Marketing Director

Role Overview

Marketing Director at Informa Group Plc (Tahaluf), based in Saudi Arabia. You will drive marketing and communications strategy for a portfolio of high-growth B2B events and lead an operational marketing team.

Company Overview

Tahaluf is the largest B2B live and on-demand events organiser in Saudi Arabia by space, attendance, colleagues, and revenue. It is a joint venture between Informa PLC, the Saudi Federation for Cybersecurity, Programming and Drones (SAFCSP), and the Events Investment Fund (EIF). The portfolio includes LEAP and Cityscape (the largest events in their respective fields of tech and real estate), Black Hat MEA (a Guinness World Record holder for the largest CTF competition), and CPHI Middle East (the largest pharma debut event in history). Tahaluf operates in a culture of collaboration, creativity, and high performance, scaling rapidly as a key growth market at the forefront of product development and operational change.

Role Purpose

You will be an accomplished marketing and communications strategist responsible for developing and executing the brand vision and market engagement strategy for Tahaluf's portfolio of high-growth events. Working as a member of the senior leadership team, you will lead a team of marketers to deliver integrated campaigns from value proposition and messaging through brand amplification, PR, data analysis and channel marketing. You will support the launch of new products through go-to-market strategies and sales support, while driving a data-driven, test-and-learn culture across the organization.

Key Responsibilities

Leadership & Governance

• Serve as a member of the portfolio management team.
• Represent the portfolio across Middle East and divisional groups on marketing, digital, data and customer insights.
• Act as Portfolio Sponsor for GDPR.
• Take an active role in the development and implementation of Corporate/EMEA initiatives.
• Identify and mitigate risks to the business achieving marketing targets in partnership with portfolio management.

Strategy & Vision Development

• Develop value propositions and messaging with portfolio management to drive engagement and conversion.
• Lead the portfolio's marketing strategy and own the marketing, data and digital portfolio strategy.
• Work with show teams to optimise engagement at each touchpoint in the customer journey.
• Identify and deliver key portfolio-wide projects to position products for continued growth, including branding, cross-marketing, key account management and first-time exhibitor experience.
• Demonstrate and encourage creative approaches using market intelligence to create unique and engaging visitor experiences.
• Develop the capabilities of marketing across the portfolio, integrating technology into strategy and tactical delivery.
• Share marketing case studies and best practice from across the EMEA business by forging collaborative relationships with marketers across the division.

Campaign Strategy & Delivery

• Lead the portfolio's strategic show marketing and campaign execution.
• Devise and deliver innovative marketing campaigns to achieve pre-determined objectives and targets.
• Manage budgets and allocate resources amongst projects.
• Ensure marketing campaigns are delivered within budget with spend allocations based on sound commercial reasoning.
• Take the lead and document the results of pilot projects and testing.
• Identify trends in data to encourage teams to do more of what works and less of what does not.
• Navigate the move away from opinion-driven decision-making to data-driven decision-making.

Team Management

• Lead a team of marketing and digital managers across a portfolio of products.
• Ensure the marketing team is motivated and appropriately skilled and trained to carry out their responsibilities.
• Provide guidance, feedback and inspiration to the team.
• Work with Marketing Managers to ensure successful delivery of marketing campaigns in line with agreed KPIs, event and divisional strategy.
• Work with line reports to develop skills and competencies and ensure they have a clear development roadmap.
• Develop succession plan to identify top talent, flight risks and guarantee continuous delivery from the team.
• Cultivate and demonstrate a high-performance culture within the marketing team.
• Champion the adoption and optimisation of marketing technology solutions.

Cross-Functional Collaboration & Product Support

• Support the event team in the development and launch of new products through effective go-to-market strategies, sales support and price validation and testing.
• Ensure the marketing team works collaboratively with other departments to deliver shared objectives.
• Understand recent customer survey feedback and apply this information to marketing strategies.
• Deliver best practice and knowledge sharing (marketing, digital, data and customer insights) across the portfolio and the ME business.

Digital & Technology

• Demonstrate clear understanding of the business's overall mission and how this should be communicated through marketing and PR.
• Use marketing technology to deliver results.
• Ensure team members are equipped with the skills to deliver a fresh campaign strategy.
• With growing strength in ecommerce, support marketing's increasing responsibility for direct sales.

Qualifications & Experience

• Educated to degree level or equivalent.
• An inspiring marketing and brand leader with 10+ years of experience in people management and leadership.
• History of building and nurturing high-performing teams.
• Track record of setting and delivering to the highest standards.
• An accomplished marketing strategist with experience of developing value propositions, pricing and driving agility in campaigning and execution.
• Solid experience in marketing transformation and running agile teams.
• Experience of developing a brand vision and driving activity to realise it (PR, social media etc).
• Solid experience of marketing a mixed portfolio of products including events, SaaS or subscription products, with experience in B2B lead generation.
• Experienced in market analysis.
• Experience of developing a test and learn culture.

Skills & Competencies

• Exceptional knowledge of online and offline channels and integrated campaigns.
• Analytical with a data-driven mindset.
• Strong content development to support strategic goals.
• Good working knowledge of marketing technology and analytics tools including Eloqua, Adobe Analytics, Adobe Target, Drupal and Google Analytics.
• Great collaborator, strong in both internal and external communications.
• Thrives in a fast-paced, results-oriented environment.
• Drive, passion and energy to realise ambitious goals.

Additional Information

Contract & Location

• Based in Saudi Arabia (Riyadh).
• Reporting to Senior Management.
• Familiar with and comfortable working in matrix structures where functional and commercial leadership and responsibility are shared.

Benefits

• Competitive bonus.
• BUPA Medical Insurance for you and your family.
• Annual leave: 28 days.
• Remote working on Sundays.
• Working anywhere: 8 weeks every year.
• Residency visa including yearly dependent fees.
• School fees contribution: 40,000 SAR per child per year (up to a maximum of three children).
• Individual annual flight allowance for expats.

International Relocation Package (if eligible)

• Paid flight to Riyadh for you and your family (up to a maximum of three children).
• 60 days of accommodation or a suitable serviced apartment from arrival date, or a one-off payment of SAR 5,000.
• Up to SAR 2,500 reimbursement of shipping goods and excess baggage costs.
• Individual paid flight home and an end-of-service gratuity payment when leaving the company.

Local Relocation Package (if eligible)

• Paid flight to Riyadh for individual and family (up to a maximum of three children).
• 30 days accommodation or a suitable serviced apartment from arrival date, or a one-off payment of SAR 5,000.
• Up to SAR 2,500 reimbursement of shipping goods and excess baggage costs.

Inclusion

• Tahaluf welcomes applicants from all backgrounds and circumstances and bases hiring decisions on relevant qualifications and merit.
• The organisation provides a disability-friendly environment and will offer support or adjustments to participate in interview or selection processes upon request.