Director, Marketing Ventures and Capability

GEICO•Bethesda, MD

27d•$146,575 - $229,600•Hybrid

About The Position

At GEICO, we offer a rewarding career where your ambitions are met with endless possibilities. Every day we honor our iconic brand by offering quality coverage to millions of customers and being there when they need us most. We thrive through relentless innovation to exceed our customers’ expectations while making a real impact for our company through our shared purpose. When you join our company, we want you to feel valued, supported and proud to work here. That’s why we offer The GEICO Pledge: Great Company, Great Culture, Great Rewards and Great Careers. Role Purpose The Director, Marketing Ventures is the builder who makes GEICO Marketing’s capability strategy real. GEICO Marketing has laid out an ambitious plan for the capabilities it needs to own, build, and modernize — this role’s job is to stand them up: launching new capabilities from scratch, bringing in-housing to life, and building the agency and partner relationships that support everything the venture builds. This is an incubation role, not a planning role. We’re looking for someone who has personally built or scaled new groups before, ideally in modern, fast-moving disciplines that sit at the edge of content, culture, and audience — the kind of work most marketing organizations haven’t yet figured out how to structure. The same incubation mindset extends back into GEICO’s existing capabilities: constantly assessing what’s working, what needs a refresh, and where the operating model has to evolve. We view our capabilities not only in house, but also as hybrid and outsourced models. As such, this role also owns the agency and partner ecosystem end-to-end from sourcing and onboarding through day-to-day management, performance measurement, and governance — so that every partner relationship runs like a well-managed extension of the marketing organization. Sitting at the intersection of strategy, incubation, and execution, this role partners closely with capability owners across Marketing, Supply Management, and agency partners. AI & Modern Tools Enablement Partner closely with Marketing Technology and AI leaders to embed AI, automation, and advanced analytics as force multipliers within every capability this role builds or elevates. Champion AI and modern tools based on demonstrated business value, usability, and scalability. Actively stay ahead of AI and marketing technology trends and translate them into practical opportunities for capability advancement.

Requirements

10+ years of experience building, launching, or scaling marketing capabilities inside agencies, incubators, or in-house teams — with a track record of capabilities you personally developed.
Deep, established relationships across agency and partner networks, with experience on both sides of the relationship.
Direct experience in and around modern, fast-evolving marketing disciplines that sit at the edge of content, culture, and audience.
Experience managing agency and partner performance, including scorecards, QBRs, and governance.
Experience partnering with procurement or supply management functions on sourcing, RFI/RFP, and vendor negotiation.
Combines bold strategic vision with executional rigor — able to set direction and personally drive outcomes.
Comfortable using AI and marketing technology to accelerate speed, quality, and decision-making.
Brings a continuous-learning mindset, staying close to where marketing is headed next

Nice To Haves

A builder and a doer first: energized by making things real, not just designing them on a slide.
Has personally built or incubated a marketing capability before — stood up the team, shipped the first version, and learned what broke along the way.
Comfortable in modern, fast-moving marketing disciplines that don’t have an established playbook yet.
Applies the same builder energy to improving what already exists, not only to what’s new.
Resilient and adaptable: thrives in ambiguity and keeps momentum through change.

Responsibilities

Take GEICO Marketing’s capability strategy and make it real: launch new capabilities end-to-end, from pilot through scaled, steady-state operation.
Personally build the first version of a new capability when needed — the team, the workflow, the tools — rather than only designing it on paper.
Lead the in-housing of capabilities currently run externally, managing the transition of talent, process, and knowledge without disrupting delivery.
Diagnose what a fragile or underperforming new capability needs and re-architect it across talent, process, technology, and operating model.
Bring an incubation mindset to everything: treat every capability, new or existing, as something to keep testing, refining, and improving rather than something to set and leave.
Manage third-party consultants and embedded partners supporting incubation efforts.
Partner with existing capability owners to raise the bar on capabilities GEICO already runs, applying the same rigor used to stand up new ones.
Identify capabilities that are stalled, under-resourced, or falling behind modern practice, and bring an incubation approach to help them catch up.
Ensure capabilities that graduate from incubation continue to have a place to go for support, refresh, and reinvention as the market moves.
Own GEICO’s agency and partner operating model, defining clear roles, decision rights, and ways of working across internal teams and external partners.
Build and maintain the agency scorecard program — defining KPIs, performance thresholds, and scoring methodology across every agency of record and key specialized partner.
Own the Quarterly Business Review (QBR) process for major agency relationships: setting the agenda, consolidating performance data, facilitating sessions with capability owners and agency leadership, and driving accountability on action items.
Partner closely with Supply Management on sourcing new capabilities and partners — co-leading market scans, RFI/RFP strategy, and vendor evaluation to ensure sourcing is competitive, compliant, and aligned to enterprise sourcing standards.
Partner with Supply Management and Legal on agency negotiations, renewals, and contract terms, ensuring commercial and performance terms reinforce the operating model.
Lead RFIs/RFPs and onboarding for new agencies and specialized partners, ensuring alignment to capability needs, cultural fit, and modern working practices.
Resolve performance issues quickly through structured corrective action plans, in partnership with capability owners and Supply Management, driving continuous improvement and cost-saving initiatives.
Serve as the primary point of integration between agencies, consultants, and internal capability owners, ensuring partners feel like a true extension of the GEICO marketing organization.