Date: 03-Mar-2021

Location: Lisbon, European Union, PT

Company: British Council

The British Council builds connections, understanding and trust between people in the UK and other countries through arts and culture, education and the English language. We work in two ways ? directly with individuals to transform their lives, and with governments and partners to make a bigger difference for the longer term, creating benefit for millions of people all over the world. We help young people to gain the skills, confidence and connections they are looking for to realise their potential and to participate in strong and inclusive communities. We support them to learn English, to get a high-quality education and to gain internationally recognised qualifications. Our work in arts and culture stimulates creative expression and exchange and nurtures creative enterprise. We connect the best of the UK with the world and the best of the world with the UK. These connections lead to an understanding of each other's strengths and of the challenges and values that we share. This builds trust between people in the UK and other nations which endures even when official relations may be strained. We work on the ground in more than 100 countries. In 2019-20 we connected with 80 million people directly and with 791 million overall, including online and through our broadcasts and publications.
Location: Lisbon, Portugal Contract type: Indefinite contract
Job type: Full-time
Pay band: Local Grade F / pay band 7
Role Context:
The overall purpose of this role is to lead the development and execution of the country sales, marketing and communications strategy for British Council Portugal, ensuring that these are aligned to the regional and global strategy and brand. Marketing and Sales at the British Council is a strategic function which drives awareness, understanding and engagement with us across our diverse audiences. We use insight, knowledge and analysis of our market and customers to engage them with our products and services in the most impactful way.
Main opportunities/challenges for this role:

• Building and developing a motivated and effective integrated Sales, Customer Services and Marketing team for Portugal.

• Leading marketing and communications strategy, planning and execution for the country, ensuring that it drives and supports the global strategic objectives for the British Council in a flexible, cost-effective way.
• Development and execution of a marketing and sales strategy for Portugal, agreeing the delivery mechanisms, budgets and programmes and ensuring alignment with regional and global plans.
• Ensuring effective, integrated and joined up delivery of country marketing activity to maximise impact on return on investment and share of voice in the marketplace.

Main Accountabilities:

• Sales and Customer Services strategic business support

• Develop a sales and customer services strategy for Portugal which reflects British Council corporate objectives and geographical priorities; draws on knowledge of the educational sector overall, the needs and expectations of external/internal stakeholders, and market opportunities.
• Agree customer services standards and sales conversion metrics and targets for teaching businesses in Portugal.
• Ensure that performance of customer facing teams are reviewed through agreed processes and standards and monitored in-year to address any issues related to reaching sales and customer service targets.
• Provide expertise for the development of products, services, projects and activities for agreed target groups ? in line with corporate procedures and standards in customer service excellence.

• Country marketing strategy

• Working with the English and Exams heads, the Head of Marketing and Sales Portugal will set and implement a market and customer based national marketing and sales strategy and plan, ensuring delivery of the required impact, income, and profitability targets as set-out in the business unit plans.
• Design, monitor and evaluate effective marketing campaigns to maximise income opportunity and to support a variety of routes to market maximising impact and share of voice.
• Ensures that clear and consistent marketing processes are deployed in the country aligned to agreed global marketing processes.
• Leads and drives a clear focus on audiences and market segmentation for the country.

• Internal customer focus

• Builds an in-depth understanding of the country and operational context, opportunities and challenges for marketing, sales and customer services functions and teams.
• Makes appropriate linkages to issues across the region.
• Consults closely with internal customers and other stakeholders to understand current and future business needs to improve effectiveness and efficiency.

• Relationship & stakeholder management

• Develops peer/personal networks within and outside Marketing, Sales and Customer Services to enhance own knowledge and expertise.
• Proactively builds and maintains excellent relationships with internal partners and stakeholders to ensure integrated, joined up and future-proofed approaches and solutions.

• Leadership & management

• Leads the marketing, sales and customer service teams in Portugal, setting the vision and providing professional/people leadership.
• Plans and prioritises team and own work activities to ensure effective delivery of diverse responsibilities and deliverables over a quarterly to annual time horizon.
• As part of the Senior Leadership team, contributes to and influences the strategy for future direction of whole Portugal operation.
• Actively applies learning from this process to improve financial planning, management and performance within their area.
• Proactively participates in the Marketing Community of Practice and network of marketing professionals.

• Other accountabilities

• Any other related duties as assigned by the Line Manager from time to time.

Requirements:

Essential:

• University Degree in Business and/or Marketing & Sales area or equivalent qualification from relevant external professional organisations e.g. CIM, Melcrum, GCN, CIPR, WOMMA etc. (or equivalent experience in relevant discipline)
• Language Proficiency: Proficient and fluent speaker and writer of Standard English - C1 CEFRL level
• Language Proficiency: Proficient and fluent speaker and writer of Standard Portuguese ? C2 CEFRL level
• Considerable and demonstrable experience in a senior marketing and sales position at a national level within a large and complex organisation.
• Demonstrable experience of leading a team including performance management and development.
• Proven track record of implementing marketing strategies and plans
• Demonstrable experience in managing supplier relationships.
• Demonstrable experience with CRM tools like Salesforce
• Strong understanding on how to optimise a customer journey combining off- and online environments

Desirable:

• Master?s Degree in Business or Marketing and Sales area.
• Experience in a global organization.

If you are interested in the post and feel that you are suitable for the role, then we would really like to hear from you.
Start date of contract: As soon as possible ? early April 2021.
Closing Date for applications: 16th of March 2021, applications will close 23:59 CET. A connected and trusted UK in a more connected and trusted world.
Equality Statement
The British Council is committed to a policy of equality and to valuing diversity and is keen to reflect the diversity of the societies in which we work at every level within the organisation. We welcome applications from all sections of the community. We aim to abide by and promote equality legislation by following both the letter and the spirit of it to avoid unjustified discrimination, recognising discrimination as a barrier to equality of opportunity, inclusion and human rights. All staff worldwide are required to ensure their behaviour is consistent with our policies.
The British Council has Disability Confident Employer Status. We offer a guaranteed interview scheme for disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for the role. Applicants are encouraged to highlight any specific requirements or adjustments needed to enable participation in the recruitment process.

The British Council is committed to safeguarding children, young people and adults who we work with.
We believe that all children and adults everywhere in the world deserve to live in safe environments and have the right to be protected from all forms of abuse, maltreatment and exploitation as set out in article 19, UNCRC (United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child) 1989.
Appointment to positions where there is direct involvement with vulnerable groups will be dependent on thorough checks being completed; these will include qualification checks, reference checks, identity & criminal record checks in line with legal requirements and with the British Council?s Safeguarding policies for Adults and Children.
If you have any problems with your application please email [email protected]