Director, Strategic Marketing

API Heat Transfer•Chicago, IL

37d

About The Position

API Heat Transfer is a PE-backed, $230M global leader in thermal management solutions serving mission-critical applications across data centers, energy, chemicals, HVAC, and advanced industrial markets. As API continues to scale and evolve into a multi-platform growth company, we are investing in our centralized marketing function to design and drive marketing strategy, improve commercial execution, strengthen our enterprise value proposition, and accelerate organic growth. We are seeking a Director of Strategic Marketing to design and lead this function. This is not a traditional corporate marketing role. This leader will be responsible for turning marketing into a revenue, margin, and platform-value engine across all five of API’s Business Units. The Director of Strategic Marketing will define API’s enterprise marketing strategy and how the company goes to market as a unified platform while enabling Business Units to win in their respective verticals. This leader will own API’s enterprise positioning, customer and market intelligence, and commercial go-to-market programs, and will define the enterprise requirements and performance standards for demand generation and sales enablement capabilities. In doing so, they will convert corporate growth priorities into repeatable commercial programs and build a scalable, data-driven marketing engine that supports both organic growth and M&A-led expansion. This role reports to the VP of Corporate Development & Strategy and will work in close partnership with the entire ELT, particularly Business Unit leadership. It will require significant cross-functional collaboration to ensure commercial strategies are supported by scalable, secure, and well-integrated enterprise capabilities. This role operates within a highly collaborative executive environment. The Director of Strategic Marketing sets enterprise commercial direction, defines go-to-market priorities, and drives consistency and effectiveness across customer-facing activities. Success depends on strong cross-functional alignment to ensure strategies are executed through scalable, secure, and integrated enterprise capabilities. The role sits at the center of API’s next phase of growth. You will shape how the company is perceived by customers, how sales teams compete and win, and how API presents itself as a scalable, high-value platform to future investors and acquirers. The scope of this role is expected to expand materially as the Marketing COE matures and grows. If you want to build a real commercial engine, not manage brochures, this is the job.

Requirements

8-12+ years of experience in B2B, industrial, or technology marketing
Experience working in multi-business, PE-backed, or platform environments
Strong background in customer and market intelligence, sales enablement, and demand infrastructure
Proven ability to partner with sales, product, and executive leadership, and to design & run a multi-year program
A passion for storytelling and creating a narrative that adds richness to a well-developed strategy
A data-driven, pragmatic, execution-oriented mindset

Nice To Haves

Experience in thermal management, data center, or industrial markets is a plus, but not required.
Preference of Chicago area, open to other locations based on candidate experience and fit.

Responsibilities

Develop and recommend a new API enterprise marketing strategy in partnership with executive leadership that is aligned with corporate growth objectives, portfolio strategy, and priority end markets
Translate company strategy into clear marketing investment themes, recommended vertical priorities, and multi-year roadmaps
Identify where API should concentrate resources across segments, applications, geographies, and customer types
Partner with Corporate Development & Strategy to support inorganic growth through market landscaping, acquisition theses, and commercial integration playbooks
Build annual marketing plans and multi-year roadmaps aligned to corporate growth objectives
Lead quarterly reviews with BU leaders to assess strategic priorities and performance based on pipeline, competitive shifts, and customer insights
Own and evolve API’s enterprise-level value proposition, brand architecture, and positioning
Develop vertical and application narratives (e.g., data centers, power generation, HVACR) that create differentiation and pricing power
Own API’s customer segmentation, key buyer personas, and market sizing by vertical and application to guide growth priorities and investment decisions
Ensure consistent messaging across all sales and customer-facing touchpoints
Lead API’s market intelligence engine, including win/loss analysis, voice of customer research, and competitive intelligence
Identify growth white spaces and attractive segments, with articulation of commercial opportunities and risks
Provide actionable insights to BU leaders that inform marketing focus, pricing, product strategy, and sales coverage
Define the enterprise commercial requirements, use cases, and success metrics for API’s demand and funnel capabilities, including website and social media strategy, CRM and marketing automation, lead scoring and routing, and attribution, ensuring solutions are enterprise-grade, secure, integrated, and operationally scalable
Ensure leads, opportunities, and marketing investments are measurable and tied to revenue outcomes
Define and standardize the sales enablement toolkit across API, including pitch decks, case studies, application guides, ROI tools, and competitive battlecards
Partner with BU product marketing and sales leaders to ensure tools are adopted , effective, and continuously improved, with an emphasis on reliability, scalability, and integration into the overall enterprise
Build and lead the Marketing Center of Excellence, including vendor strategy, commercial martech requirements, and prioritization, aligned to enterprise architecture, security, and governance standards
Establish clear COE vs. Business Unit roles, workflows, and standards
Ensure marketing investments deliver ROI and support enterprise-level growth