Retention & Growth Marketing Manager - London

Zen Educate; Greater London; On-site; GBP 48,000 - 53,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary

25 days holiday

London office

Life Insurance

Cycle to Work

Job summary

Zen Educate is seeking a Retention & Growth Marketing Manager to own lifecycle programmes end-to-end, combining analytics with a product mindset to improve adoption, engagement and retention across schools and teachers. You will work at the intersection of marketing, product and operations.

You’ll develop scalable lifecycle programmes, investigate user behaviour with funnel data and experimentation, and lead cross-functional stakeholders to drive measurable impact in a London-based, full-time

Qualifications

• 4-6 years of experience in digital marketing, lifecycle marketing, business analytics, product management, or a related field.
• Experience with CRM platforms, marketing automation, or automated customer communications.
• Experience working effectively with cross-functional teams.
• Comfortable working independently in ambiguous, fast-moving environments.

Responsibilities

• Develop lifecycle programmes end-to-end: ideation → implementation → QA → launch → measurement → refinement.
• Investigate why users behave the way they do using funnel data, segmentation, call listening, frontline feedback, and other insights.
• Build scalable programmes by considering data, processes, governance, and maintenance.
• Lead scoping with stakeholders, manage requirements, and communicate results.

Skills

Lifecycle marketing

Analytical thinking

User obsession

Systems thinking

Ownership

Stakeholder management

Tools

SQL

Python

Data visualization

Job description

£48,000 - £53,000 a year

Location: London, Oval

Type: Full-time

*If your salary expectations do not meet our banding, please do still apply - salary banding is based on transferable skills, tenure, industry experience, and interview performance

Hi, I'm Gerald, Senior CRM Marketing Managerat Zen Educate. I'm looking for a Retention & Growth Marketing Manager with a strong analytical and product mindset to own the execution of our Lifecycle Marketing programmes.

Lifecycle Marketing sits at the intersection of marketing, product, operations and data. Our job isn't simply to send emails or build automations - it's to deeply understand customer behaviour, identify opportunities to improve it, and independently drive solutions end-to-end that create measurable business impact.

If you're someone who is naturally curious about users, gets excited by solving complex, ambiguous problems, and thinks beyond individual campaigns to build scalable systems, we'd love to meet you.

What are we building and why?

Here’s the challenge: UK schools spend over £2 billion a year on temporary staff. But £600m of that goes straight into the pockets of recruitment agencies, money that should be going back into classrooms and teachers’ pay. So we’re doing things differently.

Zen Educate is an online platform that gives schools instant access to fully vetted teachers and support staff. Since launching in 2017, we’ve already saved schools over £30 million, that’s gone straight back to where it matters most. We've just closed a $37m Series B (the biggest EdTech round in Europe last year!), and we’re scaling fast in the UK and the US. We are incredibly proud to be a Certified B Corporation™! It’s an exciting time to join, have a huge impact, and grow alongside us.

But growth doesn't stop once someone signs up.

The best products don't grow simply by acquiring more customers. They grow by helping existing customers discover value faster, engage more deeply, and keep coming back.

That's where Lifecycle Marketing comes in.

We build the scalable infrastructure and communication experiences that guide users through their journey. We partner closely with cross-functional teams to identify gaps, develop hypotheses, and turn them into robust lifecycle programs that improve adoption, engagement, and retention.

What will you actually do?

Own Lifecycle Marketing Execution

Develop lifecycle programmes end-to-end: ideation → implementation → QA → launch → measurement → refinement. You will monitor, maintain, and continuously improve existing programmes and automations.

Understand Users & Solve Problems

Investigate why users behave the way they do using funnel data, segmentation, call listening, frontline feedback, and other insights. You'll develop hypotheses, use experimentation to validate them, and apply data and statistical fundamentals to make evidence-based decisions.

Build Scalable Programmes

Think beyond individual campaigns. You'll consider data, processes, documentation, governance, scalability, and maintenance, proactively proposing solutions when you identify gaps in our lifecycle infrastructure.

Manage Stakeholders

Lead scoping with stakeholders to navigate ambiguity, ask the right questions, and define clear problem statements. You'll manage requirements, communicate results, and take total ownership when something underperforms - diagnosing the problem and driving the solution.

Why this role is unique

You'll own highly impactful programs from raw idea through to execution and long-term governance. You'll operate with a high degree of autonomy in an ambiguous, fast-moving environment. Most importantly, you'll join a team that values analytical problem solving, user obsession, and low-ego collaboration over simply checking boxes and launching campaigns.

What makes you a great fit

• You have 4-6 years of experience in digital marketing, lifecycle marketing, business analytics, product management, or a related field.

• Analytical problem solving: You break ambiguous problems down, interrogate data, develop hypotheses, and make evidence-based decisions.

• User obsession: You are naturally curious about why users behave the way they do and proactively "follow the user" to understand them.

• Systems thinking: You consider scalability, governance, and maintenance rather than just solving the immediate task.

• Ownership & proactivity: You identify problems independently, propose solutions, and drive them through to completion.

• Low ego & high judgement: You are open to feedback, willing to change your mind when presented with better evidence, and can move quickly without sacrificing critical thinking.

• Stakeholder management: You communicate clearly, manage expectations, and challenge constructively.

Required:

• Experience with CRM platforms, marketing automation, or automated customer communications.

• Experience working effectively with cross-functional teams.

• Comfortable working independently in ambiguous, fast-moving environments.

Nice to have:

• High-growth startup or marketplace experience.

• Education/EdTech experience.

• Agile/Scrum experience.

• SQL, Python, or data visualisation experience.

• Understanding of data architecture.

What won't work here

If you measure success by launching campaigns rather than diagnosing data and changing customer behaviour, you'll struggle here.

If you're uncomfortable speaking up when you see a better way of doing something, we'll both find that frustrating.

If you're looking for a highly structured environment where every project is already defined and scoped for you, this role will likely feel uncomfortable.

We move quickly, experiment often, and expect everyone on the team to proactively contribute ideas and challenge assumptions.

Our hiring process

We move fast and we respect your time.

• Step 1: HR Screening - A call with the People Team to cover compensation, availability, and the basics.

• Step 2: Department Interview (45-minute remote) - A focus on analytical thinking, user curiosity, ownership, systems thinking, and stakeholder management.

• Step 3: Task Interview (60-minute virtual) - You'll receive a realistic Lifecycle Marketing problem including funnel data, user insights, and business context. You'll be asked to diagnose the problem, develop hypotheses, and propose a lifecycle intervention. We want to assess how you think, not just whether you arrive at a predetermined answer.

Perks & benefits

• Competitive salary + ownership in the company.

• 25 days holiday + all the usual UK public holidays.

• A central London (dog friendly!) office with perks like fresh fruit, bike parking, showers, an on-site gym, and a café.

• Meaningful work - this isn’t just another SaaS tool; you’re literally helping schools save money and pay teachers more.

• 1-1 coaching to keep you growing personally and professionally.

• Life & Health Insurance, Cycle to Work Scheme, Electric Car Scheme.

• Join a certified B Corp: where your work creates a real, positive impact.

Diversity and Inclusion

At Zen, we strive to build a culture of equity and inclusion, where everyone is respected, valued and appreciated for their unique traits, experiences and perspectives. We are committed to creating a safe, inclusive and equitable environment where our team can thrive, regardless of age, ethnicity, race, gender identity, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, disability, religion or beliefs. We value our differences and believe that practices of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion help us create a fairer, more compassionate environment for all.

We welcome applicants with diverse backgrounds and different experiences and perspectives - just like the staff who teach through Zen and the children at the schools we work with. We believe in hiring the best people from the widest pool and creating an inclusive culture where people’s voices are heard and all our team can look forward to coming to work.

We are committed to building a team that reflects the diversity of our community and promoting an equitable and inclusive environment for all. We seek out diverse opinions, beliefs, and experiences because they collectively make us stronger; we’ve had former teachers, pilots, fundraisers, engineers, lawyers, marketers, social media experts and more join our team.