Manager, Brand and Lifestyle Marketing and Communications

McLaren Racing; Old Woking; On-site; GBP 70,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading automotive manufacturer in the UK seeks a Brand Marketing Manager to create luxury narratives for their global brand. The role involves building brand-focused editorial calendars, shaping marketing strategies, and ensuring collaboration across disciplines to elevate the McLaren brand. Candidates should have significant experience in luxury marketing and a strong understanding of brand storytelling, alongside high attention to detail.

Benefits

Structured career development framework

25 days' holiday

Enhanced company pension scheme

Private medical insurance

Qualifications

• 7+ years in luxury brand marketing and communications.
• Experience creating culturally resonant programs.
• High computer literacy and graphic design skills.

Responsibilities

• Build the annual brand-and-lifestyle editorial calendar.
• Write integrated briefs and lead development of hero concepts.
• Design audience strategies for UHNWIs and tastemakers.

Skills

Luxury brand marketing

Storytelling

Attention to detail

Creative thinking

Intercultural communication

Tools

Microsoft 365

Dynamics 365

Adobe Creative Cloud

Job description

Reporting to Head of Brand Marketing & Communications, this is an exciting opportunity for a proactive, dynamic and creative individual to join the Global Brand & Client Department at McLaren Automotive. Create and steward the global brand heat that makes McLaren feel rare, culturally relevant, and irresistibly desirable. You will turn McLaren's purpose, design language and racing pedigree into lifestyle‑led narratives, collaborations and moments that travel across owned/earned/paid channels and into distributor/retailer execution. Sitting within Brand Marketing & Communications, you will lead brand and lifestyle workstreams—from strategy and briefs to toolkits and reporting—so that every market can activate the McLaren mystique with precision and measurable commercial impact. This role is the bridge between high performance and high culture. You'll architect brand moments, lifestyle stories and affinity programs (art, design, horology, couture, private aviation, yachting) that reinforce McLaren's luxury codes and expand our audience while staying true to product truth and heritage. You will shape global briefs, partner with Product, Racing and MSO & Services to weave brand and lifestyle seamlessly into launches, and supply markets with ready‑to‑use toolkits that protect craft and equity. With Client Insights, you will prove how lifestyle storytelling lifts consideration, fuels qualified demand, and strengthens loyalty among UHNWIs and next‑generation prospects.

What You'll Do

• Build the annual brand‑and‑lifestyle editorial calendar aligned to product launches, racing windows and heritage milestones; define themes, proof points and exclusives strategy that elevate luxury association, including McLaren Partnerships & Licensing associations, products and activations.
• Write integrated briefs (objectives, audiences, channel roles, KPIs) and lead development of hero concepts and assets that carry across website, social, film/editorial and retailer environments—partnering with Channel & Content and Social/Website/Configurator.
• Shape the marketing/communications plan for brand collaborations and capsule moments (in liaison with Brand Strategy & Governance / Licensing on deal integrity), ensuring craft, scarcity and rights compliance; package assets for markets with clear 'do/don't' guidance.
• Design audience strategies for UHNWIs and tastemakers (collectors' circles, design patrons, private clubs); craft discreet invitation‑only content paths and concierge CTAs in partnership with MSO & Services Marketing and Experiential.
• With Media Communications, curate tier‑one lifestyle/business angles and bespoke seeding/review programs; identify a small set of high‑credibility voices whose advocacy moves sentiment and demand quality, prioritizing influence over volume.
• Deliver localization‑ready toolkits (story decks, copy banks, alt text, subtitles, retailer storytelling kits, CRM/email sequences) and track adoption/compliance versus the global plan; intervene rapidly to correct drift.
• Ensure lifestyle storytelling amplifies, not fragments, product narratives and racing credibility; synchronize timing with launch phases and embargoes.
• Brief and performance‑manage creative/editorial houses, photographers and cultural production partners; optimize cost‑to‑craft while protecting brand standards and inclusivity.
• With Client Insights & Customer Journey, define leading indicators (attention/quality, luxury association lift) and demand outcomes (test‑drive requests, qualified leads, orders); publish post‑campaign readouts and a rolling learning agenda.
• Manage final approval process for brand‑and‑lifestyle creative territories and asset slates within brand guardrails; recommend exclusives/first‑look allocations for priority markets and outlets.
• Co‑own (with Media Communications) the selection of lifestyle media/influencer partners and embargo timing for brand moments; trigger pause/escalation protocols for brand‑safety issues.

What You'll Bring

• 7+ years in luxury brand marketing and communications, with proof of creating culturally resonant programs that translate to measurable demand; background in ultra‑luxury sectors (watchmaking, couture, private aviation, yachting, art/design) is a strong plus.
• Brand‑led storyteller with editorial taste and commercial discipline; calm under scrutiny; inclusive collaborator who elevates cross‑functional teams and agencies; relentless about craft, detail and pace.
• Deep intuition for UHNWI expectations—discretion, provenance, rarity—and how to encode them into narratives, access and CTAs that feel personal and trustworthy.
• Microsoft 365; Dynamics 365 (stakeholder and concierge workflows); Power BI (dashboards); DAM/CMS; social publishing/listening; newsroom tools; Adobe Creative Cloud; consent and rights‑management workflows.
• Creative and dynamic thinker who can operate under pressure.
• Inspirational speaker and communicator.
• Comfortable handling, presenting and inspiring all levels of the organization.
• Extremely high level of attention to detail.
• Out of the box thinking to bring the McLaren Brand to life.
• Confident in dealing with challenging situations and relationships.
• Able to adapt in a fast paced, high‑pressured, ever‑changing environment.
• Ability to manage own workload with ownership, be proactive in seeking support and guidance where needed.
• Resilient, energetic, passionate and enthusiastic.
• A natural implementer and highly focused, process oriented.
• Strong understanding and experience shaping brand marketing strategies and delivering commercial success, technology and design savvy.
• Able to translate complex strategies and narratives into inspiring briefs and stories.
• Effective at working and collaborating within large teams.
• Able to engage and maintain frequent and constructive communication with intercultural teams and audiences.
• Capacity to multitask and work on projects with varied lead‑times.
• A clear understanding of, and passion for the McLaren Brand and products is a key requirement.
• Knowledge of McLaren's racing and road car heritage is a key requirement.
• High Computer literacy and graphic design skills.

No restraints. No limitations. We don't simply push boundaries. We completely rethink them. McLaren Automotive exists to create breath‑taking performance road cars.

It takes a community to do what we do. A diverse group of people with many areas of expertise, united by their passion to deliver visionary products and set new benchmarks. McLaren Automotive commits to equal opportunity for all. Diversity, Equality and Inclusion are at the heart of our impact, it drives our innovation and enables us to truly create something special. Join us on our journey.

Career Development

PR Manager, Brand Manager, Brand Marketing Manager, Brand Strategy Manager, Regional Marketing Manager

Career Development: Head of Brand Marketing & Communications, Head of Brand Strategy & Governance, Head of Brand & Client in region

Benefits

• Structured career development framework
• 25 days' holiday, plus bank holiday. Annual buy & sell up to five days.
• Enhanced company pension scheme
• Discretionary annual bonus award
• Private medical insurance and health cash plan
• Life assurance benefit
• Ability to apply for a sabbatical of up to one year after only two years' service
• Benefits you can adapt to your lifestyle, such as discounted shopping
• Generous parental leave policies
• A range of wellbeing initiatives, such as employee assistance programme and free financial & mortgage advice