Director of Marketing

About the role

HelloCollege helps families through every step of college admissions, from 7th grade through senior year, with admissions counseling, tutoring, essay coaching, and test prep. We serve families nationwide, and our marketing engine is how they find us.

As Director of Marketing, you own that engine. You'll be accountable for lead volume and lead quality, lead a team of full-time and part-time staff and agencies, and manage roughly $2M in annual marketing spend. You report to the Chief Strategy Officer and run marketing day-to-day: strategy, execution, analytics, and the testing that keeps results improving.

This role suits a metrics-driven leader who likes people, runs on data, and uses AI as a real part of how the work gets done.

What you'll own

Pipeline and performance

• Deliver the annual lead plan (typically 20-30% growth year over year) and our lead-quality targets
• Report to leadership monthly on leads by channel, CAC, lead quality, with analysis, budget implications, and recommendations
• Build and run a testing roadmap across channels, focused on hypotheses and incremental lift

Budget

• Manage about $1M in variable and $1M in fixed annual marketing spend (excluding staff)
• Shift budget between channels within the approved plan, based on performance
• Recommend annual budget and lead-spend levels; spend outside the approved budget needs approval

Channels

• Paid search and paid social: Oversee specialist who leads bidding and day-to-day management of Google, Microsoft, and Facebook. You own strategy and lead landing page testing.
• Organic, SEO and AEO: set direction and hold our agency accountable for results
• Referrals and brand advocacy: oversee program design, plus how performance is defined and tracked
• Email, events, partnerships: own strategy and performance; your Email/Events lead runs execution
• Lead providers and affiliate partners: own relationships, contracts and performance
• Organic social: oversight; your Content/Social lead runs execution

Team, vendors and EOS

• Lead full-time, part-time and fractional team members, plus agencies: set goals, coach, and hold people accountable. Team structure will change as our needs and growth plans evolve, and you'll help shape it.
• Evaluate agency and vendor performance and recommend changes; hiring, firing, and agency changes are made with leadership approval
• Run the marketing team on EOS: Rocks, scorecard, weekly L10s, and issue resolution

Analytics and website

• Own marketing analytics and infrastructure end to end: HubSpot, GA4, GSC, attribution and reporting
• Own the WordPress/Elementor website and step in hands-on when needed; our Web Dev manages the site and product team consults on larger builds.

Brand and customer insight

• Steward our brand and messaging day-to-day, with final approval from the CSO
• Lead ongoing customer research: interviews, surveys, and direct outreach to families

AI-enabled marketing

• Use AI daily for analysis, research, and content creation
• Build agents and workflows that multiply the team's output, and keep expanding your AI skills

Cross-functional partnership

• Work with Sales on lead quality, handoffs, and shared funnel metrics
• Work with Service on referrals, testimonials, and proof points

How you'll be measured

• Lead volume: hitting the annual lead plan
• Lead quality: families who show for consultations
• Efficiency: CAC and return on spend by channel
• Learning velocity: regular testing, with clear findings and action taken on them
• Team health: a team that hits its Rocks and scorecard and keeps getting better

What you bring

Required

• 10+ years of experience in marketing. 5+ years leading a marketing team: setting goals, managing people, and holding them accountable
• Experience in B2C, high-ticket professional services (education, healthcare, financial or legal services, or similar)
• Deep expertise in paid acquisition: PPC and affiliate or lead-provider programs
• A record of managing a multi-channel budget and moving spend based on performance
• A metrics-driven, testing mindset: you form hypotheses, run tests, and act on what you learn
• Strong hands-on reporting skills
• Comfort working directly in WordPress and Elementor
• Expert daily use of Claude or similar AI tools for analysis, research, and planning
• Experience managing agencies and outside partners against clear performance goals
• Strong grasp of customer needs and messaging, and enjoyment of talking with customers directly

Preferred

• Experience building AI agents or automated workflows
• Strong interest in AEO (answer engine optimization)
• Background in a growth-stage company

Compensation and logistics

• Base salary: $100,000-$120,000
• Bonus: performance-based
• Benefits: Health, dental, life insurance, unlimited PTO, 401K (no match)
• Location: remote (U.S.)
• Travel: quarterly team offsites, plus occasional travel for events and partners
• Reports to: Chief Strategy Officer