Associate Director of Merch & E-Commerce

TaskForce•New York, NY

9d•Remote

About The Position

TaskForce builds capacity and community for the most influential nonprofits, brands, and people taking on the most pressing challenges facing our state, our nation, and our world. Over the past decade, we’ve powered culturally resonant social impact campaigns — from political moments like Hotties for Harris and the Hope Campaign, to national youth movements like March for Our Lives, to civic initiatives such as LA vs. Hate and Safer at Work. We’ve activated for brands like T-Mobile, MTV, and YouTube, and are recognized as one of the largest producers of public art in the country. Our work sits at the intersection of culture, politics, creativity, and community — and increasingly, that includes wearable and collectible culture. What people wear, carry, post, and share is how movements become visible. TaskForce is seeking an Associate Director of Merch & Social Commerce to help lead our growing merchandise ecosystem as a tool for movement building, cultural storytelling, and political expression. This role sits at the intersection of product, culture, and distribution. It’s about shaping apparel and cultural ephemera — and ensuring those products actually travel through the internet, communities, and creator networks where culture spreads. The Associate Director will guide product direction and storefront management across TikTok Shop, Instagram Shop, Shopify, and emerging platforms, while also playing a core role in marketing, creator distribution, and paid acquisition strategy.

Requirements

5+ years in merch, apparel, culture-driven e-commerce, or product marketing.
Experience with TikTok Shop, Instagram shopping, Shopify, or similar platforms, including the build out of digital storefronts from scratch.
Experience working with creators, influencer distribution, or social-first marketing ecosystems.
Familiarity with paid social acquisition and performance-driven product promotion.
Strong design sensibility and understanding of trend-driven, culturally relevant merchandise.
Experience in fast-moving, culturally responsive environments.
Interest in or experience with social impact, politics, advocacy, or movement-based work.

Responsibilities

Help develop merchandise tied to political, cultural, and social impact movements.
Translate campaign messages and cultural moments into wearable and shareable visual objects.
Treat merch as a tool for identity, solidarity, and message amplification.
Lead day-to-day development across apparel (shirts, hoodies, hats) and cultural ephemera (posters, stickers, buttons, prints, totes, and other small-format items).
Ensure products align with current culture, protest traditions, internet aesthetics, and streetwear-adjacent trends.
Develop strategies to distribute merch through creators, influencers, and community partners.
Support and manage paid acquisition efforts across social platforms to amplify product visibility.
Identify organic distribution pathways — meme pages, movement networks, cultural communities.
Help ensure merch is embedded in cultural moments, not just posted on storefronts.
Collaborate on launch plans that combine storytelling, creator seeding, and platform-native content.
Manage storefront presence across TikTok Shop, Instagram, Shopify, and emerging platforms.
Understand platform algorithms, in-app shopping behavior, and how products perform in social video.
Optimize product storytelling, visuals, and merchandising for social-first audiences.
Bring awareness of design trends across streetwear, meme culture, internet-native visuals, and political graphics.
Work closely with designers, illustrators, and creators to produce culturally fluent work.
Coordinate with creative, campaign, and partnerships teams to align merch with key initiatives.
Work with production and fulfillment partners to execute drops and ongoing inventory.
Help build systems for fast-turn creative and production tied to cultural or political moments.