The Role in a nutshell
Setting the marketing & growth foundations at one of the world's most trusted Islamic education publishers. 1,800+ institutes across 70+ countries. 900,000+ books in homes and classrooms worldwide. All of it without a marketing department. The product is trusted. The community is real. Now someone needs to build the engine. If you have spent the last few years getting good at marketing but wondering whether any of it actually matters, keep reading.Reporting to: Projects & Technology Director (Board Member) | Permanent & full time
About Safar
Safar Publications was founded in 1998 by Shaykh Hasan Ali, growing from a single classroom in North London into a not-for-profit Sadaqa Jariya project now trusted by institutes and families across more than 70 countries. Every penny from sales is reinvested into new resources, free teacher training, and expanding access to quality Islamic education. No agency campaigns. No marketing department. Just genuinely good work that people kept recommending to each other for over 25 years.
The work spans a complete Islamic education ecosystem: a full curriculum of Islamic Studies, Qaidah, and Arabic learning materials, a Duas and Surahs app, an online teacher training platform, a free resources toolbox for educators, and Journey2Jannah, a gamified digital learning platform for children aged 5 to 12 used by families and institutes worldwide.
Think about what it means to be a child encountering Islam for the first time. Whether that experience feels joyful or joyless, engaging or distant, often shapes how a person relates to their faith for the rest of their life. Safar's work sits right at that moment. You do not need to have all the answers about Islamic education to do this well. You need to care about getting it right and be willing to learn from the people around you who do.
What This Role Is (and Isn't)
Safar has built something remarkable without a marketing department. You are the person who gets to make it visible. This is a hands-on builder role with real ownership, designed to grow into Head of Growth and Marketing as Safar scales.
It is:
- A role for someone who enjoys figuring things out from first principles
- Focused on judgement, sequencing, and building things that last
- Optimised for learning and compounding progress, not activity for its own sake
It is not:
- A social-media-only role
- A pure paid-ads role
- A manager of the work rather than a builder of it
You are not expected to do everything at once. The job is to choose the right few things, at the right time, and put the right systems in place so that effort compounds rather than resets. As Safar scales, you will move from building the foundations yourself to owning the function, including hiring, budget ownership, and long-term strategy. We are looking for someone who wants to grow with us, not just through us.
How This Role Operates
Here is the thing about marketing that nobody puts in a job description: most of what actually works is boring. Not bad boring. Good boring. The kind of boring that compounds.
It is the email sequence that runs while you are making a cup of tea. The brief that is clear enough that a freelancer nails it first time. The template you build once and use for the next two years. The weekly check-in where you look at what moved and what did not, adjust slightly, and go again. None of it is glamorous. All of it is what separates sustainable growth from random results.
This role is built around that kind of deliberate, repeatable work. Small experiments before big bets. A dashboard that tracks what actually matters. A weekly loop you actually follow. The goal is not to do more. It is to build systems where consistent effort compounds into something real.
AI is part of that. Not as a novelty but as a genuine workflow tool, for research, briefing, copy, planning, and reporting. If you have already built your own ways of working with AI that make you noticeably better, we want to hear about them.
What You Will Own
You will not be doing all of this at full intensity from day one. The first 90 days are about listening and foundation setting. The rest follows from there.
Focus and Prioritisation
Your most important job is deciding where to focus. You will choose which audience and format combinations to prioritise, balance effort across parents and institutes, and keep the channel stack intentionally small. The skill here is not doing more. It is knowing what to leave out.
Messaging and Funnels
Turn deep knowledge about how children learn Islam, and what makes Safar's approach different, into clear, testable messaging that actually converts. You will write or heavily edit landing pages, emails, and core website and campaign content, and build the journeys that take someone from first encounter to loyal customer. Safar's educators are there to collaborate with, so you can move fast without getting things wrong.
Content and Channel Execution
Own the content engine that drives top-of-funnel growth. Define what gets made, brief the retained designer and developer, and bring in freelancers such as video editors or copywriters where the work demands it. The goal is a repeatable system, not a series of one-off campaigns, that steadily brings more families and institutes into the Safar ecosystem.
Social, Lifecycle and Relationship-Led Growth
Own social channels as consistent, trust-building communication rather than growth hacks. Use email and CRM to support activation, retention, and re-engagement. Maintain a small number of high-trust relationship spaces, including WhatsApp, to listen, learn, and support renewal. Success here is measured in insight, trust, and retention, not reach.
What Support Looks Like
We want to be straight with you about what you are walking into and what you are not walking into alone.
A retained technology partner handles CRM, tracking, and website implementation. A retained designer and developer are in place. Basic social calendars and review processes already exist, email flows are being established, and paid advertising, CRM workflows, and tracking are ready to be built out with your direction. Where additional resource is needed you have the autonomy to bring in freelancers.
Priorities are agreed together, progress is reviewed regularly, and you will not be handed a blank sheet and left alone. We are also bringing in external marketing and growth mentorship, giving you access to experienced practitioners who can sense check your thinking and support your development as the function grows.
This role starts with a deliberately small but not insignificant budget. Early wins fund future investment and the budget grows as confidence, learning, and revenue grow alongside it.
What Success Looks Like at 12 Months
- Clear, consistent positioning across physical and digital products
- Improved conversion, retention, and renewals
- Early, measurable cross-sell between Safar Publications and Journey2Jannah
- At least one repeatable growth loop with clear evidence it is working
- Growing reach, with more families and institutes choosing Safar
Who This Role Suits
You might be working in the Islamic sector right now, perhaps in education, publishing, or a charity, with strong instincts for how Muslim families and institutes make decisions and a readiness to step into a more commercially focused growth role. Or you might be coming from an agency, startup, or small business background with real marketing experience, looking for work that genuinely means something to you.
Either way, you do not need to be a scholar or an Islamic studies expert. You do need to care about the community this work serves. This tends to suit people who have quietly outgrown their current job and want something with more room. If that sounds familiar, keep going.
What We Are Looking For
- 4 to 7 years experience in growth, marketing, or digital roles
- Has built something in a small team or from scratch
- Strong written communication and genuine editorial judgement
- Finds shifting priorities energising rather than destabilising
- Uses AI tools as a core part of how you work, not occasionally but across your whole workflow
This probably is not the right role if you need a large team, a significant budget from day one, or a narrowly defined channel to own. That is not a criticism. It is just a different kind of job.
How to Apply
We care more about how you think than a polished CV. Click apply, upload your CV, and include a link to a short video explaining why this role appeals to you and what draws you to Safar's work. It does not need to be produced or polished. Filmed on your phone is completely fine. We are interested in how you think, not how you present.
