Director of Marketing 

London or Cambridge - Flexible working 

Opportunity to create a new marketing function for a global brand

About IELTS

The International English Language Testing System (IELTS) is the world’s most popular high-stakes English language proficiency test for study, work and migration with more than three million tests taken in the past year.

IELTS is a global brand with its results being recognised by more than 10,000 organisations, including educational institutions, employers, professional associations and governments, in more than 140 countries around the world.

IELTS test content is developed by an international team of experts and undergoes extensive research to ensure the test remains fair and unbiased for any candidate regardless of nationality, background, gender, lifestyle or location.

IELTS is jointly owned by the British Council, IDP: IELTS Australia and Cambridge Assessment English. As internationally focused organisations, they are committed to academic excellence and cultural understanding – ideal providers of international English testing.

The role

The application of technology within assessment is increasing at pace with the growth in online/computer-based testing, and the emergence of initiatives such as remote proctoring and the use of speech recognition and AI in test marking. Customer preferences and expectations are also changing which is having an impact on how they wish to access learning and assessment. As the IELTS brand is very strong globally, this presents a largely unrealised opportunity to exploit the brand further through the development and marketing of global and market specific learning and assessment products.

We believe the time is right to bring in an experienced marketing professional with brand management expertise to take on the responsibility of developing and managing this newly created function. Working closely with our partner organisation and in-country marketing teams you will further development and dissemination of the IELTS brand to support existing recognition in key student destination markets and to extend recognition of the IELTS test to new emerging markets where English is increasingly being adopted as the medium of instruction in higher education. 

The role will be a senior one in the IELTS partnership, forming – with the Directors of Product Development, Operations and IT Systems and leads from each of the three partners – the IELTS management team.

Key duties and responsibilities will include:

• “Listening” to the trends of the market and direct the market research effort accordingly. 
• Working with partner teams, defining our B2B marketing strategies to support the IELTS partners’ overall IELTS strategies and objectives.
• Developing a B2B marketing plan, overseeing its implementation and evaluating its effectiveness.
• Designing and coordinating B2B promotional campaigns, PR and other marketing efforts across channels (digital, press, etc.).
• Coordinating with British Council and IDP marketing teams on the development of B2C marketing collateral.
• Overseeing the development and effective delivery of the new recognising organisation acquisition plans in key target markets.
• Building on an existing network of strategic partnerships.

The appointee

Ideally, you will have experience as operating as Head of/Director of Marketing in a global service organisation operating in B2C and B2B environments. You will have the enthusiasm, drive and ambition and communication skills to develop and lead a marketing function for a market leading brand operating globally.

If you would like to discuss the role in further detail, please contact Margaux Shipley T 020 7259 8743 or Laurence Wolahan, Hays Executive T 020 7259 8743 M 07764 902 591 

Closing date for applications: 4^th April 2019

Preliminary interviews: Mid-April 2019

IELTS interviews: End April / Beginning May 2019

The above dates are subject to change.