Head of Marketing

The Head of Marketing, reporting directly to the CEO, is tasked with transforming the marketing function to deeply resonate with and expand the grassroots surfing community across all skills and abilities. This role requires a visionary leader who is motivated to redefine, build and integrate various business functions into a unified marketing and brand strategy. This leader will be instrumental in reshaping the brand positioning to align with local surfing culture, while emphasising the organisation's commitment to community connection and support.

Effective Stakeholder management is critical, as this role will require comprehensive strategies to ensure effective communication with internal teams, NSW clubs and surf schools, brand partners, and the broader surf community. Developing a cohesive content strategy across all platforms, including events, is essential, ensuring messages are consistent and tailored to various audience segments.

A key aspect of the role is creatively integrating brand partners into marketing channels, demonstrating clear, measurable value to partners while also contributing to revenue growth through new partnerships and customer acquisition strategies. This is a senior leadership position, and the director will also play a pivotal role in shaping and developing an agile marketing team, presenting an opportunity to redefine how a sporting organisation connects.

Key Responsibilities:

• Strategy Development: Design and execute integrated marketing strategies to enhance visibility, community engagement and define the role of SNSW in market with key stakeholders.
• Partnership Acquisition: Working with the leadership team to craft and deliver strategic presentations to potential partners, effectively leveraging Surfing NSW’s value proposition under its new direction.
• Account Management: Utilising experience, potentially from a creative or advertising agency background, to manage brand partnerships across various channels and internal team, ensuring effective implementation and alignment with strategic goals.
• Leadership in Rebuilding: Take a hands-on approach in the significant overhaul of existing functions, aligning them with a new business model and strategic vision focused on community, members, and clubs.
• Team Building: Play a critical role in shaping a new way of working within the organisation, including recruiting the right team members into the marketing and partnerships function to support these efforts and the five year vision.
• Budget ownership: Create a marketing budget and report to the CFO monthly; re-forecast and adapt to business requirements as needed. Create a marketing reporting system to provide visibility regarding marketing ROI both for SNSW and partners.
• Transformation of Communications and Marketing: In our strategic overhaul, we aim to transition the communications and marketing function from a traditional cost centre to a revenue driver.

Key Projects:

• Marketing Plan and BAU Execution: Develop and execute marketing plans to maintain and enhance ongoing business-as-usual activities to ensure consistent brand visibility and partner satisfaction (largely event-based promotion).
• Tech Stack Design for Martech Strategy:Input into the design of a tech stack to set requirements for gathering effective customer insights and to design and execute a Martech strategy focused on segmentation, user engagement, communication and partner integration.
• Development of GTM Membership Strategy:Develop strategies to take to market various member products, aimed at simplifying and enhancing the value offered to members and grassroots surfing communities.
• Segmented Communication Strategies:Devise segmented marketing strategies via various channels (EDM, telegram, socials) to build simple communication plans with different member segments.
• Partnership Management:Oversee and manage relationships with key partners, ensuring that all partnership deliverables are met and that collaborations are valuable, and aligned with strategic objectives.
• Team Leadership and Recruitment:Recruit and mentor a developing marketing team to support the various initiatives.
• Play a pivotal role in setting the direction for the organisation, with the five-year vision to lead a larger marketing, communications, and partnerships team.
• Marketing Strategy for Programs & Education:Create and implement a detailed marketing strategy for the various SNSW programs - namely, Surfer’s Rescue 24/7, Her Wave and others - aiming to elevate public profile, drive engagement and revenue for relevant programs.
• Redefine the Brand:In collaboration with leadership team, redefine the brand to resonate with our winning aspiration and our culture. Ongoing, we want to take steps to cultivate meaningful brand impact and advocacy.

Profile of Successful Candidate

The ideal candidate for the Head of Marketing role is likely to have a strong background in advertising agencies, had significant experience in leading brand-side marketing strategies within sports leagues, or led impactful membership initiatives for various businesses. You’ve likely held transformative roles in start-up or growth environments, and scaling operations through data-driven insights. You’re a thinker, an architect, someone who can design strategy, lean into the detail but also lead a team to deliver. You’ll have cross-sector experience, appreciate the power of building brand as much data analytics, and have likely led successful GTM of integrated marketing campaigns, digital transformation projects, or implementing marketing strategies that enhanced customer engagement and loyalty in various industries like technology, consumer goods, sport or entertainment. Importantly, you’ll have an appreciation for surfing, not only as a competitive sport but as a cultural and community connector, and be eager to reshape the way we can serve surfers in New South Wales. If this sounds like you, we can’t wait to connect

Working at Surfing NSW

Join Surfing NSW and contribute to a mission-driven organisation where your work directly impacts the grassroots surfing community. Enjoy competitive benefits package (unique to each role), flexible work arrangements and beachfront office. This role offers the opportunity to shape and grow within a dynamic non-profit setting, and redefine the way a sporting organisation connects with its community.

About Surfing NSW

Founded in 1963, Surfing NSW is the premier non-profit organisation for surfing in New South Wales, covering all disciplines of the sport. We play a pivotal role in increasing participation, supporting grassroots development and high performance talent within the state and have fostered a dynamic network of 132 affiliated boardriding clubs and over 15,000 members. The organisation also supports more than 50 surf schools and coaches, delivering hundreds of thousands of lessons each year, boosting the accessibility of surfing for all ages and abilities.

Beyond fostering sport participation, Surfing NSW is committed to enhancing community wellbeing through its extensive educational programs. These include life-saving first response training, aquatic trauma treatment, therapeutic surfing programs, and ocean career development, ensuring a holistic approach to the development of the sport and its participants.

Thank you for your interest in joining our team. To apply for the position, please send your resume and a cover letter (no more than one page) to careers@surfingnsw.com.au