Director Vertical Marketing - Energy & Defence

Light; Greater London; On-site; GBP 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

In-office culture

Competitive salary

25 days annual leave

Off-sites twice a year

Regular international travel

Job summary

Light is seeking a Director of Vertical Marketing for Energy and Defence to shape market understanding, positioning, and the marketing pipeline for these sectors. You will partner with Sales, Product Marketing, Demand Generation and Field Marketing to turn insights into repeatable wins across multi-entity and multi-currency contexts.

You will own messaging, customer storytelling, and sales enablement, while leveraging AI tools to accelerate research, campaign execution, and reporting.

Qualifications

• Around ten years of marketing experience with a track record of building markets and delivering commercial results.
• Experience owning a marketing pipeline from planning through execution and reporting.
• Public speaking experience and the ability to tell a compelling industry story to diverse audiences.

Responsibilities

• Understand markets and select focus areas by interviewing customers and partners.
• Define positioning with clear customer stories and sales enablement materials.
• Own the marketing pipeline, set priorities, and lead demand generation and field marketing.
• Apply AI to research, execution and reporting to improve decision-making.
• Partner with Sales to train reps and SDRs on segment nuances and selling credibility.
• Build sector credibility through conferences, roundtables and industry partnerships.
• Collaborate with Product Marketing to translate customer needs into product requirements.

Skills

Marketing leadership

Pipeline management

Public speaking

B2B marketing

Sales alignment

Storytelling

AI in marketing

Campaign execution

Job description

Light is building the financial foundation for businesses operating across entities and currencies, with AI agents doing routine work and people shaping how the system operates. Our ambition is to become the operating layer for entire industries.

We’re looking for a Director Vertical Marketing - Energy & Defence to build our position in these markets as part of a world-class vertical marketing team. You’ll combine deep customer understanding, a clear industry point of view and commercial judgement to turn an opportunity into a repeatable way to win.

You’ll own market understanding, positioning and the marketing pipeline for Energy and Defence, partnering closely with the relevant Sales Managers and our shared Product Marketing, Demand Generation and Field Marketing teams.

What you’ll do

• Understand the market and choose where to focus. Interview customers, prospects and specialist partners to uncover buying triggers, workflows and unmet needs. Build a shared segment plan with Sales, testing opportunities across energy developers, operators, services and technology businesses, and defence technology and service suppliers with project or contract complexity.
• Define the proposition. Turn customer insight into clear positioning, competitive arguments and a credible industry point of view. Work with Product Marketing to create customer stories, demonstrations and sales kits that show why Light matters to each segment.
• Own the marketing pipeline. Build the model, set campaign priorities and lead execution with Demand Generation and Field Marketing. Own weekly reporting on qualified opportunities, conversion and progress against pipeline targets, with clear actions when performance falls short.
• Make AI part of the operating rhythm. Use AI for research, campaign execution and reporting that gets to the why behind the numbers. Investigate what drives conversion and where deals stall, validate the findings with customer and Sales evidence, and turn them into decisions.
• Be a true partner to Sales. Train direct sales reps and SDRs on the nuances of Energy and Defence: their buyers, language, workflows, procurement cycles, contract structures, regulatory context and objections. Join important customer conversations and equip the team with the insight and proof needed to move deals forward.
• Build credibility in the sectors. Speak at relevant conferences, roundtables, webinars and industry discussions. Develop relationships with industry associations, analysts, specialist advisors, ecosystem partners and credible sector voices who shape how buyers think. Build trust in environments where domain expertise, procurement complexity and security or regulatory considerations matter.
• Bring the customer voice into the product. Partner with Product Marketing to define the workflows, integrations and product requirements critical to these sectors. This includes needs around project and contract economics, multi-entity reporting, cash visibility, auditability, approvals, evidence trails and integrations with operational or project systems. Work with Product and customer teams to prioritise needs based on evidence and keep market promises grounded in what Light can deliver.
• Turn early wins into a repeatable approach. Build customer relationships, lead interviews and capture outcomes that become references and case studies where appropriate. Use win/loss learning to sharpen our targeting, message, partner strategy, events and campaigns.

What you’ll bring

• Around ten years of marketing experience, with a strong foundation in industry or product marketing and evidence of building markets and delivering commercial results.
• Experience owning a marketing pipeline from planning through execution and reporting. You can build a model, understand funnel performance and explain what needs to change.
• An established ability to speak publicly and tell a compelling industry story, whether on stage, in a customer interview or in conversation with analysts, partners and industry media.
• Experience building trusted relationships in anadjacent complex B2B sector where domain credibility, long buying cycles and multiple stakeholders matter.
• A record of partnering closely with Sales, including training direct reps and SDRs to understand a segment and sell into it with credibility.
• Experience translating customer needs into clear sector requirements with Product Marketing and Product, distinguishing a recurring market need from a one-off request.
• Strong analytical curiosity and practical experience using AI to investigate performance, test explanations and improve decisions. You verify the output and can explain the reasoning behind your recommendations.
• Strong writing and storytelling skills, the judgement to challenge assumptions, and a willingness to do the work yourself: interview customers, map the market, write the message, build the campaign and examine the results.

You’ll bring enough sector understanding to earn credibility quickly, alongside the curiosity to keep learning. We’re looking for someone who can build a market and a repeatable approach, with customer evidence behind both.

What success looks like

Clear priorities for Energy and Defence, positioning that resonates with buyers, and a growing marketing pipeline. Weekly reporting explains what is happening, why it is happening and what the team will do next.

Sales reps and SDRs understand the commercial, procurement and operating nuances of each segment and have the training, content, customer proof and partner routes to progress deals. Customers and specialist partners strengthen our presence in the market, while Product Marketing and Product have a clear, evidence-backed view of the requirements that matter most.

You’ll assess progress through qualified pipeline, conversion, sales-cycle performance and customer outcomes, working with Sales and customer teams to understand delivery effort and time to value.

How we work

Light’s values are speed, simplicity and transparency. We make decisions when the evidence is sufficient, keep ownership clear and share progress and problems early. We expect leaders to raise the quality of the work, help colleagues succeed and use AI to remove unnecessary effort.

This is an opportunity to shape priority markets from the beginning, with direct influence on how Light understands customers, takes its product to market and develops its offering.

The good stuff

• In-office culture, high talent density.
• Competitive salary.
• 25 days annual leave plus public holidays.
• Define what winning looks like in a vertical from the very first deal.
• Regular travel to Copenhagen, Munich, NY, Paris, and wherever Energy & Defence customers, partners and industry events take us.
• Off-sites twice a year. The last one was in Italy.

Light is an equal opportunity employer.