Role: Head of Email Marketing Automation
Location: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Job type: Full time, Permanent – Hybrid


Why QS?


At QS, our culture fosters a flexible working environment that encourages our employees to own their career whilst personally and professionally thriving. We collaborate, respect, and support each other – and as a company, our values underpin these.


Our mission is to empower motivated people around the world to fulfil their potential through higher education, and to ensure everyone has the same opportunity to achieve that potential. We celebrate the diversity of our teams and believe through sharing our experiences we can learn from one another and become stronger together, which enables us to achieve our goal.


At QS, you’ll be responsible for implementing real change in the international higher education landscape, full of exciting and interesting challenges where you can drive positive impact across the business.


As a Head of Email Marketing Automation, this is what you’ll be doing:


The role:

The Head of Email Marketing and Automation will manage and lead the Email Marketing & Automation team to successfully deliver B2C email marketing and automation services for our clients.
QS offers a white labelled email marketing service, which aims to engage and convert our university client’s prospective students. The Head of Email Marketing and Automation will engage clients to gain a thorough understanding of their needs, challenges, and enrolment goals and collaborate with them to co-create tailored marketing automation strategies that align with their particular objectives. The Head of Email Marketing and Automation will focus primarily on email marketing, targeting leads that have already enquired or applied to their chosen University.


Role responsibilities:

Marketing & Automation

• Build, lead, and empower a dynamic global Marketing and Automation team at QS within the university-branded services area of the Student Recruitment Division.
• Inspire the team to take a consultative approach, to deliver robust, conversion-focused marketing and automation services to ensure that our services are not just executed but are thoughtfully designed in alignment with client goals and objectives.
• Work with senior stakeholders in the business to present and communicate our global marketing and automation strategy and roadmap.
• Design and build client best-in-class marketing and automation strategies (with a primary focus on email marketing) to improve enrolment outcomes, in collaboration with regional Client Success teams.
• Drive reporting requirements and work with our Business Intelligence and Reporting team on data dashboards and reports to communicate campaign results, combining knowledge of the business with Marketing and Automation techniques to provide insightful metrics for clients.
• Leverage on Machine Learning, data-driven insights, and marketing automation best practices to inform client marketing strategies and plans.
• Work with our Commercial and Client Success teams on pre-sales activity, including communication with prospective clients and clients about our marketing and automation services.
• Work with Client Success Directors to manage our Mar Tech stack and tools in accordance to budget and plans, including subscriptions and licenses, managing ongoing upgrades and migrations as needed.
• Work with our Tech Ops and Developer teams where necessary to adhere to company policies on information security, data privacy and governance and development best practices

Team Leadership

• Identify and build testing and optimisation opportunities to improve communications performance, user engagement and conversion.
• technical development and testing, risk, and impact analysis – to successfully deliver on marketing and automation projects.
• Successfully manage team performance, resourcing levels and budgets to meet service levels and client expectations.
• Adopt and uphold a results-oriented approach to Marketing & Automation, improving campaign outcomes through detailed results analysis.
• Responsible for data governance within the marketing platforms employed, adhering to the global QS data governance structures and guidelines.
• Represent the interest of the business in interactions with vendors and relevant support services to ensure sustainability and scalability of the service.
• Specify and improve the performance metrics, such as client satisfaction scores, campaign conversion rates, or efficiency in handling client requests, to measure success in the role.
• Assess the feasibility and benefits of migrating to new marketing automation tools or platforms. Collaborate with clients to understand their technology needs and goals. Develop migration plans, including data transfer, integration, and training requirements. Provide the necessary support and guidance to clients throughout the migration process, ensuring a seamless transition and ongoing success with the new tools.

Key skills and experience:

• Bachelor’s degree, Masters or Postgrad Degree in any related discipline.
• An expert user with IBM Acoustic, Marketo or other marketing automation platforms.
• Certifications in marketing automation platforms like Hub Spot, IBM Acoustic or Marketo.
• Experience designing and optimising email marketing journeys to drive engagement and increase conversion.
• Exceptional communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to communicate effectively with internal and external senior stakeholders.
• Excellent project management skills.
• Experience working with international clients and stakeholders will be preferred.
• Proven track record in data analysis, with experience in Tableau or other reporting tools.
• Able to own and drive product roadmap and demonstrate technical acumen to design solutions.
• Ability to work in a fast-paced environment, often under tight deadlines and timeframes.
• Experience in a marketing management or technical leadership role.

So, who are we and what do we do?


QS is the world’s leading provider of services, analytics, insights, and intelligence to the global higher education sector - supporting university excellence across the world. Our student recruitment and enrolment solutions enable universities and business schools to connect with talented individuals seeking to further their academic progress and career development. Our portfolio of professional services includes consultancy, student mobility and academic partnerships management, and branding solutions. We publish highly visible and influential rankings of international universities, including the QS World University Rankings® which reaches a global audience of hundreds of millions of people.
Founded in 1990, our activities span across 50 countries, working with over 2000 of the world’s leading higher education institutions and over 12,000 employers.

Headquartered in London, QS has over 750 employees globally with offices in Australia, Malaysia, India, Romania, Singapore, France, Germany, and the USA. QS keeps growing organically, through acquisition and by recruiting top talent across key regions.


We take investing in our people very seriously.

• As standard you will have:
• Competitive base salary
• Access to an annual bonus scheme (for qualifying roles only)
• 20 days annual leave, plus public holidays
• Generous maternity and paternity leave
• Access to an Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) and Mi Care health
• A vibrant social environment and multicultural and multinational culture

But that’s not all. Outside of these standard benefits we also offer resources to allow professional growth and wellness initiatives to nurture a healthy mindset:

• Free subscription to the Calm App – the #1 app for sleep, meditation, and relaxation
• A focus on welfare which is led by our global wellness team, with mental health first aiders globally
• Access to a variety of diversity and inclusion initiatives and groups
• Strong recognition and reward programs – including a peer-to-peer recognition platform, quarterly and annual QS Applaud Awards, Connect with your Career annual PD event
• Support for volunteering and study leave
• Free subscription to Linked In learning – with over 5000 courses and programmes at your fingertips
• Options to join our outstanding global Mentorship programme
• Brand new breakout and relaxing spaces in office

Like what you’ve heard? Great, apply now!


As a candidate, we know the application and interview process can be daunting and so it’s important that you have a great experience with us. Our dedicated Talent Team will work hard to ensure you are fully informed at all stages and you are really excited by this opportunity to do meaningful work in the education space.


Equal opportunities


QS Quacquarelli Symonds is proud to be a fair and equal organisation where everyone has the same opportunity to achieve their full potential, irrespective of their background or personal attributes. We celebrate our diversity and believe through sharing our experiences we can learn from one another, be stronger together, and enable our business to thrive.