Job description
Location: Rome HQ (London office growing) | Flexible / hybrid for the right person
Reports to: CEO | Direct reports: 3
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Role Overview
Carpe Diem Tours is hiring a Marketing Manager to be the creative engine and day-to-day driver of our marketing function. You'll partner closely with our external marketing agency (AAMP), who lead in carved-out areas of the funnel, and you'll own everything else — including the bits that sit in-house: our OTAs and distribution, our website, and direct bookings. Strategy is a shared sport here. You'll bring ideas, shape direction, and own execution.
We're a Rome-based tour operator running food tours, cooking classes, walking tours, and ticketed experiences across seven European cities — Rome, Florence, Barcelona, Lisbon, London, Madrid, and Budapest — with around 100,000 customers a year. London is the fastest-growing part of the business right now. We've built a strong brand and an established marketing engine. What we need now is someone with sharp creative instincts and real ownership energy to keep all of it moving, protect the brand, and find the angles that grow direct revenue.
What Success Looks Like
* Hit company sales targets across our seven destinations
* Grow direct revenue by 12%
* Launch new products successfully (London Cooking Class, British Empire Walking Tour, and beyond)
* Lift website performance through better content, CRO, and creative testing
* Keep the Carpe Diem brand consistent and well-applied across every touchpoint
What You'll Own
* Strategy & agency partnership. Partner with AAMP across the areas of the funnel they lead. Bring your own thinking, push back where it counts, and shape strategy together with the CEO and the wider team.
* Creative direction. Set the creative bar across ads, OTA listings, social, email, and website. Review work, give clear feedback, and raise the standard of everything we put out.
* Website & direct bookings. Full ownership of the Carpe Diem Tours website — content, performance, CRO, UX, and the direct booking funnel. Work closely with our Technical Director (Alina) and her team to test, ship, and improve.
* Brand stewardship. Be the keeper of the Carpe Diem brand. Make sure tone, visual identity, and positioning are consistent across every channel and every sub-brand (Tipsy Tour, Jack the Ripper Tour, Ghost Tour London, Rome With Chef).
* Team leadership. Lead and develop three direct reports: our Copywriter, our Social Media / Content Manager, and our Distribution Manager. Set direction, run 1:1s, hold a high creative bar.
* OTAs & distribution (in-house). OTAs and distribution are managed in-house. Provide the creative direction our Distribution Manager needs to make our listings on Viator, GetYourGuide, Airbnb Experiences and others stand out and convert. Our Distribution Manager owns the mechanics; you bring the creative angle.
* B2B marketing. Support our B2B growth efforts — collateral, decks, partner-facing comms, and campaigns aimed at travel agents, tour operators, and partnership prospects.
* Campaign execution. Take agreed strategy and turn it into integrated campaigns across paid, organic, email, OTA, and direct — and ship them on time.
* Performance & reporting. Track what's working, report results clearly to leadership, and use the numbers to inform what we do next.
Who You Are
We've thought hard about the type of person who'll thrive in this role:
* Strongly creative — this is non-negotiable. You spot a flat advert and instantly know how to make it better. You think in headlines, hooks, and angles. Creative instinct is your strongest muscle.
* A real doer. You like getting things done more than you like talking about getting things done. You move fast, you ship, and you bring energy to the people around you.
* Great with people. Warm, collaborative, and confident managing relationships — with our agency, your team, and the wider business.
* Organised enough. You don't need to be a project management obsessive, but you can hold multiple campaigns, channels, and people in your head and keep things moving.
* Owns the brand. You take the brand seriously. You'll feel the urge to fix it when something drifts off, and you'll have the taste to know what "on-brand" actually means.
* Web-native. You understand websites, conversion, and how copy and creative drive performance. CRO instincts are essential.
* AI-fluent and process-minded. We're a people-first company enabled by tech. We expect you to be actively using AI to revolutionise how the marketing department works — from creative production to reporting to day-to-day workflow.
Experience
* 3–5 years of marketing experience with increasing responsibility
* Proven experience leading creative work and managing small teams
* Experience working with or inside agencies — you know how to brief, review, and get the best out of them
* Track record of owning website content, CRO, or digital experience
* Experience marketing on online marketplaces (Amazon, Etsy, Booking.Com, Viator, GetYourGuide, Airbnb, or similar) is a strong plus
* Travel, tours, hospitality, or experience-based business background is a bonus
* Native or near-native English. You understand the UK and US consumer markets — that's where our customers come from
Location & Work Style
We're headquartered in Rome and our London team is growing fast. The ideal candidate is based in Rome or London, but we'll consider flexible or hybrid setups for the right person. Expect regular travel between our destinations — Rome, Florence, Barcelona, Lisbon, London, Madrid, and Budapest.
How to Apply
Fill in the form below. Tell us about a piece of marketing you're proud of and what made it work.