With 21 purpose-built centres across Melbourne and continued growth on the horizon, Explorers Early Learning is investing in how we connect with families and support them throughout their journey.
This is an exciting opportunity for an experienced Growth & Lifecycle Manager to take ownership of our strategy; driving enrolment growth, strengthening family retention and creating meaningful customer journeys from first enquiry through to long-term engagement.
If you're a data-driven marketer who loves turning insights into action, understands what makes customers convert and stay, and enjoys building scalable marketing journeys, we'd love to hear from you.
Why join Explorers?
When Lynda Salvo founded Explorers in 2004, her vision was simple but powerful: to build centres where children and educators could truly thrive together. That mission hasn't changed. Every decision we make - from the environments we create to the people we bring into our team - is guided by Lynda's founding belief that exceptional early learning starts with exceptional people.
At Explorers, we know great people do their best work when they're supported, trusted and given opportunities to grow.
You'll enjoy:
- Hybrid working arrangements
- Working alongside an experienced and collaborative Marketing team
- The opportunity to own and shape our growth and lifecycle strategy
- A growing organisation where your ideas are encouraged and your impact is visible
- Career development and progression opportunities as we continue to expand
- Team events, celebrations and wellbeing initiatives
About the Role
Reporting to the Marketing Director, you'll be responsible for driving growth across the full customer lifecycle - from acquisition and enquiry through to enrolment, engagement, retention and advocacy.
This is a strategic and hands-on role where you'll work closely with Marketing, Customer Experience, Technology, Sales and People & Culture to build effective customer journeys and deliver measurable business outcomes.
You'll be responsible for:
- Owning paid media strategy, budget and execution across Google, Meta and the broader digital acquisition channel mix
- Managing website performance and the SEO agency relationship to improve organic visibility and digital performance
- Developing and optimising acquisition strategies that improve cost per lead, enrolment conversion and overall return on investment
- Owning the lifecycle strategy for our existing family community, including communications, nurture journeys and engagement initiatives
- Developing prospect and waitlist nurture journeys that keep prospective families engaged and support conversion when places become available
- Designing and optimising customer journeys, segmentation and automated communications across email and SMS
- Establishing a clear end-to-end funnel view from acquisition through to retention, providing accurate reporting and actionable insights
- Using AI-assisted tools to support reporting, audits, content development, testing and campaign optimisation
- Continuously testing, learning and optimising campaigns and customer journeys to improve performance
About You
You'll be a commercially minded and analytical marketer who understands the full customer lifecycle and knows how to turn data into meaningful growth.
You'll also bring:
- A tertiary qualification in Marketing, Communications, Business or a related discipline, or equivalent professional experience
- 5+ years' experience across performance/paid media and lifecycle, CRM or retention marketing, ideally combined
- Proven experience managing paid media budgets across platforms such as Google Ads and Meta
- Strong experience with CRM and marketing automation platforms such as HubSpot, Salesforce Marketing Cloud, ActiveCampaign or similar
- Demonstrated experience designing and executing multi-channel customer journeys at scale
- Strong understanding of customer acquisition, conversion, onboarding, engagement, retention and advocacy
- Experience managing website performance and SEO, including working with external SEO agencies
- Demonstrated experience using AI tools and a strong curiosity and willingness to build this capability quickly
We welcome applications from people of all backgrounds, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, people of any age, gender identity, disability, sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity and culture.
Explorers Early Learning is a child-safe organisation. We are committed to the safety, wellbeing and inclusion of all children and expect all team members to uphold our child-safe responsibilities.
Skills Required
- Tertiary qualification in Marketing, Communications, Business, a related discipline, or equivalent professional experience
- 5+ years of experience across performance or paid media and lifecycle, CRM, or retention marketing
- Experience managing paid media budgets across Google Ads and Meta
- Strong experience with CRM and marketing automation platforms such as HubSpot, Salesforce Marketing Cloud, ActiveCampaign, or similar
- Experience designing and executing multi-channel customer journeys at scale
- Strong understanding of customer acquisition, conversion, onboarding, engagement, retention, and advocacy
- Experience managing website performance and SEO, including external SEO agency relationships
- Experience using AI tools and willingness to build AI capability quickly
What We Do
Explorers Early Learning is a family-owned, Melbourne-based provider of Reggio Emilia-inspired childcare, long day care, and kindergarten across Victoria. It serves children from six weeks to school age and focuses on nurturing curiosity, exploration, wellbeing, and joyful, child-led learning. Founded by Lynda Salvo, the organisation aims to create supportive centres in a people-first environment where children and educators can thrive together.
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