Marketing Manager

Lightwave Dental was founded in 2016, is a high-growth company building the group model for the future of the dental industry. Lightwave is passionate about doing things the right way with a tight focus on high quality, core values, and taking care of their people. Lightwave is a dental leadership organization that focuses on partnering, training and developing dentists as the natural leaders of the dental practice. Lightwave helps dentists launch their careers, supports dentists leading high-growth dental groups, and assists doctors looking to establish their legacy as they transition into retirement. Lightwave is solving the big problems in dentistry: retirement, management, reimbursements, and partnership by providing the benefits of a group while preserving the essence of private practice. Lightwave currently supports over 100 dental offices in 3 states. For additional information, please visit lightwavedental.com. Follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.

Regional Marketing Manager

Reports to: Chief Marketing Officer

Role Overview

The Regional Marketing Manager is a senior, strategy-first marketing leader responsible for driving regional growth through insight-led planning, portfolio management, and business partnership.

Reporting directly to the CMO, the Regional Marketing Manager serves as a strategic advisor to dental practice leadership, guiding decisions that impact patient acquisition, growth velocity, and long-term practice performance.

This position is intentionally designed for experienced marketers who have outgrown executional roles and thrive in shaping direction, diagnosing performance, and influencing outcomes.

Core Responsibilities

Strategic Ownership & Direction

• Own the regional marketing strategy across a portfolio of approximately 16 dental practices, ensuring alignment to enterprise growth objectives and market realities.
• Define strategic priorities, investment focus, and success metrics for individual practices and the region overall.
• Lead annual and quarterly regional marketing planning, including demand strategy, channel prioritization, and budget allocation recommendations.

Insight, Analytics & Performance Optimization

• Use data, analytics, and market insights to identify growth opportunities and diagnose underperformance.
• Interpret patient acquisition, conversion, and efficiency metrics to guide strategic decisions-not simply report results.
• Continuously refine regional strategies based on performance trends, test-and-learn outcomes, and changing market conditions.

Practice Partnership & Influence

• Build trusted, consultative relationships with practice owners and leaders, positioning marketing as a business growth lever.
• Influence decision-making through insight, perspective, and business acumen without direct authority.
• Balance portfolio consistency with local market nuance through strategic frameworks and guardrails.

Cross-Functional Leadership

• Set strategic direction for internal teams, shared services, and external agencies to ensure execution aligns to outcomes.
• Partner with operations, finance, analytics, and growth teams to integrate marketing strategy into broader business planning.
• Lead go-to-market strategy for new practice launches and acquisitions, including growth ramp planning.

Stewardship & Governance

• Own regional marketing investment strategy and evaluate ROI to reprioritize spend based on opportunity.
• Establish best practices and decision frameworks that elevate marketing effectiveness across the region.

What This Role Is Not

• A hands-on creative, social media, or paid media position
• A tactical marketing coordinator or do-everything role

Experience & Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Marketing, Business, Strategy, or related field
• 8-10+ years of progressive marketing experience with demonstrated ownership of strategy across markets or regions.
• Proven ability to lead through influence and advise senior business leaders or operators.
• Strong analytical orientation with experience translating performance data into strategic insights.
• Experience guiding agencies and teams at a strategic direction level rather than hands-on execution.
• Background in multi-location, services, healthcare, or consumer growth businesses strongly preferred.

Required Capabilities

• Strategic thinking and structured problem-solving
• Business and financial acumen tied to unit-level performance
• Insight generation from quantitative and qualitative data
• Executive-level communication and presence
• Relationship-driven influence and consultative leadership
• Comfort operating in ambiguity and making prioritization tradeoffs

Success in This Role Looks Like

• Marketing is viewed as a strategic partner by practice leadership.
• Regional performance improves through better decisions, not more activity.
• Marketing investments are focused, intentional, and outcome-driven.
• Practices have clarity around why strategies are chosen and how success is measured.

In return for providing an excellent employee and patient experience, we offer a great benefits package to include health and dental benefits, 401(k), holiday pay and paid time off.