Posted August 23, 2026
Director of Marketing & Ecommerce
eCommerce
San Diego, CA, US
Full Time
Job Description
Job Description
CLIENT CONFIDENTIAL
Director of Marketing & Ecommerce
San Diego, CA (Hybrid) | $125–150K Base + Quarterly Bonus + Equity
About the Company
Our client is a venture-backed wearable technology company based in San Diego that is creating an entirely new product category: wearable movement therapy. The company manufactures patented compression garments in-house that use integrated dial-based fit systems to activate muscles, retrain movement mechanics, and offload stress from vulnerable joints — a fundamentally different approach from traditional braces and sleeves, which restrict movement and cause muscle atrophy.
Founded by a serial entrepreneur with medical device experience (Abbott, Stryker) who previously built and sold a software company, the brand commercially launched in late 2024 after four years of R&D. Products are HSA/FSA eligible, retail at $299–$349, and serve active adults aged 40–65 who refuse to let joint pain slow them down. The company has strong product-market fit (3.6% return rate), patented IP, a medical advisory board, and growing traction in endurance sports and racquet sports communities.
About the Role
This is a player-coach role reporting directly to the CEO. You will be the first dedicated marketing hire and will own the full DTC marketing function: creative strategy, conversion rate optimization, email marketing, paid media direction, organic social, content production, and event marketing support. The company has a paid media agency in place, an in-house video editor, and a newly hired COO — but you will be the person responsible for turning traffic into revenue.
The core challenge is conversion. The site receives approximately 30,000 monthly sessions but converts at well under 1%. The previous marketing leader achieved significantly better metrics before departing in late 2024 due to a personal emergency, and performance declined immediately. Your mandate is to rebuild the marketing engine: fix conversion, build email from zero, produce scroll-stopping creative for Meta, and turn the company’s event presence into a digital content flywheel.
Responsibilities
- Own end-to-end DTC marketing strategy and execution, including site conversion optimization, email/SMS marketing, paid media creative direction, organic social content, and event marketing support.
- Diagnose and fix the conversion rate crisis: install analytics and qualitative tooling (heatmaps, session recordings), map the purchase funnel, identify the biggest leaks, and execute rapid improvements to the site experience.
- Build the email marketing program from scratch in Klaviyo: welcome flows, abandoned cart/browse/checkout flows, post-purchase education sequences, buyer reactivation, and campaign sends tied to tentpole events.
- Direct creative production for Meta advertising: develop genuinely diverse ad concepts (different people, settings, stories, emotions, formats) that educate non-aware consumers on a new product category within the first three seconds of the scroll.
- Attend 4–6 sporting events per year to capture authentic content (customer reactions, athlete testimonials, product demos) that feeds the paid and organic content pipeline year-round.
- Coordinate with the paid media agency on campaign strategy, audience targeting, creative testing, and budget allocation across Meta, Google, and emerging channels.
- Plan and execute tentpole marketing campaigns around major sporting events, including pre-event teaser phases, event-week activations, and post-event retargeting and email follow-through.
- Manage and direct the in-house video editor; reduce reliance on external static designers by producing more creative assets internally.
- Develop product page optimization: guided selling experiences (quizzes), video-driven product education, review generation strategy, and above-the-fold social proof and trust signals.
- Report on marketing performance weekly and monthly, with clear attribution of revenue to channels and campaigns.
Requirements
- 5–10 years of DTC ecommerce marketing experience, with at least 2–3 years at a startup or early-stage brand where you owned the full marketing function (not just one channel).
- Demonstrated success improving ecommerce conversion rates on Shopify, with hands-on experience in CRO tools, A/B testing, and funnel analytics.
- Deep Klaviyo expertise: you have built email/SMS programs from zero or near-zero and scaled them to meaningful revenue contribution.
- Strong creative instincts and direct-response copywriting ability. You can write ad copy, email sequences, and landing page content yourself — not just brief others to do it.
- Experience directing photo and video production for social media advertising, with an understanding of what performs on Meta and Instagram in the current algorithmic environment.
- Comfort with technical or health-adjacent products that require consumer education before purchase. Experience marketing products that are NOT impulse buys is essential.
- Willingness to travel to 4–6 sporting events per year (primarily weekends) to support activations and capture content.
- San Diego area preferred (hybrid schedule); some remote flexibility for the right candidate.
- Startup temperament: you thrive in ambiguity, build your own systems, and don’t need to be managed. You are comfortable working from coffee shops, co-working spaces, or your home office — not a corporate campus.
Compensation: $125–150K base salary + $25–40K in quarterly performance bonuses + equity participation. full comprehensive medical and detail coverage, not HSA. To Apply: Submit your resume in confidence to [email protected]. Please include a brief note describing the most relevant DTC brand you’ve worked with and what you built there. This is a retained search managed by EcommerceJobs.com on behalf of a confidential client.
