Before Snapchat, Harley headed up consumer marketing at Bumble and oversaw UK brand at eBay. He’s also held marketing roles at companies like American Airlines.

Ever since school, I’ve been fascinated by how words can persuade people, create emotion or completely change how they see a brand. I was the first person in my family to go to university. For my placement year, I moved to Birmingham to work in the Halfords marketing team. I was running around the trading floor collecting nominations for national press ads, helping with campaigns for new store openings, and learning by doing. It was one of the best jobs I’ve ever had because it proved this was the world I wanted to be in.

After university, I applied for countless graduate schemes and got plenty of knockbacks. I didn’t go to a red-brick university and didn’t have connections (shoutout to the 93% Club who I now support in my free time) so I moved back home and worked as a barista at Costa. In the evenings, I’d sit on The Guardian jobs section looking for marketing roles. Eventually, an internship at American Airlines came up. I got the job and spent six months working unpaid in an office at Heathrow, learning everything I possibly could. The airline was in bankruptcy at the time, so opportunities were limited, but a marketing assistant role opened up, and I turned that internship into a permanent position.

I spent nearly eight years at American Airlines. I worked across different roles, travelling the world, living abroad and having the best time with the best people. Then Covid happened and everything changed. During that long summer of furlough and lockdown, I realised I needed to do something different. I still loved my job, but I wasn’t learning in the same way anymore – that’s usually the clearest sign it’s time to move on. 

I joined eBay in a brand role during the pandemic. I didn’t have tech experience, but they took a chance on me. The platform was booming and I spent almost two years creating multimillion-pound campaigns that showcased both eBay and the small businesses powering it – believe me, shooting TV ads in national lockdowns teaches you a lot about resilience and adaptability.

After that, I wanted to work for a more mission-led brand so I moved to the dating app Bumble to lead the UK and northern Europe marketing team. That role was about creating work that sparked cultural relevance, made a statement and put the platform into conversations that mattered. It was the first time that I was able to make pointed statements about society to the world, with my favourite being, ‘If you don’t have anything to say, say something nice’. It’s still something I live by every day. 

Now I’m two years into my role at Snapchat. I look after how the brand shows up around the world – the platforms we produce, the partners we work with, the cultural moments we choose to be part of and the communities we represent. What I love about Snap is that, at its core, it’s always been about real human connection. It’s not about perfectly posed posts or presenting a polished version of yourself for likes – it’s about chatting with your closest friends, sharing the everyday moments and being your actual self. 

Early in my career, success looked like getting through the door. I didn’t have the network, the family blueprint or the obvious route in, so every opportunity felt like proof that I could do it. Now, success is much more about growth, impact and whether I’m creating work that makes people feel seen.

One of the biggest challenges earlier in my career was navigating environments where my natural personality was seen as something that needed to be ‘managed’. I’ve always been energetic – which is probably the polite way of saying I was never going to be the quietest person in the room. There were times when I was encouraged to dampen that down to fit a more traditional idea of what a leader should look and sound like.

For a while, I did try to reconcile who I was with who I thought I needed to be. But over time, I realised the very things I was being told to tone down were also the things that made me good at my job: building relationships, bringing energy into a room, getting people excited about ideas, and making others feel comfortable enough to be themselves too. I stopped trying to edit myself so heavily. That doesn’t mean you don’t learn, adapt or read the room, but I believe it’s more important to show up as your true self every day. 

My identity has shaped my entire career. When you’ve spent any amount of time feeling different or wondering whether certain parts of yourself are ‘too much’ for certain rooms, it changes how you lead. I never want people around me to feel like they have to leave parts of themselves at the door to be taken seriously. It also shapes the work I want to make. For me, representation can’t just be something that appears in the final campaign. It has to be part of the process – who is in the room, who is behind the camera, who we partner with, and whose perspective is shaping the idea from the start. That’s why I care so much about working with agencies and partners who genuinely understand the communities we’re speaking to. 

Professionally, I wonder what it would have meant for a younger version of me to see someone visibly queer, ambitious and not trying to shrink themselves to succeed. I don’t think I had many of those reference points growing up, so now I feel a responsibility to be visible in a way that feels honest. Pride at work shouldn’t just be a rainbow logo or a campaign in a certain month. It should be about creating environments where LGBTQ+ people feel safe, valued and able to progress all year round. It should also be about recognising that our community is not a monolith. We have different backgrounds, identities, experiences and challenges – and that nuance matters.

Culturally, we need to reject the idea that professionalism means sameness. For a lot of people, especially those from underrepresented communities, work can still require a huge amount of code-switching. That is exhausting. People should not have to sand down the most interesting parts of themselves to be seen as credible. The most inclusive businesses will be the ones where difference is not just accepted, but actively valued – in leadership styles, in creative thinking, in communication and in the work itself.

My best career advice? Say yes to the things that scare you. Put yourself forward, even when you feel awkward, underqualified or convinced that everyone else knows what they’re doing. Most people are figuring it out as they go. Whenever I’m hesitating, I still think about that piece of advice my mum gave me when I was younger: “What’s the worst that could happen?” That question has got me into rooms I probably would have talked myself out of. Also, be kind to everyone. Work hard, stay curious and don’t let the knockbacks convince you that you don’t belong. Sometimes you just need one person to take a chance on you – and when they do, make sure you’re ready to run with it.

Follow @HarleyIlott