Director of Marketing

About Blackbird: Blackbird Labs is a loyalty and payments platform establishing meaningful connections between the world’s best restaurants and their customers. Served up in 2022 by Ben Leventhal, co-founder of Eater and Resy, Blackbird offers a fully customizable loyalty programming platform for restaurants and a consumer app designed to make every guest feel like a bonafide VIP no matter where they dine. Backed by Union Square Ventures, a16z, Amex Ventures, Variant Fund, and other forward-thinking investors, Blackbird is out to revolutionize the restaurant industry. About Our Team: At Blackbird, our values guide everything we do and our talent principles define the key traits we seek in our employees. We have passion for our product – committed to our mission and instinctively think like and go the extra mile for our customers. We are elite performers – striving for excellence, going above and beyond to achieve exceptional results, and learning quickly with horsepower, drive, and grit. We make others better – taking initiative to elevate others, giving and receiving feedback, and championing a culture of growth. We hold one another accountable to living out our talent principles as we march together to achieving our mission. About the Role The Director of Marketing sets the high-level strategic vision for Blackbird's brand and owns its execution across every marketing discipline and channel including brand, communications, and consumer growth alike. You'll define how Blackbird shows up in the world and make sure that vision holds together everywhere a diner or partner encounters it, from a press mention to an event. You'll translate strategy into execution across brand campaigns, public relations, and acquisition. This is a builder role: the brand foundations are in place, and your job is to set the direction for where they go next and make sure every team and channel is pulling in the same direction. We're looking for someone who can operate at both altitudes — setting the vision for what Blackbird's Marketing direction should take, and staying close enough to execution to make sure that vision actually ships. What You'll Do Brand Own the Blackbird brand voice and identity across all consumer channels Develop campaigns that feel culturally credible: copy, visual, experiential Build Blackbird's presence in the cities and dining communities where it matters most Partner with the Restaurants team to make sure brand work serves both sides of the network PR & Communications Own Blackbird's external narrative — press, media relationships, and executive visibility for Ben and the team Build and run a proactive PR strategy that keeps Blackbird part of the conversation in dining, tech, and culture press Manage relationships with PR agencies, freelance writers, and media contacts Prepare messaging and talking points for press moments, partnership announcements, and, when needed, crisis response Partner with Partnerships and Restaurants teams on co-branded press moments and launch announcements Consumer Growth Drive diner acquisition across paid, owned, and earned channels Set and hit growth targets for app downloads, new user activation, and retention Build a performance marketing capability that doesn't sacrifice brand to do it Work closely with product on onboarding, in-app messaging, and lifecycle Team & Operations Lead and develop a small in-house team Manage agency and contractor relationships Own the marketing budget and report on what's working Generate reporting and make data-driven decisions to set up strategy What We're Looking For 8+ years of marketing experience, with meaningful time in consumer-facing roles 5+ years of leadership experience, with a builder's mindset Proven ability to build brands people actually care about, not just awareness but affinity Strong storytelling and communications instincts, including experience building or running a PR / earned-media strategy Strong performance marketing chops; you know how