Associate Chief Marketing Officer - Motorsports/Aftermarket (Remote, Usa)

Are you an empathetic and strategic people leader with a passion for motorsports? Are you a hands-on and talented senior director looking for your next step? Have you outgrown your current role and are now ready to contribute at a higher level? As an established but growing company, we are seeking an Associate Chief Marketing Officer to take us to the next level.

Apex is a leading provider of high-performance automotive wheels and accessories, catering to the motorsport and performance car enthusiast community. Our mission is to provide wheels that deliver real and measurable performance and to protect consumers from a misleading industry full of fashion-focused wheels.

Our small marketing department needs to grow into the largest department within Apex to really drive the growth of our brand. We turned heavily to agency support earlier this year to reboot our brand and to lay a better foundation to fix underlying issues. We are in the middle of implementing a major visual and messaging rebrand in Q1 2024. Our CEO has stepped in during this reboot and is taking on an outsized role. The company’s goal is to hand off marketing to new internal leadership who can own the department’s goals at the highest level and achieve them.

Following the book Play Bigger, our agency helped us define a new product category and POV that’s changing not only our products but also how every department of our company operates. You will be an evangelist of our POV and your marketing strategies will flow through it. Although we’ve committed to a long-term direction, there’s a tremendous amount of room for you to leave your mark on how we execute this mission. You’ll initially be tasked with restructuring and rebuilding the marketing team, and rebalancing the agency vs. in-house labor ratio. You’ll get support from our HR Manager to staff up quickly. We need a whole host of kickass talent. As we grow the internal team, you’ll need to ensure the proper systems, procedures, and expectations are set in place. Once we have the right mix of resources, you’ll continue to bring formality through budgets, well-defined goals, and clear expectations.

This role is more about goal management and resource/people strategy, and less about individual campaign-level strategy or creative work. You’ll hire and manage a team of creatives and directors who can focus on the art and details while your objective is to ensure their art achieves company objectives. We’re looking for someone with cash-flowable growth experience. We want someone who can focus on scaling up and achieving company goals and won’t get distracted by small tasks or pet projects. Ideally, you’ve previously worked at an agency or you’ve worked closely with them. Apex is primarily a DTC business and our new branding implementation will be a major focus. You should have a strong background in consumer brand building, eCommerce, content production, and social media.

This role requires someone who really understands our customer base of enthusiasts, ensuring that we come off as authentic. You don’t have to already work in the aftermarket performance industry but we’ll expect you to be a passionate and engaged car enthusiast. You’ll need to be very analytical and someone who relies on data to make decisions. We’re not looking for someone who shoots from the hip and doesn’t measure ROI. This position will need to overcome the common challenges of change management. Right now, this means leading the marketing team over the hurdles of establishing formality, metrics, and templatization. You’ll need to foster a culture of data-driven decision-making so we can grow like a tech company.

How to apply: In your cover letter, help us understand your personal or professional background in motorsports and how much of an enthusiast you are. Tell us about your proudest accomplishment related to change management.

• Grow, lead, and mentor the marketing team, fostering a collaborative and high-performance culture.

• Build out a robust team for product and POV education in addition to regular marketing needs.
• Hire directors, managers, and team members for various work such as branding, content, graphic design, photography, videography, writing, SEO, eCommerce, events…
• Ensure the department has the right staff and skills so that we aren’t amateurs in key areas, or overpaying to agencies.
• Set clear goals and objectives for the team, providing regular feedback and conducting performance evaluations.
• Ensure performance and costs are measured and reviewed so that project ROIs can be calculated and team members can improve their output.

• Execute the company's marketing strategy aligned with our business objectives, vision, and POV.
• Create new departments and grow them as needed to scale up content or campaigns that are working.
• Identify market trends, opportunities, and potential threats to refine marketing plans and stay ahead of competitors.
• Responsible for developing and managing the marketing budget, ensuring efficient allocation of resources for maximum ROI.
• Maintain brand consistency across all marketing channels and materials, ensuring adherence to brand guidelines and messaging.
• Build a system for consistent new product launches and creating content for 100+ fragmented markets.
• Keep abreast of industry trends, consumer behavior, and technological advancements that can impact marketing strategies.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Marketing, Business Administration, or a related field (Master's degree preferred).
• Proven experience as a senior marketing leader with a track record of driving successful marketing campaigns for a consumer product.
• At least 5+ years of senior leadership experience and 10+ years of general marketing experience.
• A real car enthusiast who understands our customers and has a strong passion for this space.
• Strong understanding of digital marketing, eCommerce, brand management strategies, and current trends.
• Demonstrated ability to work effectively with external agencies and creative partners to deliver compelling branding and marketing materials.
• Exceptional leadership and communication skills, with the ability to inspire and lead a diverse marketing team.
• Strategic thinker with a keen eye for market trends and consumer behavior.
• Analytical mindset with the ability to utilize data-driven insights to inform marketing decisions.
• Strong organizational and project management skills with a focus on meeting deadlines and achieving goals.
• Ideally, you're within a commutable distance to Pleasanton, CA. If not, then you live within the contiguous USA and are open to periodic travel for company events, team building, etc.

Benefits

• $160,000 - $225,000 base annual salary, but some wiggle room for the right person.
• 100% Apex paid employee Medical, dental, and vision benefits with buy-up options.
• Company contributions towards dependant medical benefits.
• 401k with employer matching after 6 months.
• Stock options.
• Vacation and Holiday pay.
• Support your track addiction with reimbursements for HPDE and autocross event registration fees.
• Casual in-office dress environment where T-shirts, jeans, and shorts are welcome.
• Employee discounts and freebies on APEX products and schwag.
• Participate in company activities including karting, spectating at races, track days, and more.