Director of Growth and Digital Marketing

Hai Hospitality•Austin, TX

About The Position

Hai Hospitality is seeking an experienced Director of Growth and Digital Marketing for its Home Office in Austin, Texas. The Director leads measurable guest and revenue growth across the company’s multi-brand, multi-market restaurant portfolio, owning strategy and performance for paid media, digital discovery, brand websites, online conversion, and marketing across third-party ordering platforms. The role also leads CRM, lifecycle, and loyalty efforts through agency support, with the possibility of bringing the function in-house in the future. The Director translates brand and business priorities into coordinated digital plans, establishes clear measurement, and works closely with Brand Management, Social, Creative Services, Operations, Finance, and agency partners. This position reports directly to the Chief Brand Officer. The role covers portfolio growth planning and performance marketing; website management, SEO, and local discovery; CRM, lifecycle, and loyalty strategy and execution; third-party ordering and off-premise marketing; and performance reporting, budgets, forecasting, agency management, and optimization.

Requirements

At least 8 years of progressive experience in growth, performance, or digital marketing.
Demonstrated ownership of paid media budgets and measurable growth outcomes.
Strong fluency in analytics, attribution, experimentation, and forecasting.
Experience with website management, SEO and local search, digital conversion, online ordering or e-commerce, and agency or vendor management.
Experience leading CRM or lifecycle teams and partnering across brand, creative, social, operations, and finance functions.
Strong people leadership, project management, communication, and decision-making skills.
Ability to translate complex performance data into clear recommendations.
Experience in startup, lean, growth-oriented companies, with proven results building technology, systems, and marketing infrastructure.
BA/BS degree or equivalent practical experience.

Nice To Haves

Experience leading multi-brand, multi-location, hospitality, restaurant, or consumer businesses is strongly preferred.

Responsibilities

Set the portfolio growth and digital marketing roadmap, translating annual brand plans, market priorities, and openings into measurable channel plans.
Own paid and performance media strategy, budget allocation, agency and vendor direction, channel mix, audience strategy, testing, and optimization across search, paid social, and relevant platforms.
Partner with the Head of Social and Content on paid campaign creative inputs and trafficking; own media investment, targeting, placements, testing, and results.
Build a testing culture to improve incremental revenue, guest acquisition, conversion, return on ad spend, and cost efficiency, distinguishing channel attribution from business incrementality where data allows.
Own the portfolio website roadmap, redesigns, new launches, and ongoing management, including vendor direction, content publishing workflows, technical health, user experience, accessibility, conversion, and online-ordering pathways.
Lead SEO and local digital discovery strategy, including location pages, listings, review-platform visibility, and tools such as Marqii; establish standards and audit accuracy with Operations and restaurant teams.
Work with Brand Managers and Creative Services to turn brand positioning and approved creative into useful, current digital experiences.
Lead CRM, lifecycle, and loyalty efforts and the agency relationship; set portfolio strategy, priorities, budget, service expectations, and measurement for guest data capture, segmentation, email and SMS, automation, retention, and loyalty.
Oversee day-to-day campaign execution, calendar coordination, list health, testing, automation, and loyalty program operations, partnering with Brand Managers on brand voice, offers, and guest value.
For Uchi’s 801 program, partner with the Uchi Brand Manager on the proposition, brand experience, and program maintenance.
Connect acquisition and retention programs through a shared view of guest behavior, repeat rate, frequency, and lifetime value; maintain appropriate consent, data quality, and platform governance.
Partner with Brand Managers on marketing and commercial plans for third-party ordering and digital off-premise channels, including platform visibility, sponsored placements, digital merchandising, promotions, and marketing partner relationships.
Analyze sales, traffic, conversion, promotion performance, and channel contribution; recommend investment and growth opportunities with Finance, Operations, and Brand Managers.
Partner with Operations as the accountable owner for delivery execution and economics.
Own growth and digital marketing budgets, forecasts, pacing, agency scopes, and vendor performance; coordinate with Finance and FP&A on consistent definitions and reporting.
Create a concise performance scorecard for leadership and brand teams covering spend, attributed and incremental revenue where available, acquisition cost, conversion, web and search health, CRM contribution, and third-party channel marketing results.
Turn analysis into clear actions, communicate performance and risks, and establish repeatable planning and review rhythms across brands and markets.
Manage the CRM function and agency partners through clear goals, feedback, prioritization, and accountability.