Senior Director, Brand Marketing - Hybrid

TrueCar pioneered transparency in car buying, and how consumers discover and trust brands is now changing faster than at any point since. This role exists to make sure TrueCar wins that change. The Senior Director/VP of Marketing owns TrueCar’s brand strategy end to end and unifies every marketing workstream — brand, content, social, lifecycle, consumer insights, media strategy, and marketing analytics — into one focused, integrated plan. Reporting to the Vice President, Product and Design, this leader partners closely with the performance marketing team and with Product, Communications, and Partnerships so that everything TrueCar ships and says builds one coherent, trusted brand. As a people leader, they set vision and direction for the team, coach and develop talent, and are accountable for marketing outcomes across the function.

The ideal candidate will reside near Santa Monica, CA, and work in our headquarters office as needed.

How you’ll drive TrueCar’s success:

• Own TrueCar’s brand strategy, positioning, and voice, acting as its steward across every consumer touchpoint.
• Build and run the integrated marketing plan that aligns brand, content, social, lifecycle, and partner marketing behind a focused set of priorities.
• Own media strategy, planning, and paid execution across brand media, spanning channels such as out-of-home, streaming, radio, and CTV, plus influencers, partnering closely with the performance marketing team.
• Lead the consumer insights agenda — primary research, brand health tracking, and funnel analysis that shape both marketing and product decisions.
• Own TrueCar’s visibility in AI-driven discovery: build the generative engine optimization (GEO/AEO) program and track brand share of voice across AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Perplexity.
• Evolve the marketing operating system with AI-powered workflows that multiply the team’s output and speed.
• Drive co-marketing and go-to-market programs with OEM, dealer, and affinity partners.
• Lead, develop, and inspire a team of marketers along with agency and vendor partners.
• Define how marketing is measured: brand health, share of voice, and full-funnel analytics that connect marketing to revenue.
• Represent marketing to executive leadership with clear, data-backed narratives.

Your Expertise:

• Proven success building, launching, and repositioning consumer brands, from strategy and identity through creative execution in market.
• Expert-level integrated marketing planning: able to unify many simultaneous workstreams into one plan and hold the bar on focus.
• Deep media strategy and planning proficiency, including large-budget allocation, channel mix, and vendor negotiation.
• Hands-on consumer research fluency, qualitative and quantitative, from study design through insight activation with product teams.
• Demonstrated, hands-on AI fluency: GEO/AEO practice, AI-assistant share-of-voice measurement, and AI-assisted marketing workflows built and run personally, not delegated.
• Proficiency with CRM and marketing automation platforms and modern analytics stacks (e.g., GA4).
• Leads through influence across Product, Engineering, Communications, and Partnerships; a player-coach who develops people while staying in the work.
• A clear storyteller who stays calm and focused while running many workstreams at once.
• Embodies TrueCar’s values: Focused in prioritization, Ambitious for the brand, Team-first across functions, and always Evolving in method.
• Ability to travel occasionally for offsites and partner meetings.

If you are based in California, we encourage you to read this important information for California residents linked here.

Who We Are

TrueCar is a leading digital automotive platform that uses technology to help car buyers save time and money through a nationwide network of Certified Dealers. Founded in 2005 by Scott Painter, TrueCar was built on the belief that serving membership and affinity organizations central to the car-buying process, including lenders, insurers, and dealers, enables a more valuable auto-buying experience for new and used vehicles. As part of its platform, TrueCar powers auto-buying programs for over 250 leading brands, including Sam's Club, AAA, and more than 100 credit unions.

We are seeking talented individuals who are energized by our commitment to save consumers time and money. We’ve stripped away typical corporate "bloat" to build a culture rooted in high performance and accountability for results. As a member of the TrueCar Crew, you can have a real & direct impact on our success as we continue to evolve the car buying experience.

Your TrueCar Experience

At TrueCar, we offer our Crew members the flexibility to split their work time between home and the office. While many days are remote, we expect our Crew to show up for the moments that matter—gathering in person when a project needs that extra collaborative spark because nothing replaces the energy of solving big problems in the same room. We provide you with comfortable shared workspaces in our Santa Monica headquarters office and other regional locations and equip you with a professional home office setup along with monthly reimbursements for your essentials, like phone and internet.

As a TrueCar Crew member, you will receive excellent benefits and perks that include, but are not limited to, 100% employer-paid health, vision, and dental premiums; a 401(k) plan with company contributions; a wellness reimbursement account; and learning & development reimbursement opportunities. We also understand the importance of recharging, so we offer flexible PTO for exempt TrueCar Crew Members and a generous PTO accrual policy for non-exempt TrueCar Crew Members, in addition to 14 company-paid holidays and 2 floating holidays. In short, we care deeply about our Crew Members and have designed employee-centric programs that reflect this.

At TrueCar, we believe in the power of diversity to create a deeper understanding of our consumers and partners, driving innovation in our products. We welcome a workforce that reflects the diversity of car-buying consumers and encourage everyone interested in our mission to apply. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, age, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law. We will consider qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records in accordance with applicable law. Additionally, TrueCar will provide reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities.