We are Chester Zoo, and for over 90 years we’ve been a leading conservation and education charity, and an amazing, award-winning visitor attraction.

We’re also a team of passionate, talented, enthusiastic and expert people, doing everything we can to prevent extinction, from caring for animals to discovering new conservation ideas, and giving our visitors an inspirational day out.

We work hard because we love animals, we care about nature, we love Chester Zoo and, despite all the recent challenges thrown at us, we still want to be the best zoo in the world! If you think you can help us to achieve that, then we’d love to hear from you.

We currently have an exciting vacancy for a Head of Marketing to join us to lead our Marketing and Membership teams as a collective unit, driving the brand and marketing to contribute towards commercial targets, the Conservation Master Plan and Strategic Development Plan.

The role:

• To lead and oversee the brand, marketing and membership sales strategies to deliver short and long term commercial and conservation objectives.
• To lead the development of all marketing and membership activity across channels, working closely across directorates to integrate activity.
• To lead relationships across a range of stakeholders within the areas of commercial and conservation, including the procurement and management of supplier relationships.
• To lead on the development and dissemination of insight across the organisation including customer segmentation, brand, market insight, visitor research and channel performance.  Provide clear evaluation frameworks for each area of responsibility.
• To work across the charity in line with the One Plan approach to integrate activity with other commercial teams and directorates, providing marketing support across the organisation as required.
• To manage the Marketing and Membership & Travel Trade teams to coach and develop colleagues, anticipating and responding to the growing needs of the organisation.

• To forecast and oversee marketing and membership departmental budgets on a regular basis, ensuring that expenditure is controlled and clear ROIs are provided for all activity.

The successful candidate will have:

• Proven experience managing a multi-discipline marketing team, including design and production functions and external creative services/media agencies. You will have strong leadership, team building and persuasion skills; a team player and motivator.
• A degree level qualification, preferably business related. Being Chartered Institute of Marketing certified is desirable.
• Strong experience in brand strategy, planning and management, including experience in high profile brands and membership organisations, ideally for a visitor attraction or not for profit organisation.
• Extensive experience in marketing planning and developing insight across the full marketing mix, including the procurement of agencies, the development of associated reports and selling in recommendations to stakeholders, and development of CRM strategies and plans.
• Experience in income planning, forecasting and managing large budgets, demonstrating clear ROI across activity.
• Extensive knowledge and experience across a range of marketing channels, including direct marketing and associated systems; social, websites, SEO, e-commerce, advertising and associated analytics. Also developing ATL campaigns (including TV).
• Knowledge of design, artwork and print production processes.
• Statistical analysis and reporting skills, as well as excellent presentation and communication skills. Experienced in providing reports to senior managers to inform decision making.
• Extensive knowledge of the changing media landscape and dynamic pricing of media. Skilled in creative thinking and brainstorming.
• Project management skills and knowledge of brand development and planning across portfolios.
• Contract and service agreement negotiation skills.
• A high level of computer literacy.

The hours of work are 40 hours per week, worked Monday to Friday 8:30am – 5pm with a 30 minute unpaid lunch break.  Some flexibility may be required for the fulfilment of your role, which may include some weekend or evening work and attending seminars/events.

The salary for this role is £55,907.98 per annum and in addition we offer a range of amazing benefits which can be found at www.chesterzoo.org/work-with-us/staff-benefits/ 

To apply for this position, click ‘Apply Now’ to provide your current CV and complete the application form highlighting your skills and experience including why you believe you should be considered for our Head of Marketing role.

Closing date for applications is Sunday 24 October 2021