A Day in the Life of George Pandeliev, Marketing Operations Manager at Canada Life UK

Meet George Pandeliev, the Marketing Operations Manager at Canada Life UK, who joined the team in October 2024. With a knack for driving marketing effectiveness, he juggles everything from managing creative resources to overseeing budgets and building strong relationships with partners.

Tell us a bit about your role and how you got here.

I joined Canada Life UK in October 2024 as their Marketing operations manager. Canada Life is a leading financial services provider with a wide range of wealth, insurance and asset management solutions. Our team is a vital part of the wider function, driving marketing effectiveness by managing the creative services resources, events and strategic projects, leading budget and risk management while fostering strong relationships with our key partners and suppliers.

Having a dedicated marketing operations (MOps) team is something quite common for large organisations where efforts are equally distributed across marketing strategy, campaigns execution, efficiency, risk management, performance and analytics.

I have a background in customer services and managed to make a career switch thanks to a previous employer’s internal mobility programs, opportunities and support. This is now my fourth role in marketing operations.

I have studied Marketing at Birkbeck, University of London, where I currently volunteer as a mentor to year 3 students in their “Mentoring Pathways” program.

Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

I’ve been lucky enough to have worked and met some fantastic leaders in the marketing operations space and I feel really inspired to become an impactful and resourceful professional as they all are.

Ultimately, I can’t predict the ways the marketing function will evolve or the way we, in MOps, will partner with our teams and the wider organisation to ensure the success of the marketing efforts.

But I am excited to see what the world of technology and AI will look like in 10 years, as marketing technology (MarTech) has always been a part of my job and I’m curious to see what solutions will be out there for us.

What does a typical day look like for you?

A typical day starts with coffee… plenty of coffee! The great thing about my role with Canada Life is the variety of duties and areas of expertise I get to collaborate with. My role covers the MarTech capabilities of the team, so part of my time is focused on discovering new solutions, implementation and deployment to the marketing teams. I also look after our processes and policies. This requires working with the team and making sure we avoid wasting time and efforts in our day-to-day duties, and that we operate in a smooth and collaborative way and deliver high quality and compliant outcomes. I also oversee the risk management framework, budget and vendor management for our function.

What part of your role do you enjoy the most?

I enjoy working in a large team, being able to interact and learn each from each other, being able to share ideas and work together to achieve our objectives. I like the variety of my role and that it allows me to work cross-functionally across the business. This helps me to truly experience the culture at Canada Life as I’m often involved with colleagues from different teams on work matters.

Which top three skills are vital for this role and why?

First and most importantly – working with people. I can’t do my job properly if I don’t get to interact with my colleagues and jump in their shoes while figuring out what operational solution may help them best to overcome an obstacle or improve their efficiency. Second comes curiosity – to do marketing operations you really need to be able to keep an open mind, look at the bigger picture and challenge the status quo. I think that’s how progress is made and teams come to the best decisions. And lastly, I would say being punctual. As much as I love the variety in my role, I also realise that many colleagues rely on my proactive behaviour and clear communication skills to move projects forward in a timely manner.

What’s the most challenging aspect of your role?

It must be AI! It may just sound like a buzz word to some, but AI is here to stay, and we need to be able to navigate this new stage in digital technology. MarTech has always been a competitive and challenging area for MOps teams and there are hundreds, if not thousands, of platforms and solutions that are out there to help us build strong and efficient marketing teams. These include CRM tools, email automation platforms, workflow and management tools, design and creative tools, and AI is making all this even more exciting.

How do you help others feel like they belong in your team/promote inclusion?

Creating a positive and productive work environment is such an important part of my day-to-day life at work. We spend so much time working around our peers and I am a strong believer that having a thriving work environment is crucial for the success of our careers and benefits us as individuals. I always try to arrange my meetings in a way that makes everyone feel comfortable to share their thoughts, as well as incorporate active listening and collaboration when making decisions.

I find team related activities quite enjoyable too such as away days, mini golf, escape rooms or a nice team picnic when the sun makes a rare appearance over London.

When it comes to promoting inclusion on a firm level, I’m a big fan of employee networks and I’m so happy that Canada Life has a few already established with more coming. These colleague networks play a huge role in shaping the organisation from raising awareness to making sure our events are inclusive.

Which podcast/Youtube series would you recommend to someone interested in pursuing a career in this area to help develop their skills/prepare them for the role?

One of the marketing podcasts I enjoy is “The Growth Engine”, available on YouTube. They did host an episode with Deon Pillay as a guest. Deon is a seasoned leader in the marketing technology, operations and governance field. Moreover, Deon is an inspirational advocate for D&I in the financial services industry.

Another digital marketing podcast I enjoy listening to is “Humans of MarTech”, co-hosted by Darrell Alfonso who has been leading marketing operations for firms such as Amazon and Indeed.com.

Finally, a non-marketing podcast I listen to is “Ambitious Minds”, hosted by Jay Lawrence. Jay is a wealth manager I got a chance to work with a few years ago. His empowering podcast doesn’t feature celebrity CEOs, but driven, relatable individuals striving to make a mark in their respective industries.