Head of Acquisition Marketing

Happy Money

10d•$165,000 - $220,000•Remote

About The Position

Happy Money is seeking a strategic Head of Acquisition Marketing to own and scale customer acquisition capabilities, primarily focusing on driving profitable loan originations. This is a builder's role for a data-driven leader who can set strategy and has a proven track record of building and scaling a coordinated, multi-channel acquisition engine efficiently. The role involves balancing aggressive growth with disciplined spending to achieve optimized customer acquisition costs and anticipating market, competition, and channel shifts. The Head of Acquisition Marketing will lead a team responsible for executing and optimizing multi-channel campaigns (direct mail, digital, lead generation, and affiliate partnerships) using data, experimentation, and rigorous analysis to drive growth while meeting profitability targets. The role encompasses both performance marketing and brand, with a near-term focus on customer acquisition. Brand evolution will be sequenced as loan growth scales and investment capacity expands. This position partners closely with the Head of Lifecycle Marketing, who manages existing borrowers and lead management. The collaboration between Acquisition and Lifecycle is crucial for driving demand and maximizing customer lifetime value. Leaders at Happy Money are expected to be player-coaches, setting strategy and executing hands-on. The ideal candidate thrives in a fast-paced environment, leads and mentors strong teams, and collaborates seamlessly with leaders across Credit/Risk & Analytics, Finance, Technology, and Operations.

Requirements

10+ years of experience in marketing and customer acquisition, overseeing significant budgets that tie directly to revenue targets, plus 5+ years leading marketing teams.
Consumer Lending or complementary experience, including a track record of scaling credit or lending products and managing acquisition funnels.
Well-versed and effective across affiliate marketplaces, paid digital, lead generation, direct mail, and email, with deep understanding of attribution models, marketing technology, and the use of AI in marketing.
Deep understanding of how a lending business makes money and what drives performance, with the ability to make high-quality decisions from a mix of analysis, experience, and judgment.
Sharp thinking and rigor in debating ideas; comfort with complexity, ambiguity, and pushback; and a deeply data-focused, test-and-learn mindset that generates ideas by connecting across disciplines and data.
A builder of high-performing teams, composing internal talent, partners, and increasingly AI agents, who recruits, develops, and retains top performers, sets a high bar, and leads by example.
Ability to drive initiatives from concept to results, owning execution and analysis with a builder's mentality.
Experience leading acquisition through a martech platform transition (CDP, lead routing, attribution).

Responsibilities

Own the end-to-end acquisition strategy and deployment, driving scalable, profitable growth for our personal loan business.
Deeply understand and anticipate market trends, competitive dynamics, VOC and channel shifts, and translate them into credible strategies and tactics that create durable competitive advantage.
Develop and scale performance marketing strategy across multi-channel initiatives (direct mail, lead-gen email, affiliate, digital, content) and make high-quality expense allocation decisions grounded in how the business makes money, managing to optimize CAC, and unit economics. Ensure resiliency in the strategy that doesn’t over-index in any individual channel.
Own consolidated forecasting, budget pacing, and performance reporting; partner with Finance on monthly forecasts, land results within tolerance, and establish standardized planning, documentation, and post-campaign reporting frameworks.
Foster a relentless "test and learn" culture by applying rigorous logic and honest analysis, challenging assumptions, and learning quickly from both wins and failures to continuously sharpen the approach.
Communicate complex issues, tradeoffs, and recommendations into clear and compelling narratives that drive aligned decisions across the organization from analysts to senior leadership.
Build and lead a high-accountability function defined by clear priorities, disciplined execution, and a culture that moves with urgency and discipline to deliver consistently exceptional results.
Hire, develop, and mentor a team of high-performing growth marketers and assemble the right mix of internal talent, agency/partner resources, and AI agents, knowing when and how to leverage each.
Drive go-to-market, brand, and product marketing through strong value articulation, competitive positioning, and messaging for net-new customer acquisition.
Act as a subject-matter expert on emerging martech, AI, and attribution, and on product features and cross-sell opportunities that drive growth and revenue. Partner with Strategy to develop and inform growth goals, and with Technology to plan, build, and evolve the Happy Money marketing engine.