Director, eCommerce Strategy

Director, eCommerce Strategy

Hybrid, San Diego, CA based*

*Hybrid Requirements: Employees within 40 miles of a physical office location must be present in office 2 days a week.

Office Locations: Del Mar (San Diego), CA & Denver, CO

This role will require the selected individual to work a hybrid schedule in our Del Mar, CA office location.

Overview

For over 15 years, 85SIXTY has been helping clients transform the way they reach, acquire, and engage with their customers through an integrated combination of data, technology, cross-channel strategies, and creative thinking. We’re a 90-person digital marketing agency with deep roots in consumer brands, hospitality, and luxury travel — working with eCommerce brands across DTC nutrition, outdoor lifestyle, retail, and premium consumer goods. Some might call us a full-service digital consultancy, but we think of ourselves as a partner that can both drive strategy and orchestrate delivery. Solving whatever is thrown our way and translating it into clear, executable solutions is at the core of 85SIXTY.

The Director of eCommerce Strategy works across accounts as an embedded strategic advisor, serving as a force multiplier for account teams and a proactive thought partner for clients. Our clients span a range of platforms and business models: DTC Shopify brands, retail-driven businesses, subscription and loyalty programs, and omnichannel commerce. What they have in common is a need for progressive, forward-focused strategy and someone who can help them get there.

This role sits at the intersection of practice leadership and client advisory. You’ll partner closely with account teams, practice leads, and client stakeholders to shape strategy, close capability gaps, and keep 85SIXTY’s work ahead of where the market is heading. Our values are simple: help others, have fun, focus on solutions and outcomes, be curious, and be accountable and honest. If that sounds like how you already work, we’d love to talk.

Responsibilities

eCommerce Strategy Advisory

• Serve as the embedded strategic advisor across 85SIXTY’s eCommerce client base, providing senior-level thinking that account teams can bring directly into client conversations and planning sessions
• Lead strategic discovery sessions with clients to assess their current eCommerce maturity, identify gaps, and develop a clear, prioritized roadmap for growth
• Develop point-of-view documents, strategic briefs, and recommendation decks that frame complex opportunities in plain business terms that are accessible to a founder, a CMO, or a board
• Review and pressure-test client strategies across CRM, paid media, SEO, CRO, creative and website while raising concerns, recommending alternatives, and co-developing stronger approaches with practice leads
• Participate in key client touchpoints including quarterly business reviews, annual planning sessions, and pivotal campaign or launch moments as a senior strategic voice
• Identify where clients are leaving growth on the table and develop concrete, testable proposals to address it

Practice Leadership & Quality

• Act as a quality standard-setter across eCommerce-related work: reviewing deliverables, providing structured feedback, and helping teams understand what “best-in-class” looks like for each client’s stage and category
• Partner with the CRM team to evaluate lifecycle strategy, segmentation, and retention program design with working familiarity in platforms like Klaviyo, Attentive, and Postscript
• Work with the paid media and creative teams to assess channel mix, creative strategy, and measurement approach, particularly across Meta, TikTok, and Google to ensure performance work is grounded in a clear growth thesis
• Collaborate with SEO and CRO leads to connect technical and experimentation work to overarching business outcomes, not just channel-level metrics
• Evaluate website and tech stack recommendations with the Engineering practice (e.g. Shopify Plus, headless, or platform-agnostic) and ensure they align with the client’s commercial model and operational capacity
• Develop and contribute to 85SIXTY’s internal point of view on eCommerce: platform evolution, emerging tools, retention strategy, measurement, and what’s actually working across the DTC and omnichannel landscape

Market & Competitive Intelligence

• Proactively monitor the competitive and category landscape for each client, tracking what comparable brands are testing, launching, or pulling back on while translating that intelligence into relevant, timely recommendations
• Maintain a current and informed perspective on the Shopify Plus ecosystem (Rebuy, Yotpo, Okendo, AB Tasty, Visually, Triple Whale, Elevar, Replo, and others), as well as platform-agnostic tools relevant to retail, subscription, and omnichannel clients
• Identify and evaluate emerging technology, platforms, and vendors that could meaningfully benefit 85SIXTY clients, bringing forward recommendations with a clear business case
• Contribute to internal knowledge sharing: leading team education sessions and writing internal briefs

New Business & Agency Growth

• Support new business development for eCommerce prospects, contributing to pitch strategy, scoping, and category expertise for brands considering 85SIXTY as a growth partner
• Help enhance 85SIXTY’s ecommerce positioning and service narrative, including case study development and capability articulation
• Identify organic growth opportunities within the existing client base and surface them to account leadership with a clear rationale and proposed path forward

Desired Qualifications

Background & Experience

• 7-10 years of experience in eCommerce, with meaningful time operating at a senior level — titles like Director of eCommerce, VP of Growth, Head of DTC, or equivalent at a brand or agency
• Direct experience working with or inside brands generating $20M+ in annual eCommerce revenue, with an understanding of the growth challenges, resource constraints, and decision-making dynamics at that scale
• Experience working across multiple business models — DTC, subscription, retail, omnichannel — and comfort advising clients regardless of their platform
• Hands-on experience owning or closely directing lifecycle and retention programs, including segmentation strategy, campaign architecture, and performance analysis
• Working knowledge of paid social creative strategy including creative testing frameworks, audience strategy, and the evolving relationship between creative and targeting
• Proven experience developing paid acquisition strategy across Meta, Google, TikTok, YouTube, affiliates, paid search, paid social, display, CTV, Amazon, and other growth channels
• Fluency across the eCommerce technology landscape, including:
  • Shopify Plus ecosystem: Rebuy, Skio, ReCharge, Okendo, Visually, AB Tasty, Shoplift, Replo, Gorgias, Nosto
  • SMS & retention: Klaviyo, Attentive, Postscript
  • Analytics & attribution: MTA, MMM and incrementality vendors
  • Broader platform context: headless commerce, retail/wholesale integrations, subscription infrastructure
• Demonstrated ability to operate in an advisory or embedded capacity, influencing strategy and raising quality without owning execution directly

How You Work

• Intellectually curious — you follow what’s working across DTC and omnichannel because you genuinely want to know
• Client-side empathy — you understand what it feels like to be the person responsible for eCommerce outcomes and you engage with clients as a peer who’s been there
• A clear communicator — equally comfortable in a working session with a performance marketer, a strategy conversation with a CMO, or a planning discussion with a founder
• Agency-minded — you understand how agencies operate, you’re energized by working across multiple brands and categories simultaneously, and you know how to create leverage without creating bottlenecks
• Structured in how you think and communicate — your recommendations come with a clear rationale, a defined next step, and an honest assessment of what could go wrong

Benefits

• Competitive salary and benefits package:
  • Medical, Dental, Vision
  • Life/AD&D
  • FSA — Health/Dependent Care
  • Voluntary Life/AD&D
  • Retirement Plan
• FTO — Flexible Time Off
• Paid Holidays Annually: 13
• Opportunities for professional development and growth
• Collaborative, curious, and high-trust working environment
• The opportunity to shape strategy across a diverse portfolio of brands — and leave a visible mark on the work

Compensation

Compensation Range: $110,000 – $125,000 annually. Performance bonus: 10–15% tied to account retention & growth. Actual compensation is based on multiple factors unique to each candidate, including job-related knowledge, level of relevant experience, skills, and geographic location. 85SIXTY reserves the right to modify this pay range at any time.

EEO Statement

85SIXTY is an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, marital status, age, national origin, ancestry, physical or mental disability, medical condition, pregnancy, genetic information, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, veteran status, or any other status protected under federal, state, or local law.

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