Chief Marketing Officer (CMO)- Education sector, Mumbai

Job Description:

Job Title 
Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) 
Reporting to: CEO / Managing Director 
Location: Mumbai (with pan India oversight) 
 
Role Purpose

The Chief Marketing Officer will be responsible for defining, leading, and executing the integrated marketing vision for all brands under the umbrella, ensuring measurable growth in admissions, enrollments, brand equity, and longterm enterprise value.  The role demands strategic leadership across digital, social, traditional, performance, partnerships, and emerging marketing channels, with strong ROI discipline, people leadership, and agency governance. 
 
 
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES 
 
1. Strategic Role 
 Define and drive the Group Marketing Strategy aligned to short term growth and long term brand vision. 

 Establish distinct brand architectures, positioning, and value propositions across preschool, K12, IB, higher education, test prep, and creative education segments. 
 Lead admissions linked marketing strategy, ensuring strong funnel health across awareness, lead generation, conversion, and retention. 
 Drive digital first transformation, including performance marketing, SEO/SEM, social media, content, CRMled campaigns, and marketing automation. 
 Oversee integrated marketing planning across digital, social, ATL, BTL, PR, partnerships, events, and experiential marketing. 
 Build and own annual and multiyear marketing roadmaps, budgets, and growth plans for each brand. 
 Leverage consumer insights, data analytics, and market intelligence to guide strategic decisions. 
 Champion innovation in marketing, exploring new platforms, formats, and partnerships relevant to education consumers. 
 
2. Administrative & Governance Responsibilities 
 Own and control marketing budgets across all brands, ensuring fiscal discipline and optimal allocation. 
 Establish standard operating frameworks for campaign approvals, agency onboarding, brand compliance, and vendor governance. 
 Ensure brand consistency, IP protection, and statutory compliance across all communication. 
 Implement robust marketing MIS, dashboards, and review mechanisms at brand and group levels. 
 Drive process efficiency across campaign execution, content approvals, vendor payments, and performance reporting. 
 Ensure documentation, audits, and compliance align with corporate governance standards. 
 

3. People Management & Leadership 

 Build, lead, and mentor high performing brand wise marketing teams, including Digital, Content, Social Media, Performance, PR, Design, and Regional Marketing. 
 Create clear role charters, KRAs, and performance metrics for each brand and function. 
 Develop leadership depth through succession planning and capability building. 
 Foster a culture of ownership, accountability, collaboration, and data driven decision making. 
 Drive talent reviews, performance evaluations, and skill upgradation aligned to evolving marketing needs. 
 
4. Stakeholder Management & ROI Accountability 
 Partner closely with CEO, Business Heads, School Leadership, Admissions, Sales, Finance, and Operations to align marketing with business outcomes. 
 Manage and govern external agencies (digital, creative, media, PR, performance, research), ensuring value delivery. 
 Present clear ROI linked marketing performance reports to Management and Board. 
 Ensure every marketing intervention has defined objectives, success metrics, and post campaign ROI evaluation. 
 Act as a strategic advisor to business leaders on brand investments, market
expansion, and growth priorities. 
 
FUNCTIONAL COMPETENCIES 
 Enterprise level Marketing Strategy & Brand Management 
 Digital & Performance Marketing (Paid Media, SEO, Social, CRM) 
 Admissions & Funnelled Growth Marketing 
 Budgeting, ROI Analysis & Marketing Analytics 
 Agency Management & Vendor Governance 
 Market Research & Consumer Insights 
 Integrated Campaign Planning (ATL / BTL / Digital) 

 Education Sector Marketing (K12, Preschool, IB, Higher Ed preferred) 
 
 
BEHAVIORAL COMPETENCIES 

 Strategic & systems thinker with strong business acumen 
 Outcome driven with high accountability orientation 
 Influential leader capable of driving alignment across diverse stakeholders 
 Strong executive presence and communication skills 
 Ability to operate in complex, multi brand, multimarket environments 
 Resilient, agile, and comfortable with scale and ambiguity 
 Ethical, governance oriented, and process disciplined 
 
QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE 
 Experience: 15–20 years of progressive marketing leadership experience 
(Education sector experience strongly preferred; multi brand exposure essential) 
 Qualification: Post Graduate degree – MBA / MMS / Master’s Diploma in Marketing or equivalent 
 Preferred: Education from a premier institute