University of Plymouth is seeking an exceptional Chief Marketing & Growth Officer to join our Executive Group and play a central role in shaping our future. This is an opportunity to influence the direction of a large, complex and ambitious institution with a clear purpose: advancing knowledge and transforming lives through education and research.
Reporting directly to our Vice-Chancellor, Professor Richard Davies, and working alongside executive colleagues across the University, you will provide strategic leadership across marketing, communications, student recruitment, admissions and institutional growth. Your leadership will help determine how we position ourselves in an increasingly competitive higher education landscape, strengthen our reputation and identify opportunities that support our long-term sustainability. You will bring together market insight, institutional ambition and organisational influence to help us make informed choices about where we invest, how we develop and how we extend our reach. For the successful candidate, this is a rare opportunity to combine strategic influence, institutional purpose and tangible impact at one of the UK’s most distinctive universities.
About the opportunity
As our Chief Marketing & Growth Officer, you will shape and deliver our integrated growth, marketing, external engagement and communications strategies.
You will hold executive responsibility for a significant portfolio spanning marketing, communications, student recruitment, admissions and market development. Alongside providing leadership for these functions, you will identify opportunities for sustainable growth, market expansion and education-related income.
You will operate at the intersection of strategy, growth and reputation, bringing a market-informed perspective to our Executive Group and institutional decision-making. Your insight will help us respond confidently to change, make evidence-based choices and pursue the opportunities that are right for our University.
Working collaboratively across our Faculties and Professional Services, you will build shared ownership of our growth ambitions. You will ensure that market intelligence, customer understanding and external insight inform our strategic planning, academic portfolio and investment decisions.
Your success will depend on your ability to connect our institutional ambitions with the needs of learners, employers, partners and wider society. You will bring clarity to complex opportunities and help us translate ambition into focused, deliverable and sustainable plans.
Who we are looking for
We are seeking an accomplished executive leader who combines strategic judgement, commercial awareness and a deep understanding of how growth, reputation and market positioning contribute to organisational success.
We welcome applications from commercially astute leaders within higher education, as well as from adjacent sectors and commercial environments. Your experience might have been gained in a university, a purpose-led organisation, a consumer-facing business or another complex setting.
We are interested in the perspective you will bring, the outcomes you have achieved, and your ability to apply your experience within our complex and purpose-driven environment.
Your experience in the following areas will be welcomed:
- Providing executive or senior leadership within a large and complex organisation
- Delivering growth, brand, marketing, customer, commercial or other market-facing outcomes
- Shaping organisational strategy and translating ambition into measurable results
- Applying strategic and commercial judgement
- Using data, market intelligence and customer insight to inform decisions
- Identifying opportunities, assessing risk and navigating complexity
- Communicating and influencing effectively with a wide range of audiences
- Building productive relationships with senior colleagues and external stakeholders
- Leading and developing substantial multidisciplinary teams
- Delivering outcomes through influence, collaboration and formal authority
Your experience in leading growth strategies, building brands, developing new markets, strengthening customer or student engagement or delivering commercial outcomes at scale will be particularly relevant.
You will need to demonstrate that you can adapt your experience to our higher education context. You will understand the importance of balancing commercial judgement with institutional values, academic ambition and public purpose.
Higher education experience will be highly valued but is not essential. We recognise that relevant insight and leadership capability can be developed in a range of settings. We are therefore open to candidates whose experience brings fresh thinking, provided you can demonstrate a genuine understanding of our environment and a strong commitment to our purpose.
Most importantly, you will be excited by the opportunity to help shape our future, strengthen our reputation and build sustainable growth. You will share our belief in the power of education, research and partnership to improve lives and create positive change.
