Director, Demand & Audience Marketing

Director, Demand & Audience Marketing –£80,000 – £85,000 – Permanent

Join us and be part of a mission-driven, independent publisher. You’ll work with a diverse group of people who share a passion for empowering researchers, educators, and institutions to shape the future.

About Sage:

Sage  is a global academic publisher of books, journals, and library resources with a growing range of technologies to enable discovery, access, and engagement. Believing that research and education are critical in shaping society, Sara Miller McCune founded Sage in 1965. Today, we are controlled by a group of trustees charged with maintaining our independence and mission indefinitely. 

Our guaranteed independence means we’re free to:

• Do more – supporting an equitable academic future, furthering disciplines that drive social change, and helping social and behavioural science make an impact

• Work together – building lasting relationships, championing diverse perspectives, and co-creating resources to transform teaching and learning

• Think long-term – experimenting, taking risks, and investing in new ideas

About our Team:

At Sage, our Marketing team plays a vital role in connecting knowledge, research, education, and innovation with the people and institutions that need it most. Working across a global portfolio, the team helps researchers, authors, educators, librarians, societies, institutions, and decision-makers discover, engage with, and benefit from Sage's products, services, and communities.

The Demand & Audience team is central to Sage's global marketing organisation. Working in close collaboration with Portfolio Marketing, Markets & Performance, Revenue Enablement, Marketing Operations, Editorial, Sales, Data, Technology, and regional commercial teams, the function transforms strategic priorities into meaningful audience engagement and measurable commercial outcomes. Together, we develop customer-centred experiences, deliver impactful campaigns, strengthen relationships across the research and education ecosystem, and support Sage's mission through insight-led, innovative marketing.

Could you be our new Director, Demand & Audience Marketing Director? Are you?

· A strategic marketing leader with experience leading global teams and delivering results through both direct and matrix management structures.

• Someone who has successfully developed and scaled demand generation, audience growth, lifecycle marketing, or digital marketing strategies within a complex, multi-stakeholder environment.

• Skilled in creating customer-centred marketing programmes that use segmentation, targeting, personalisation, and journey orchestration to improve audience engagement and business outcomes.

• An experienced marketer with a strong track record of delivering integrated campaigns across channels such as email, web, social media, paid media, content marketing, automation, and partner networks.

• Commercially minded, with the ability to connect marketing activity to measurable outcomes such as revenue growth, pipeline development, submissions, product adoption, engagement, retention, and customer value.

• Confident using data, analytics, customer insight, and performance reporting to evaluate success, inform decisions, optimise investment, and demonstrate return on marketing investment.

• A collaborative and influential relationship builder who can bring together diverse stakeholders, align priorities, clarify decision-making, and create strong partnerships across global teams.

• Passionate about developing people and building inclusive, high-performing environments where individuals feel valued, supported, empowered, and able to do their best work.

Your new role:

As Director, Demand & Audience, you will hold a vital position on Sage's Global Marketing Leadership Team, crafting ways to engage, increase, and support audiences globally. You will guide the strategy and delivery of demand generation, audience development, lifecycle marketing, and omnichannel campaigns. You will ensure marketing actions align with audience requirements, commercial goals, and market shifts.

• Develop and deliver a global Demand & Audience strategy that aligns marketing activity with business priorities, audience needs, market opportunities, and growth objectives.

• Lead coordinated, omnichannel demand generation campaigns developed to increase engagement, acquisition, retention, advocacy, and conversion across diverse audience groups.

• Build audience-first marketing journeys by driving segmentation, personalisation, lifecycle marketing, and nurture strategies that improve relevance and performance.

• Partner with Portfolio Marketing and commercial collaborators to translate strategic priorities into scalable, measurable campaign plans and go-to-market activities.

• Optimise the performance of marketing channels, including web, email, social media, paid media, SEO/AEO, automation, and content activation, using data and audience insight to drive continuous improvement.

• Strengthen Sage's research and learning communities by building engagement, dedication, advocacy, and long-term relationships with authors, editors, reviewers, faculty, librarians, societies, and institutional partners.

• Establish effective ways of working across global teams, agencies, and delivery partners, enabling consistent execution, operational excellence, and greater speed to market.

• Lead, mentor, and develop a high-performing distributed team while encouraging a culture of inclusion, innovation, accountability, continuous learning, and responsible experimentation with new technologies and AI.

Overview of Benefits

• 25 days annual leave (plus bank holidays) with 2 additional floating personal days.

• Hybrid working up to 2 days per week in office and a home working allowance.

• Life assurance, income protection, and travel insurance.

• Private medical cover and access to the company doctor.

• Tuition scheme and support for pursuing professional qualifications, including access to Sage books and journals.

• Variety of snacks and beverages available in the office.

• Healthy lifestyle reimbursement and anniversary trips.

• Access to Company loans (season ticket loan, rental deposit loan, cycle loan).

We’re a Disability Confident Employer (Level 1). If you’d like to apply under this scheme, please let us know in your application.

We’re committed to making our recruitment process accessible and inclusive. If you’d like to request reasonable adjustments, please email humanresources@sagepub.co.uk. Please note we only accept applications via email if an adjustment has been agreed.

Closing date for applications: October 13, 2026

To ensure we can give each application the attention it deserves, we may consider bringing the closing date forward. Therefore, we encourage you to submit your application as soon as possible to ensure it is considered.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

At Sage, we are committed to building a diverse and inclusive team and to sustaining a culture that celebrates diversity, encourages authenticity, and builds a deep sense of belonging. We encourage applications from all members of society irrespective of age, disability, sex or gender identity, sexual orientation, colour, race, nationality, ethnic or national origin, religion, or belief as crafting value through diversity is what makes us strong.