Paid Social Specialist

Working with us

Cognita is a global family of over 90 schools across 21 countries, with more than 100,000 students, 22,000 colleagues, 14 curricula and 9 languages of instruction. Our strength lies in our diversity. There is no single model of a Cognita school because education is inherently local. When families choose a school, they are making a deeply personal and community-based decision, and our schools reflect this.

What unites us is a shared ambition to deliver consistently high-quality education, alongside an exceptional experience for students and parents. We define this clearly through group-wide standards that articulate what “great” looks like, while allowing schools the freedom to express their local identity.

We have recently launched a new vision and strategic plan. It is ambitious and sets a clear direction for the years ahead.

Job Overview

The best school stories deserve to reach the families who’d love them. As our Paid Social Specialist, you’ll build awareness and drive high-quality enquiries for Cognita schools across the Middle East and Asia, choosing the channels, audiences and creative that work best for each school.

You’ll report to the Digital Marketing Manager and deliver paid social within the strategy, targets and budgets set by the Head of Digital & Performance Marketing. You’ll work closely with our Organic Social Executives, Brand and Creative teams and the wider Digital & Performance team.

What you’ll do

• Deliver always-on and tactical paid social campaigns for our schools, from set-up and trafficking through to day-to-day monitoring
• Optimise against awareness, enquiry and conversion targets, escalating risks and opportunities early
• Control budget pacing by school, campaign and platform, and work with Finance to keep platform accounts and invoices paid
• Recommend channels, audiences, placements and formats, staying channel-agnostic and led by performance evidence
• Partner with Organic Social Executives and school teams to spot high-performing organic content and amplify it where it makes sense
• Guide Brand and Creative teams on the formats, messaging, calls to action and creative variations most likely to perform
• Run a continuous test-and-learn programme across audiences, creative, placements and formats
• Share weekly, monthly and termly reports with clear insight and next steps
• Work with our Paid Search and CRO Specialists, and with Sales and Parent Experience, to align media with website journeys and understand lead quality

What you’ll bring
Essential

• Advanced, hands-on skills across Meta Ads, Google Ads and TikTok Ads, including targeting, optimisation, conversion tracking and budget pacing
• At least three years’ experience in a digital agency running paid campaigns across multiple client accounts
• Proven experience managing always-on and tactical paid social with both awareness and conversion objectives
• Strong working knowledge of Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager
• Good creative judgement, strong attention to detail and clear stakeholder communication
• A bachelor’s degree in Marketing or a related field

Desirable

• HubSpot experience; automated reporting, dashboarding or paid media automation tools;
• Meta, Google or TikTok certifications; experience in education or another sector with a considered decision journey;
• Experience supporting multi-market portfolios across the Middle East and Asia.

Based in Dubai with a hybrid pattern. You’ll need flexibility across time zones and should expect occasional travel across the Middle East and Asia.

Cognita is committed to safeguarding the welfare of children and young people and expects the same from its employees. All new staff will be subject to detailed and enhanced pre-employment clearance, including identity checks, criminal background checks for all countries lived in, qualification checks, employment checks to include an exploration of any gaps in employment, and satisfactory reference checks for all employment in the last 10 years.