Head of Marketing - 12 month FTC / Secondment

This is a 12 month Fixed Term Contract for Head of Marketing.

Want to do the best work of your life? With 24 million customers in 6 countries, make your mark at Europe’s leading media and entertainment brand. A workplace where you can proudly be yourself; our people make Sky a truly exciting and inclusive place to work. 

The Marketing team sits within Sky Media’s Client & Marketing directorate and is responsible for setting and delivering Sky Media’s B2B marketing strategy across the advertising industry. Marketing plays a critical role in shaping Sky Media’s reputation, driving commercial growth, and ensuring Sky Media is consistently positioned as the most creative, effective and progressive media partner in the market.

As Head of Marketing, your role is to set the strategic direction, operating model and priorities for Sky Media’s B2B marketing function. You will lead a team of 10, including a Marketing Controller, who is responsible for execution and delivery. Your focus will be on thinking and planning.

You will work in close partnership with Director of Client and Marketing, Sales leadership, Comms Strategy, Director of Insight and senior stakeholders across Sky and Sky Media to ensure marketing activity is commercially aligned, insight-led and future-focused.

This role requires a leader who can operate autonomously, make clear strategic choices, and build a high-performing marketing organisation that consistently delivers impact at scale. You must also be able to work with Exec level and above stakeholders.

What you’ll do: 

Set and lead the Marketing strategy (measured through commercial impact, effectiveness and stakeholder feedback)

• Own and define Sky Media’s B2B marketing vision and long-term strategy, ensuring it supports overall business objectives, revenue growth and brand positioning.
• Translate business priorities into a clear, coherent marketing roadmap, setting direction rather than overseeing execution, and setting clear priorities for the team.
• Make strategic decisions on where to focus investment, resource and attention to maximise impact.
• Ensure marketing strategy is grounded in audience insight, market intelligence and commercial understanding, all of which is regularly updated.

Drive Sky Media’s reputation and market leadership (measured through industry perception, awards and feedback)

• Set the ambition for how Sky Media shows up in the advertising industry, ensuring marketing activity consistently raises the bar.
• Champion bold, distinctive thinking that positions Sky Media as a thought leader and creative partner of choice.
• Ensure the function delivers award-worthy, talk-worthy work.
• Act as a senior ambassador for Sky Media marketing, representing Sky Media credibly within Sky when required.

Build an effective operating model and ways of working (measured through delivery quality, efficiency and team health)

• Design and continuously evolve the marketing operating model, clarifying roles, responsibilities and decision-making across the team.
• Ensure strong, efficient collaboration between Marketing, Sales and specialist teams across Sky Media.
• Identify and lead improvements to processes, governance and prioritisation to enable the team to perform at pace and at scale.
• Balance long-term strategic thinking with short-term commercial needs.

Lead, empower and develop a senior team (measured through ESAT and progression)

• Lead and develop a high-performing marketing team, setting clear expectations and empowering others to lead delivery.
• Create an environment of trust, accountability and autonomy, with clear delegation and ownership at all levels.
• Coach and challenge your direct reports to think strategically and operate with confidence.
• Play an active role in the wider directorate leadership team, contributing beyond Marketing to the overall people and culture agenda.

Senior stakeholder partnership (measured through trust, influence and outcomes)

• Act as the senior marketing partner to Sales and Client & Marketing leadership, influencing direction and priorities.
• Provide clarity and challenge where needed, ensuring marketing activity remains focused on what truly drives value.
• Ensure internal and external stakeholders clearly understand the role and impact of Marketing within Sky Media.

What you’ll bring: 

• Proven experience leading a senior B2B marketing function within media, advertising or a similarly complex commercial environment
• Proven experience setting and leading B2B marketing strategy with clear commercial impact
• Proven experience in landing a narrative in the market as you will be responsible for landing the Sky media narrative in market
• Experience in delivering high value events
• Demonstrated ability to set strategy, make decisions and lead autonomously
• Strong commercial acumen, with a clear understanding of how marketing drives revenue, reputation and long-term growth.
• Confidence making strategic and prioritisation decisions to maximise impact, balance long-term strategy with short-term commercial needs
• A track record of building and leading high-performing teams through clarity, delegation, accountability, autonomy and trust
• Exceptional stakeholder management skills, with confidence operating at senior leadership level.
• A role-model for Sky’s values: Welcoming, Creative, Simplifying and Doing the Right Thing

Team overview: 

Sky Media is the advertising sales arm of Sky, offering businesses of all shapes and sizes an exciting array of opportunities on TV, online and on the go. Reaching over 95% of the UK population, Sky Media represents all of Sky’s channels and sites including Sky Sports, Sky News, Sky One, Sky Cinema, Sky Arts, Sky Atlantic and Sky Witness. Sky Media also sells on behalf of a range of renowned broadcasters and channels including Channel 5, Discovery, National Geographic, MTV, FOX, Nickelodeon and Comedy Central. 

The Rewards: 

 There's one thing people can't stop talking about when it comes to #LifeAtSky: the perks. Here’s a taster: 

•   Access to free NOW, for streaming all your favourite shows  

•   A generous pension package  

•   Private healthcare  

•   Discounted mobile and broadband    

How you'll work: 

We know the world has changed, and we want to offer our employees the chance to collaborate at our unique office spaces, whilst enjoying the convenience of working from home. 

We've adopted a hybrid working approach to give more flexibility on where and how we work. You'll find out more about what this means for this role during the recruitment process.  

Your office base: 

Osterley: 

Our Osterley Campus is a 10-minute walk from Syon Lane train station. Or you can hop on one of our free shuttle buses that run to and from Osterley, Gunnersbury, Ealing Broadway and South Ealing tube stations. There’s also plenty of bike shelters and showers. 

On campus, you’ll find 13 subsidised restaurants, cafes, and a Waitrose. You can keep in shape at our subsidised gym, catch the latest shows and movies at our cinema, get your car washed and even get pampered at our beauty salon.  

Inclusion:

At Sky we don’t just look at your CV. We’re more focused on who you are and your potential. We also know that everyone has a life outside work, so we’re happy to discuss flexible working.

We are a Disability Confident Accredited Employer, and welcome and encourage applications from all candidates. We will look to ensure a fair and consistent experience for all and will make reasonable adjustments to support you where appropriate. Please flag any adjustments you need to your recruiter as early as you can.

Why wait?

Apply now to build an amazing career and be part of a brilliant team. We can’t wait to hear from you.

To find out more about working with us, search #LifeAtSky on social media. A job you love to talk about.

Just so you know: if your application is successful, we’ll ask you to complete a criminal record check. And depending on the role you have applied for and the nature of any convictions you may have, we might have to withdraw the offer.