Interim Marketing & Communications Director

Job Description

Contract type/Duration: Interim FTC 6 TO 9 months
Working hours Full time (9day Fortnight companywide)
Band: 5.2
Salary: £98,415 - £110,000 (depending on office location and proven ability)
Reports to: Strategy, Marketing, Communications and Portfolio Managing Director
Location: Milton Keynes or London (minimum of two days a week in the office. You can do more than two days if preferable)
Closing date: 9am on the 7th March 2026


The Role

The Marketing and Communications Director is responsible for development and delivery of an overarching, integrated marketing and communications and public affairs strategy that ensures we achieve the profile and prominence we need to connect with target audiences and achieve our business goals.

Key Responsibilities


Strategy

• Develop and oversee delivery of our organisation marketing, communications and events strategy to develop our reputation and grow business with key target audiences.
• Develop and oversee delivery of an integrated stakeholder engagement strategy that strengthens the organisation’s relationships with key stakeholders and partners to achieve business goals.
• Collaborate with Senior Leadership and Management colleagues to ensure departmental plans align with business unit strategies.

People Leadership

• Play a visible and proactive role in organisational leadership, role modelling inclusion and our values of respect, accountability, purpose and curiosity.
• Leadership of a multi-disciplinary department and line management of the senior team.
• Driving high performance, collaboration and a dynamic and proactive approach
• Nurturing a culture of professional learning within the department to develop, enhance and share skills.

Functional leadership

• Provide strategic oversight across the marketing and communications mix including marketing, events, external channels and content production and internal communications.
• Provide strategic oversight across public affairs, managing internal and external resource to monitor the external stakeholder landscape for developments and shape delivery of plans and priorities accordingly.
• Provide guidance and support for Heads of and wider team to shape marketing strategies for business units and ensure successful delivery of operational plans, to time and within budget.

Brand and value proposition

• Champion and evolve our brand and external positioning to ensure we remain prominent and relevant to our audiences. Overall accountability for the use of our brand and quality of our owned outputs.
• Collaborate with delivery teams to ensure we are able to articulate compelling value propositions, services and products for target audiences.

Audiences and data

• Accountable for the governance and management of customer engagement data within the CRM, including oversight of the API integration with the marketing automation platform, and responsible for campaign performance tracking and reporting through CRM and Power BI dashboards and insights.
• Be accountable for the maturity of audience data and insight, including addressing gaps in coverage, consistency and usability across channels, programmes and partners.
• Ensure a deep understanding of our audiences to cultivate a strong external perspective and audience-first approach.
• Reinforce a data-led approach and appetite to test and learn, with clear and robust metrics to inform tactics and measure performance.

Events

• Provide support and guidance to the Head of Events to develop an events strategy to achieve business goals.
• Ensure successful delivery of a programme of high-quality owned events and effective participation in third party platforms goals (e.g. business development, project delivery, stakeholder engagement).
• Establish and oversee commercial sponsorship pipeline, delegate revenue goals and targets.

Marketing and comms

• Provide support and guidance to the Head of Marketing and Communications to ensure focused and proactive use of external channels (owned and earned) to grow audiences and engagement levels to drive lead generation and conversion to customer.
• Own the end-to-end demand and conversion strategy, ensuring clear frameworks for lead qualification, nurturing and conversion, with performance measured against agreed commercial and ROI metrics.
• Lead high quality and high impact story telling across channels and content types to achieve our goals.
• Oversee the development of targeted media engagement plans that build relations and coverage with trade publications and other relevant contacts in focus sectors.
• Lead the development of a thought leadership strategy that builds the profile and credibility of the organisation and key individuals.

Stakeholder Engagement and Public Affairs

• Lead the Public Affairs function to ensure external communications and events support engagement strategies including extending our networks and relationships across relevant sectors and industries.
• Oversee support for senior colleagues in their engagement, profile and relationship building with Government and regulators, providing political advice and counsel and senior colleagues.

Internal Comms

• Oversee the delivery of high impact internal communications function, providing guidance and support for Internal Communications Lead for our multi-site, hybrid workforce.
• Play a lead role supporting CEO and MDs on key internal comms moments (advising on approach, messaging and scripts).
• with colleagues to curate and deliver all staff events.

Relationships and collaboration

• Work in collaboration with SCMP MDs to provide advice and support to the CEO and SLT on external communications and key staff engagement moments.
• Develop trusted relationships with senior stakeholders (internal and external) to support effective working and deliver high quality marketing and communications activity that achieves business goals.
• Develop trusted and collaborative relationships with Senior Management Team colleagues to support effective cross team working, information flow and peer support.
• Play a key role in fostering strategic relationships aligned to our strategy and networking and relationship development to support business development goals.

Key Responsibilities

Corporate responsibilities

• Work collaboratively with senior leadership colleagues and the Board, contributing to collective decision making that influences companywide activities and strategic plans.
• Accountability for annual plans and budgets for department in line with corporate objectives.
• Play an active and collaborative role on Senior Management Team, the operational leadership forum brings together all Directors and Managing Directors to ensure effective delivery of business plans and organisational operations.
• Play a proactive role in contributing to our cycle of updates and reports to Innovate UK as our key funder.
• Attend corporate governance meetings and provide papers and reports as required.
• Ensure consistent adherence to corporate processes and systems e.g. CRM, timesheets, risk register.
• Manage and be accountable for any budgets devolved to the role, ensuring revenue and expenditure is in line with expectations.

Skills, Knowledge and Expertise

• Extensive B2B and B2G marketing and communications experience - delivering impactful multi-channel campaigns that deliver growth for a business or organisation. With deep knowledge of SEO, PPC, social media, email marketing, content strategy and working with government departments
• A strong track record of functional leadership experience - leading high performing, multi-disciplinary communications and marketing teams at a senior level.
• Proven people leadership experience – leading, mentoring, and managing teams to drive performance, accountability, collaboration and learning.
• Experience of working in a partner ecosystem - ideally with central government departments or arm’s length bodies and communicating with government and civil service audiences.
• Experience in an organisational leadership role - collaborating with and influencing peers and senior leaders to achieve shared goals.
• Budgeting & Financial Acumen - experience of profit and loss (P&L) responsibility and optimising campaign spend for maximum ROI.

• Keen to understand your personal strengths and development areas, undertake and reflect upon feedback opportunities and share insights and learnings gained to encourage open feedback channels.
• Aware of your surroundings, understands the complexities of social interactions, and manages all relationships astutely. You will tap into collective intelligence, sense the underlying patterns and trends, and harness them to innovate. Understanding that innovation is not just about ideas but also about people and their collaborative efforts.
• Understand the networks and relationships you build are key to organisational success, you will use effective relationship building to become a trusted adviser, partner and collaborator, understanding the needs of your network to offer solutions and support.
• Question the status quo, challenges conventional wisdom, and empowers your people to develop innovative solutions that give you an edge.
• Channel energy from conflict towards constructive debates, promoting a culture of 'innovative disagreements'. Facilitates the process where everyone feels heard, fostering an environment of trust and collaboration, ultimately leading to breakthrough solutions.
• Skilled in driving significant organisational change - in strategies, processes, and mindsets. Implementing effective programmatic approach to ensure successful change delivery.
• Lead with strong decision-making ability to make informed choices and values led judgements, amidst the uncertainty and ambiguity that can be part of innovation.
• Balance risks with potential rewards, making the 'right bets' and having the courage to pivot when those bets don't pay off.
• Understand the organisation, and the market in which we operate to drive growth and create commercial opportunities for CPC expertise and networks to maximise value.
• Drive inclusion and sustainability as organisational imperatives upholding all aspects of policies, responsible for equalities impact assessment assurance, delivering on our, and ensuring inclusion and sustainability are a reference point in all aspects of CPC’s work.
• Articulate a compelling vision, align it with the organization's mission, and share it with the team. The vision is a 'north star' that guides innovative efforts, helping everyone understand how their contributions fit into the bigger picture.
• Empower teams, fostering an environment of psychological safety where people feel comfortable sharing ideas. Role modelling resilience and self-care in times of challenge and change.
• Understand that innovation isn't a one-time event but a continual process skill in nurturing a culture of continuous learning, encourage experimentation, accept failures as stepping stones, and ensure that innovation becomes part of the organisation's DNA.
• Use professional insight, networks and scenario planning to develop strategic plans that reflect the bigger picture to ensure success in evolving landscapes
• Take ownership of the “tone from the top” and understand that walking the talk is vital in a connected and observing world. Can be relied upon to live the CPC values and challenge effectively when standards are not met whilst maintaining awareness of personal impact on the people and teams around.

Benefits

• 9 day fortnight for everyone
• 23.5 holiday entitlement for everyone, with pro-rata calculations for part-time employees, along with a Christmas shutdown period for additional days off.
• Competitive pension, up to 10% company contribution to help you save for your future.
• Two paid days of volunteering leave per year (pro-rata for part-time employees) to support charitable activities.
• Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) providing 24/7 confidential work/life support services to you and your immediate family members.
• Cycle to Work Scheme encouraging a healthy and sustainable commute.
• Cash Health Plan, offering reimbursement for a wide range of essential and everyday healthcare expenses, promoting your well-being.
• Payroll Giving scheme, allowing regular charitable contributions from pre-tax income, maximizing the impact of your donations.
• Discounts and offers from a wide variety of retailers, enhancing your purchasing power and providing savings opportunities.
• Mortgage Advice benefit, delivered in partnership with Charles Cameron & Associates – provides employees with free, expert mortgage advice and end-to-end mortgage support from the application process through to completion.