Are you looking for a role within an organisation where the work you do makes a real difference to children? If the answer it's yes, Associate Head of Brand and Marketing Planning could be exactly what you're looking for. 

The NSPCC's Communications and Marketing Directorate is evolving to deliver more integrated, insight-led campaigns that drive impact and reinforce our brand. This role sits at the heart of that transformation, bringing together elements of our marketing planning and creative functions to oversee the end-to-end process — from audience insight through to strategic annual planning and prioritisation, and ultimately project management of key campaigns and projects.

The Associate Head of Brand and Marketing Planning plays a key role in ensuring that our organisational communications planning is informed by robust research and insight. This planning will guide the development of creative projects and campaigns. Working closely with the Associate Heads of Creative and Strategic Marketing, this role will oversee the project management, resource mapping and workflow management of key creative projects and campaigns, ensuring campaigns are well-managed, cost-effective, and aligned with organisational priorities.

We're always looking for proactive people, who with their words will inspire action, build trust, and bring our mission to life. If that's you, join us as a Associate Head of Brand and Marketing Planning to play your part in protecting children and young people. 

What is the purpose of the  Associate Head of Brand and Marketing Planning? 

This role plays a vital part in delivering our communications strategy and supporting the NSPCC's wider goals. You'll contribute by: 

• Overseeing the development and application of audience insight and research to inform annual organisational communications planning, brand strategy and audience segmentation.
• Leading the annual communications and marketing planning process, working closely with our Senior Leadership Team and media agencies to ensure we are delivering fewer, bigger, better campaigns that drive impact against our organisational priorities.
• Supporting the delivery of creative and strategic marketing projects, ensuring alignment with the communications plan and organisational goals, feasibility of delivery of creative outputs and production, optimising workflows, and overseeing budget and resource allocation.
• Building and maintaining excellent internal and external stakeholder relationships, ensuring collaboration, accountability, and value for money.

What will I be doing as a Associate Head of Brand and Marketing Planning? 

Insight-Led Planning

• Working closely with our Senior Leadership team, oversee the development of the annual communications plan, ensuring it is underpinned by robust audience insight and market research.
• Oversee the organisational research and insight strategy, ensuring findings are applied to supporter engagement, marketing, and communications.
• Manage brand tracking research for NSPCC and Childline, including questionnaire design, insight dissemination, and stakeholder engagement.

Campaign & Project Support

• Support Strategic Marketing and Creative teams in project managing campaigns and creative outputs, ensuring alignment with the annual plan.
• Evaluate the feasibility of outputs across media channels, ensuring they support strategic goals and deliver measurable impact.
• Provide consultancy on large-scale projects, streamlining processes and advising on cost-effective, innovative approaches.

Operational Oversight

• Monitor project progress, acting as the escalation point for deviations in timelines and costs.
• Define and optimise workflows from briefing to post-production, ensuring efficiency and high-quality delivery.
• Manage project management software and build automations to reduce manual processes and enhance performance tracking.

Performance & Budget Management

• Be financially literate and able to evaluate campaign performance, budgets, and marketing spend.
• Assess departmental content budgets and outsourcing expenses, providing updates to senior stakeholders to support business planning.

Stakeholder & Agency Relationships

• Build and maintain excellent relationships with internal stakeholders including Strategic Marketing, Performance Marketing, Communications Planning, and Creative teams.
• Manage relationships with external media and research agencies, ensuring strategic alignment and value for money.
• Act as a senior stakeholder for the communications planning function, contributing to processes and strategic responses.

Collaboration & Integration

• Work with the Head of Brand and Marketing to define long-term goals for digital and brand assets, media libraries, and brand hubs.
• Ensure integration of planning and insight across the wider organisation, supporting joined-up thinking and delivery.

Continuous Improvement

• Stay up to date with best practice and developments in marketing and the charity sector, with attention to innovation, legislation, and codes of practice.
• Drive continuous improvement in planning, performance evaluation, and stakeholder engagement.

What skills do I need to be a Associate Head of Brand and Marketing Planning? 

1. Substantial experience leading and managing a high performing team.
2. Substantial success in working in strategic marketing, insight and planning, dealing with a wide range of marketing disciplines including through the line campaigns, digital and social influence.
3. Experience of overseeing an organisation's marketing research and brand insight strategy, and ensuring the application of insight to supporter engagement, marketing and communication strategies.
4. Excellent financial acumen and experience managing budgets and evaluating marketing spend.
5. Well-developed interpersonal skills and the ability to communicate and deal with people in a range of disciplines, and to successfully achieve objectives through these contacts, involving problem solving, decision making, negotiation, motivation, influencing, tact, diplomacy, persuasion and consultancy skills.
6. Demonstrable track record of success in managing the operations of in-house/external creative and marketing teams, delivering high volume, impactful communications and marketing projects and campaigns to a high standard, on time and to budget.
7. Excellent ability to plan, monitor, and implement major projects to agreed deadlines often with conflicting priorities.
8. Corporate and strategic thinker with excellent proven ability to contribute to the delivery of a communication strategy, ensuring cooperative working and maintaining vision.
9. Ability to simultaneously manage and prioritise a number of different high-level briefs and commitments, ensuring that the commissioner experience remains positive and effective.
10. Knowledge of current marketing legislation and understanding of content licensing, and regulatory environments.

Why join the NSPCC?

Any one of our people will tell you that a huge reward in itself is making a difference to children's lives. But we know it's a competitive world, and it's important to feel valued in your role and receive more practical, tangible benefits. We offer salaries that are at least comparable with the top charities in the UK, as well as these benefits.

• Generous annual leave - 29 days per annum plus bank holidays for full-time employees (pro-rata for part-time). 32 days per annum after five years' continuous service.
• Employee discounts - Our discounts portal gives you online access to over 3,000 discounts and offers.
• The Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) - an independent, free, personal support service. It can provide information, support and advice to support your health and wellbeing.
• Pension - building up a good pension is something we want to help you achieve with our flexible, tax-efficient pension schemes.
• Life assurance scheme - All employees will be given life assurance of one times their salary, unless they join the NSPCC Group Personal Pension Scheme, where members are given life assurance of five times their salary.

Join us and make a difference. You'll grow, be challenged, and help change millions of young lives for the better.

Ready to apply?

If this is the role for you, please click the button ‘apply' to start your journey. You can find more information on all recruitment stages on the Career page.

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