Growth Manager
About the role
Koala is a global furniture brand bringing Australian design and innovation to the world. We create forward-thinking products that solve problems for people and homes everywhere, driven by our purpose to make the world a more comfortable place.
We’ve always believed in doing things differently, whether in the way we develop products, how we do people and culture, or the way we bring the brand to life. That mindset has fuelled our growth, helping us disrupt categories in ways that are creative, bold and often unexpected. While we’re a household name in Australia, our journey on the global stage is only just beginning.
Since launching in 2015, our furniture has reached homes across Australia, Japan, the US and the UK. As a B Corp-certified, customer-obsessed, and data-led company, we’re committed to revolutionising furniture for generations to come through design, innovation, and meaningful sustainability.
Role Description
The Growth Manager, UK plays a vital role in using data and insights to optimise and scale channels, whilst managing budgets to hit MER targets. This isn’t just about running ads and adjusting budgets, this is about building a growth engine, testing with speed and not being afraid to innovate and learn in a highly competitive market.
We need a thinker and doer who thrives on collaboration and innovation, someone who can spot an opportunity, build a creative solution, and see it through from concept to execution. You'll work with some of the best minds across growth, creative, and product teams, delivering fresh ideas that not only align with our brand but take it to new heights. In this role, you'll be instrumental in launching new tests, channels and helping Koala grow in the UK.
Key Responsibilities
- Own building, planning, and optimisation of paid social and paid search channels
- Work closely with the creative strategist to build a creative testing engine, executing tests to scale the accounts and provide learnings for the business
- Work with growth lead to manage MER and scale budgets profitably based on performance data
- Monitor and analyse daily performance and spot trends that inform decisions to improve efficiency and scale
- Identify, plan and execute launches of new channels or opportunities to help support business growth
- Own reporting and forecasting on spend, efficiency and contribution, and use it to decide where the next pound goes.
- Manage external partners (agencies, freelancers, creative resource) as needed
- Stay ahead of industry trends and developments, ensuring new features are tested and current set up and processes are regularly reviewed
- Operate with a lean team, bias-for-action mindset: prioritise ruthlessly, move quickly and find scrappy ways to ship great work.
Ideal background
- 3-5+ years of experience scaling e-commerce brands
- You’re a Growth Executive (or equivalent) looking to take the next step in your career, to own budget, performance and channels in a lean D2C start up
- Strong knowledge of paid social channels, how they work and which metrics to look out for
- Genuine appetite to broaden your knowledge by being hands on launching new channels
- Blended, commercial thinking. You think in MER, blended CAC, contribution margin and incrementality, and you're sceptical of what the ad platforms report to you
- Self-directed. You can own a channel and a budget without daily oversight.
- Comfortable with pace and change. You've worked somewhere scaling fast and know that scaling breaks accounts - saturating audiences, rising CPMs, disrupted learning phases - and you know how to get ahead of it.
- Excellent communication skills. Confident in presenting insights and recommendations to both technical and non-technical audiences.
- Experience working autonomously in a lean team or regional role, with exposure to global stakeholders across time zones.
Perks and Privileges
Koala is only great when its employees are happy; and we’re one happy bunch!
- Hybrid working - We’re mixing it up with ~2-3 days in our London Treehouse (office) and work from bed/home (WFB)
- Take a break - Generous time off - Koala life leave, volunteer, parental, and more to help keep your work-life balance, balanced.
- Surprise & delight - The two-word combo at the core of everything we do. All Koalas can expect to enjoy free Koala products with ‘mates rates’ for your friends and fam!
- Support & wellbeing - Our employee experience respects and embraces all families, formed, found, and evolving. You’ll have access to our Employee Assistance Program, which includes unlimited sessions for financial, work, relationship, family or wellbeing support.
- Competitive pension matching with NEST.
- Accelerate your career - via our Learning Management platform, as well as individual and team growth budgets and dedicated days.
- Community & connection - We believe that simply doing ‘no harm’ isn’t good enough So, how are we doing our part? BCorp Certified, WWF Partnership, volunteer days, a member of 1% and so much more.
- All in all, the Koala Community is a great place to hang out and belong to!
Why Join Koala?
At Koala, we do things a little differently and we don’t shy away from the fact that we expect a lot from our employees! We have no ego; we seek feedback that grows us; and we have a strong bias for action. We want you to challenge expectations, always look to make a difference and give us something different from the norm. We want people that bring great energy, that have a long-game focus and are always trying to find new angles and approaches to the way we work. We're a team full of entrepreneurial spirit and have a relentless focus on 'what's next' but while always reviewing 'what's been done' and learning, growing and adapting. Honesty and empathy drive everything we do, as well as a total focus on exceeding our customers’ expectations. So if you feel like this could be you... well what the bloody hell are you waiting for? Drop us a line, and let's see what you've got! ;)
There’s no such thing as a ‘perfect’ candidate, Koala is a place where everyone has opportunity. So however you identify and whatever background you bring with you, please apply if this is a role that would make you excited to come into work every day. We’re an equal opportunity employer, and recognise that a diverse workforce is crucial to our success as a business.
To read more, check out our careers, LinkedIn, or the great work we do with Work180.
