VP, Marketing Planning & Operations, CNN

CNN Marketing is seeking a strategic, highly collaborative, and dynamic executive to lead cross-functional planning and execution of holistic marketing programs. Reporting directly to the Head of Marketing, the role serves as the critical cross-functional bridge and owns the end-to-end marketing planning and operating model that connects all marketing verticals. It is the central point for cross-functional planning and operational modernisation, driving internal efficiency and alignment.

• Track official intake, timing, dependencies, and troubleshooting for all tiered marketing initiatives tied to measurable business objectives; work with marketing and content leaders to define data-backed prioritisation criteria and communicate rolling updates.
• Act as the primary touchpoint to unify marketing verticals, ensuring full coordination across teams and alignment from planning through optimisation for on-strategy, on-time campaign execution.
• Oversee planning architecture so all marketing verticals are synchronised from brief to execution to post-mortem; define and enforce standardised campaign timelines and key milestones.
• Establish and lead structured governance forums, including campaign readiness reviews and weekly orchestration meetings, and ensure clear, streamlined approval processes across all campaign stages to drive alignment, mitigate risk, enable timely decision-making, and minimise bottlenecks.
• Facilitate seamless, accurate, and timely campaign delivery, ensuring all assets and deliverables meet defined quality assurance standards prior to launch.
• Lead standardised post-campaign reviews to capture process and key learnings, improve future planning, and drive continuous performance improvement.
• Build and scale the Marketing Planning and Operations function over time, including defining existing and new functions, day-to-day team management, active mentoring, and career growth opportunities
• Continually assess team bandwidth and capacity across planning and integrated execution, working with the Head of Marketing and Marketing Leads to assess known gaps and support shifting business priorities.
• Define, implement, and enforce modernised, agile ways of working across the marketing ecosystem
• Break down departmental silos to ensure teams move in lockstep to accomplish shared goals and exceed business KPIs
• Define and enforce operational KPIs and performance benchmarks to ensure consistency and accountability.
• Establish and scale unified templates for strategic briefs, campaign frameworks, marketing roadmaps, and post-mortems, and set up a centralised marketing planning and campaign management approach and tooling to create a unified, transparent single source of truth
• Optimise creative and media workflows to enable consistent planning, execution, and reporting.
• Lead the exploration, onboarding, and adoption of modern AI-driven operational tools for marketing team productivity; empower the team to automate repetitive workflows, optimise resource management, and scale marketing planning and campaign execution through emerging technology.

• 12+ years of progressive marketing leadership experience within major media, entertainment, streaming, or digital consumer brands.
• Hands-on operational management of paid media campaigns and/or owned and operated marketing channels.
• Proven track record of managing complex, high-profile campaigns and building long-range marketing calendars or promotional roadmaps.
• Ability to prioritise team workload based on known or potential contribution to business objectives.
• Demonstrated experience driving operational transformation within complex, matrixed organisations, including rewriting organisational workflows, scaling marketing structures, and rolling out new enterprise tools.
• Experience operating across integrated marketing ecosystems, including brand, media, digital, social, and content production.
• Operational moderniser: passionate about organisational design and internal efficiency; possesses a strong point of view on how modern marketing teams should collaborate, document strategy, and utilise technology.
• AI and tech-forward mindset: forward-thinking approach to internal tools, with practical familiarity regarding how Generative AI, automation, and project management tools can optimise marketing workflows.
• Diplomacy and influence: high emotional intelligence; an executive who can confidently usher teams through change management, standardising processes without stifling strategic and creative output.
• Enterprise operator: ability to operate at scale within a global, matrixed organisation, balancing strategic vision with operational rigour and execution discipline.
• Commercial acumen: strong understanding of marketing investment, budget management, and ROI measurement to inform prioritisation and decision-making.

• Actual salaries will vary based on job-related factors including geographic location, external market data, internal equity, skill set, experience, training, education, and/or performance.
• Base pay is one component of the total compensation package; other rewards may include annual bonuses, short- and long-term incentives, and program-specific awards.

• Health insurance coverage
• Employee wellness program
• Life and disability insurance
• Retirement savings plan
• Paid holidays, sick time, and vacation