CRM & Lifecycle Marketing Manager

Role: CRM and Lifecycle Marketing Manager

Location: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Job type: Full time, permanent – hybrid

_This position offers a hybrid work model, allowing flexibility between working from home and our office. Typically, employees are expected to work 2 days in the office per week.

_

Why QS?

At QS, we believe that work should empower you. That’s why we foster a flexible working environment that encourages every employee to own their career whilst flourishing personally and professionally.

Our commitment to people development is recognised globally: QS is a Gold-accredited Investors in People organisation, placing us among the top 28% of workplaces worldwide. Our company values underpin everything we do – we collaborate, respect and support each other.

It’s our mission to empower motivated people around the world to fulfil their potential through higher education, ensuring that everyone has access to opportunities that change lives.

Our diversity makes us stronger. By sharing our experiences, we learn from one another and achieve more together, driving progress across the sector.

At QS, you’ll be responsible for implementing real change in the international higher education landscape. You’ll take on meaningful challenges that see a positive impact across the business and the wider sector.

We’re confident you’ll feel right at home here. QS was named as one of Newsweek’s Top 100 Most Loved Workplaces® in the UK (October 2023), recognising the respect, trust and appreciation that drive our culture every day.

QS University Services

Universities partner with QS University Services to support a range of strategic objectives, including:

• Increasing student enrolment volumes

• Improving conversion rates across the student journey

• Enhancing the pre-enrolment experience and overall student satisfaction

• Expanding reach and diversifying recruitment across priority markets

QS delivers a white-labelled, end-to-end conversion service, combining personalised 1:1 engagement with scaled, data-driven marketing activity. Within this model:

• Student Success teams deliver personalised, one-to-one engagement at key decision points
• Digital Outreach is responsible for all one-to-many communications, including campaigns, automation, and digital engagement at scale.

As part of a broader transformation, QS is evolving its Digital Outreach capability to become a proactive, insight-led, and outcomes-focused service. The ambition is to deliver a best-in-class offering that drives measurable value for university partners and supports improved student outcomes.

The Digital Outreach Manager will play a central role in this transformation. Their first priority will be to define and deliver a clear plan to refresh and optimise the service, ensuring it is positioned to drive improved engagement, conversion, and enrolment outcomes for the 2027 intake and beyond.

The Role

At QS, we're transforming how universities engage, nurture, and convert prospective students through data-driven, personalised digital experiences.

As a CRM and Lifecycle marketing Manager, you'll spend your time building and optimising email, SMS, and messaging-app journeys through our CRM — this is a hands-on lifecycle marketing role, not a broad digital marketing generalist position. You will play a pivotal leadership role in shaping the future of our Digital Outreach service, driving measurable impact for leading institutions around the world. Operating within a shared leadership model, you will partner with a fellow Digital Outreach Manager to define strategy, champion best practice, and elevate service delivery across global markets.

This is more than a campaign management role. You will act as a trusted advisor to clients, a leader of high-performing teams, and a catalyst for innovation, ensuring every outreach activity is insight-led, optimised, and focused on delivering meaningful engagement, stronger conversion, and enrolment success.

If you're passionate about combining data, technology, creativity, and people leadership to create exceptional outcomes, we'd love to hear from you.

Key Responsibilities: Shaping the Future of Digital Outreach

You'll help define and evolve a best-in-class Digital Outreach service that creates measurable value for clients and students alike:

• Co-own the Digital Outreach strategy, operating model, and service roadmap alongside a peer leader.

• Translate client objectives into impactful, data-driven outreach strategies.

• Champion an outcomes-focused approach that prioritises engagement, conversion, and enrolment success.

• Drive innovation through new technologies, channels, and service enhancements.

• Contribute to product development and go-to-market initiatives that strengthen QS's market leadership.

_Building Trusted Client Partnerships

_

You'll serve as a strategic advisor to clients, helping them unlock greater value from their student recruitment and conversion activities:

• Partner with clients to understand their goals, challenges, and growth opportunities.

• Provide proactive recommendations based on performance insights and industry best practice.

• Collaborate across client-facing, student-facing, and specialist teams to create aligned conversion strategies.

• Foster strong stakeholder relationships built on trust, transparency, and accountability.

• Lead conversations that shift focus from activity delivery to outcome achievement.

_Delivering High-Impact Digital Experiences_You'll oversee the design, execution, and optimisation of multi-channel outreach programmes that connect institutions with prospective students at the right moment, through the right channel. This includes:

• Email marketing campaigns

• SMS and messaging platforms (including WhatsApp and WeChat)

• Conversational experiences, chatbots, and AI-enabled engagement

• CRM journeys and marketing automation

• Landing pages, forms, and campaign tracking solutions

You'll ensure every campaign:

• Is insight-led and grounded in data.
• Meets high standards of quality and execution.
• Uses testing and optimisation frameworks to continuously improve results.
• Drives measurable improvements in engagement, conversion, and enrolment outcomes.

_Driving Operational Excellence at Scale _

As a senior leader, you'll create the structures and ways of working that enable teams to deliver consistently excellent results:

• Define clear ownership, governance, and decision-making frameworks.

• Introduce scalable processes that improve efficiency, quality, and speed of delivery.

• Establish meaningful KPIs, quality assurance measures, and performance management approaches.

• Support effective global collaboration across regions, time zones, and delivery hubs.

• Continuously identify opportunities to simplify, improve, and evolve how we work.

_Leading and Developing High-Performing Teams _

You'll inspire, develop, and empower a team of Digital Outreach specialists to do their best work and grow their careers:

• Coach and develop team members through regular feedback and support.

• Build an inclusive, collaborative, and high-performing culture.

• Create opportunities for learning, growth, and cross-functional skill development.

• Support recruitment, onboarding, and capability-building initiatives.

• Foster curiosity, innovation, accountability, and continuous improvement.

Turning Data into Actionable Insight

You'll take ownership of performance, ensuring data informs every decision and every recommendation:

• Use data and insight to optimise campaigns and enhance client outcomes.

• Translate complex performance information into clear, actionable recommendations.

• Contribute to client reporting, ROI discussions, and commercial decision-making.

• Create a culture where measurement, testing, and learning drive continuous improvement.

• Ensure Digital Outreach delivers meaningful business impact and demonstrable value.

Skills & Experience:

Essential

• Fluent English communication skills.
• Degree - level qualification or equivalent experience in Marketing, Communications, or a related discipline.
• Experience leading teams and developing high-performing people.
• Experience leading change, transformation, or service evolution initiatives.
• Experience working directly with clients and senior stakeholders.
• Proven success delivering and optimising data-driven marketing campaigns.
• Strong understanding of CRM and marketing automation platforms.
• Experience managing multiple priorities and stakeholders simultaneously.
• Confidence owning results and driving accountability.
• Experience in omnichannel customer journeys, conversational marketing, or emerging engagement channels.
• Passion for improving student outcomes and experiences.

Desirable

• Experience in education, student recruitment, customer success, sales, or advisory.
• Experience using and optimising HubSpot.
• Experience working across global teams and time zones.
• Knowledge of international student recruitment across EMEA, APAC, and North America.
• Experience with AI-powered marketing tools.

So, who are we and what do we do?

QS is the world leader in higher education services, analytics, insights and intelligence. From consultancy to student mobility, academic partnerships to branding solutions, our services power both institutional and individual success.

We’re behind the world’s most widely read university rankings (Meltwater 2023). Our QS World University Rankings® reach hundreds of millions, shaping decisions and guiding futures.

Since launching in 1990, our impact and influence have only grown. Today, we work with more than 2,000 of the world’s leading higher education institutions, over 12,000 employers, and governments seeking change and socioeconomic development through higher education.

Join QS and you’ll join an 800-strong community of problem-solvers, creators, collaborators and change-makers based in 40+ countries and 11 international offices, including Australia, Malaysia, India, Romania, Singapore, France, Germany, the USA and our headquarters in London.

With every talented new hire, business acquisition and bold initiative, we’re strengthening our reach and delivering even greater value to institutions and learners worldwide. Are you ready to shape the future of higher education?

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 MiCare 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 LinkedIn 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.