Portfolio Marketing Director in Kennington

Global Portfolio Marketing DirectorB2B Marketing | Senior Leadership | Full-timeAmsterdam, London, CamebridgeReports ToHead of Corporate MarketingDirect Reports5–6 Senior Marketing ManagersPortfolio Scope$450M USD across 6 Markets with 8–12 products in eachTravelUp to 25% (within Europe; occasional global)About the RoleWe are seeking an exceptional Portfolio Marketing Director to lead go-to-market strategy across a $450M USD portfolio spanning six high-growth B2B market verticals globally. Reporting directly to the Head of Corporate Marketing, you will set the strategic direction for how our solutions are positioned, messaged, and brought to market — orchestrating a team of 5–6 Senior Marketing Managers each accountable for distinct verticals and product lines within them.This is a high-impact, senior individual-contributor and people-leadership role that sits at the intersection of product, sales, and lifecycle marketing. You will act as the connective tissue between customer and market insight — ICPs, propositions, and win/loss learning — and Commercial’s growth priorities, translating both into a coherent portfolio-level GTM strategy. This complements GTM Excellence, which focuses on the frameworks, capabilities, and processes that enable that strategy to be executed consistently at scale.You will be responsible for translating complex, multi-product portfolio stories into clear, compelling propositions that resonate with enterprise buyers and users — driving brand strategy and unification, brand awareness, and market penetration, while balancing the protection of recurring revenue through adoption, usage, and renewal with the acceleration of new revenue through cross-sell, upsell, and new-logo acquisition.Key ResponsibilitiesOperating Model: Commercial, Portfolio Marketing & GTM ExcellenceServe as the connective tissue between customer and market insight — ICPs, personas, propositions, win/loss learning, and competitive intelligence — and Commercial’s growth and market priorities, ensuring both inform one unified portfolio-level GTM strategy;Operate within a clear three-way delineation: Commercial sets growth and market priorities and investment decisions for each vertical; Portfolio Marketing translates these into customer-led portfolio propositions, positioning, and GTM strategy; GTM Excellence provides the frameworks, capabilities, and processes that enable consistent execution of that strategy at scale;Partner closely with Commercial Directors on priority-setting and investment trade-offs for each market vertical, and with GTM Excellence on turning approved strategy into repeatable, scalable execution frameworks — keeping strategy-setting (Portfolio Marketing) distinct from execution enablement (GTM Excellence) to avoid overlap.Portfolio & Go-to-Market StrategyDefine segment-level ICPs (Ideal Customer Profiles), buyer and user personas, brand strategy & positioning in line with customer outcomes, and competitive positioning frameworks for each of the 6 target markets; ensure these are consistently applied across content strategy, campaigns, and the sales cycle;Own and evolve the overarching portfolio narrative across all 6 market verticals, totaling 15 products at the level 2 and 3 product architecture levels; ensure coherent cross-sell and upsell storylines that ladder up to a unified value proposition and brand strategy for each vertical, coherent with the Corporate Markets and Elsevier brand strategies;Lead annual and quarterly go-to-market planning for each of the six market verticals, aligning with Product Management, Commercial Directors, and Sales leadership on priorities, investment levels, and success metrics;Utilize and improve a portfolio-wide insights programme — voice of the customer, competitive intelligence, value positioning for customer outcomes, validated proof points, win/loss analysis, analyst relations input, and battlecard positioning — feeding both Commercial’s priority-setting and GTM Excellence’s execution frameworks;Partner with Product Management on product launches (major and minor), delivering value proposition and market positioning for each relevant market, and enabling the launch readiness framework and cross-functional coordination supporting high standards in go-to-market.Team Leadership & DevelopmentHire, develop, and retain a team of 5–6 Senior Marketing Managers, each responsible for specific verticals and product clusters within each market portfolio;Set clear objectives (OKRs / KPIs) for each team member and conduct regular performance reviews with a coaching-first mindset;Foster a high-performance, AI-fluent culture built on data-driven decision-making, creativity, thoughtful risk taking, speed of execution, and continuous learning;Identify skills gaps and build development plans; advocate internally for marketing resources and career progression opportunities.Customer Lifecycle: Acquisition, Adoption & RetentionPartner with the Lifecycle teams — Acquisition (new business), Customer Engagement, and Regional Marketing — to translate portfolio strategy into programmes spanning new-logo acquisition, adoption and usage, cross-sell/upsell, and renewal, globally;Contribute to and track marketing’s influence on pipeline (MQLs, pipeline influenced, pipeline sourced) for the portfolio for each priority vertical; with equal weight, use adoption, usage, and customer value realization insights — as we are already doing with LeapSpace — to strengthen propositions, identify retention and expansion opportunities, and improve GTM effectiveness. Portfolio Marketing does not own adoption or retention outcomes directly, but ensures they inform portfolio strategy with the same rigor as acquisition metrics;Support content strategy and lifecycle marketing teams with campaigns, including regional marketing for localization approaches that are scalable and drive brand consistency.Content, Messaging & Thought LeadershipProvide input to Audience and Content Strategy to commission, govern, and quality-assure all tier-1 content assets (white papers, portfolio positioning, solution briefs, case studies, ROI tools, analyst reports) for the portfolio, in partnership with the Content Strategy & Audience teams;Serve as a senior spokesperson and thought leader at industry events, executive briefings, and analyst interactions;Ensure sales enablement content is current, accessible, and fit-for-purpose by working with GTM Excellence; work closely with Sales Enablement to embed assets into seller workflows.Cross-Functional Collaboration & Stakeholder ManagementBuild strong working relationships with Commercial Directors, Sales (including Regional VPs and global