Senior Director, Performance and Growth Marketing

23andMe Research Institute • Palo Alto, CA

1d

About The Position

We are a group of individuals passionate about genetic discovery. 23andMe Research Institute is a nonprofit medical research organization that enables people everywhere to access their genetic information, learn about themselves, and participate in the world's largest crowdsourced research initiative. The Institute aims to be the world's most significant contributor to scientific advancement, uniting people with the common goal of improving health and deepening our understanding of DNA — the code of life. The Opportunity We’re seeking a Senior Director of Performance and Growth Marketing who is part scientist, part strategist, and part scrappy growth hacker. You live and breathe experimentation, velocity, and measurable impact. You know how to build momentum with tiny budgets, test your way to insights, and harness data, AI, and emerging channels to reach new audiences efficiently. This isn’t a “big brand, big budget” job — it’s a build, test, learn, and scale role. You will architect a modern, agile growth system built on rapid experimentation, constantly seeking to improve our LTV/CAC ratio. This system will derive leverage by integrating precision acquisition (geo-targeted activations and advanced performance media techniques), high-leverage partnerships (measurable influencer collaborations), advanced data strategy (synthetic audience generation and predictive modeling), creative velocity (machine learning-powered creative optimization). You will lead a high-velocity growth organization, managing the Director of Growth Marketing and the Director of Acquisition, Retail, and International Marketing. You will empower this team and external agency partners to build, optimize, and scale a global, data-driven performance engine. Given 23andMe's direct-to-consumer (DTC) model, your mandate is to architect and govern the end-to-end full-funnel strategy, moving beyond channel execution. You will establish the data requirements and collaborative frameworks with Product and Engineering necessary to optimize the entire conversion pathway—from landing page experiences to checkout flows and post-purchase activation. Your success is defined by establishing the LTV/CAC optimization model and ensuring the Directors' strategies accelerate customer activation and drive long-term profitability. Your ability to succeed hinges on establishing high-tempo operational alignment with Product, Engineering, Brand, and Data Science to define, instrument, and improve the core conversion architecture.

Requirements

• 10–12+ years of highly relevant experience, with at least 3-5 years operating as a hands-on executive who successfully architected and efficiently scaled a multi-channel performance engine in a high-growth, resource-constrained D2C or tech environment, while simultaneously managing Director-level reports and driving strategic initiatives in partnership with Product/Eng/Brand teams.
• Proven success scaling efficiently — you’ve grown measurable outcomes without massive budgets.
• Deep knowledge of paid search, paid social, display, programmatic, affiliate, and influencer ecosystems , with curiosity about what’s next.
• Strong analytics and data literacy — fluent in CAC, LTV, ROAS, incrementality, and attribution models, with the ability to translate data into strategy.
• Demonstrated success leveraging advanced AI/ML capabilities (predictive modeling, audience synthesis, dynamic creative optimization) to drive performance, and familiarity with the strategic implications of Generative AI in customer acquisition.
• A test-and-learn mindset — you move fast, build frameworks for experimentation, and know when to scale or kill a test.
• Excellent collaborator — you can rally creative, product, and executive teams around data-backed insights.
• Passion for 23andMe’s mission — you believe in empowering people with access to their health and genetic information.

Nice To Haves

• Experience with performance marketing platforms and tools
• Familiarity with analytics and experimentation platforms
• Hands-on experience with AI-powered marketing tools for creative generation, predictive targeting, and synthetic audiences
• Experience with geo-targeted campaigns, local activation, or hyper-personalized messaging
• Comfort managing multi-million-dollar budgets, prioritizing channels with maximum ROI, and reporting performance at the executive level
• Experience leading small, high-velocity growth teams, balancing hands-on execution with strategic planning

Responsibilities

• Architect the global growth engine — define the structure, measurement, and optimization framework and governance for a cohesive, multi-channel performance marketing system, including establishing standards for budget allocation, attribution modeling, and inter-channel dependency to drive efficient new customer acquisition and scale across key platforms (including paid search, paid social, programmatic display, affiliate, influencer, email, SMS, and new/emerging channels).
• Run high-velocity experimentation — design, implement, and govern the acquisition and conversion framework for high-velocity experimentation, ensuring rigor in A/B and multivariate testing across messaging, creative, and audience segments.
• Lead the implementation of Generative AI and Automation across the funnel—from synthetic audience creation and predictive targeting to dynamic creative optimization and Answer Engine Optimization (AEO)/Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) for emerging search platforms.
• Drive full-funnel performance — from efficient acquisition to activation and conversion. Establish a robust incrementality framework to measure true campaign value including intelligent attribution, driving a shift from a ROAS mindset to an LTV/CAC optimization model.
• Turn data into direction — create tight feedback loops between analytics, creative, and channel execution.
• Drive Cross-Functional Strategy — Collaborate closely with Director/VP/C-level stakeholders across Brand, Product, Engineering, and Data Science to ensure growth insights are translated directly into business strategy, product roadmaps, and long-term brand positioning.
• Be resourceful and inventive — make every dollar work harder through creative partnerships, earned amplification, and channel innovation.
• Build a culture of learning and trust — mentor your team to think in terms of hypotheses, experiments, and outcomes rather than campaigns and channels. Scale growth efficiently while maintaining customer trust, regulatory compliance, and data privacy.
• Roll up your sleeves — drive execution and help out. We operate with a lean, ownership-driven mindset, where every leader is expected to be an executive player-coach.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director
• Education Level: No Education Listed