At a Glance
- Tasks: Lead and shape AFME's CRM strategy, ensuring data quality and user engagement.
- Company: Join AFME, a leading trade association in the European financial markets.
- Benefits: Enjoy 27 days holiday, private medical insurance, and a 10% pension contribution.
- Why this job: Make a real impact on CRM strategy and member engagement in a dynamic environment.
- Qualifications: Experience with CRM platforms and strong data governance skills required.
- Other info: Flexible working hours and a supportive team culture await you.
The predicted salary is between 36000 - 60000 ÂŁ per year.
AFME is a leading trade association for the European wholesale financial markets, employing 100 people across three locations in London, Brussels and Frankfurt. The Head of CRM is responsible for owning, shaping and delivering AFME’s end‑to‑end CRM strategy, ensuring the platform meets organisational, commercial and operational needs. This role will lead the development of CRM capability, data quality, governance, and user engagement across the organisation. The postholder will partner closely with all business areas; policy, advocacy, events, membership, finance, and marketing to strengthen data‑driven decision‑making, streamline processes, and ensure the CRM remains a single source of truth for AFME’s members, contacts, activity and engagement records. This is a cross‑organisational role that ensures CRM supports AFME’s strategic priorities, commercial objectives, and member engagement goals — providing expert guidance, strong relationship‑building, and operational oversight.
Key Responsibilities
- CRM Strategy & Leadership
- Own the end‑to‑end CRM strategy, roadmap, architecture and platform capability.
- Provide a holistic, technical and functional view of CRM, ensuring it aligns with AFME’s organisational needs and commercial priorities.
- Serve as the organisation’s senior CRM expert, sought after for informed, thoughtful advice.
- Lead CRM governance, ensuring data standards, processes, ownership, and compliance are established and adhered to.
- Keep abreast of industry and technology developments, proactively improving CRM performance.
- Data Quality, Governance & Compliance
- Act as AFME’s data supervisor for CRM, ensuring compliance with data protection and internal governance standards.
- Drive a culture of high‑quality data input across all teams; establish clear accountability for data ownership.
- Lead data‑quality initiatives including audits, cleansing programmes, validation rules, and process redesigns.
- Ensure consistent data structures, mandatory fields, and input rules to prevent workarounds and data degradation.
- Oversee classification, maintenance and mapping of contacts, organisations and engagement activities.
- Business Partnering & Stakeholder Engagement
- Build strong relationships across all divisions, understanding needs and shaping CRM functionality to support them.
- Work closely with policy, advocacy, events, membership, finance, and marketing to improve processes and reporting.
- Help teams drive commercial value, including member retention, sales pipeline visibility, sponsorship tracking, and targeted campaigns.
- Support senior leadership with data insights, dashboards, segmentation and reporting.
- Platform, Processes & Integration
- Lead ongoing improvements to CRM workflows, automation, integrations, and user experience.
- Ensure CRM effectively supports key AFME processes (event registration, invoicing, membership, marketing lists, finance synchronisation, committee lists, etc.).
- Oversee resolution of system issues such as data sync problems, slow input processes, inconsistent lists, and manual workarounds.
- Work with IT, internal stakeholders and third‑party partners to ensure system reliability, performance, and secure access.
- Oversee enhancements to reporting, dashboards, segmentation, and analytics.
- User Training, Engagement & Change Leadership
- Take responsibility for continuous education, coaching and upskilling of CRM users.
- Deliver structured onboarding, training and guidance materials to support best practice use.
- Foster a culture of data stewardship, engagement and collective ownership.
- Actively encourage collaboration, new ideas, and user feedback to improve functionality and adoption.
- Team Leadership & Management
- Manage a small, high‑performing CRM team.
- Provide coaching, professional development, and clear performance expectations.
- Manage workload, priorities and delivery to ensure a strong operational service.
- Promote excellence, accountability, and a collaborative team culture.
Skills, Knowledge and Expertise
Essential:
- Previous experience working in a trade association or membership body, preferably within financial services.
- Experience with Dynamics 365 (CRM) or similar platforms with a depth of CRM knowledge and design expertise.
- Proven ability to lead CRM strategy, capability development and cross‑organisation adoption.
- Strong data governance, data‑quality, and compliance experience.
- Ability to build trusted relationships and influence stakeholders at all levels.
- Experience supporting sales, marketing and member‑engagement functions including segmentation, lead generation, and campaign effectiveness.
- Ability to articulate complex technical concepts clearly for non‑technical audiences.
- Demonstrable experience managing and developing a high‑performing team.
Desirable:
- Experience with event‑platform integrations, marketing automation or membership systems.
- Familiarity with dashboards, analytics tools and BI reporting (e.g., Power BI).
- Understanding of process optimisation, workflows and automation tools (e.g., Power Automate).
- Vendor management and contract oversight experience.
Benefits
The Association for Financial Markets in Europe (AFME) provides an excellent benefits package for employees and their eligible dependents. The benefits package includes:
- 27 days Annual Holiday Allowance
- Additional 1 day Birthday Holiday
- Additional 3 days Christmas Holiday
- Private Medical Insurance
- Health Cash Plan
- Dental Insurance
- Employee Assistance Programme
- Pension Scheme – AFME contributes 10% of an employee’s basic salary
- Life Assurance of 4x base salary
- Income Protection Insurance
- Worldwide Business and Leisure Travel Insurance
- Season Ticket Loan
- Cycle to Work Scheme
- EV Car Lease Scheme
- Workplace Nursery Benefit
- 4pm Friday Finish
- Hybrid working and flexi-start/finish times
Head of CRM employer: AFME
Contact Detail:
AFME Recruiting Team
StudySmarter Expert Advice 🤫
We think this is how you could land Head of CRM
✨Tip Number 1
Network like a pro! Get out there and connect with people in the industry. Attend events, join relevant groups on LinkedIn, and don’t be shy about reaching out to potential colleagues or mentors. You never know who might have the inside scoop on job openings!
✨Tip Number 2
Prepare for interviews by researching the company and its CRM strategies. Understand their goals and challenges, and think about how your experience can help them achieve their objectives. Tailor your responses to show you’re the perfect fit for their needs.
✨Tip Number 3
Practice makes perfect! Conduct mock interviews with friends or family to get comfortable with common questions. Focus on articulating your experience with CRM systems and how you’ve driven data quality and user engagement in past roles.
✨Tip Number 4
Don’t forget to apply through our website! It’s the best way to ensure your application gets noticed. Plus, we love seeing candidates who are proactive and engaged with our platform. So, hit that apply button and show us what you’ve got!
We think you need these skills to ace Head of CRM
Some tips for your application 🫡
Tailor Your CV: Make sure your CV is tailored to the Head of CRM role. Highlight your experience with CRM strategies, data governance, and team leadership. We want to see how your skills align with our needs!
Craft a Compelling Cover Letter: Your cover letter is your chance to shine! Use it to explain why you're passionate about CRM and how you can contribute to AFME's goals. Keep it engaging and relevant to the job description.
Showcase Your Achievements: Don’t just list your responsibilities; showcase your achievements! Use specific examples that demonstrate your impact in previous roles, especially in CRM strategy and data quality initiatives.
Apply Through Our Website: We encourage you to apply through our website for a smoother process. It helps us keep track of applications and ensures you don’t miss any important updates from us!
How to prepare for a job interview at AFME
✨Know Your CRM Inside Out
Make sure you have a solid understanding of CRM systems, especially Dynamics 365. Be prepared to discuss how you've used CRM platforms in the past and how you can leverage them to meet AFME's organisational needs.
✨Showcase Your Data Governance Skills
Since data quality and governance are key responsibilities, come ready with examples of how you've improved data processes in previous roles. Highlight any initiatives you've led that ensured compliance and high-quality data input.
✨Build Relationships Before the Interview
AFME values strong relationships across divisions. If possible, connect with current employees on LinkedIn or attend industry events to get insights about their culture and needs. This will help you tailor your responses during the interview.
✨Prepare for Scenario-Based Questions
Expect questions that assess your problem-solving skills and ability to lead change. Think of specific scenarios where you've successfully implemented CRM strategies or improved user engagement, and be ready to share those stories.