Chief Marketing Officer (CMO)

About the Group

Whitecliffe Global Group is a dynamic, growing international education group operating across New Zealand, Australia, Germany, and Canada. Comprising a portfolio of distinguished higher education institutions, the Group is united by a shared commitment to creative, design-led, and professionally focused education that prepares graduates for careers in a rapidly changing world.

At a pivotal moment in its global growth story, Whitecliffe is investing in brand, digital infrastructure, and marketing capability to strengthen its position as a recognised leader in international higher education.

The Opportunity - A defining leadership role

This is a newly created senior executive position reporting directly to the Executive Chairman. The CMO will be Whitecliffe's most senior marketing voice — responsible for building and executing a unified, high-impact marketing strategy across all four countries.

You will lead a distributed team of in-country marketing professionals and centralised Group functions, bringing coherence, rigour, and creative ambition to brand positioning, digital marketing, PR, communications, and web presence.

What You'll Do

Group Marketing Strategy & Leadership

• Own and lead the Group-wide marketing strategy aligned with institutional priorities across all four countries
• Provide executive direction to in-country marketing teams in NZ, Australia, Germany, and Canada
• Build strong working relationships with each institution's CEO and the VP Global Sales
• Report regularly on performance and strategy to the Executive Chairman

Brand & Identity

• Lead the development and stewardship of the Group's brand architecture across all institutions and markets
• Ensure brand consistency, integrity, and quality across all touchpoints
• Champion differentiation strategies and govern brand guidelines for all countries

Digital Marketing

• Lead Group digital marketing strategy — SEO, SEM, paid media, email, social, and content
• Drive data-led optimisation and continuous improvement across all channels
• Oversee digital advertising spend and ROI across the Group

Websites & Digital Presence

• Own the Group web strategy and executive oversight of all institutional websites
• Lead major website projects including redesigns and platform migrations
• Govern digital brand standards and agency/vendor relationships

SEO

• Develop and lead the Group's SEO strategy across all markets with clear performance benchmarks
• Embed technical, on-page, and off-page SEO into all digital and web activity
• Build internal SEO capability across content and marketing teams

PR & Communications

• Lead Group PR strategy and manage media relationships across all four markets
• Oversee press releases, thought leadership, and executive communications
• Develop crisis communications frameworks and support institutional CEOs

Content & Creative

• Lead development of compelling content that supports brand awareness and engagement
• Oversee Group content calendar, editorial standards, and creative quality
• Source authentic institutional stories and build compelling Group narratives

Team Leadership

• Recruit, lead, develop, and retain a high-performing distributed marketing function
• Build a culture of collaboration, accountability, and creative excellence
• Foster strong relationships between Group marketing and in-country institutional leaders

Planning, Performance & Reporting

• Own the annual Group marketing plan and budget across channels and countries
• Establish robust performance frameworks, dashboards, and KPIs
• Manage agency, supplier, and technology vendor relationships

About You

You are a seasoned marketing executive with a track record of leading integrated marketing functions across complex, multi-brand or multi-market environments.

• Substantial senior marketing leadership experience at Group, multi-brand, or multi-market level
• Proven capability across digital marketing, SEO, brand management, and communications
• Experience leading and developing distributed, cross-cultural marketing teams
• A track record of building and executing strategies that deliver measurable brand outcomes
• Experience managing significant marketing budgets and demonstrating ROI
• A relevant tertiary qualification (or equivalent professional experience)

Key Skills & Attributes

• Strategic thinker with strong execution ability
• Excellent executive-level communicator
• Data-driven with strong analytical instincts
• Commercially astute and outcome-focused
• Highly collaborative across cultures and geographies
• Strong creative sensibility and brand standards
• Resilient and energised by complexity
• Strong stakeholder management skills

Desirable: experience in higher education or a regulated sector; exposure to multiple international markets; German language skills an advantage.