SVP & Chief Marketing Officer

Reporting directly to the President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), the CMO will serve as GIA’s senior marketing strategist and a visible institutional leader.

In partnership with executive and operational leaders across the Institute, this executive will provide vision, direction, and accountability for GIA’s global marketing and communications function, spanning brand strategy, digital engagement, trade and consumer outreach, public and media relations, internal communications, market intelligence, and go‑to‑market execution. As a member of the executive leadership team, the CMO will act as a key advisor to the CEO and senior leadership, translating market insight into enterprise growth strategy and ensuring GIA communicates consistently, credibly, and with impact across all audiences and channels. This leader will build and guide a globally distributed marketing organization, aligning strategy across regions while stewarding a cohesive and differentiated global brand. Central to this role is the ability to operate across GIA’s uniquely complex marketing ecosystem, engaging B2B, B2C, and B2B2C audiences with clarity, precision, and purpose. The CMO will serve as GIA’s primary storyteller to the global market, translating complex gemological science into compelling narratives that build trust, strengthen brand authority, and support long‑term growth. The CMO will be responsible for driving enterprise marketing strategy, advancing GIA’s brand and market positioning, leading integrated marketing execution and capability development, and building a high‑performing, globally aligned marketing organization. The successful candidate will be a bold, strategically sophisticated, and globally experienced marketing executive with a demonstrated record of building powerful brands, driving measurable growth, and leading high‑performing teams in complex, global, multi‑market organizations. This leader will bring deep expertise across brand strategy, digital and integrated marketing, and organizational leadership, along with the executive presence to serve as GIA’s most visible marketing voice internally and externally. Equally comfortable operating at the enterprise and execution levels, this individual will partner with the CEO and executive leadership to shape strategy while guiding teams in the development and delivery of high‑impact marketing initiatives. A natural storyteller, this leader will have the ability to make highly technical content, such as gemological science and grading methodology, accessible, compelling, and commercially relevant to diverse global audiences. This executive will also be a highly effective organizational leader and influencer, capable of building alignment, securing investment, and advancing bold marketing initiatives in a complex and matrixed environment. Combining data‑driven rigor with creative instinct, they will bring the judgment, agility, and leadership required to strengthen GIA’s global brand and market position.

Essential Duties & Responsibilities

Driving Enterprise & Strategic Leadership (35%)

• Lead the development and execution of an integrated global marketing strategy, including GIA’s omni‑channel approach across B2B, B2C, and B2B2C audiences, to expand market presence and deepen engagement across all customer segments.
• Monitor competitive activity, emerging market entrants, and shifts in consumer sentiment, and translate insights into actionable strategy and executive counsel.

Advancing GIA’s Brand, Positioning & Growth (25%)

• Brand Strategy & Global Positioning Steward and evolve a consistent global brand identity and voice across all markets and channels, ensuring GIA is recognized as the definitive authority in gemological science and consumer protection.
• Lead brand positioning and messaging architecture, activating a cohesive global brand strategy while enabling locally resonant execution across key regions, including the U.S., Europe, India, China, Taiwan, Thailand, Singapore, and Southeast Asia.
• Drive brand amplification and market share growth, aligning brand strategy with GIA’s broader growth objectives.

Competitive Positioning & Market Education

• Lead GIA’s strategic marketing response to competitive pressures from laboratory‑grown diamonds and lower‑cost grading alternatives, crafting clear, differentiated positioning that reinforces the value of GIA’s science‑based grading and institutional trust.
• Develop and execute campaigns that educate trade and consumers on the distinctions between GIA‑graded natural and laboratory‑grown diamonds and the implications of lower‑standard alternatives.

Storytelling, Content & Go‑to‑Market Execution

• Lead integrated go‑to‑market strategies for new products and services, ensuring alignment across marketing, laboratory services, education, and commercial teams.
• Oversee content and multi‑platform storytelling that translates complex gemological science into clear, compelling narratives that build consumer engagement and reinforce trust with trade partners.

Leading Integrated Marketing Execution & Capability Development (25%)

• Oversee integrated digital marketing strategies across paid and organic search, social, email, content, and influencer channels, ensuring a cohesive, high‑performing presence across the full customer journey.
• Lead GIA’s earned media, public relations, and press strategy, cultivating relationships with trade and consumer press, global media outlets, and key industry voices to drive sustained, positive coverage.
• Ensure GIA’s digital presence, including its website, social media, and content platforms, remains contemporary, compelling, and aligned with brand standards.
• Establish and lead a robust marketing intelligence and analytics function, integrating market insights, campaign performance, and customer data to inform strategy and optimize investment decisions.
• Advance CRM, marketing automation, and personalization capabilities (including Salesforce or equivalent) to improve targeting, segmentation, and lifecycle engagement.
• Leverage emerging technologies, data, and advanced analytics to enhance campaign effectiveness, audience targeting, and overall marketing performance, and clearly communicate impact to executive leadership.
• Lead external communications across public relations, media engagement, executive visibility, crisis communications, and institutional messaging to trade, consumers, and global stakeholders.
• Oversee internal communications to ensure employees are informed, aligned, and engaged around strategy, transformation initiatives, and GIA’s mission and values, in close partnership with HR and executive leadership.

Driving Organizational Effectiveness & Enterprise Influence (15%)

• Manage GIA’s global marketing investment portfolio, aligning resources with growth priorities and delivering measurable return on investment.
• Serve as a key internal influencer and cross‑functional partner, building alignment across business development, laboratory services, education, and commercial teams, ensuring marketing is fully integrated with enterprise priorities.
• Build, develop, and retain a high‑performing, inclusive global marketing organization, establishing clear goals, accountability, and development pathways that strengthen long‑term capability.
• Foster a culture of innovation, agility, and continuous improvement, encouraging teams to experiment, measure, learn, and evolve in alignment with GIA’s values.

Competencies

Strategic Thinking and Insight

• Demonstrates an understanding of the industry and international trade environment, including legal, economic, financial, regulatory, political, and cultural aspects.
• Applies knowledge of business and the global marketplace to advance the organization’s mission and goals.
• Uses financial and operational data to build sound business cases for new initiatives or to change existing business processes.
• Weighs opportunity costs and stays focused on significant, “big picture” issues instead of getting distracted by more minor problems.

Organizational Savvy

• Engages stakeholders and genuinely attempts to understand and reconcile multiple perspectives to advance ideas or decisions.
• Demonstrates ability to make sense of complexities related to culture, strategy, and ways of working and leverages this to find a way to drive the organization’s mission/goals/objectives.

Growth Mindset

• Manages Ambiguity: Operates effectively in uncertain or changing environments
• Learning Agility: Actively seeks new experiences and learns quickly
• Self‑Development: Proactively develops skills and capabilities
• Cultivates Innovation: Encourages new ideas and continuous improvement

Drive Vision and Purpose

• Drives Vision and Purpose: Paints a compelling picture of the future
• Inspires Others: Motivates through purpose and shared goals
• Strategic Mindset: Sees ahead and aligns vision to long‑term strategy

Plans & Aligns

• Plans and Aligns: Prioritizes and organizes work to meet objectives
• Action Oriented: Takes initiative and drives results
• Ensures Accountability: Holds self and others responsible for outcome

Resourcefulness

• Resourcefulness: Finds ways to get things done with available resources
• Decision Quality: Makes sound decisions, even with limited information
• Optimizes Work Processes: Improves efficiency and effectiveness

Balances Stakeholders: Considers multiple

Qualifications

• Minimum 15 years of progressive marketing leadership experience, including at least 8 years leading teams in complex, global, multi‑market organizations.
• A bachelor’s degree in marketing, business, communications, or a related field is required.
• An advanced degree, such as an MBA, is strongly preferred.
• Equivalent combinations of education and relevant executive experience will be considered.
• Industry experience in luxury or premium consumer sectors (e.g., fine jewelry, high fashion, perfumery, or related categories) preferred, with a strong understanding of how aspirational brands build trust, premium positioning, and sustain consumer loyalty.
• Demonstrated success building, scaling, and leading high‑performing marketing organizations, including oversight of in‑house teams and external agencies, with a leadership style that fosters accountability, transparency, and talent development.
• Experience leading brand strategy across global markets, with particular fluency in the U.S., Europe, and meaningful exposure to Asia, including India, China, Taiwan, Thailand, Singapore, and Southeast Asia.

Requirements

• Hybrid – onsite 4 days/week in Carlsbad, CA.
• Willingness and ability to travel domestically and internationally (approximately 25%), engaging global teams, trade partners, and media relationships with presence and consistency.
• Salary range: $300,000 - $350,000

All employment decisions are made without regard to unlawful considerations of race, sex, religion, national origin, age, disability, or any other legally protected status.

Reasonable accommodations are available upon request.

Disclaimer: This job description indicates in general terms, the type and level of work performed as well as the typical responsibilities of employees in this classification and it may be changed by management at any time. Other duties may also apply. Nothing in this job description changes the at‑will employment relationship existing between the Company and its employees.

Working at GIA

With a reach that spans the globe — GIA is a nonprofit institute dedicated to ensuring the public trust in gems and jewelry through cutting edge gemological research and rigorous education programs. We have shaped the gem industry, protected millions of consumers and taught generations of jewelers and gemologists all over the world since 1931. Comprising over 3,000 employees in 13 countries, GIA is a place of diversity, innovation, creativity and engagement. Whether you are passionate about science, history, design, education, IT or a corporate career, GIA has a place for you. Join one of the world’s most colorful and brilliant industries with an organization that serves the public good by bringing knowledge and objectivity to gems and jewelry.

What GIA Does

Research that deepens the world’s understanding of gems and jewelry manufacturing and shares these findings with academia, the industry, and the gem‑buying public.

Education that builds careers and enhances the knowledge and integrity of the gem and jewelry industry.

Standard setting that protects those who buy gems by ensuring the qualities of gems and jewelry are objectively and consistently described.

Laboratory services that provide an unbiased and scientific assessment of gem quality.

Employee Benefits

GIA offers competitive salaries and exceptional benefits as well as training opportunities to employees all over the globe.

All employment decisions are made without regard to unlawful considerations of race, sex, religion, national origin, age, disability, or any other legally protected status.

Reasonable accommodations are available upon request.

Crime Statistics (For U.S. Only)

In accordance with the Jeanne Clery Act, GIA’s current annual crime statistics are available at:
Clery Report: Annual Disclosure of Campus Security Policies and Crime Statistics