Market Strategy and Planning Manager

Kids Planet Day Nurseries; City Of London; Hybrid; GBP 50,000 - 70,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading childcare provider in London is seeking a Market Strategy and Planning Manager. This role focuses on developing growth strategies across nurseries, driving occupancy growth, and analyzing market trends. Ideal candidates have at least 8 years of experience in market strategy, strong analytical skills, and proficiency in tools such as Excel and Power BI. The position involves collaboration with multiple teams to ensure business goals align with actionable insights.

Qualifications

• 8 years experience in market strategy and planning.
• Strong analytical skills and proficiency in Excel.
• Experience in early years education or childcare is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Develop strategic market plans to increase occupancy.
• Lead commercial reporting and local occupancy dashboards.
• Collaborate with regional teams to align strategies.

Skills

Market strategy and planning

Analytical and data visualisation skills

Stakeholder management

Competitive analysis

Tools

CRM systems (HubSpot, Salesforce)

Power BI

Market analysis tools (e.g., CACI)

Job description

Overview

Job Title: Market Strategy and Planning Manager
Department: Marketing
Location: Lymm Head Office, Hybrid
Reports To: Marketing Director
Type: Permanent, Monday – Friday, 40 hours

Job Summary: We are seeking a strategic, data-driven Market Strategy and Planning Manager to lead the development and execution of growth strategies across our nurseries and pre-schools. Reporting to the Marketing Director, this role will be instrumental in driving occupancy growth, identifying market opportunities, and building actionable plans that support both performance and brand expansion at a local level. You will work closely with senior leadership and cross-functional teams to align business goals with actionable market insights, ensuring seamless execution and long-term success. The role requires strong analytical skills and a commercial mindset, with a focus on delivering detailed reporting around local occupancy trends, cohort performance, market opportunities, and ongoing performance tracking.

Responsibilities

• Develop and implement strategic market plans to drive business growth and increase occupancy across nursery sites.
• Lead commercial reporting across our nurseries — including local occupancy dashboards, cohort analysis, and enquiry conversion performance.
• Identify underperforming cohorts, and propose data-led action plans to improve performance.
• Collaborate with our regional Early Year’s teams, Finance, and Operations to align strategies and ensure execution across the business.
• Analyse market trends, customer insights, and competitor activity to uncover new opportunities.
• Conduct catchment and location planning to support both new site openings and existing site optimisation.
• Support our acquisition growth opportunities with market insights and positioning strategies.
• Track and report on the performance of strategic initiatives, providing regular insights and recommendations to leadership.
• Build frameworks and tools that ensure consistent measurement of key commercial metrics across the business.
• Line Management responsibility, leading and mentoring the team and working alongside our brand and digital teams.

Who You Are

• Proven experience in market strategy and planning — you may come from category management, insights, strategic or commercial planning roles.
• Highly analytical with strong Excel and data visualisation skills — comfortable working with large data sets, establishing new systems and processes and turning insights into action.
• Experience with segment analysis, funnel performance tracking, and local market reporting.
• A confident communicator and skilled stakeholder manager who can influence at all levels.
• A results-driven, collaborative team player who thrives in a fast-paced, evolving environment.
• Organised and able to balance long-term strategic thinking with hands-on problem solving.

Preferred Experience

• Experience in early years education, childcare, or location-based consumer services is a strong advantage.
• Familiarity with CRM systems (e.g., HubSpot, Salesforce), marketing analytics platforms, Power BI and tools for market or catchment analysis e.g. CACI.
• Understanding of parental decision-making behaviour and enrolment cycles.
• 8 years experience in the same or similar role.
• Full clean driving licence required.

We are unable to offer any kind of visa sponsorship for this role.

We embrace everyone. Our goal is to create a truly inclusive culture and diverse workforce. We break down barriers so you can be your authentic self—and flourish!

Kids Planet is dedicated to safeguarding and promoting the well-being of children and young people. An enhanced DBS check will be required for this role. We expect all staff and volunteers to uphold this commitment, and safeguarding training is a fundamental part of every role. All colleagues are required to complete regular training to ensure they understand and fulfil their responsibilities. A Disclosure and Barring Service Certificate is mandatory for all positions, and this role will be subject to enhanced checks as part of our safeguarding duties.