Head of Marketing - HAL

About This Role

Job Summary About SC Ventures SC Ventures is Standard Chartered ’s innovation, fintech investment and ventures arm. We were established to reinvent banking, as the significant technological disruptions to the industry was impacting its ability to serve clients and customers, in the ways they needed to be served. We are a unique ecosystem of innovators, banking experts, business builders and partners who are focused on rewiring the DNA in banking and bringing breakthrough ideas to scale, together. We are building ecosystems around four high conviction themes: Online Economy & Lifestyle, SMEs & World Trade, Digital Assets, and Sustainability & Inclusion. We are a global team of "Members" (excluding individual ventures), including dedicated colleagues from the Group's support functions, based in Singapore, Hong Kong, London, and the United Arab Emirates

About HAL “HAL is a B2B domestic and cross border marketplace being built for SMEs in the UAE. Incubated by SC Ventures, the ventures arm of Standard Chartered Bank, the platform will enable digital commerce and access to financial & value-added services. HAL’s vision is to act as a super glue connecting multiple partners & ecosystems by bringing together buyers, sellers, financial institutions, logistics partners under one roof. We are building this as an agentic AI native stack along with several strategic partners in the UAE who bring different capabilities into the platform.

SMEs are the backbone of the UAE economy and vital for economic growth and diversification. We want to help SMEs grow profitably, safely and with ease. Hal is being built for scale with the latest technologies and with a vision to truly become the one stop shop for SMEs. We are looking to launch later in the year.”

About The Role The Head of Marketing will own HAL's end-to-end marketing function the first dedicated marketing leader at HAL. You will drive growth across multiple audiences: sellers onboarding onto the platform, buyers transacting on it, finance referral leads, partners across different verticals including VAS. This is a 0-to-10x builder role: no inherited playbook, no legacy team you define the strategy, hire the team, and own the numbers.

Key Responsibilities Strategy

• Lead HAL's annual marketing planning process translating business goals into strategy with budget allocation, headcount plan, channel mix, and OKRs signed off by leadership before the year begins.
• Own the marketing calendar end-to-end: rolling 90-day campaign plans with clear owners, budgets, channel mix, and success metrics aligned to UAE market moments (Ramadan, National Day, expo seasons) and HAL's commercial milestones.
• Build and maintain real-time marketing dashboards covering the full funnel across all three revenue lines with clear attribution models, CAC/LTV reporting, finance referral pipeline metrics, and a single source of truth across all marketing inputs.
• Lead monthly and quarterly performance reviews with the leadership team presenting spend vs. output, channel ROI, cohort evolution, and forward-looking recommendations.
• Build and lead a high-performance marketing team structured onboarding, clear career paths, skills gap analysis, and a test-and-learn culture where every significant hypothesis is formally tested and documented each quarter.
• Partner with the CEO and commercial leadership on investor and board-level marketing narratives translating marketing performance into business impact language for SC Ventures stakeholders.

Business

• Own the marketing strategy for HAL's finance referral business generating qualified leads from buyers and sellers who need trade finance, working capital, invoice discounting, or BNPL with segmented campaigns by buyer/seller profile and full attribution back to marketing spend.
• Build and own HAL's AdTech growth strategy evaluating and deploying programmatic, native, and sponsored listing ad formats as a marketplace revenue stream.
• Model partnership-driven revenue scenarios co-funded campaigns, centred around digital marketplace and embedded financial product promotions, and data monetisation opportunities with full P&L visibility per partner and per channel.
• Develop annual and quarterly marketing growth models: bottom-up GMV contribution forecasts, CAC curves by channel, LTV cohort projections, and payback period modelling translating marketing investment directly into revenue outcomes for leadership and investors.
• Own retention and lifecycle marketing for all three audiences churn prediction and reactivation campaigns, loyalty and referral programmes for high-GMV users, and lifecycle programmes that increase order frequency and category breadth over time.
• Build cross-border marketing playbooks for UAE-India expansion covering localisation, channel strategy, partnership activation, and brand adaptation for new geographies.

Processes Digital & Performance Marketing

• Own all digital marketing channels paid, organic, social, email, and WhatsApp with full budget accountability and channel-level ROI reporting.
• Define and execute a comprehensive organic search strategy covering on-page SEO, technical SEO, off-page authority building, and Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) ensuring HAL surfaces prominently in AI-assisted search.
• Manage SEM campaigns across Google, Meta, and regional platforms; own CAC, ROAS, and budget allocation with a structured A/B and multivariate testing cadence.
• Build Arabic-English bilingual SEO/SEM frameworks and ensure all digital execution is culturally authentic not simply translated for the UAE market.
• Own the full performance funnel paid social, display, retargeting, and WhatsApp-driven conversion flows with clear attribution models governing budget decisions.

Brand, Content & Corporate Communications

• Build HAL's brand from scratch master value proposition, founding narrative, tone of voice, visual identity, and brand guidelines covering all digital, print, WhatsApp, and partner co-branding touchpoints.
• Own and evolve HAL's content marketing engine: a bilingual (English and Arabic) editorial programme spanning LinkedIn, blog, email, WhatsApp, and trade media generating organic demand and building brand authority.
• Develop a thought leadership programme positioning HAL's leadership as the authoritative voice on B2B digital trade, supply chain finance, and marketplace economics in the Gulf.
• Own PR and earned media strategy building UAE and regional media relationships, managing press releases and spokesperson preparation, and owning crisis communications protocols.
• Design and execute viral marketing campaigns engineered for organic reach leveraging WhatsApp forwards, LinkedIn, and trade media with virality loops built into the product itself.
• Ensure brand consistency across all seller, buyer, and finance referral touchpoints from onboarding kits to post-trade communications.

WhatsApp-Native Marketing & Automation

• Own HAL's WhatsApp marketing strategy as a first-class channel broadcast campaigns, conversational acquisition flows, catalogue-based commerce journeys, re-engagement sequences, and compliant opt-in growth mechanics.
• Design and implement end-to-end marketing automation workflows for seller onboarding, buyer re-engagement, and finance referral nurturing integrating the marketing stack with HAL's WhatsApp layer, CRM, and platform data.
• Build and manage the market stack end-to-end: MAP (HubSpot / Salesforce MC / Marketo), CDP, WhatsApp BSP, intent data platforms (6sense / Bombora), enrichment tools (Clearbit / Apollo), and ABM tooling.
• Track WhatsApp-specific engagement metrics open rates, response rates, opt-out rates, click-to-order conversion and use these to continuously refine messaging and segmentation.
• Stay at the forefront of WhatsApp Business API capabilities and proactively bring relevant innovations into HAL's marketing stack.

B2B Ecommerce & Product Marketing

• Apply deep knowledge of B2B ecommerce buying behaviour long sales cycles, multi-stakeholder decisions, procurement-driven purchasing across all marketplace categories to craft campaigns that convert sellers, buyers, and finance referral prospects.
• Own product marketing: translate every new feature, category launch, and platform capability into clear messaging and structured GTM launch playbooks covering positioning, channel mix, collateral, and success metrics.
• Build and maintain a comprehensive sales enablement library: pitch decks, one-pagers, category benefits guides, ROI calculators, objection-handling scripts, and onboarding kits for the commercial team.
• Design catalogue and trade marketing campaigns (seasonal deal events, new category launches, deal alerts) and account-based marketing programmes targeting high-value distributor and retail chain accounts.
• Own competitive positioning maintaining a live competitive intelligence database ensuring HAL's messaging is always sharply differentiated and build customer success story programmes capturing case studies and GMV growth stories from early sellers and buyers.

Customer Segmentation, Market Research & Insights

• Build and maintain a dynamic segmentation model across HAL's seller, buyer, and finance referral base by trade type, category affinity, geography (emirate-level), order frequency, GMV tier, and financing behaviour and own the ICP framework, updated quarterly.
• Own HAL's market intelligence function: continuously tracking competitive landscape, buyer/seller sentiment, category trends, pricing dynamics, and emerging trade behaviours across the UAE and GCC.
• Commission and lead primary research programmes qualitative interviews, field ethnographies at trade hubs, focus groups, and quantitative surveys with findings directly informing product and GTM decisions.
• Synthesise secondary research from industry reports, government data, trade publications, and regional ecommerce indices into clear strategic recommendations for leadership.
• Deliver a quarterly Voice of Customer programme and market insight reports to the executive team covering market sizing, competitive moves, pricing benchmarks, whitespace opportunities, and demand signals by category.

Ecosystem, Events, Agency & Partnership Management

• Build and nurture a HAL trade Ecosystem FMCG distributors, HoReCa buyers, wholesale operators with WhatsApp groups, loyalty tiers, referral incentives, and Ecosystem events (roundtables, distributor dinners, networking evenings) that drive word-of-mouth growth.
• Plan and execute trade shows, distributor roadshows, buyer events, and B2B activations across the UAE managing all agency and vendor relationships for print, outdoor, and event production.
• Build and manage a lean, high-output agency ecosystem creative, media buying, PR, performance, and research agencies with clear SLAs, KPIs, and full budget governance across all engagements.
• Own end-to-end co-marketing relationships with strategic partners across banking, logistics, payments, and technology building a partner marketing playbook covering co-branded assets, shared campaign calendars, MDF frameworks, and joint lead-sharing protocols.
• Navigate broader business ecosystems trade associations, chambers of commerce, UAE government accelerators, and SC Ventures' global network to amplify HAL's brand and open new commercial doors.

Risk Management

• Continuously evaluate agency roster to ensure that right agencies are onboarded while accommodating within the budget requirements

Governance

• Ensure compliance with all SCB and venture governance frameworks.
• Manage the function within budgetary constraints, seeking operational efficiencies

Regulatory & Business Conduct

• Display exemplary conduct and live by the Group’s Values and Code of Conduct.
• Take personal responsibility for embedding the highest standards of ethics, including regulatory and business conduct, across Standard Chartered Bank. This includes understanding and ensuring compliance with, in letter and spirit, all applicable laws, regulations, guidelines and the Group Code of Conduct.
• Effectively and collaboratively identify, escalate, mitigate and resolve risk, conduct and compliance matters.

Key stakeholders

• Internal: CEO, CCO, COO, Head of digital commerce, Head of Financial Services, Head of partnerships.
• External: Relevant external regulator

Other Responsibilities

• Embed Here for good and Group’s brand and values in the business and SC Ventures;
• Perform other responsibilities assigned under Group, Country, Business or Functional policies and procedures.

Skills And Experience

• Marketing
• Branding
• Marketing Channels
• Planning : Tactical & Strategic
• Marketing Strategy & Positioning
• Brand Management

Qualifications

• 10–15 years of progressive marketing experience with at least 5 years in a senior or head-of-function role.
• Proven experience at one or more top-tier ecommerce or marketplace brands or global equivalent.
• Demonstrated 0-to-10x track record: built a marketing function from scratch at a startup or early-stage venture and drove measurable GMV, revenue, or user growth through marketing alone.
• Deep hands-on expertise across digital marketing, SEO/GEO/SEM, and performance marketing strategy and execution, not just oversight.
• Strong understanding of B2B ecommerce marketing: ABM, multi-stakeholder buyer journeys, catalogue merchandising, and trade marketing across multiple categories.
• Proven product marketing experience GTM launch playbooks, competitive positioning, and sales enablement collateral built from first principles.
• WhatsApp Business API marketing experience broadcast campaigns, conversational flows, and WhatsApp-native onboarding journeys.
• Hands-on knowledge of B2B martech stack: HubSpot / Salesforce MC / Marketo, 6sense / Bombora, Clearbit / Apollo, LinkedIn Ads, and WhatsApp BSP integrations.
• Demonstrated experience commissioning primary research and synthesising secondary research into actionable GTM and product decisions.
• Proven agency ecosystem management briefing, performance management, and budget governance across creative, media, PR, and research agencies.
• Marketing attribution modelling, dashboard ownership, and data-driven performance reporting to senior leadership.
• Annual marketing planning, OKR setting, budget allocation, and scenario planning across multiple concurrent business priorities.

Education MBA or equivalent

Languages English

About Standard Chartered We're an international bank, nimble enough to act, big enough for impact. For more than 170 years, we've worked to make a positive difference for our clients, communities, and each other. We question the status quo, love a challenge and enjoy finding new opportunities to grow and do better than before. If you're looking for a career with purpose and you want to work for a bank making a difference, we want to hear from you. You can count on us to celebrate your unique talents and we can't wait to see the talents you can bring us.

Our purpose, to drive commerce and prosperity through our unique diversity, together with our brand promise, to be here for good are achieved by how we each live our valued behaviours. When you work with us, you'll see how we value difference and advocate inclusion.

Together We

• Do the right thing and are assertive, challenge one another, and live with integrity, while putting the client at the heart of what we do
• Never settle, continuously striving to improve and innovate, keeping things simple and learning from doing well, and not so well
• Are better together, we can be ourselves, be inclusive, see more good in others, and work collectively to build for the long term

What We Offer In line with our Fair Pay Charter, we offer a competitive salary and benefits to support your mental, physical, financial and social wellbeing.

• Core bank funding for retirement savings, medical and life insurance, with flexible and voluntary benefits available in some locations.
• Time-off including annual leave, parental/maternity (20 weeks), sabbatical (12 months maximum) and volunteering leave (3 days), along with minimum global standards for annual and public holiday, which is combined to 30 days minimum.
• Flexible working options based around home and office locations, with flexible working patterns.
• Proactive wellbeing support through Unmind, a market-leading digital wellbeing platform, development courses for resilience and other human skills, global Employee Assistance Programme, sick leave, mental health first-aiders and all sorts of self-help toolkits
• A continuous learning culture to support your growth, with opportunities to reskill and upskill and access to physical, virtual and digital learning.
• Being part of an inclusive and values driven organisation, one that embraces and celebrates our unique diversity, across our teams, business functions and geographies - everyone feels respected and can realise their full potential.