Our Story
At Unilife, we are more than a student accommodation provider, we are a community dedicated to creating the Ultimate Student Living Experience. Renowned for our high-quality and personal service, we have built a reputation for exceeding expectations with students, parents, colleagues, and neighbours alike.
Guided by our five core values, we continue to grow while ensuring every resident feels truly at home.
Our Five Values:
- Fans, Not Customers - We turn service into wow moments.
- Home with Heart - We create a home away from home for students.
- Together We Thrive - We are at our best when we work as one.
- Always Better - We challenge ourselves to keep improving, every single day.
- Lift as You Climb - As we rise, we bring others with us.
As we expand, we are looking for a data-driven and ambitious Digital Marketing Lead to join our Growth Team. Reporting directly to the Head of Marketing & Technology, you will take full ownership of performance marketing, marketing systems, and external partner management across Unilife's Southampton, Winchester, and Guildford properties.
Your Role
As Digital Marketing Lead at Unilife, you will own all digital marketing performance across paid media, SEO, CRM, analytics, and campaign execution. You will be responsible for driving measurable demand, optimising conversion, and scaling customer acquisition across all digital channels.
This role acts as the operational backbone of marketing, taking full ownership of the digital and technical execution. You will manage external agency partners, ensuring campaigns, data, and systems are fully aligned to deliver performance at scale.
This is a data-heavy role. Your mission is to turn marketing data into actionable insight, present performance clearly to stakeholders, and use numbers to drive real commercial impact – turning marketing spend into measurable enquiries, bookings, and revenue.
This isn't your typical digital marketing role. This is an opportunity to be part of something unique – joining a powerful Growth Team within an award-winning PBSA operator, where your work will directly shape how we attract, convert, and retain students across a growing portfolio. If you're looking for a role where data drives real decisions and your impact is felt across the business, this is it.
Your Responsibilities
- Own the relationship with external agency partners, setting objectives, reviewing performance, and holding partners accountable for results.
- Manage and optimise all paid media campaigns across platforms including Google Ads, Meta (Facebook/Instagram), TikTok, and other relevant channels, whether delivered in-house or via agency partners.
- Develop and execute the SEO strategy, driving organic visibility and traffic growth across the Unilife website.
- Lead CRM and email marketing, building automated journeys, nurture sequences, and targeted campaigns to convert leads into bookings.
- Own marketing analytics and reporting end to end – extracting data from multiple sources, building dashboards, and presenting clear, insight-led reports to the Head of Marketing & Technology and wider leadership team.
- Use data to identify opportunities, diagnose underperformance, and make evidence-based recommendations that drive commercial outcomes.
- Manage and optimise the marketing technology stack, including CRM, analytics, and campaign tools, ensuring data integrity and system integration.
- Plan, execute, and optimise digital campaigns end to end, from audience targeting and creative briefing through to A/B testing and performance analysis.
- Work closely with the Content Marketing Lead to ensure creative assets are optimised for digital performance across paid and organic channels.
- Collaborate with the Technology Lead to ensure marketing platforms, tracking, and data systems are properly integrated and functioning at scale.
- Manage the digital marketing budget, forecasting spend, tracking performance against targets, and reallocating budget to maximise return.
- Stay up to date with digital marketing trends, platform updates, and best practices to keep Unilife ahead of the competition.
- Support the wider Growth Team on cross-functional projects, contributing digital expertise to business development and B2B growth initiatives.
- Provide marketing support to Stelling Properties, our parent group specialising in luxury modular construction – including the teams that design and build Unilife's own properties. This is an exciting opportunity to be involved from the very start of each building's journey, shaping the digital presence and marketing strategy across a growing property group.
About You
We're looking for a performance-minded marketer who loves turning data into growth – someone equally comfortable managing agency relationships, diving into analytics, building campaigns, and presenting results that drive decisions. The qualities that will help you succeed include:
What we're looking for:
- Proven experience in digital marketing, performance marketing, or a similar data-led marketing role, ideally within a B2C or student-facing environment.
- Strong hands-on experience with paid media platforms (Google Ads, Meta Business Suite, TikTok Ads) with a track record of delivering measurable results – whether managed directly or through agency partners.
- Experience managing external agencies and partners, including setting KPIs, reviewing performance, and driving accountability.
- Confident extracting, analysing, and presenting marketing data using tools such as Excel, Looker (Data Studio), Power BI, or other BI and analytics platforms – with the ability to turn numbers into clear, actionable recommendations for stakeholders.
- Solid understanding of SEO principles and experience driving organic growth through technical and on-page optimisation.
- Experience with CRM and email marketing platforms (e.g. HubSpot, Mailchimp, Salesforce, or similar), including building automated journeys and segmentation.
- Experience managing digital marketing budgets and optimising spend for maximum ROI.
- Strong understanding of conversion rate optimisation (CRO) and A/B testing.
- Excellent communication and presentation skills, with the ability to present performance data and strategic recommendations clearly to senior stakeholders.
- Proactive, analytical, and commercially minded – comfortable in a fast-paced, results-driven environment.
- A full UK driving licence, to enable travel between properties.
We're looking for someone who is not only experienced in digital marketing but also confident managing partnerships, driven by data, and able to translate numbers into meaningful business impact.
Your Salary
- Salary: £31,000 per year.
- Bonus: 10% performance-based - paid annually.
Our Expectations
- Full time: Monday to Friday (08:30-17:00).
- This role requires flexibility around working hours, particularly during peak seasons, open days, housing fairs, and events, where your presence and contribution will be essential.
Your Benefits
We know that looking after our team is key to our success. When you join Unilife, you will enjoy:
- 28 days annual leave (plus bank holidays).
- Opportunities for professional development and training.
- Pension scheme.
- Annual performance-based bonus.
- Regular team socials and events to celebrate our wins together.
- Mileage allowance for travel away from place of work.
- Health plan with Simplyhealth, including GP access and support for everyday healthcare costs.
Why Join Us?
- Be part of a growing company where your ideas and impact matter.
- Work within a supportive, values-driven team culture.
- Gain exposure to international markets and diverse student communities.
- Play a key role in shaping unforgettable student experiences.
Pay: £31,000.00 per year
Benefits:
- Company events
- Free parking
- Health & wellbeing programme
Work Location: In person
