in the development of the SBU within the region, including business planning and the monitoring and reporting of performance quarterly and via monthly dashboards.

Main Accountabilities
Strategy and Planning:

Develops and manages the regional long-term marketing strategy for Exams, ensuring alignment to global SBU marketing strategies and plans, regional objectives, and financial and business development targets and the overarching global marketing strategy for the British Council.
Plans, delivers and evaluates regional marketing strategies and activities for Exams.
Manages the execution and planning of effective 360 campaigns, ensuring co-ordination across the region and alignment to global digital communications policies and standards.
Provides appropriate input to product development.
Ensures monitoring of marketing performance for Exams at regional, cluster and country levels.

Consultancy, analysis & problem-solving:

Applies core technical/professional knowledge, recognised best practice approaches and insight from previous experience to develop marketing strategies and plans and resolve issues and risks.
Conducts analysis based on insights, focus groups and research and external trend/ market analysis to provide high quality and evidence-based marketing advice, recommendations and plans.
Presents complex information clearly, tailoring the presentation of findings to meet the differing needs of marketing and leadership audiences appropriately, as required.

Business Development:

Identifies opportunities for improvements to regional marketing for Exams and determines how to progress these, working collaboratively with the SBU leads in country, and SBU global marketing team to ensure alignment to global marketing approaches and enable ideas, new business opportunities and innovations to be shared.
Demonstrates awareness of relevant governance arrangements related to the development of regional marketing strategies and approaches for Exams.

Functional expertise:

Provides proactive professional marketing advice and support to internal customers to ensure regional marketing for Exams is high quality, effective and compliant with relevant corporate policies.
Completes an annual cycle of formally recognised Continuing Professional Development (CPD) to maintain and deepen their professional expertise.
Uses a variety of information resources and professional networks to maintain up-to-date knowledge of developments in external policy, practice and regulation within their professional discipline.

Commercial and financial management:

Using agreed corporate systems and processes, plans and manages the regional budget for Exams marketing activities, and conducts monthly and year-end reporting on income and expenditure, profitability and risk.
Shows an understanding of value for money/cost effectiveness in regional marketing strategies, plans and activities delivered for Exams.

Relationship and stakeholder management:

Actively participates in and contributes to the Marketing Community of Practice and network of marketing professionals.
Builds a network of with external suppliers/providers/contacts to support effective service provision and knowledge exchange.

Leadership and management:

Plans and prioritises own work activities to ensure effective delivery of diverse responsibilities and internal customer deliverables over a monthly to quarterly time horizon.
Member of and active contributor to the Regional Marketing Governance team.
Provides direction, advice and support to country marketing teams on marketing strategies, plans and activities for Exams.

Role Specific Knowledge and Experience
The main essential knowledge and experience points that we are looking for you to evidence are:

Degree or professional qualification in Marketing or Business, or demonstrable level of equivalent experience
Considerable experience in developing marketing strategies and plans within a large and complex organisation
Experience in the design and delivery of plans to support products
Experience in providing direction, oversight and coaching on the delivery of marketing plans and activities
Proven experience in effectively negotiating budgets and resources with senior stakeholders
Experience of delivering results through a dispersed team
Demonstrable experience in delivering financial performance targets through demonstrating effective marketing programmes and processes

Desirable Experience:

Experience working in a global organization
Commercial experience of the exams market
Commercial experience in marketing effectiveness with KPI focused deliverables – financial, operational strategic and organizational including managing a diverse team; in a highly matrixed organization

Requirements: