Kilburn & Strode
Digital Marketing & Operations Lead
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Digital Marketing & Operations Lead
About Kilburn & Strode
Kilburn & Strode is one of Europe’s pre-eminent intellectual property firms. We act for US and European clients at the forefront of their sectors on their most challenging, business-critical IP matters – from EPO and Unified Patent Court proceedings to M&A due diligence, strategic portfolio management and high-value prosecution. We have offices in the UK, Germany, the Netherlands and the US.
We are a firm that looks forward, not back. We have a clear five-year strategy, a genuine commitment to B Corp certification, and an ambition to be the market leader in premium IP work by 2030. Our values – be curious, think commercially, act collaboratively, take ownership, make a positive impact – are not a poster on a wall. They shape how we work and who we hire.
The Clients and Markets function
Our ambition for Clients and Markets is straightforward: to become the commercial engine of this firm’s growth. Not a support function. Not a planning exercise. A function that generates momentum, creates opportunities and helps the firm win the premium clients and work it deserves. We are not there yet – but that is precisely what makes this moment interesting.
To build towards that, we have made a board-level appointment: a Director of Clients and Markets with a seat on the Governance Board and a direct reporting line to the Managing Partner. The function now has the standing, the access and the mandate to operate as a genuine strategic partner to the practice groups – not as a service team responding to requests.
We are professionalising and integrating the function from the ground up. The infrastructure, frameworks and ways of working are being designed now. The function covers both BD and marketing, and the two sides work closely together to deliver a coherent experience for partners, clients and contacts.
The role
This is a senior marketing leadership role with two core dimensions.
The first is mar-tech and digital strategy. You will own the firm’s marketing technology infrastructure – not as a one-time set-up exercise, but as a continuously evolving capability. This means setting the digital strategy, owning the website and digital channels, building the team’s analytics and reporting framework, and leading a mar-tech audit to establish what we have, what we need and where the gaps are. Beyond that foundation, you will stay close to emerging technologies and platforms, proactively identifying where new tools or approaches could create genuine efficiencies or improve the effectiveness of our activity. You will be the person who ensures the marketing function is always working with the right tools, used in the right way – and who keeps pushing that standard forward.
The second is marketing team leadership. You will line manage the Marketing Manager and Events Executive – providing the direction, development and day-to-day oversight that allows the team to deliver to a consistently high standard.
This role suits someone who combines genuine digital and mar-tech depth with the leadership capability to build and run a small, high-performing marketing team. You will be comfortable moving between strategy and execution, and between managing people and managing platforms. This is a deliberately unusual combination. We are looking for someone who is as comfortable configuring a reporting dashboard as they are presenting to a group of senior partners. Both matter equally here.
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Responsibilities
Digital strategy and mar-tech
- Own and evolve the firm’s digital marketing strategy across all channels – website, social media, email, digital advertising and emerging formats.
- Lead a mar-tech audit: map the current technology stack, identify gaps and redundancies, and build a prioritised roadmap for optimisation. Own the implementation of that roadmap over time.
- Own the team’s analytics and reporting framework – defining what we measure, how we measure it, and how we turn data into clear, actionable insight. The focus is twofold: demonstrating ROI on marketing activity and generating the insight needed to continuously optimise what we do.
- Set the digital and marketing requirements for CRM implementation, working with the Senior BD Manager who leads that project to ensure the system serves the needs of the marketing function as well as BD.
- Own all digital channel performance – website traffic, SEO, LinkedIn, email marketing – and drive continuous improvement against agreed KPIs.
- Ensure all digital marketing activity is on brand, consistent in tone and aligned to the firm’s strategic positioning as a premium IP firm.
- Provide technical oversight of the website project, working closely with the Marketing Manager who leads on content and delivery.
- Manage relationships with external digital agencies and technology suppliers, ensuring clear briefs, strong delivery and good return on investment.
Marketing team leadership
- Line manage the Marketing Manager and Events Executive – setting clear objectives, providing regular feedback and supporting professional development. The Events Executive is an established member of the team.
- Create the conditions for the team to do their best work: clear priorities, the right tools, and a collaborative working environment.
- Work closely with the Marketing Manager to ensure campaigns, thought leadership, directories and the events programme are delivered to a high standard and aligned to the firm’s commercial goals.
- Provide oversight of the events function through the Events Executive, ensuring the programme reflects the firm’s premium positioning and delivers against BD objectives.
- Ensure strong coordination between the marketing team and the BD side of the function – shared planning, joined-up execution and a consistent external voice.
- Manage the marketing budget with ROI discipline – tracking spend, evaluating return and making clear recommendations on where to invest and where to stop.
Brand and operations
- Be the guardian of the firm’s brand – maintaining consistency across all outputs, written, digital and event, and ensuring the firm’s positioning as a premium IP firm is reflected in everything we produce. This means setting the standard, enforcing it and helping the team understand why it matters.
- Build and maintain marketing operations processes that make the team efficient and the function easy for partners to engage with.
- Contribute to the BD&M reporting dashboard – ensuring marketing metrics are visible, meaningful and integrated with the firm’s broader performance picture.
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What we need
Essential
- A deep track record in digital marketing and mar-tech, ideally from a management consultancy, strategy firm or similarly sophisticated professional services environment. We are looking for someone who brings genuinely innovative thinking to how marketing technology is used – not someone who replicates what law firms have always done.
- Genuine mar-tech expertise. You understand marketing technology stacks – CRM, CMS, analytics, automation, digital advertising – and have led audits, implementations or optimisations in a professional services context.
- Strong digital strategy capability. You have set and delivered digital strategies, not just executed them. You know how to prioritise, sequence and make the case for investment.
- Proven experience building and managing marketing analytics frameworks. You turn data into clear insight and present it in ways that resonate with non-technical stakeholders.
- People leadership experience. You have managed a small marketing team, set objectives, developed people and maintained high standards of delivery.
- Comfortable setting, working to and reporting against KPIs – both your own and those of the team and platforms you oversee.
- Strong commercial awareness. You understand how marketing activity connects to BD outcomes, client acquisition and the firm’s revenue strategy.
- Excellent communicator. You can translate technical concepts clearly for non-technical audiences – from a partner briefing to a session with junior team members.
- Collaborative and joined-up in your working style. You build strong relationships across a function and bring people with you.
Desirable
- Experience working on a website build in a professional services context.
- Familiarity with CRM implementation from a marketing requirements perspective.
- Knowledge of SEO, Google Analytics and LinkedIn campaign management.
- Experience in a firm undergoing transformation or significant investment in its marketing function.
Personal attributes
- Intellectually curious – you stay close to developments in digital marketing and mar-tech and bring fresh thinking to the function.
- Detail-oriented without losing sight of the bigger picture. You care about quality in execution and strategy in equal measure.
- Results-driven. You hold yourself and your team to account and are energised by measurable progress.
- Resilient and pragmatic. You make things work with the resources available and stay focused when priorities shift.
- Comfortable with ambiguity and building in real time. This function is being shaped now. You will contribute to that shaping, not just inherit a finished structure.
Kilburn & Strode is committed to diversity and inclusion. We welcome applications from all suitably qualified candidates regardless of race, gender, disability, religion or belief, sexual orientation or age.
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