Head of Growth
Canonical📌 Core Information
🔹 Job Title: Head of Growth
🔹 Company: Canonical
🔹 Location: Remote (EMEA time zones)
🔹 Job Type: Full-time
🔹 Category: 🚀 Growth Marketing
📌 Essential Job Details
🚀 Job Overview
The Head of Growth at Canonical will lead the growth engineering team to drive commercial outcomes through data-driven marketing strategies and technology. This senior leadership role oversees the entire marketing technology stack, analytics infrastructure, and optimization of the customer acquisition and retention funnel. You'll report directly to the VP of Marketing and play a pivotal role in Canonical's growth hacking strategy, balancing technological innovation with respect for user data and open source principles.
ASSUMPTION: This is a senior leadership position based on the reporting line to the VP of Marketing and the scope of responsibilities described.
📋 Key Responsibilities
✅ Lead the growth engineering team of data analysts, performance marketers, lifecycle marketers, and marketing automation specialists
✅ Design, implement, and manage Canonical's marketing technology stack including commercial and open source applications
✅ Own reporting and analytics throughout the customer lifecycle (ABM, attribution, funnel performance, acquisition costs, retention)
✅ Develop and track OKRs and conversion rates across marketing and revenue funnels
✅ Optimize lead scoring, lead flow, and cadences to increase conversion rates
✅ Develop web analytics and SEO practices to sustain high organic acquisition
✅ Drive Return On Ad Spend optimization through attribution methodologies and targeting
✅ Ensure marketing data cleanliness through governance policies and management practices
✅ Champion experimentation culture with processes, tooling (A/B tests, MAB), and expertise
✅ Collaborate cross-functionally to build data solutions for Go To Market problems
✅ Support marketing team execution excellence through training, tools, and documentation
🎯 Required Qualifications
Education: Undergraduate or postgraduate degree in data science, statistics, mathematics, computer science, or engineering (or equivalent alternative experience with exceptional academic track record)
Experience: Senior management experience leading analytical teams; proven track record in marketing analytics and commercial project management
Skills:
- Strong analytical mindset with evidence of driving commercial success
- Advanced marketing analytics expertise (media mix modeling, cohort analysis, attribution models)
- Coding/scripting languages (Python, JS, etc.) and database skills (SQL)
- Experience selecting, implementing, and managing martech stacks (preferably open source)
- Proven ability to build experimentation culture across organizations
- Advanced web analytics and SEO expertise across websites and SaaS products
- Stakeholder collaboration skills across multiple business functions
- Willingness to travel 2-4 times annually for internal events
ASSUMPTION: While specific years of experience aren't mentioned, the seniority level and scope suggest this is a role requiring substantial previous experience (likely 8+ years) in marketing analytics and leadership positions.
💰 Compensation & Benefits
Salary Range: Not specified
Benefits:
- 🏠 Fully remote working environment (since 2004)
- 📚 Personal learning and development budget ($2,000 per year)
- 💰 Annual compensation review
- 🏆 Recognition rewards
- 🏝 Annual holiday leave
- 👶 Parental leave
- 🧑💼 Employee Assistance Programme
- 🧳 Travel opportunities to meet colleagues at 'sprints'
- ✈️ Priority Pass for travel and upgrades for long-haul company events
Industry Comparison: Not specified
ASSUMPTION: Canonical likely offers competitive compensation for this senior role based on geographical location, experience, and performance as mentioned in their benefits section. The company emphasizes performance-driven compensation with regular reviews, suggesting potential for growth based on results.
📌 Applicant Insights
🔍 Company Context
Industry Position: Canonical is a pioneering open source technology company that publishes Ubuntu, one of the most important platforms for AI, IoT, and cloud computing. They operate at the forefront of global open source adoption.
Company Size: Not specified
Company Stage: Established technology company (founded in 2004)
ASSUMPTION: While exact company size isn't mentioned, Canonical is a well-established technology company with global reach and significant market presence in the open source space, especially through their Ubuntu platform.
📊 Role Analysis
Career Level: Senior leadership
Reporting Structure: Reports directly to the VP of Marketing
Team Size/Composition: Leads the growth engineering team including data analysts, performance marketers, lifecycle marketers, and marketing automation specialists
Growth Opportunities: Not explicitly mentioned, but the role offers significant exposure to cutting-edge marketing technology and leadership experience across the organization
ASSUMPTION: This appears to be a department head position with significant strategic influence and team leadership responsibilities, offering growth through impact on business outcomes and technological innovation.
🌍 Location & Work Environment
Office Type: Fully remote (Canonical has been remote-first since 2004)
Geographic Context: Position can be based anywhere within Europe, Middle East, and Africa time zones
Work Schedule: Not specified
Regional Considerations: The EMEA time zone requirement suggests a need for overlap with European business hours for collaboration, while still offering flexibility across multiple regions and cultures
ASSUMPTION: As a remote-first company with nearly two decades of distributed work experience, Canonical likely has well-established protocols and culture for effective remote collaboration, making location truly flexible within the specified time zones.
💼 Interview & Application Insights
Typical Process: For senior marketing positions like this, expect multiple rounds of interviews focusing on technical expertise, leadership capabilities, and strategic thinking
Key Assessment Areas:
- Analytics expertise and technical marketing knowledge
- Team leadership and management approach
- Experience with marketing technology implementation
- Proven commercial impact of growth initiatives
- Collaboration skills across technical and business functions
Application Tips: Emphasize quantifiable marketing results, technology implementation experience, and team leadership. Demonstrate understanding of open source principles and how they apply to marketing.
ATS Keywords: growth marketing, martech, marketing analytics, attribution modeling, SEO, Python, SQL, A/B testing, experimentation, lead scoring, marketing automation, data governance, open source
ASSUMPTION: These interview insights are based on standard practices for senior marketing technology positions and Canonical's emphasis on technical excellence, experimentation, and ownership mentioned in the job description.
🛠️ Tools & Technologies
- Marketing Automation: Marketo
- Analytics: Google Analytics, Superset
- Lead Management: Leandata
- Machine Learning: Kubeflow
- Content Management: WordPress
- Programming: Python, JavaScript
- Database: SQL
- Testing Tools: A/B testing, Multi-Armed Bandit experimentation
ASSUMPTION: These tools are mentioned in the job description, but proficiency with other similar martech and analytics tools would likely be valuable. The role seems to balance commercial tools with open source solutions.
👔 Cultural Fit Considerations
Company Values: Based on the job description, Canonical values ownership, collaboration, learning, curiosity, and continuous improvement. They emphasize technical excellence, innovation, and ethical marketing approaches (respecting visitors' data).
Work Style: The role requires someone comfortable with problem-solving, hands-on work, experimentation, measurement, and automation. The culture appears to blend technical depth with commercial outcome focus.
Self-Assessment:
- Am I passionate about both technology and marketing technology?
- Do I thrive in an environment that values ownership and autonomy?
- Am I comfortable balancing technical expertise with strategic business outcomes?
- Do I have experience building and leading diverse technical marketing teams?
- Am I aligned with open source values and approaches?
ASSUMPTION: These cultural elements are inferred from explicit statements about what Canonical values in candidates and the company's position in the open source ecosystem.
⚠️ Potential Challenges
This role combines technical marketing expertise, leadership responsibilities, and strategic business focus, which may present several challenges:
- Managing a diverse team with specialized skill sets across analytics, performance marketing, and marketing automation
- Balancing commercial martech solutions with open source technologies
- Coordinating across multiple departments (Product, IS, Engineering, RevOps, Finance)
- Developing attribution models that accurately reflect complex B2B purchasing journeys
- Building consensus for data-driven decision making across the organization
- Maintaining effective team collaboration in a fully remote environment
ASSUMPTION: These challenges are based on the described responsibilities and the typical complexity of leading growth and analytics functions in technology organizations.
📈 Similar Roles Comparison
This Head of Growth role at Canonical differs from similar positions in several ways:
- vs. VP of Marketing: More focused on data, technology, and growth systems rather than overall brand and marketing strategy
- vs. Marketing Operations Director: Broader scope beyond operations to include growth strategy and team leadership
- vs. Chief Growth Officer: More hands-on with technical implementation and team management, typically with narrower organizational scope
- vs. Analytics Director: Combines analytics with broader growth strategy and marketing technology oversight
ASSUMPTION: This comparison is based on standard industry role delineations and the specific responsibilities outlined in this job description.
📝 Sample Projects
Based on the role's responsibilities, the Head of Growth might work on projects such as:
- Implementing a multi-touch attribution model that connects marketing activities to revenue generation
- Building a lead scoring system that optimizes sales resource allocation based on propensity to convert
- Developing dashboards that provide real-time insights into marketing performance across channels
- Designing and executing A/B testing programs to optimize conversion rates on key landing pages
- Implementing ML models to predict customer churn and enable proactive retention campaigns
- Creating a unified data governance framework to ensure data quality across marketing systems
ASSUMPTION: These sample projects are derived from the specific responsibilities listed and represent typical initiatives for growth marketing leaders in technology companies.
❓ Key Questions to Ask During Interview
- How does Canonical measure success for the growth marketing function? What key metrics will be used to evaluate my performance?
- What are the biggest growth challenges Canonical is currently facing that you hope this role will help address?
- How does the company balance the use of proprietary marketing technology with open source solutions?
- What is the current state of the martech stack and what immediate priorities exist for optimization or implementation?
- How closely does the growth team collaborate with product development to influence product decisions based on user data?
- What approaches has Canonical found most effective for maintaining team cohesion and collaboration in a fully remote environment?
ASSUMPTION: These questions are suggested based on common areas of importance for growth marketing leadership roles and Canonical's specific context as described.
📌 Disclaimer
⚠️ This enhanced job description was AI-generated based on the original job listing. Information has been organized and supplemented with industry-standard insights where details were not provided. All assumptions are explicitly labeled. Applicants should verify all details directly with the employer before making decisions based on this content.
📌 Next Steps for Applicants
To effectively pursue this opportunity at Canonical:
- Prepare your application:
- Customize your resume to highlight experience with the specific technologies mentioned (Marketo, Google Analytics, etc.)
- Include quantifiable results from previous growth initiatives you've led
- Emphasize team leadership experience with technical marketing professionals
- Include keywords like "growth marketing," "marketing analytics," "attribution modeling," and "experimentation" for ATS optimization
- Research Canonical further:
- Familiarize yourself with Ubuntu and Canonical's open source ecosystem
- Review their technical blog posts and marketing approaches
- Understand their business model and commercial offerings
- Prepare for technical assessment:
- Be ready to discuss specific marketing technology implementations
- Prepare examples of how you've used data to drive marketing decisions
- Consider how you would approach growth in an open source context
- Develop your leadership narrative:
- Prepare stories that demonstrate your management style and team development approach
- Be ready to discuss how you balance technical expertise with leadership responsibilities
- Consider how you've built experimentation cultures in previous organizations