Marketing Manager - Early Years in Sheffield

We’re looking for a Marketing Manager with a deep understanding of the early years sector. This role will lead the marketing strategy for our Early Years business unit during a fast-paced, high-growth phase, working closely with the Early Years senior leadership team, Head of Marketing and other key stakeholders to drive employer engagement, learner recruitment and sustainable revenue growth, ensuring marketing activity delivers clear commercial impact.

Your key responsibilities are likely to be:

• Strategy & Planning
  • Own and deliver the Early Years marketing plan, aligned to business growth and revenue objectives.
  • Segment employer and learner audiences, clearly articulating propositions and mapping customer journeys.
  • Identify trends, policy changes, and customer needs to adapt marketing approaches.
• Campaign Performance, Budget & ROI
  • Plan and deliver targeted, cost-effective campaigns, managing budgets and measuring ROI to drive engagement and commercial impact.
  • Present campaign performance, ROI, and recommendations at monthly board and senior leadership meetings.
• Digital & CRM-Led Marketing
  • Work with the digital team on PPC, SEO, paid media, and email campaigns to generate high-quality leads.
  • Use CRM platforms (including HubSpot) to track engagement, analyse performance, and optimise campaigns.
• Content & Brand Development
  • Develop engaging content that resonates with early years audiences, ensuring messaging aligns with the wider brand.
• Stakeholder & Sales Enablement
  • Partner with sales, account, and learner recruitment teams to support pipeline growth and conversion.
• Events & Partnerships
  • Lead marketing for sector events, conferences, and employer engagement initiatives, building strong relationships across the early years sector.

This is a home-based role, with some travel required for team meetings, exhibitions and company events.

The Benefits

• 25 days holiday plus public and bank holidays
• Purchase scheme for up to 5 additional days annual leave
• Birthday and Christmas Eve off
• Flexible working
• Health Shield scheme
• Life insurance
• Enhanced maternity, paternity and adoption pay
• Sick pay
• Bereavement leave
• Employee Assistance Programme
• £1,000 Employee referral bonus scheme

About You

• Strong Marketing Manager–level experience within the early years and education sector (nurseries, training, or related industries).
• Proven ability to create and deliver marketing plans and strategies that drive commercial success in a fast-paced, high-growth environment.
• Comfortable managing multiple projects and priorities simultaneously, maintaining momentum and quality under pressure.
• Exceptional content creation skills, with the ability to craft compelling messages for both employers and learners.
• Experience working in a multi-stakeholder environment, supporting operational, sales and recruitment teams.
• Commercially minded with experience managing marketing budgets, allocating spend effectively to maximise impact and ROI.
• Data-driven mindset, with hands-on experience using analytics to optimise marketing performance and measure return on investment.

What Happens Next?

The Realise Recruitment team will be in touch, regardless of the outcome. Our interview process is tailored to each role and can be in-person or held remotely. You can expect a two-stage interview process for this position, which will compromise of a one-hour formal interview, likely on Teams, where we will ask you a series of competency and behavioural questions, followed by a second stage which will involve a short presentation. As an inclusive employer please do let us know if you require any reasonable adjustments.

About Us

Realise helps more than 18,000 learners every year to achieve their goals. We only specialise in the areas we have in-depth expertise in, that’s early years & education, health & social care, transport, business skills, and adult skills. Our mission has always been clear, to deliver great training programmes. We promote the wellbeing of all our learners and our employees and are fully committed to safeguarding, safer recruitment and fulfilling our Prevent Duty obligations. Please be aware that all successful applicants will undergo a DBS and online search check at the job offer stage. We request proof of qualifications and the Right to Work in the UK. Realise is committed to investing in the latest technology to support our learners and teams. As part of our quality assurance and training processes, we may occasionally record audio and visual content. By applying, you acknowledge and accept this as part of our working environment. Realise have been in business over 35 years from our humble roots in Sheffield, to over 500 employees UK-wide. We are proud of be a part of the AQA charity group.