Company background
Cognizant Technology Solutions is a leading technology, business process, and consulting company that combines deep industry expertise, technology prowess, and people ingenuity to transform businesses for the fast-evolving future. With annual revenues of $19 billion in 2023, Cognizant is ranked #208 on the Fortune 500 list and #19 in Fortune's Modern Board 25.
As a visionary yet pragmatic partner, Cognizant helps enterprises cut through complexity, execute quickly, and realize the promise of technology to innovate and grow.
Situation overview
Cognizant is seeking a VP of Technology Growth Marketing to drive awareness for our technology capabilities and help originate new opportunities. This newly created, critical role will have an immediate impact on the organization, serving as a catalyst to combine aspects of messaging and positioning with branding and capability-awareness generation.
The VP will transform technology marketing into technology
revenue marketing, creating and leading new sub-brands, supporting new platform introductions and developing customer strategies in partnership with the Integrated Service Line Marketing leader and service line leadership.
Burning platform
Swiftly reinforce and empower the technology marketing team to propel business objectives forward. Evaluate the existing team, identify gaps, and onboard new talent to fortify the group. Deeply understand the unique requirements of each service line and devise impactful strategies to amplify messaging and bolster revenue-generation initiatives.
Become the driving force—a proactive, action-oriented, visionary marketing ally who ignites change and fuels business growth.
Position purpose
The VP, Technology Growth Marketing will spearhead integrated marketing plans for Cognizant’s industry-leading technology solutions including AI, Security, Cloud, Data & Analytics and IoT to increase awareness of Cognizant’s differentiated capabilities and drive profitable revenue for the business.
This is a hands-on player/coach leadership role that includes aspects of product marketing, capability-awareness program design and field marketing strategy. It requires strong technology and business acumen, an ability to thread together offerings from multiple parts of the business for impactful messaging and audience engagement, and the experience to select opportunity-generation events.
The role involves working with product management, field marketing and client-facing teams to refine and simplify market positioning and orchestrate high-impact, hyper-targeted marketing activities that increase awareness and generate sales opportunities.
The ideal leader for this role is agile, self -motivated, and understands all aspects of marketing, similar to a startup CMO, while also being able to navigate a $19 billion global organization.
Responsibilities include
- Develop marketing strategies in close alignment with service line leadership, for key technology areas like AI, Cloud, Data, IoT etc. globally, across all Cognizant’s service lines.
- Maintain a strong grasp of technology developments, buyer personas, our GTM and competitive dynamics. Be the go-to marketing partner for service line leadership teams.
- Develop and lead globally coordinated go-to-market plans for Cognizant’s key tech service lines– from strategic messaging, to compelling, pragmatic content and executive events that stand apart in a noisy marketplace.
- Guide content strategy & thought leadership conceptualization across digital and experiential mediums that intrigue audiences while conveying distinctiveness.
- Identify emerging best-in-class ways to package content and engage different buyer personas. Own website content in all technology areas world-wide.
- Devise integrated marketing programs & optimize investments for opportunity generation in key technology areas.
- Lead the introduction of new products and services in collaboration with product teams and other marketing contributing functions including Branding, Communications, Web, PR, Social.
- Maintain market & competitive intelligence on tech shifts & evolving client adoption patterns to continuously refresh and simplify our narrative.
- Success will be measured by the ability to understand business goals, refine messaging and use the right marketing mix to accelerate and grow pipeline, and help our sales teams win.
Core Capabilities
- 17+ years’ experience spearheading B2B marketing / or a combination of consulting and marketing expertise for business transformation, enterprise technology platforms or tech products, with consistent record of global results.
- Strategic thinking abilities tied to astute business orientation and executive influence across complex global organizations.
- Demonstrated experience working shoulder-to-shoulder with sales teams, clients and internal business partners in planning and helping execute executive events, road shows and integrated account-based marketing.
- Well-honed leadership talents with experience managing digital and in-person marketing initiatives through multifunctional collaboration.
- Social media prowess, with strong understanding of how to leverage this channel as significant part of the marketing mix.
- Strong communication, storytelling and presenter credentials having engaged extensively with global executive audiences.
- Extensive exposure planning and executing analyst relations and integrated field campaigns targeted at tech buying committees.
Critical competencies / mindsets
- Action oriented – Driven, finds work fulfilling; is full of energy; approaches challenges with enthusiasm but also wisdom.
- Business acumen – Understands TCV, revenue and margin basics; big picture view of dynamics involved in go-to-market process. Aware of how strategies and tactics work in the marketplace.
- Technology savvy – Knows and can quickly learn new technology trends and concepts in depth, to be able to extract benefits after speaking with engineering teams.
- Positivity – pragmatic but positive, sees opportunities, adapts well to change.
- Relationship development – Understands what holds value for specific business executives; polished, tactful.
- Creativity and resourcefulness – Able to bring and execute fresh and innovative solutions.
- Hiring and developing teams – Hires well, develops the team, servant leader, high standards on deliverable quality.
- Organizational agility – Knows how to get things done formally and informally.
- Perseverance – Able to collaborate and work through barriers.
- Planning – Able to scope out tasks and set objectives and goals while anticipating changes.
- Communications – Able to succinctly communicate in a variety of settings and styles.
