Portfolio Marketing Director

Elsevier; Amsterdam; On-site; EUR 72,000 - 120,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

Equity / long‑term incentive

Hybrid work model

Private health insurance and pension

Job summary

Elsevier in Amsterdam is seeking a Global Portfolio Marketing Director to lead GTM strategy for a $450M USD multi‑market portfolio, spanning six verticals and 15 product lines. You will set positioning, messaging, and cross‑sell strategies, directing a team of 5–6 Senior Marketing Managers and collaborating with Product, Sales, and Lifecycle teams.

The role balances strategic leadership with hands‑on execution, shaping ICPs, personas, and proof points to drive enterprise adoption and revenue

Qualifications

• Solid progressive B2B marketing experience in senior leadership roles.
• Experience managing a complex multi‑product portfolio at $250M+ revenue scale.
• Proven track record building and leading high‑performing marketing teams (4+ people).
• Deep expertise in GTM strategy: positioning, messaging and launches.
• Strong commercial acumen linking marketing to pipeline, revenue and retention.
• Fluency in English; additional languages are desirable.

Responsibilities

• Define segment ICPs, personas, brand strategy and competitive positioning for six target markets.
• Own the portfolio narrative and cross‑sell/upsell strategy across 15 products.
• Lead annual and quarterly GTM planning for six market verticals; align with Product and Sales.
• Build and manage a portfolio insights programme feeding strategy and execution.
• Translate complex portfolio stories into compelling propositions and sales enablement content.

Skills

B2B marketing

GTM strategy

Brand positioning

Customer insights

Stakeholder management

Education

Bachelor's in Marketing or related field

MBA or equivalent

Tools

Salesforce

Marketo/HubSpot

Tableau/Power BI

Content CMS

Job description

Global Portfolio Marketing Director — B2B Marketing | Senior Leadership | Full-time

Amsterdam, London, Camebridge

Reports To

Head of Corporate Marketing

Direct Reports

5–6 Senior Marketing Managers

Portfolio Scope

$450M USD across 6 Markets with 8–12 products in each

Travel

Up to 25% (within Europe; occasional global)

About the Role

We are seeking an exceptional Portfolio Marketing Director to lead go-to-market strategy across a $450M USD portfolio spanning six high-growth B2B market verticals globally. Reporting directly to the Head of Corporate Marketing, you will set the strategic direction for how our solutions are positioned, messaged, and brought to market — orchestrating a team of 5–6 Senior Marketing Managers each accountable for distinct verticals and product lines within them.

This is a high-impact, senior individual‑contributor and people‑leadership role that sits at the intersection of product, sales, and lifecycle marketing. You will act as the connective tissue between customer and market insight — ICPs, propositions, and win/loss learning — and Commercial’s growth priorities, translating both into a coherent portfolio‑level GTM strategy. This complements GTM Excellence, which focuses on the frameworks, capabilities, and processes that enable that strategy to be executed consistently at scale.

You will be responsible for translating complex, multi‑product portfolio stories into clear, compelling propositions that resonate with enterprise buyers and users — driving brand strategy and unification, brand awareness, and market penetration, while balancing the protection of recurring revenue through adoption, usage, and renewal with the acceleration of new revenue through cross‑sell, upsell, and new‑logo acquisition.

Key Responsibilities

Operating Model: Commercial, Portfolio Marketing & GTM Excellence

• Serve as the connective tissue between customer and market insight — ICPs, personas, propositions, win/loss learning, and competitive intelligence — and Commercial’s growth and market priorities, ensuring both inform one unified portfolio‑level GTM strategy;
• Operate within a clear three‑way delineation: Commercial sets growth and market priorities and investment decisions for each vertical; Portfolio Marketing translates these into customer‑led portfolio propositions, positioning, and GTM strategy; GTM Excellence provides the frameworks, capabilities, and processes that enable consistent execution of that strategy at scale;
• Partner closely with Commercial Directors on priority‑setting and investment trade‑offs for each market vertical, and with GTM Excellence on turning approved strategy into repeatable, scalable execution frameworks — keeping strategy‑setting (Portfolio Marketing) distinct from execution enablement (GTM Excellence) to avoid overlap.

Portfolio & Go‑to‑Market Strategy

• Define segment‑level ICPs (Ideal Customer Profiles), buyer and user personas, brand strategy & positioning in line with customer outcomes, and competitive positioning frameworks for each of the 6 target markets; ensure these are consistently applied across content strategy, campaigns, and the sales cycle;
• Own and evolve the overarching portfolio narrative across all 6 market verticals, totaling 15 products at the level 2 and 3 product architecture levels; ensure coherent cross‑sell and upsell storylines that ladder up to a unified value proposition and brand strategy for each vertical, coherent with the Corporate Markets and Elsevier brand strategies;
• Lead annual and quarterly go‑to‑market planning for each of the six market verticals, aligning with Product Management, Commercial Directors, and Sales leadership on priorities, investment levels, and success metrics;
• Utilize and improve a portfolio‑wide insights programme — voice of the customer, competitive intelligence, value positioning for customer outcomes, validated proof points, win/loss analysis, analyst relations input, and battlecard positioning — feeding both Commercial’s priority‑setting and GTM Excellence’s execution frameworks;
• Partner with Product Management on product launches (major and minor), delivering value proposition and market positioning for each relevant market, and enabling the launch readiness framework and cross‑functional coordination supporting high standards in go‑to‑market.

Team Leadership & Development

• Hire, develop, and retain a team of 5–6 Senior Marketing Managers, each responsible for specific verticals and product clusters within each market portfolio;
• Set clear objectives (OKRs / KPIs) for each team member and conduct regular performance reviews with a coaching‑first mindset;
• Foster a high‑performance, AI‑fluent culture built on data‑driven decision‑making, creativity, thoughtful risk taking, speed of execution, and continuous learning;
• Identify skills gaps and build development plans; advocate internally for marketing resources and career progression opportunities.

Customer Lifecycle: Acquisition, Adoption & Retention

• Partner with the Lifecycle teams — Acquisition (new business), Customer Engagement, and Regional Marketing — to translate portfolio strategy into programmes spanning new‑logo acquisition, adoption and usage, cross‑sell/upsell, and renewal, globally;
• Contribute to and track marketing’s influence on pipeline (MQLs, pipeline influenced, pipeline sourced) for the portfolio for each priority vertical; with equal weight, use adoption, usage, and customer value realization insights — as we are already doing with LeapSpace — to strengthen propositions, identify retention and expansion opportunities, and improve GTM effectiveness. Portfolio Marketing does not own adoption or retention outcomes directly, but ensures they inform portfolio strategy with the same rigor as acquisition metrics;
• Support content strategy and lifecycle marketing teams with campaigns, including regional marketing for localization approaches that are scalable and drive brand consistency.

Content, Messaging & Thought Leadership

• Provide input to Audience and Content Strategy to commission, govern, and quality‑assure all tier‑1 content assets (white papers, portfolio positioning, solution briefs, case studies, ROI tools, analyst reports) for the portfolio, in partnership with the Content Strategy & Audience teams;
• Serve as a senior spokesperson and thought leader at industry events, executive briefings, and analyst interactions;
• Ensure sales enablement content is current, accessible, and fit‑for‑purpose by working with GTM Excellence; work closely with Sales Enablement to embed assets into seller workflows.

Cross‑Functional Collaboration & Stakeholder Management

• Build strong working relationships with Commercial Directors, Sales (including Regional VPs and global Account Executives), Product, Finance, Corporate Affairs, and Customer Success — with particular clarity on the Commercial Directors interface: Commercial sets priorities and targets; Portfolio Marketing translates them into customer‑led propositions and strategy;
• Represent the six market verticals’ insights and requirements back to global Product and Marketing leadership, influencing roadmap and investment priorities;
• Contribute to the senior marketing leadership team, participating in strategy setting, budget planning, and organisational design decisions.

Portfolio Outcomes — Six Market Verticals

The Director will have responsibility for driving market penetration and new‑logo growth, protecting recurring revenue through adoption, usage, and renewal, and expanding accounts through cross‑sell and upsell — together with buyer and user net promoter scores and voice of the customer insights — across the following verticals (indicative; subject to organisational strategy and prioritisation year on year):

• Top 200 Biopharma and supporting CROs and CDMOs
• Total Biopharma less top 200 and supporting CROs and CDMOs
• Medical Technologies
• Chemicals, Materials, and Energy
• Electronics, Semiconductors, Automotive & Aerospace

Required Qualifications & Experience

• Solid progressive B2B marketing experience, with at least 4 years in a senior portfolio, product marketing, or solutions marketing leadership role;
• Demonstrated success managing a complex, multi‑product portfolio — ideally at a $250M+ revenue scale — across diverse B2B segments;
• Prior people‑management experience leading teams of at least 4; proven track record of building and developing high‑performing marketing teams;
• Deep expertise in B2B go‑to‑market strategy: positioning, messaging, competitive differentiation, and launch execution;
• Strong commercial acumen — able to connect marketing activity directly to pipeline, revenue, retention, and customer value realization metrics;
• Experience working across multiple markets and comfort navigating cultural and linguistic nuances in buyer communications;
• Excellent executive communication and storytelling skills — able to influence C‑suite stakeholders and present confidently to large audiences;
• Proficiency with modern B2B marketing tools: CRM (Salesforce), MAP (Marketo / HubSpot), analytics (Tableau / Power BI), and content management platforms;
• Bachelor’s degree in Marketing, Business, or a related field; MBA or equivalent advanced degree is an advantage;
• Fluency in English required; additional languages (German, French, Dutch, Spanish, Italian) are highly desirable.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in enterprise SaaS, information services, data analytics, or technology platforms;
• Familiarity with analyst relations (Gartner, Forrester, IDC) and category creation or category capture marketing strategies;
• Track record of contributing to ABM (Account‑Based Marketing) programmes at enterprise scale;
• Experience partnering with or managing agency relationships for creative, research, and events.

What We Offer

• Competitive base salary benchmarked to senior leadership norms, plus a performance‑related annual bonus.;
• Equity / long‑term incentive programme commensurate with the seniority of the role;
• Flexible, hybrid working model (3 days office / 2 days remote) with flexibility to travel;
• Comprehensive benefits package including private health insurance, enhanced pension contribution, life assurance, and generous annual leave;
• Annual professional development budget and access to industry events, certifications, and leadership programmes;
• A collaborative, inclusive culture that values bold thinking, intellectual curiosity, and outcome‑orientation.

Primary Location Base Pay Range: NLD Amsterdam (Radarweg) €71,700 - €119,600. This role is covered by the Collective Labor Agreement Publishing Industry.