Marketing and Growth Director

Company

Accelerate People

Reports to

Executive Director

Leadership status

Member of the Senior Management Team (SMT)

Contract

Permanent, full time

Location

UK-based hybrid role, with three days a week in the London office in White City and attendance at customer, sector and company events

Salary

Circa £80,000 plus a performance-related incentive, subject to external benchmarking

Travel

Regular UK travel for customers, events and internal collaboration

Right to work

• The successful candidate must have the right to work in the UK
• About Accelerate People

Accelerate People is an Ofqual-recognised apprenticeship assessment organisation, built to make assessment feel less like a compliance hurdle and more like a genuine part of a learner's progress.

We deliver independent assessment across a growing portfolio spanning business and leadership, data and AI, digital and IT, HR and learning and development, and sales and marketing.

Apex, our in-house platform, connects onboarding, assessment administration, reporting, permissions and visibility across the entire learner journey, while our teams manage assessment, quality and compliance with real occupational expertise behind them.

Role purpose

To establish and lead Accelerate People's marketing and market-development capability, strengthening our position in the apprenticeship assessment sector and creating a repeatable, measurable route from market insight and engagement to qualified demand and, through that, to a broader, more balanced and more sustainable customer portfolio.

Key responsibilities

• Strategy, insight and positioning
• Own the marketing and growth strategy end to end, aligned to the company's diversification and growth goals.
• Build a genuine, first-hand understanding of customers, competitors, market movement, buying groups and priority sectors.
• Define segmentation, propositions, messaging and market positioning across the company, its platform and priority standards.
• Advise the Executive Director and SMT on market opportunities, investment choices and emerging risks, with a clear point of view.
• Demand creation and lead generation
• Run integrated campaigns that build awareness, generate qualified demand and grow both new and existing accounts.
• Own the full lead-generation process, connecting campaigns and events to captured leads, qualification, follow-up and measurable progression.
• Build a practical, well-targeted account-based marketing approach for high-value providers and strategic opportunities.
• Develop programmes that expand existing customers by standard, learner volume, platform adoption and advocacy.
• Give every major campaign a clear audience, hypothesis, intended buyer action, owner and measurement plan.
• Brand, content and customer advocacy
• Sharpen the Accelerate People brand so it is distinctive, credible and consistently expressed.
• Build a content engine spanning reform guidance, executive insight, product stories, webinars, demonstrations and sales enablement.
• Own a customer advocacy programme, including testimonials, case studies, references and customer speakers that provide credible proof to the market.
• Drive a proactive PR and media approach that earns relevant coverage and raises the profile of the business and its leaders.
• Set a clear social and digital strategy, testing channels before scaling investment.
• Events, communities and partnerships
• Design and host high-quality executive roundtables that create genuine peer discussion and clear commercial next steps.
• Own the conference and exhibition strategy, prioritising audience fit, speaking access and pre-booked meetings, with disciplined follow-up.
• Build relationships with senior decision-makers across providers, employers, colleges and sector bodies, in person and over time.
• Develop partnerships with membership bodies and sector organisations wherever they add reach or credibility.
• Be a visible, energetic ambassador for Accelerate People at events and across the wider market.
• Commercial collaboration and enablement
• Operate as a true peer to commercial leadership, with a clear, shared understanding of where demand creation ends and revenue conversion begins.
• Work closely with Product to turn reform, new standards and platform capability into market-ready propositions and launches.
• Equip customer-facing teams with practical insight, proof points, collateral, demonstrations and objection handling.
• Create simple ways for every function to feed knowledge and evidence into the company's external story.
• Leadership, operations and performance
• Build the marketing operating model, budget, calendar, governance and supplier network.
• Recruit, lead and develop internal marketing capability as the function grows, making effective use of freelancers and agencies.
• Put in place clear, meaningful reporting covering market position, priority-account engagement, qualified demand, influenced pipeline, conversion and ROI.
• Review activity regularly and make evidence-based continue, change or stop decisions so resource moves towards what works.
• Model the pace, curiosity, commercial judgement and inclusive, cross-functional leadership expected of the wider team.

Essential experience and evidence

• Significant senior B2B marketing experience in a complex, relationship-led or regulated market.
• A track record of building or materially reshaping a marketing function, rather than only running an established team and agency roster.
• Evidence of sharpening positioning and turning insight into campaigns, content and commercial outcomes.
• Experience creating demand for considered purchases with multiple senior stakeholders and long buying cycles.
• A personal ability to build trusted relationships with senior decision-makers across providers, employers, colleges and sector bodies.
• Strong command of thought leadership, content, events, PR, digital, lead generation and account-based marketing, with the judgement to prioritise.
• Evidence of connecting marketing to qualified demand, pipeline influence and customer growth, working alongside a commercial or sales function.
• Experience working credibly with executive teams, product, commercial, operations and technical specialists.
• Personal qualities
• Vibrant and credible: brings energy and presence without relying on style over substance.
• Commercial: understands how marketing creates value and makes disciplined investment choices.
• Builder: enjoys creating capability, systems and momentum where little currently exists.
• Externally confident: comfortable hosting roundtables, speaking at events, engaging media and building senior relationships.
• Curious and insightful: asks strong questions, learns the sector quickly and turns complexity into clear market stories.
• Collaborative: engages every function and creates shared responsibility for bringing the business to market.
• Accountable: sets outcomes, uses evidence and is open about what is and is not working.
• Helpful, but not essential

Experience in apprenticeships, education, assessment, awarding, Saa S, professional services or another regulated B2B environment would be valuable.

Deep sector experience is less important than the ability to learn quickly, earn credibility and demonstrate relevant impact.

• How performance will be judged
• Clarity and strength of market position and propositions.
• Engagement of priority organisations and relevant decision-makers.
• Volume and quality of qualified demand and captured, well-managed leads.
• Campaign-sourced and campaign-influenced pipeline, and buyer progression through the funnel.
• Quality, consistency and reach of executive voice, customer advocacy and commercially useful content.
• Return from events, campaigns, partners and suppliers.
• Strength of the marketing operating model, team capability and cross-functional confidence.
• Shared commercial outcomes
• Pipeline conversion and revenue growth, owned jointly with commercial leadership, who lead negotiation and closing.
• A broader, more balanced and more sustainable customer portfolio over time.
• Growth within existing accounts through additional standards, volumes, adoption and advocacy.
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