Marketing Manager

Job Description

Permanent Full-Time
Location: Hybrid/Remote, Sale Manchester UK
Salary: Competitive
Reports to: Head of Marketing & Communications
Line Management Responsibilities: Yes

Overview

VQA is on a mission to be the market leader in technical education. We work with over 500 schools, colleges, universities, and training providers across the world to provide qualification certificates, endorsements, and apprenticeships to over 150,000 learners.

What’s the secret to our success? Simply put, we do things differently here!

We are excited to present a rare opportunity for an experienced and talented Marketing Manager to join our dynamic team. As Marketing Manager, you will play a pivotal role in driving our organisation’s marketing strategies, building our reach, expanding our share of voice within the industry, and supporting the growth of inbound leads to accelerate our sector dominance.

We’re looking for a digitally confident, data driven Marketing Manager who can turn business priorities into effective campaigns and lead a busy marketing team. You’ll help grow our reach, strengthen our reputation and generate quality enquiries that support business growth.

Working with the Head of Marketing, you’ll take ownership of day-to-day marketing delivery and lead a team of five or more. You’ll set clear priorities, support people’s development and use data and insight to decide where to focus effort and budget.

This is a hands-on management role. Alongside planning and leadership, you’ll write and edit copy, make website updates through our content management system, build campaigns and improve results. You’ll need to be as comfortable delivering the work yourself as you are briefing colleagues and agencies.

Our business is growing quickly and our marketing function is evolving and transforming. This brings lots of opportunity, but also lots of change. We need someone agile, who is happy to work in a past paced environment where no 2 days are the same.

You’ll have the autonomy to bring ideas, improve how we work and make decisions, while keeping delivery on track as priorities change.

Key responsibilities

Campaign planning and delivery

• Translate business and marketing priorities into integrated campaign plans across our qualifications and apprenticeship portfolio.
• Manage campaigns from brief to review, setting objectives, audiences, budgets, timelines and measures of success, and coordinating colleagues and stakeholders.
• Identify new audiences and opportunities, working with sales and product colleagues to develop relevant campaigns and generate quality leads.

Digital marketing and website delivery

• Plan, deliver and optimise organic and paid activity across search, social media, email, the website and CRM.
• Make day-to-day website edits, publish content and build or improve campaign landing pages using the content management system.
• Brief external partners on more complex website improvements, test their work and ensure delivery meets requirements.
• Manage PPC and search agency relationships, setting clear briefs, budgets and KPIs, and challenging performance on spend, conversion and return.
  

Data and performance

• Use GA4, CRM data and campaign reporting to understand performance, identify opportunities and turn findings into specific improvements.
  
• Ensure campaigns have effective landing pages, forms, tracking and UTM parameters, with testing completed before launch.
• Report clearly on lead quality, conversion, pipeline contribution and return on investment, working with sales to understand what happens after an enquiry.
• Manage campaign budgets and recommend where to increase, reduce or redirect spend based on results.

Content and communications

• Write, edit and review clear, compelling copy for websites, emails, social media, campaigns and customer communications.
• Develop thought leadership content with internal experts, making complex topics relevant and accessible to our audiences.
• Oversee internal and customer communications alongside lead generation activity, coordinating timely and consistent messages.
• Uphold VQA’s brand positioning, tone of voice and visual identity, ensuring content is accurate and follows brand guidelines and relevant regulatory requirements.

Team leadership

• Line manage a team of five or more, setting priorities, delegating effectively and balancing workloads against deadlines and capacity.
• Hold regular one-to-ones, set clear objectives, give constructive feedback and support training and career development.
• Act as the team’s day-to-day decision maker.
• Build effective relationships across the business, including with senior leaders, and brief and manage external agencies, designers and other partners.

Processes and ways of working

• Create and maintain practical processes for campaign briefs, planning, approvals, quality checks and reporting.
• Keep plans, decisions and approvals documented so work is clear, consistent and traceable in a regulated business.
• Identify bottlenecks and improve workflows, helping the team deliver efficiently while maintaining quality.
• Take accountability for delivery, flagging issues early and agreeing solutions with the people involved.

Essential Skills / Experience / Qualifications

• At least five years’ marketing experience, including responsibility for planning and delivering integrated campaigns.
• At least two years’ line management experience, with evidence of setting priorities, coaching colleagues and managing performance and workloads.
• Practical digital marketing experience across paid and organic channels, with some experience of lead generation or conversion.
• Confidence using GA4 and campaign reporting tools to interpret data, make recommendations and demonstrate results.
• Hands-on experience editing websites through a content management system, including publishing content and updating landing pages.
• Experience using a CRM or email marketing platform to deliver and measure campaigns, including forms, tracking and UTM parameters.
• Excellent copywriting, editing and creative briefing skills, with the ability to adapt messaging for different audiences and channels.
• Experience managing campaign budgets and external agencies, including an understanding of Google Ads and paid search performance.
• Strong project management skills, including documenting work, coordinating approvals and managing several deadlines at once.
• The ability to communicate recommendations clearly, work confidently with senior stakeholders and take responsibility for decisions.
  

Desirable Skills / Experience / Qualifications

• B2B marketing, particularly in a service-led business with a focus on lead generation.
• Experience in education, qualifications, apprenticeships or another regulated sector.
• Experience using HubSpot and tools such as Canva or Figma.
  

Key Characteristics

• Commercially minded and curious about performance: you ask what is working, why, and what to improve next.
• Organised and process driven: you value clear plans, documented decisions and consistent quality checks.
• Practical and proactive: you spot opportunities, bring ideas and are happy to get stuck into delivery.
• Adaptable and accountable: you can pick up existing plans and relationships quickly, respond to change and follow through on commitments.
• A supportive, confident manager who gives people direction, develops their skills and works collaboratively across the business.
  

Key Benefits

• Training, Qualifications & Apprenticeships. It’s what we do!
• Company sick pay upon completion of probation.
• 25 days annual leave plus 8 days Bank Holiday (33 in total).
• Additional annual leave day each year, after 2 years of continuous service (up to 28 days).
• An extra day off to celebrate your birthday and the Christmas period.
• Annual Loyalty Bonus.
• Annual salary review.
• Bupa healthcare benefits.
• Group Income Protection.
• Life Assurance.
• Employee Assistance Programme (EAP).
• NEST pension.
• Cycle-to-work scheme.
• A workplace that supports a healthy work/life balance.

*We are an equal opportunities employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. Should you require any additional support during the recruitment process due to a disability, please contact us so we can assist you.*

Please note that TQUK has rebranded to VQA. As part of this transition, you may still see references to TQUK in some of our communications, documents and systems. These references relate to the same organisation and do not affect your application or the services provided.