Strategic Marketing Director

Strategic Marketing Director

Location: Godalming

Salary: Competitive

Vacancy Type: Full Time, All year round

Closing Date: 12 noon on Friday, 5 September 2025

The School is a leading coeducational independent school located on a picturesque 250-acre campus in Surrey. Established in 1611, they are committed to providing an exceptional education that empowers students to achieve their full potential in a supportive and inclusive environment. Their core values of kindness and belonging are fundamental to their thriving community.

The Role

They are seeking an experienced and forward-thinking Strategic Marketing Director to join their External Relations team. This is a newly created and pivotal role within a dynamic and high-performing department of 10, which aims to implement the most innovative and progressive engagement programmes within today’s UK education sector. The department has responsibility for setting the strategy and leading the delivery of all marketing, fundraising, community relations and events activities throughout the School.

Reporting to the Director of External Relations, the postholder will lead the development and delivery of a new and integrated suite of marketing campaigns that significantly enhance pupil recruitment, elevate the School’s brand, and support income-generating activity across their commercial and partnership strands.

This role requires a blend of strategic acumen, commercial thinking and creative tactical delivery. The successful candidate will bring a strong understanding of how to apply both a data-driven approach and commercial marketing best practices to an education setting: this will include audience segmentation, data tracking and analysis to inform decision making, performance tracking, conversion optimisation, and lifecycle communications.

A key part of the role will be the creation of compelling, insight-led content, including user-generated content, social proofs and storytelling that builds trust and emotional connection. The postholder will also be responsible for designing and managing automated nurture sequences and drip email campaigns, ensuring prospective families receive authentic, timely, relevant and personalised communications.

With responsibility for strategic marketing outputs across admissions, fundraising and commercial income streams, this is an exciting opportunity for a marketing professional who is both data-driven and audience-focused, and who can translate strategic goals into measurable impact.

Skills and Qualifications

• A minimum of 5 years’ experience in a strategic marketing role, with a strong track record of developing integrated campaigns and delivering results through performance analysis.
• Experience in either premium service sectors, or global-facing brands/ organisations.
• An intuitive understanding of how brand, identity and emotion influence consumer choice, with the ability to shape communications that resonate across cultures and markets.
• Commercially astute, able to balance strategic brand building with performance outcomes, and to use insight and analytics to guide decisions.
• A strong collaborator, able to build trust across internal teams and work seamlessly with other designers, developers and content creators.
• Excellent interpersonal skills and the confidence to lead conversations across all levels of the organisation.
• Highly organised with excellent project management skills and attention to detail.
• Strong digital marketing skills – including social media management, email marketing (including automation), website CMS, and analytics.
• Confident in creating and delivering powerful, emotionally engaging content across platforms, from video storytelling to audience-led social campaigns - especially through authentic storytelling and social proof.
• Experience in planning and delivering email nurture sequences and drip campaigns to guide prospects through a conversion funnel with clarity and ease.
• Technically capable across CRM, digital content platforms, email automation and social media management.
• Excellent writing and editorial judgement, with the ability to adapt tone and language for different platforms and audiences.

To Apply

If you feel you are a suitable candidate and would like to work for this reputable School, please click apply to be redirected to their website to complete your application.