Senior Social Media Manager

About us

You’ve probably heard of Autotrader, but do you know what we’re all about?  

We’re the UK’s leading automotive marketplace, a heritage brand, and a tech darling of the stock market. We bring together vehicle buyers and sellers to give them real choices. Cars may be what we're best known for but we’re also the place for pretty much everything else on wheels, from e-bikes to caravans. 

In the automotive world, change is a constant, that’s why we take our job of untangling the complex car-buying journey very seriously. 
 
At our core, we’re all about people. We go our own way while embracing diversity and celebrating our differences. We dedicate ourselves to the idea that we work better together. 

Autotrader is a beautiful, surprising and vibrant place to work. We might not be for everyone, but we could be perfect for you. 

About the job

As Senior Social Media Manager in our Content team, you’ll deliver and develop a strategy that builds brand awareness, drives engagement, and strengthens advocacy with car buyers and sellers nationwide. You’ll lead the development and delivery of our social media strategy across Facebook, Threads, TikTok, Instagram and beyond, shaping bold, shareable and award-winning content that truly resonates with our audiences.

In this role, you’ll guide and inspire our social media team, overseeing campaigns, growing communities and managing a fast-moving schedule of updates. You’ll seek to understand our different audiences, what drives their engagement and loyalty, and how you and your team can create content that d builds long-term followship and fandom across platforms.

Using data and insights, you’ll continually optimise performance, report to stakeholders, and spot new opportunities to push boundaries with social-first experiments that put us at the forefront of consumer conversations. You’ll also champion our social voice within the business and externally, representing us confidently at industry events.

We’re looking for someone who is creative, strategic and audience-obsessed, with a strong track record in social media team leadership and analytics for consumer-facing brands. If you thrive in a fast-paced, innovative environment and love turning insights into standout content, this is your opportunity to shape how millions of people connect with our brand. Based in Manchester with travel to London to maintain a team that sits across both locations, this is a pivotal moment to join and make your mark.

What we're looking for

• Proven experience operating at a similar level within an agency or in-house marketing team for a consumer-facing brand
• Experience managing social media and content team members, providing clear guidance, regular feedback and development opportunities to enable high performance and professional growth
• Evidence of Social Media Management experience and strategic leadership that aligns with a brand vision and marketing goals
• Strongly data-driven, with the ability to translate insights into actionable strategies
• Solid understanding of content and the content production process
• Experience of working across a diverse number of social media platforms and the curiosity to discover new ones
• A demonstratable track record of working with influencers, content creators and other brand partners to deliver social-first campaigns that earn new audiences and deliver compelling results for all parties
• Someone with existing relationships with the key social media platforms and prior experience of managing user-generated social campaigns
• A clear articulation of what makes branded community management great and a vision on how we can apply that at Autotrader
• A great communicator and able to collaborate with and learn from multiple cross-functional teams across the business to ensure cohesive storytelling and brand representation

During our application process, you will be asked two questions to help us learn more about you and how you align with our values. These will be used as part of our selection criteria, to determine if we progress your application further.

Benefits

We’re offering a salary of £50,000 – £60,000, plus an additional 10% of your salary awarded to you in shares each year. These awarded shares will become yours in yearly instalments over the next three years, and you can choose to either sell them or keep them as shares. 

You'll have 28 days holiday per year, and that's in addition to bank holidays and half day closures on Christmas and New Year's Eve.

That’s not all. You'll be enrolled in our pension scheme, where our standard contributions are 7% and employee contributions are 5%. We also have comprehensive private medical cover, enhanced family leave provisions, a car salary sacrifice scheme, share-save options, and much more. 

We always want to give you the support you need and help prioritise your wellbeing, that’s why we provide access to 24/7 online GP and dentist, as well as specialist support for assisted fertility, gender dysphoria, menopause, period care plans and lots more.  

On top of all that, our hybrid model, Connected Working, combines the best of both worlds – office and home working. You’ll have two fixed weekly office days for team collaboration and one more of your choice to suit your work-life balance.  

Additionally, we have our remote-first periods at set times during summer and winter. During these periods, you can work remotely anywhere in the UK and from certain locations abroad.

 

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