Marketing Manager Operations

First Recruitment Group; Noordwes; On-site; ZAR 600 000 - 800 000; Full time

Job summary

A leading recruitment consultancy in South Africa is seeking a Marketing Manager – Operations to lead the Marketing Operations function. In this role, you will ensure efficient and consistent operations, oversee strategic delivery and agency management, and evolve marketing processes. The ideal candidate should have experience in complex organisations, strong organisational skills, and a solid understanding of marketing from strategy to execution. This position offers an excellent opportunity to shape operational frameworks and drive impactful marketing initiatives.

Qualifications

• Experience operating within a complex, matrix organisation.
• Proven ability to design and lead operational planning frameworks.
• Experience producing insights for senior leadership.

Responsibilities

• Lead the Marketing Operations function for efficiency and budget adherence.
• Own and evolve the marketing operating model.
• Manage relationships with creative and production agencies.

Skills

Organizational skills

Relationship building

Marketing understanding

Operational planning

Attention to detail

Job description

Role Purpose

Lead the Marketing Operations function, ensuring the Marketing team operates efficiently, consistently and at scale, enabling delivery of the marketing strategy on time and within budget. As the Marketing Manager – Operations, you will provide senior operational oversight, owning ways of working, resource planning, agency management, tooling and reporting across the group.

Job Role Responsibilities

• Own and evolve the group-wide marketing operating model, processes and ways of working.
• Ensure teams collaborate effectively and operate within a consistent, process-driven environment.
• Regularly review and optimise the operating framework in line with business priorities.
• Own the intake, planning and prioritisation process for all marketing activity.
• Plan and manage marketing workload and resource capacity across teams.
• Ensure delivery of agreed priorities while protecting wholesale commitments.
• Own day-to-day relationships with creative, performance, digital and production agencies.
• Set briefing standards, KPIs, delivery expectations, and review cadence.
• Lead on marketing supplier management (alongside Procurement), optimising contracts, retainers and ROI.
• Ensure agencies are prioritised correctly across wholesale and retail brand(s) activity.
• Act as the business owner for marketing technology selection, integration, governance and adoption.
• Lead standardisation of platforms across the group, including CRM, websites, reporting and PPC tech stack.
• Reduce duplication, inefficiency and cost caused by fragmented systems.
• Establish consistent reporting across wholesale and retail.
• Produce and share marketing updates with the wider business to ensure visibility and engagement.
• Provide leadership teams with clear insight into performance, delivery and ROI.
• Track spend and performance to support informed decision-making.
• Own the delivery of group-wide customer, partner and market insight on behalf of the Group Marketing function.
• Consolidate insight from wholesale, retail, performance data, market analysis and external sources into clear, actionable outputs.
• Produce regular insight packs, dashboards and analysis to support strategic decision-making across wholesale and retail.
• Support the Group Head of Marketing & Communications with insight required for Executive, Board and investor-level discussions.
• Ensure insight is consistent, comparable and accessible across the business, enabling informed prioritisation and investment decisions.
• Own the operational delivery of group internal communications, managing internal communications planning, cadence and execution, including business updates, briefings and change communications.
• Coordinate inputs from wholesale, retail and corporate stakeholders into clear, consistent messaging.
• Ensure internal communications are timely, accurate and aligned to agreed group narratives.
• Support business activity such as organisational change and transformation programmes.
• Design and maintain a marketing operating model that supports additional brands with minimal duplication.
• Ensure new brands can integrate seamlessly into existing platforms, agencies and processes.

Experience / Skills / Knowledge / Qualifications

• Experience operating within a complex, matrix organisation, working cross-functionally.
• Proven ability to design, implement and lead operational planning frameworks.
• Strong organisational skills, managing multiple priorities and stakeholders simultaneously.
• Confident relationship builder with a firm but fair approach.
• Strong understanding of marketing from strategy through to execution, including agency production models, planning and delivery.
• Experience producing insight and communications for senior leadership, including Executive-level audiences.
• Working in Telecoms: Previous experience working within telecoms, specifically with fibre-related products.
• Exceptional accuracy and attention to detail.

Pay

• PAYE or Outside IR35

Company information

At First Recruitment Group we understand just how important it is to secure the right people. That is why our Recruitment Consultants always take the time to understand requirements in detail and offer sound advice to both clients and candidates. We actively recruit at all levels and this is a superb opportunity for a Marketing Manager – Operations.

As part of putting people first, we strive to be an equal opportunities employer and we are always looking to increase the diversity of our workforce, working closely with our clients to ensure everyone is included.