Head of Growth

Ace Grading; Oxford; On-site; GBP 80,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

Ace Grading is seeking a Senior Head of Growth to own measurable customer growth and acquisition strategy across UK and international markets. You’ll lead paid media, work with SEO, CRM, creator partnerships and offline channels, and balance long-term growth with immediate performance.

This is a hands-on leadership role requiring deep expertise in performance marketing, channel management and forecasting, with the authority to audit accounts and drive strategy from day one.

Qualifications

• Experience in a start-up or high-growth consumer brand operating internationally.
• Direct ownership and scaling of paid acquisition budgets across paid social and paid search.
• Deep hands-on expertise in at least one core discipline (paid social, PPC or digital acquisition).
• Strong analytical, forecasting and commercial skills (attribution, incrementality, P&L).

Responsibilities

• Own the growth strategy across UK and international markets, including paid media, partnerships and offline channels.
• Set and deliver channel mix and approved growth budget with CPS, conversion and ROI targets.
• Lead and develop the Growth & Customer Management team; stay hands-on when needed.
• Build measurement, testing and forecasting disciplines and report results to Directors.

Skills

Paid media

Paid social

Paid search

Digital acquisition

CRM

Analytics

Forecasting

Team leadership

P&L management

Tools

YouTube advertising

Programmatic advertising

SEO

CRM tools

Job description

Are you a performance marketer who has progressed from channel specialist to leader without losing the hands‑on edge? Someone who can audit an account, diagnose a performance issue and fix it yourself, then stand in front of the Directors and explain what will change next? If that sounds like you, we’d love to hear from you.

At Ace Grading, we’re building one of the world’s leading trading card grading brands. As we continue our international expansion, measurable customer growth sits at the heart of our plans, and this role owns it.

The Head of Growth owns Ace’s measurable customer growth and acquisition strategy, leading growth across paid media and working with specialist teams across SEO, digital acquisition, CRM, creator partnerships and other relevant offline channels. The role is accountable for delivering efficient, scalable customer acquisition, increasing conversion and maximising return on marketing investment across the UK and international markets.

This is a senior, commercially accountable role. The postholder leads and develops the specialist growth team and builds the measurement, testing and forecasting disciplines the function needs to scale. We are not looking for a pure people manager or someone whose experience is limited to managing agencies. The successful candidate will have developed their career within a strong performance marketing discipline and must retain the technical expertise and hands‑on approach to work directly within channels, getting involved in execution and driving performance from day one.

What you’ll be doing

Acquisition and customer growth strategy & execution

• Own the growth strategy across paid search, paid social, YouTube advertising, affiliates, programmatic and emerging platforms as well as offline channels such as PR and events.
• Set and deliver the channel mix for both UK and international markets, including sponsored YouTube integrations, podcast sponsorships, creator sponsorships and other partnerships, working with the Creator Partnerships Lead on delivery.
• Own the approved growth budget: allocate, forecast and reallocate spend across channels and markets against CPS, conversion and ROI targets agreed with the Head of Marketing.
• Deliver agreed new-customer, submission and revenue targets within defined acquisition economics, balancing first-order contribution, customer lifetime value and acquisition payback.
• Own the overall customer growth agenda across acquisition, conversion, retention and reactivation, ensuring the team optimises not just for new customers but also repeat submissions, customer lifetime value and sustainable growth.

Measurement, testing and forecasting

• Establish robust measurement across the funnel: tracking, attribution, incrementality and reporting that the leadership team can trust.
• Build a structured testing programme across audiences, creative, landing pages and bidding, and embed a weekly optimisation rhythm.
• Produce accurate traffic, spend, submission and CPS forecasts to support commercial planning and trading decisions.

Team leadership

• Lead and manage the day to day activities of the Growth & Customer Management team, remaining close to execution across ecommerce, digital acquisition, CRM/customer lifecycle management and offline channels including PR and Events, coordinating internal resources and ensuring a cohesive, commercially focused approach across all channels.
• Stay hands‑on in a core specialist discipline, able to audit accounts, diagnose performance issues and execute directly when required.

Creative and cross-functional working

• Work with the Head of Studio to build a continuous pipeline of performance creative, defining what the channels need and feeding learnings back into the brief.
• Ensure all communications are on brand and aligned with the broader brand strategy, visual identity and tone of voice.
• Represent performance marketing with the Directors, reporting clearly on spend, results and what will change next.

Who we’re looking for

Experienced performance growth marketer who has progressed from channel specialist into leadership: commercial, analytical and still a practitioner. Ideally gained in a start‑up or high‑growth consumer brand operating internationally.

• Experience in a start‑up or high‑growth consumer brand that has scaled internationally.
• Has directly owned and scaled a meaningful paid acquisition budget across paid social and paid search against CPA or CPS, conversion and ROI targets.
• Deep, hands‑on expertise in at least 1 core discipline (paid social, PPC or digital acquisition) and strong working knowledge of the rest.
• Strong analytical and commercial skills: comfortable with attribution, incrementality, forecasting and P&L-level thinking.
• Experience building measurement, testing and reporting disciplines from a low base.
• Has led and developed a specialist team, with evidence of raising performance.
• Clear communicator who can report to Directors and translate results into decisions.
• Has experience across all marketing channels, combining digital acquisition with offline channels to maximise market growth.
• Knowledge of or interest in trading cards, TCG, gaming or collector communities.
• Has managed, or worked alongside customer management programmes driving customer LTV.
• Experience launching paid acquisition in new international markets.

Why Ace?

This is a senior, commercially accountable role in one of the fastest-growing brands in the trading card hobby. You’ll own the growth engine, build the team and the disciplines around it, and shape how thousands of collectors in the UK and internationally discover Ace.

Banbury, Oxfordshire | Office based | Reports to Head of Marketing

Salary £80,000 to £100,000 per annum (dependent upon experience).