Chief Marketing Officer (Remote, USA)

Apex Wheels • Pleasanton, CA

8h • Remote

About The Position

Apex Wheels is seeking a Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) who is a genuine motorsports enthusiast and understands the automotive enthusiast community. The CMO will be responsible for ensuring marketing spend is a measurable and scalable driver of revenue growth, brand differentiation, and long-term customer appreciation. This role leads all marketing functions, including Brand, Creative, Audience Growth, eCommerce, and paid media. The CMO will work closely with executive leadership to align strategy and execution with company goals, define investment priorities, build efficient systems, and demonstrate marketing's impact through data. Success requires a leader who can establish focus, make deliberate tradeoffs, and operate with clear priorities, strong ownership, and speed to execution. The ideal candidate will have a deep understanding of automotive enthusiast culture and the ability to distinguish authentic brand messaging from misinformation. This role requires meaningful experience in senior marketing leadership with direct accountability for revenue, budget allocation, and performance outcomes, including P&L responsibility. The CMO must be allergic to vanity metrics and present defensible data to the executive team. Experience leading teams through organizational change is crucial, as the role involves guiding a team through its second leadership transition. Fluency in modern marketing performance, comfort in an eCommerce-driven environment, and the ability to interpret data and make sound technical investments are essential. Experience in founder-led businesses is valued over highly structured or agency-heavy environments. This role is not suitable for candidates who cannot clearly connect decisions to business outcomes.

Requirements

• A genuine motorsports enthusiast who understands our customers and has a strong passion for this space.
• 5+ years of experience in a senior marketing leadership role (CMO, Head of Marketing, VP of Marketing, or similar) with direct accountability for marketing performance tied to revenue, cost, and profitability.
• 5+ years of experience making resource allocation decisions across marketing initiatives, including prioritizing investments, managing tradeoffs, and reallocating spend based on performance.
• 7+ years of experience owning or directly influencing eCommerce performance across the full customer funnel, including acquisition, conversion, and retention.
• 7+ years of experience building, leading, or restructuring marketing teams in environments requiring improved performance, clarity, and accountability.
• 7+ years of experience overseeing brand development and creative direction, with demonstrated ability to ensure brand and content effectively support business objectives and resonate with a discerning customer base.
• Strategic thinker with a keen eye for market trends and consumer behavior.
• An analytical mindset with the ability to utilize data-driven insights to inform marketing decisions.
• Strong organizational and project management skills with a focus on meeting deadlines and achieving goals.
• Must have the ability to read, write, speak, and understand English.

Nice To Haves

• Experience working in founder-led businesses more than experience in highly structured or agency-heavy environments.

Responsibilities

• Develop and execute Apex’s company-wide marketing strategy that supports growth goals while staying true to the brand.
• Oversee brand and Creative, ensuring initiatives represent the brand well, meet interdepartmental needs, support growth goals, and reinforce Apex’s credibility within the enthusiast community.
• Oversee Audience Growth & Engagement to enhance digital marketing, including SEO, paid media, and lifecycle marketing strategies that drive customer acquisition, retention, and long-term value.
• Oversee eCommerce, in partnership with technical experts, to ensure initiatives are informed by customer behavior and insights, and the website is achieving optimal conversions.
• Partner with the COO and Director of Sales & Marketing to design and execute high-impact strategies.
• Partner with the COO and Education Manager to support consumer education strategies.
• Partner closely with the CFO to ensure marketing spend is appropriately paced, well considered, and dollars are spent on the most impactful initiatives.
• Translate company goals into actionable marketing plans with defined success metrics, timelines, and ownership.
• Establish clear priorities across marketing initiatives, making deliberate tradeoffs to focus on the highest-impact work.
• Establish and enforce planning, prioritization, and execution processes that enable speed and clarity across the organization.
• Ensure marketing investments are evaluated against expected outcomes.
• Ensure that goals and KPI frameworks are accurately measuring success.
• Lead and coach the team to rely on performance data to drive decision-making through the use of dashboards and reporting to track performance, inform decisions, and improve ROI.
• Manage the marketing budget, resource allocation, and vendor relationships to maximize efficiency and effectiveness.
• Provide executive leadership, coaching, and development to a multi-functional marketing team, including hiring, performance management, and organizational design.
• Design and evolve the structure of the marketing organization to ensure the right capabilities exist in-house and that agency spend is efficient and intentional.
• Ensure the team has the right skillsets and structure to execute at the pace needed to support goals.
• Create a culture of ownership, accountability, and performance as informed by company values.

Benefits

• Full-time salaried exempt employment with Apex.
• Annual compensation ranges from $180-230k, depending on location and experience.
• Eligibility to participate in our short-term incentive plan after 90 days of employment.
• $600 annual stipend for cell phone and internet usage.
• All technology needs provided by Apex.
• Workspace equipment reimbursements.
• Medical insurance covering 100% of monthly premiums for employees and their dependents under the age of 14 on our base plans.
• Generous contributions towards premiums for dependents over 14.
• Access to an HSA.
• Mental health support.
• Gym membership discounts.
• Healthcare concierge.
• Apex covers 100% of employee premiums for Dental and Vision benefits on our base plans, plus affordable buy-up options if orthodontic coverage is needed.
• Eligibility to participate in our 401(k) with company contributions.
• Paid sick leave.
• Vacation time.
• Paid company holidays, including Juneteenth and Indigenous Peoples’ Day.
• Reimbursements for high-performance driving events (HPDEs), track day insurance, event spectator tickets, karting and karting school, sim racing gear, SCCA-compliant gear, and premium events like DirtFish and SkipBarber.
• Huge employee discounts on our products.
• Free merch.
• Eligibility for college grants and loan forgiveness programs through SEMA.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Executive
• Education Level: No Education Listed