Marketing Manager (Growth & Innovation) - Newcastle upon Tyne in Bellingham

This is a genuinely exciting opportunity for a strategically minded professional to shape how Northumbria University grows its student recruitment in an increasingly competitive market.

As Marketing Manager (Growth and Innovation), you'll sit at the intersection of data, strategy, and action, turning insight into decisions that directly influence where and how we recruit. You'll develop sophisticated growth strategies using propensity modelling, predictive analytics, and high-value audience segmentation, identifying the student cohorts with the greatest potential and translating that intelligence into targeted, high-impact activity.

You'll be responsible for horizon scanning the sector to monitor financial packages, product launches, recruitment strategies, and emerging tactics, producing timely briefings that keep Northumbria one step ahead. You'll build and present business cases for strategic initiatives to senior leadership.

Conversion is central to this role. You'll conduct detailed funnel analysis disaggregated by source code, regionality, programme type and demographics, identifying bottlenecks, testing interventions, and tracking ROI across every channel. You'll build dashboards and reporting frameworks that make recruitment pipeline health visible in real time.

You'll also lead on innovation, identifying opportunities to apply AI, automation, and emerging technology to improve both recruitment efficiency and applicant experience, designing pilots, testing new approaches, and scaling what works.

At course level, you'll lead annual cycle reviews for focus programmes, developing growth strategies that bring together marketing promotion, applicant experience, and competitive positioning, and monitoring in-cycle performance to trigger interventions where trajectories deviate from target.

You’ll be based at our campus in Newcastle upon Tyne, a city that’s vibrant, affordable, and genuinely well-connected, with a strong sense of identity and a growing reputation as a destination for talent and innovation. This role sits within UK Recruitment and Marketing team, a high-performing, strategically ambitious team that spans media, CRM, content, insight and proposition, schools engagement, events, and applicant services. You’ll work closely with the Director, the wider marketing functions, Faculties and professional services.

You’ll lead and manage staff directly and through matrix management and engage actively with external networks including sector bodies and industry partners. This is a collaborative, fast-paced environment where evidence-based thinking is valued and ambitious ideas are welcomed.

If you would like an informal discussion about the role, please contact Gilly Gosling-Bell, Director UK Recruitment & Marketing.

Your application should include a covering letter and a CV.

Join Northumbria University, a research-intensive institution unlocking potential and changing lives locally and globally. Named Times Higher Education's University of the Year in 2022 and Modern University of the Year in 2025, we rank top 25 in the UK for research power. With over 37,000 students from 140+ countries, we offer world-leading research, award-winning partnerships, and an outstanding student experience. We empower our exceptional staff, promoting a positive work-life balance and offering great benefits, including excellent pension schemes, flexible working, generous holiday entitlement and more.

Our Northumbria Values, co-created by our team, define who we are: Academic Excellence, Innovation, Inclusivity, Collaboration, and Ambition. Our Behaviours shape our work culture: We listen and learn, support one another, respect everyone, trust each other, and are bold.

Based in Newcastle upon Tyne and London, we are an on-campus organisation and offer flexible hours and location where the role allows. We pride ourselves on diversity and inclusivity, holding numerous awards for gender and race equality, disability confidence, and research excellence. We also hold the HR Excellence in Research award for implementing the concordat supporting the career Development of Researchers and are members of the Euraxess initiative to deliver information and support to professional researchers. The University has implemented a range of flexible working arrangements, and we are happy to explore candidate requirements as part of the recruitment process.

Apply now and join a community committed to transforming society and the economy.