Head of Marketing

Athlete to Athlete•Santa Monica, CA

14d•$180,000 - $220,000•Hybrid

About The Position

Athlete To Athlete is a human-first, tech-forward platform that connects young athletes with accomplished college athletes for mentorship. The company has worked with more than 35,000 athletes since launching four years ago, has grown more than 100% every year, and is on track to facilitate more than 100,000 mentorship sessions this year. As a Series A company, it is building its team for its next stage of growth. The Head of Marketing will lead the marketing function and own profitable customer acquisition and retention, brand development, product launches, and company communications. The role reports to the CEO and leads the internal marketing team, including the Creative Lead, while overseeing a media agency and freelance partners supporting a high-volume, multichannel paid media program. Paid acquisition and lifecycle marketing are the top priorities. The successful candidate will set strategy and priorities while also contributing directly to execution. The role's North Star is profitable growth: acquiring the right customers at an effective CAC and retaining them longer. Success is measured through CAC, lead quality, conversion, retention, and customer lifetime value. The position is hybrid, with three days per week in the Santa Monica office.

Requirements

At least 10 years of progressive marketing experience, including leadership across multiple marketing disciplines.
Deep expertise in performance marketing and paid acquisition, with a track record of scaling paid channels profitably.
Strong understanding of profitable acquisition drivers, including unit economics, CAC and payback, lead quality, conversion, retention, and lifetime value.
Lifecycle/CRM experience and working fluency across product marketing, brand, communications, and creative.
Track record of building marketing strategies directly connected to business growth.
Experience marketing a consumer product, digital platform, subscription business, marketplace, or similarly customer-driven business.
Experience developing product or offering positioning, messaging, and go-to-market strategies.
Strong brand and creative judgment, with experience overseeing agencies, freelancers, and/or internal creative teams.
Strong analytical instincts and comfort using data to prioritize investments and evaluate performance.
Excellent written and verbal communication skills and ability to move between strategy and execution.

Nice To Haves

B2C and B2B experience preferred.
Experience in sports, youth sports, or athlete-focused brands is a plus.

Responsibilities

Develop the annual marketing strategy, priorities, roadmap, and budget in support of company goals.
Establish KPIs across acquisition, retention, revenue, and brand, and hold the team and agency partners accountable.
Translate company objectives into integrated marketing plans.
Build the marketing organization, capabilities, processes, and operating rhythms needed to support growth.
Partner with Product, Sales, Partnerships, and company leadership.
Use customer insights, market intelligence, and performance data to influence company strategy.
Represent the customer and Athlete To Athlete brand across the organization.
Own profitable new-customer acquisition strategy, including channel mix, CAC, lead quality, conversion, and contribution margin.
Lead paid media, digital acquisition, conversion optimization, and campaign performance with agencies and external experts.
Establish acquisition measurement frameworks, including CAC, CAC payback, lead quality, conversion, and return on marketing investment.
Use testing, attribution, and performance data to improve campaigns and channels and allocate budget effectively.
Connect acquisition strategy to customer quality, engagement, retention, and lifetime value.
Work with Partnerships to develop efficient acquisition channels through strategic partnerships.
Own the customer journey from onboarding and activation through retention and advocacy.
Develop strategies to improve engagement, conversion, upsell, cross-sell, renewal, and reactivation.
Build segmented, behavior-based customer journeys across email, in-product, and other owned channels.
Partner with Product and Customer teams to identify friction and improve long-term customer value.
Own and evolve brand strategy, positioning, messaging, and market presence.
Build awareness, trust, and relevance with athletes, mentors, families, partners, and the broader sports community.
Identify brand-building opportunities through content, events, athletes, creators, and culturally relevant moments.
Maintain a distinctive and consistent brand as the company, audience, and product portfolio grow.
Extend the brand through athletes, teams, leagues, sports organizations, brands, media companies, and creators in partnership with the Partnerships team.
Own positioning, messaging, and value propositions across products, audiences, and offerings.
Develop and lead go-to-market strategies for new products, features, and programs.
Translate product capabilities into clear customer benefits.
Develop audience, customer, and competitive insights that inform marketing and product strategy, and bring customer perspectives into Product roadmap decisions.
Create sales, partnership, and customer-facing enablement that supports a consistent story.
Own the quality and consistency of the brand across marketing touchpoints.
Develop creative briefs that translate business strategy into compelling work.
Manage media agencies and other external partners, holding them accountable for performance and cost.
Partner with the Creative Lead to prioritize creative resources, freelancers, and external agencies, and determine the appropriate resourcing mix as the team grows.
Own external communications strategy, including corporate messaging, announcements, PR, and thought leadership.
Develop narratives that strengthen the company's reputation and communicate its vision and momentum.
Support senior leaders with communications for customers, partners, employees, and the broader market.