About us
Valla CIS Limited builds software for the UK Construction Industry Scheme (CIS). Our platform sits between contractors and subcontractors and gets the tax right at the moment a payment is entered — verification, deductions, monthly HMRC reporting, records that stand up to a compliance check.
Why this role is not a normal marketing job
We are selling a digital product to an audience that digital marketing does not reach.
Our user is a working tradesperson. He is not reading compliance content, not following brands on LinkedIn, and not scanning QR codes on a hoarding. He does talk to the other trades on his job, he trusts his merchant and his bookkeeper, and he counts what lands in his pocket to the pound.
So we are not hiring a paid-media lead — digital is already covered in the team. We are hiring someone who can build demand offline and through word of mouth: referral, trade partnerships, events, field marketing, creators who genuinely work on site — and then connect all of it to numbers we can trust.
You will be the first senior marketing hire. You build the function, choose the channels, and own the result.
What you will own
- Go-to-market for mobile app. The full acquisition plan for self-employed subcontractors — segments, message, channel mix, budget, and the numbers each channel has to deliver.
- The referral programme. Design and launch cash-for-referral mechanics that pay out when a referred user starts paying. This is our single most important channel — subcontractors share a financial win faster than any advert can.
- Trade partnerships. Builders’ merchants, tool and workwear brands, plant hire, umbrella companies, accountants and bookkeepers — the people who already speak to our user every week. You find them, pitch them, and structure the revenue share.
- Offline and BTL. Trade counters, sites, trade shows, regional events, local trade groups. Guerrilla tactics welcome, as long as they are measurable.
- Creator and community channel. UK trade creators on YouTube, TikTok, Instagram and Facebook trade groups, with unique codes so every collaboration is attributable. All activity compliant with the ASA CAP Code.
- Brand and message. Positioning and copy in plain trade English — no compliance jargon, no fintech buzzwords.
- Budget and unit economics. Own the marketing budget, cost per acquisition and payback by segment. Defend both with a spreadsheet, not a slide.
- The team. Line-manage digital, content/SMM and design; select and hold to account our outsourced PR and event partners.
- Reporting to the CEO. A weekly written number: installs, activation, paying conversion, CAC, payback, referral rate. Written-first, async — we run on documents, not status meetings.
What we are looking for — essential
- 5+ years in marketing, including 2+ years leading a function, team or agency roster.
- Demonstrable BTL, field or partnership marketing to trade, industrial or blue-collar audiences — construction, merchants, plant hire, automotive, logistics, agriculture or similar.
- A referral, word-of-mouth or community channel you built yourself, with the numbers to show what it delivered.
- Comfortable owning CAC and payback, and making a budget case from first principles.
- You can write to a tradesperson in his own language, and you know why that matters.
- Comfortable in a small, fast, remote, written-first company — you will be doing the work before you are managing it.
Desirable
- Construction, CIS, trades or SME-fintech experience.
- Mobile app marketing: ASO, install-to-activation funnels, retention.
- Marketing to sole traders and micro-businesses.
- Accountants or bookkeepers used as a referral channel.
- Event and sponsorship experience in the UK trade calendar.
- CIM qualification or equivalent.
- Full UK driving licence for site, branch and event visits. [keep only if genuinely required]
What we offer
- A function to build from scratch, with the channel strategy genuinely yours to set.
- Direct line to the CEO and a seat in the strategic conversations — no layers to get through.
- Remote-first, async-first. We document decisions instead of holding meetings about them.
- Modern toolstack, including AI tooling funded per person.
How to apply
Apply through Indeed with your CV and a short note — one page is plenty. In it, answer one question: pick a single non-digital channel you would use to reach a self-employed bricklayer in the West Midlands, and tell us how you would measure whether it worked.
We read the notes first.
Valla CIS Limited is an equal opportunities employer. We welcome applications from all qualified candidates regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage or civil partnership status, pregnancy or maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, or sexual orientation. All appointments are subject to a right-to-work check before the start date.
Valla CIS Limited · Company No. 17216592 · Neville House, 66 High Street, Henley-in-Arden, B95 5BX
Pay: £36,000.00-£80,000.00 per year
Work Location: Remote
