Brand Marketing Lead

ABOUT PLEO Messy spend management is tricky business. And tedious processes are a lose-lose situation for all involved, not just finance. At Pleo, we're changing that. We build spend solutions that make managing money seamless, empowering, and surprisingly effective for finance teams and employees alike - with a vision to help all businesses ‘go beyond’. The word ‘Pleo’ actually means ‘more than you’d expect’, and living by that mantra has been the secret to our success over the last 10 years. Now, we’re at a pivotal moment in our journey; every move we make has a direct impact on our 40,000+ customers, our business, and our collective success. We need people who take pride in uncovering customer needs, who turn complex problems into simple solutions, challenge the way things are done (respectfully), and always aim high. With great ambitions driving us forward, we can’t say we’ve got this whole thing figured out. And frankly, that’s half the fun! What we can say is that we’re a driven, progressive, and, importantly, a kind bunch of 850+ people from over 100 nationalities, all committed to delivering the future of business spending, together. ABOUT THE ROLE We're looking for a Brand Marketing Lead to join our Brand & Marketing team at Pleo. In this role, you'll help own our brand marketing strategy and campaign execution across six European markets and be part of our marketing team as we scale our spend management platform. If you're excited about building category-defining campaigns that move Pleo from a good solution to the undisputed choice for mid-market finance leaders and are passionate about brand strategy and creative execution, then this is the opportunity for you! WHO YOU’LL BE WORKING WITH AND REPORTING TO You’ll report to the Director of Integrated Marketing, and work in close collaboration with the Director of Brand Experience and Strategy, as well as the Brand Intelligence Manager, our brand foundations team, PR, content marketing and digital channels team. You’ll partner cross-functionally with PMM, MOPS, CX and sales. This is a hands-on, IC role, where you'll do both the thinking and the work—strategy and execution both sit with you. WHAT YOU’LL BE DOING As a Brand Marketing Lead, you will: - Own the brand marketing strategy that moves Pleo from ‘one of many’ to the undisputed choice for mid-market European finance leaders. - Build and execute integrated brand campaigns from concept through to reporting — learning from what we’ve just launched, and pushing further. - Create branded content that shows how financial services should be done. Content that recognizes the precision, rigor, and craft that finance leaders bring to their work. - Manage the funnel strategically — balancing awareness, consideration, and conversion. Not just fishing in the pond of people who already know us, but earning the right to speak to people we don’t know yet. - Own your budget and agency relationships — you’re the strategic partner they answer to. - Measure what matters — working with Brand Intelligence, Integrated Marketing, Data, and MOps to track brand lift, earned media, consideration, and how brand work flows into pipeline and revenue. - Set the benchmark for brand work in fintech — prove that category-defining campaigns come from strategic rigor and creative excellence working together. You’ll establish Pleo as the model for how brands should think about their audience, and show that understanding someone better than anyone else is a more powerful differentiator than any feature. WHAT YOU BRING You’ll thrive in this role if you have: - 10+ years in brand marketing (B2B or fintech might be helpful, but we care more about the thinking than the category) - A portfolio of work that shows you’ve led campaigns from strategy through to execution — ideally integrated campaigns that work across multiple channels - Strong stakeholder management skills — you can influence a room, sell an idea, and push back when something isn’t working - Strategic thinking + execution mindset — you’re equally comfortable building a 6-month brand strategy and getting your hands dirty on day-to-day campaign work - Comfort with ambiguity and pace — this is a growing company, and things move fast. You thrive in that - Understanding of how brand and pipeline connect — you know that brand campaigns need to serve business growth, not just awareness - A point of view on category dynamics — you can look at a market and spot where everyone’s getting it wrong - A strong understanding for when/how to localise concepts, messaging & GTM campaigns across different markets. - Fluency in one or more of our European markets is a bonus (not required, but helpful) WHY IS THIS ROLE A GOOD FIT FOR YOU This role is a good fit for you if: - You want to reframe an entire category's conversation by competing on human insight rather than just feature parity. - You thrive in a fast-paced, autonomous environment where you can build campaigns that serve as a 5-year foundation. - You believe brand strategy must be grounded in audience understanding and directly drive business outcomes. This role is not a good fit for you if: - You prefer purely high-level strategy without getting hands-on with day-to-day campaign execution. - You operate best in rigid, highly structured environments with slow moving pace and minimal ambiguity. - You view brand marketing in isolation from performance data, pipeline metrics, and commercial growth. HOW YOU’LL DEVELOP IN THIS ROLE In your first 6 months at Pleo, you’ll: - Map customer journeys across SMB, mid-market, and enterprise segments to identify brand opportunities. - Develop a comprehensive European brand roadmap that builds on recent launch momentum. - Develop a comprehensive European brand roadmap that builds on recent launch momentum. THE LOCATION Please note: We can hire on a hybrid set-up in any of the locations listed on the advert but you will need to be physically based in the country of your choice with a valid right to work. We are unable to offer visa sponsorship for this role in any of the listed locations. SHOW ME THE BENEFITS! - Your own Pleo card (no more out-of-pocket spending!) - Lunch is on us for your work days - enjoy catered meals or receive a lunch allowance based on your local office - Comprehensive private healthcare - depending on your location, coverage options include Vitality, Alan or Médis - 25 days of annual leave + public holidays (additional days may apply in select countries based on local standards). - For our Team, we offer both hybrid and fully remote working options - We use MyndUp to give our employees access to free mental health and well-being support with great success so far - Paid parental leave - we want to make sure that we're supportive of families and help you feel that you don't have to compromise your family due to work THE INTERVIEW PROCESS We want to ensure you are set-up for success and understand what will be expected of you. If your application is successful, our interview process is as follows: 1. Intro call: A 30-minute chat with our Talent Partner to discuss the role and your background. 2. Hiring Manager Interview: A 45 minute chat to deep dive into your experience 3. Challenge & Team Interview: We will send you a take home test and invite you to present during a 60 minute team interview. This is an opportunity to show us how you would handle the day to day of the role 4. Final Interview: A final interview with a senior leader Transparency is important to us so we also wanted to share some insights about what we’re looking for in applications to ensure you can set yourself up for success! Last time we hired for this role, we received a total vast number of applications but only a few were selected for an intro call. Some of the key reasons why previous candidates didn’t make it past the application screening stage include: - CV writing and content: we receive a lot of CVs, and many of them are AI-generated. We love seeing people leverage AI—it’s a big focus for us internally too—but without human intervention, these CVs can sometimes become generic and fail to show a candidate in the best light. What we're really looking for is the specific details of real impact that only you know from your previous experience. A top tip from us is to use the “Achieved X, as measured by Y, by doing Z” formula (credit: Laszlo Bock, ~2014) to give a really clear picture of what you’ve worked on. A final note: including links to your previous companies' websites is a huge help and allows us to truly understand your background! - Application care: every single application we receive is reviewed by a human (yes, hundreds of them) because we believe that candidates' efforts should be matched by an equal level of human care. This means that we expect a similar level of attention put into your application. Read and answer the application questions carefully, they make a huge difference in our decision-making process. - Profile to role fit: highlight most important aspects of the role, points that might get misunderstood, any specific industry requirements etc. ABOUT YOUR APPLICATION - English first. Since it's our company language, please submit your application in English. You’ll be using it a lot if you join us. - A fair look for everyone. Our talent team reads every single application to ensure the process is fair. To keep things running smoothly, we only accept applications through our system—our support team can’t pass on calls or emails. - Diversity drives us. We can only reach our goals if our team reflects the world around us. That starts with you hitting apply, even if you don't tick every single box. We encourage people from all backgrounds and experiences to join us. - Interview at your best. We want you to feel comfortable throughout the process. If you have any accessibility requirements or need a specific format, email belonging@pleo.io. We’ll design a process that works for you. - Your data is safe. When you apply, we process your personal data as a data processor. For more information on how Pleo processes personal data, read our Privacy Policy here https://www.pleo.io/en/legal. - Applying for multiple roles? Nothing is stopping you, and we assess every role independently. However, we do look for alignment, so make sure you can explain why your interest and experience are right for each specific role. - Reapplying. If you’re applying for the same role again, please wait six months from your last decision before hitting submit.