Senior Marketing Planning Executive 

£33,000-£37,000 plus benefits

Reports to: Marketing Planning Manager

Directorate: Marketing, Fundraising & Engagement

Contract: 9 month fixed-term contract

Hours: Full time 35 hours per week

Location: Stratford, London Office-based with high flexibility (1-2 days per week in the office)

Closing date: 11th October 2026 23:55

Please let us know if there is anything about the recruitment process that you would like to discuss, in particular if there are any changes or adjustments that would make it easier for you to apply. Please contact [email protected] or 020 3469 8400 as soon as possible.

Visa sponsorship: You must be eligible to work in the UK to apply for this vacancy. Cancer Research UK is not able to offer visa sponsorship.

Recruitment process: One stage competency-based interview

Interview date: From Tuesday 20th October-Friday 23rd October

At Cancer Research UK, we exist to beat cancer.

The Senior Marketing Planning Executive plays a key role in coordinating, prioritising and planning marketing activity across Cancer Research UK's portfolio, ensuring communications to our known audiences are balanced, well-timed and deliver maximum impact.

Working within the Strategic Marketing Planning, Operations & Performance team, you'll help drive audience-led, data-driven marketing planning, support the evolution of new processes and ways of working, and collaborate with teams across the organisation to ensure our marketing activity remains effective, efficient and future-focused.

This is an exciting opportunity for someone who is passionate about marketing planning, continuous improvement and using insight to help maximise engagement and growth.

What will I be doing?

• Support the delivery of CRUK's cross-portfolio marketing plan, optimising activity across owned channels including email, SMS, telemarketing and direct mail.
• Work closely with marketing planning colleagues and delivery teams to manage, prioritise and improve visibility of marketing campaigns across known audiences and first-party data.
• Drive improvements to planning, prioritisation and campaign clash management processes, helping to future-proof CRUK's marketing operations.
• Provide guidance and day-to-day support to a Marketing Planning Executive, helping develop capability and ensuring effective delivery of key planning activities.
• Maintain channel forecasts and planning calendars, ensuring activity is coordinated, visible and aligned to organisational priorities and growth objectives.
• Analyse channel performance and marketing insights, identifying opportunities to improve effectiveness, optimise plans and support continuous innovation across marketing communications.

What are we looking for?

• Experience planning and prioritising complex, multi-channel marketing campaigns, ideally across email, SMS, direct mail and/or telemarketing.
• Understanding of end-to-end customer and supporter journeys and the role of different channels within integrated marketing campaigns.
• A data-driven approach with experience interpreting performance data and making recommendations for optimisation and improved results.
• Strong project management, organisational and analytical skills, with the ability to manage competing priorities effectively.
• Excellent relationship-building skills with experience collaborating across teams and influencing stakeholders.
• A proactive, curious and solutions-focused mindset with a passion for continuous improvement, innovation and delivering positive change.

Our organisation values are designed to guide all that we do.

Bold: Act with ambition, courage and determination  

Credible: Act with rigour and professionalism   

Human: Act to have a positive impact on people  

Together: Act inclusively and collaboratively

We’re looking for people who can believe in and embody these organisation values and can use them to drive forward progress against our mission to beat cancer.

If you’re interested in applying and excited about working with us but are unsure if you have the right skills and experience we’d still love to hear from you.

Eligibility criteria

Internal candidates should ideally have completed their 6-month ‘getting started’ period before applying for other roles. You should also advise your current line manager at the point you make an internal application, or at the latest, at the point of being invited for an interview.

All internal candidates applying for a secondment, must have:

o   completed their getting started period

o   discussed their intention to apply and gained approval to apply with their line manager

o   been in their substantive (home) role for at least 6 months (this is only applicable if you have previously been on secondment)

If you do not confirm that you meet these requirements, we will not be able to progress your application.

For information about internal learning and development at Cancer Research UK please visit Fuse.

What will I gain?

We create a working environment that supports your wellbeing and provide a generous benefits package, a wide range of career and personal development opportunities and high-quality tools. Our policies and processes enable you to improve your work-life balance, take positive steps in your career and achieve your personal wellbeing goals.

You can explore our benefits by visiting our careers web page.

How do I apply?

We operate an anonymised shortlisting process in our commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion. CVs are required for all applications; but we won’t be able to view them until we invite you for an interview. Instead, we ask you to complete the work history section of the online application form for us to be able to assess you fairly and objectively.

For more information on this career opportunity please visit our website or contact us at [email protected].  

For more updates on our work and careers, follow us on: Linked In, Facebook, Instagram, X and YouTube.

Our vision is to create a charity where everyone feels like they belong, benefits from and participates in, the work we do. We actively encourage applications from people of all backgrounds and cultures, in particular those from ethnic minority backgrounds who are currently under-represented.

We want to see every candidate performing at their best throughout the job application process, interview process and whilst at work. We therefore ask you to inform us of any concerns you have or any adjustments you might need to enable this to happen. Please contact [email protected] or 020 3469 8400 as soon as possible. 

Unfortunately, we are unable to recruit anyone below the age of 18, so that we can protect young people from health & safety and safeguarding risks.