Head of Communications and Marketing

Salary & Benefits: £46k - £50k + 11% employer pension contribution and other benefits, including generous holiday, retailer discounts and personal development budgets.

Reports to: Director of Philanthropy and Communications

Direct reports: Communications Executive

Location: Hybrid: mainly at home, with monthly co-working days in London and meetings with team and external clients as needed

Hours: Full time; 37.5 hours a week. We are happy to consider requests for flexible or part-time working.

Contract: Permanent

About Now Teach: We believe that experienced professionals can make exceptional teachers who shape young lives. That’s why, since 2017, we’ve attracted, supported and championed those who make a courageous career leap into the classroom; more than 1,300 so far. We currently have teachers in over 700 schools, teaching over 125,000 students. Our purpose is to stand beside career-change teachers as they navigate a new professional identity and bring their experiences, skills and networks to the students, subjects and schools that need them. We are looking for driven and committed people to help us meet new goals, increase our Network and create more impact in schools.

Role Overview: We’re looking for a strategic, creative and collaborative Head of Communications and Marketing who will shape and share the story of Now Teach, reaching and engaging our multiple audiences in support of our vision, mission and annual goals. This role blends high-level strategic planning with practical delivery and is ideal for someone who thrives in purpose-led environments. This role comes with strategic responsibility for increasing brand awareness and driving engagement with our recruitment campaigns to bring experienced professionals into our network of teachers.

In this role you will:

• Work with the Director of Recruitment to shape an annual attraction marketing strategy to recruit new teachers through digital channels, working with a significant budget to assess and deploy spending and creative to achieve a high return on investment.
• Be accountable for generating the 'expressions of interest' which come from candidates wanting to join our programme.
• Develop and grow the Now Teach brand, ensuring brand consistency throughout the team, in our day-to-day work and across all channels.
• Provide media support, including reactive responses by managing an outsourced press office to secure regular targeted media coverage in support of our strategic priorities.
• Oversee and cohere production and maintenance of key cross-organisational assets including our website, blogs, annual impact report, films, and core content.
• Lead projects from initiation through to implementation and evaluation, identifying and delivering opportunities in line with our wider plan.
• Create and monitor communications metrics and KPIs and course-correct as needed.
• Act as product owner for our marketing automation platform (Active Campaign) leveraging this and other technology to support, scale and automate all of our marketing activities.

In this role you will work closely with a wide range of stakeholders to achieve success, including:

• The Recruitment Director and their team to shape and continually refine the marketing strategy to attract candidates to apply to Now Teach.
• The Director of Philanthropy and Communications and the CEO to develop our policy and public affairs plan including recommendations on any need for outsourced support.
• The Director of Programme and Network as they oversee communications to Now Teachers who are in our network.
• The fundraising team to ensure that communications effectively engage and steward donors to achieve income goals.
• The team working to develop our new strategic aim to grow our strategic partnerships with Multi-Academy Trusts and Training Providers.
• Those working to define and monitor our impact as a charity to shape and shout about Now Teach impact on an annual basis.

Person Specification: Qualities and Values

• Passionate about ensuring that schools and students benefit from the inspiring professional and life experience of career change teachers.
• Thrives on ambitious but achievable KPIs and makes strategic decisions on the basis of evidence, including open and click-through rates, testing, site behaviour and visit numbers, conversions, surveys and feedback.
• Balances leading on strategy with hands-on problem-solving, sets priorities, makes judgement calls, and gives clear directions to direct reports while collaborating well across departments.
• Can think long-term but also cares about details and the day-to-day reality of getting communications right.

What you’ll need to succeed in this role:

• Significant experience of decision-making for communications or marketing.
• Experience in a communications role devising strategies for optimal impact and reach.
• A record of effectively communicating about a cause deploying wide-ranging communications tactics.
• Demonstrable experience of engaging multiple external audiences and leveraging internal colleagues to achieve organisational goals.
• Experience of line management and managing contractors and consultants to drive performance and impact for investment.
• Ability to work in a matrix cross-organisationally to maintain consistency of brand.
• Record of accomplishment of project management alongside innovative solutions.
• Significant technical experience of marketing automation platforms and other multi-channel marketing technologies.

Working at Now Teach: Our people join and stay because they value Now Teach’s flexibility, close-knit team culture and social purpose. 32% of employees at all levels of the organisation work part-time and everyone works flexibly, with time off in lieu part of our standard working practices. We are a small, collaborative and supportive team of nearly 20 people. We are non-hierarchical, and we set clear expectations and celebrate the successes of teams and individuals.

Our Vision: Schools and students benefit from the inspiring professional and life experience of career change teachers.

Our Values: Now Teach has four core values which encompass how we work together to deliver our vision and mission: Drive impact through expertise; Focus on who matters most; Make change happen; Build connections that amplify.

In return we offer you: As well as flexible working and a great culture, we offer a wide range of benefits including 25 days annual leave per year (plus bank holidays), an additional 3 days for Christmas closure (25th Dec-1st Jan), a pension scheme with a generous 11% employer contribution, enhanced parental leave policies, a rewards platform with employee discounts, access to an Employee Assistance Programme and an annual professional development budget for each employee.

Working arrangements: Full-time/part-time role, flexible working patterns possible. Now Teach supports working flexibly at co-working spaces or at home as needed with monthly working days in London. You will be required to cover your own travel expenses to London.

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion: Now Teach strives to be a workplace that is diverse, equitable and inclusive where we can ALL be ourselves. We encourage applications from people of all backgrounds, ethnicities, ages, gender identities, stages of life and those with hidden or visible disabilities. All applicants must have an existing Right to Work in the UK.

Safe Recruitment Procedure: Now Teach is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people. To meet this responsibility, we follow a rigorous selection process, and all successful candidates will be subject to a Basic Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check.