Strategic Growth Lead – Assessment

We are the world’s largest university press. We have both a worldwide reach and a personal understanding of local needs, partnering on the ground to adapt publications and resources to meet the individual needs of communities, societies, and countries. We partner with researchers, educators, and technology partners to stay ahead of the changing ways people around the world are accessing and sharing knowledge. With a presence in more than 50 countries and millions of customers around the world, an idea launched at OUP can have global impact.

About the Role

The Strategic Growth Lead – Assessment is responsible for developing and executing the strategy for growth within the Assessment business, focused predominantly on growing the Test Centre network, shaping our commercial offer and developing strategies for entering new markets.

In this exciting and pivotal brand new role, you will be responsible for developing and executing new business models, effective sales strategies, pricing models and positioning to expand the organisation’s customer base and deliver tangible growth. 

The financial expectations for this role are to own the Assessment P&L and grow the business.  In this role, you will work closely with Business Development Managers, Regional Directors, Educational Consultants and Sales Teams, together with colleagues across Marketing, Customer Services and Product.

Other duties will include:

• Develop and execute a comprehensive growth strategy, working closely with marketing leads and feeding into marketing strategy.
• Develop new test centre models & business models to enable expansion of the test centre network.
• Provide strategic direction to the BDMAs (Business Development Manager Assessment) in order for the BDMAs to achieve revenue targets and to develop a pipeline of new customers and markets to build an effective framework for delivering growth targets.
• Identify and evaluate new market opportunities, priority markets, expansion possibilities, and emerging trends in the global English language assessment industry.
• Develop and implement effective sales strategies for the growth of the Assessment business, pricing models, and promotional campaigns to drive sales growth, working closely with sales teams in markets across the world, and with commercial and marketing roles
• Input into the development of annual plans and forecasts with regional sales teams so that Business Plans are met or exceeded or steps and put in place for intervention as needed
• Ensure the growth strategy is aligned with the recognition strategy in order to drive sustainable growth and market penetration.
• Analyse sales data, CRM reports and key performance metrics to measure progress and optimize sales efforts, including providing reporting on progress with recommendations for improvements.

We operate a hybrid working policy that requires a minimum of 2 days per week in the Oxford office. 

About You

Essential:

• Sound commercial and financial experience, including P&L responsibility, and experience of developing business strategies that deliver growth
• Ability to leverage data analytics and performance metrics to make informed decisions, optimize growth strategies, and allocate resources effectively
• Proven networking skills and ability to interface with a number of senior level stakeholders
• Leadership skills: both directly and through a matrix
• Proven collaboration, influencing and facilitation skills
• Good organisational and planning skills, with ability to respond with agility and flexibility
• Demonstration of passion and resilience

Desirable:

• Significant experience in developing growth strategies for assessment and/or exams publishing at a senior level
• Excellent coaching skills
• Developed intercultural awareness
• Experience of working in a global environment, navigating and influencing across a complex matrix structure to achieve results

Benefits

We care about work/life balance here at OUP. With this in mind we offer 25 days’ holiday that rises with service, plus bank holidays and Christmas closure (3-days) and a 35-hour working week. We are open to discussing flexibility in respect to working patterns, dependent on role. We also have a great variety of active employee networks and societies. 

We help make your money go further by contributing to your pension up to 12%, offering loans and savings schemes through our partnership with Salary Finance, in addition to travel to work schemes and access to a wide range of local discounts. 

This role comes with the added benefit of private medical insurance and a discretionary annual management bonus.

Please see our Rewards and Recognition page for more information.

Queries

Please contact grace.mcfadyen@oup.com with any queries relating to this role. 

We are committed to supporting diversity in our workforce, and ensuring an inclusive environment where all individuals can thrive. We seek to employ a workforce representative of the markets that we serve and encourage applications from all.