Marketing Planning Manager, CANCER RESEARCH UK

Guardian Jobs; Stratford; Hybrid; CAD 71,000 - 79,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading health organization is seeking a Marketing Planning Manager to support their audience-led strategy. This role involves managing integrated campaigns and collaborating with various stakeholders. Candidates should have extensive experience with paid media, excellent project management skills, and a passion for the mission of beating cancer. The position offers a competitive salary and a supportive work culture.

Benefits

Substantial retirement plan

Generous leave allowance

Gym membership discounts

Qualifications

• Strong understanding of paid media channels, especially Paid Search.
• Experience in project management involving multiple teams.
• Expertise in delivering multi-channel marketing campaigns.

Responsibilities

• Support annual marketing planning and translate objectives into a marketing plan.
• Consult with agencies on paid marketing campaigns.
• Analyze campaign results and spot opportunities for optimization.

Skills

Understanding of paid media channels

Excellent project management

Media planning expertise

Experience leading communications

Building positive working relationships

Commercial awareness

Job description

Overview

MARKETING PLANNING MANAGER

Salary: £38,000 - £42,000 per annum

Reports to: Senior Marketing Strategy & Planning Manager (Paid Media)

Department: Marketing, Fundraising & Engagement

Contract: 12 month fixed-term contract

Hours: 35 hours per week (we are open to compressed hours or four days part-time)

Location: Stratford, London with high-flex (1 - 2 days per week in the office)

Closing date: Sunday 21 September 2025, 23:55.

Eligibility: Please note you must be eligible to work in the UK to apply for this vacancy. Cancer Research UK is not able to offer visa sponsorship.

About Cancer Research UK: At Cancer Research UK, we exist to beat cancer. We are professionals with purpose, beating cancer every day. We are looking for someone who shares our vision and can help us go much further and much faster.

What will I be doing?

We have an exciting opportunity for a highly organised marketeer to join Cancer Research UK's Marketing Planning Team to play a key role in supporting our audience-led marketing strategy and planning function. Using your integrated marketing expertise, you will take a centralised view across our marketing, audiences, channels, and performance to ensure all activity is insight led, balanced, well-timed and has maximum impact. This is your chance to support the delivery of high profile and impactful campaigns, helping to bring everyone closer to our purpose, transforming Cancer Research UK into an influential and impactful force in society, inspiring audiences to help us beat cancer. You will act as a central point to consult closely with marketing agencies and internal stakeholders on campaigns and activity to ensure optimal strategic alignment and fully integrated planning. You will also support the annual marketing planning process in setting overarching marketing objectives, key performance indicators, forecasts, and budgets, translating these into an all-channel strategic brief for the cross-portfolio marketing plan, alongside campaign briefs. To be successful you must have a strong understanding of fully integrated end-to-end marketing campaigns and enjoy working with a range of stakeholders across a wide variety of projects.

Responsibilities

• Supporting the annual marketing planning process in setting overarching marketing objectives, key Performance Indicators, forecasts and budgets; translating these into an all-channel cross-portfolio marketing plan
• Consulting with agencies and internal teams on paid marketing campaigns and activity to ensure optimal strategic alignment and fully integrated campaign planning across audiences, channels and products
• Working closely with the Commercial and Operations function to support the end-to-end marketing workflow including and managing key stakeholder and agency/supplier relationships
• Working closely with the Marketing performance team and wider marketing teams to gather actionable insight and learnings from past campaigns
• Analysing campaign results, evaluating performance against targets while spotting opportunities to optimise activity, innovate and increase efficiency
• Taking a future-facing view of marketing trends and developments as well as competitor activity, the consumer landscape and data insight to ensure Cancer Research UK's marketing and communications stay ahead of the curve and are data and insight driven.

What skills are we looking for?

• Strong understanding of paid media channels; Audio Visual, Out Of Home, Digital with a particular focus on Paid Search and the role of the different channels in integrated campaign planning. You will also have experience working in an Agency environment.
• Excellent project management and communication skills with experience of managing and improving priority workstreams involving multiple teams and stakeholders.
• Media planning expertise and experience delivering multi-channel marketing campaigns across a broad portfolio.
• Experience of leading communications to manage and motivate suppliers and agencies to drive maximum value from relationships.
• Relevant experience of building positive working relationships and influencing others and working effectively as part of a matrix team.
• Commercially aware with budget management experience.
• Awareness of direct marketing channels and their role in the end-to-end marketing journey.

What will I gain?

Each and every one of our employees contributes to our progress and is supporting our work to beat cancer. We think that's impressive.

In return, we make sure you are supported by a generous benefits package, a wide range of career and personal development opportunities and high-quality tools, policies and processes to enable you to do your job well.

Our benefits package includes a substantial retirement plan, a generous and flexible leave allowance, discounts on anything from travel to technology, gym membership, and much more.

We don't forget people have lives outside of work too and so we actively encourage a flexible working culture.

Our work - from funding cutting-edge research to developing public policy - will change the world. It's exciting to be part of our team.

How do I apply?

We operate an anonymised shortlisting process in our commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion. CVs are required for all applications; but we won't be able to view them until we invite you for an interview. Instead, we ask you to complete the work history section of the online application form for us to be able to assess you quickly, fairly and objectively.