Position: Marketing Lead
Reports to: CEO
Status: Full-time, exempt — 40 hours/week
Location: On-site, Santa Cruz, CA
Schedule: Monday–Friday, with occasional evenings and weekends as needed based on business needs. Some holiday work may be required.
About Swellcycle
Swellcycle is on a mission to revolutionize manufacturing and make it more sustainable. We’re starting with surfboards — designing and producing 3D-printed surfboard cores for shapers, teaching digital shaping classes (Shape3D Foundation, Shape3D Advanced, and Akushaper Basics), and offering scanning services, online board orders, and merch — but our work reaches well beyond the water into custom print projects like museum replicas, sculptures, and more. We sit right where craft meets modern, sustainable manufacturing — and we’re growing fast.
We’re a small, hands-on team. Everyone here wears a few hats, ships real work every week, and cares about getting boards (and the people who ride them) where they need to be.
About the role
The Marketing Lead owns how Swellcycle shows up in the world — online, in inboxes, on posters, and at events. You’ll build campaigns that move people through our funnels, create content that feels like us (warm, real, surf-rooted), and run the events and partnerships that grow the community.
What you’ll do
- Run events end to end — creation, promotion, and on-the-ground organization (e.g. via Eventbrite), including community days and demos.
- Build campaigns and funnel strategies that connect social, website, email, and print/poster channels into one coherent journey.
- Own and manage the website (Shopify) end to end — building and updating pages (including product pages), creating new pages and product listings, and maintaining images, navigation, and announcement bars to support campaigns and class visibility.
- Create and run content — social media, newsletters, marketing emails, posters, ads — in our voice. Comfort with Adobe Premiere Suite, Canva, Photoshop.
- Build ads across Meta and LinkedIn, plus posters and flyers for in-person events.
- Own the marketing and ad budget — allocate spend across channels based on performance and get the most ROI from every dollar.
- Create and maintain partnerships — non-profits, surf shops, and collaborators — for joint events and campaigns.
- Promote the classes (Shape3D Foundation, Shape3D Advanced, Akushaper Basics) and other offerings through the right channels.
- Run reporting and analytics — track conversion and key numbers across Google Analytics (GA4), Meta Ads Manager, LinkedIn Campaign Manager, and platform-native insights (Shopify, social, email) — and use them to keep improving.
- Juggle multiple projects at once with strong scheduling, coordination, and organization.
What you bring
- 2–4 years of marketing experience across social, email, web, events, and paid ads.
- Excellent communication and writing skills — you can carry a brand voice consistently.
- Hands-on content creation skills (Adobe Premiere Suite, Canva, Photoshop).
- Website management (Shopify) — comfortable building and editing pages, product pages, and navigation — plus strong project coordination habits.
- An analytical streak — comfortable with web analytics and ad reporting (e.g. Google Analytics/GA4, Meta and LinkedIn Ads Manager) and optimizing for results.
- Strong organization and the ability to run many projects in parallel.
Bonus points
- Experience with HubSpot for email marketing and CRM-driven campaigns.
- Photography/videography skills for surf and product content.
- Experience building community, ambassador programs, or surf-industry partnerships.
- SEO and website content strategy.
- A real connection to the ocean and surfing — it helps you understand our product, our customers, and our community.
Success profile — first 6–12 months
What you own: how Swellcycle shows up everywhere — the brand voice, the funnels, the content calendar, the events, and the partnerships.
By the end of your first 6–12 months, you’ll have:
- Taken ownership of every channel — social, newsletter, marketing emails, and the website — with a consistent voice and a running content calendar.
- Launched integrated campaigns tied to the funnels that matter (classes, contract projects, board orders), not one-off posts.
- Run real events end to end and built the first partnerships (surf shops, non-profits, collaborators).
- Established a reporting cadence so we can see what’s working and improve it.
- Delivered measurable growth — in marketing-sourced leads/pipeline contribution, audience, and event turnout — with a repeatable campaign engine in place.
Who thrives here
- Proactive — you spot what needs doing and start before being asked.
- Calm under pressure — start-up pace, tight deadlines, and shifting priorities are the norm, not the exception.
- Strongly organized — you can hold several projects at once without dropping the ball.
- A clear communicator — you keep the team in the loop and make handoffs clean.
- Owner mindset — you treat the company’s problems as your own and see things through.
- Autonomous and growth-hungry — you figure things out, and you want to get better every month.
The logistics
- Full-time, ~40 hours/week. Occasional weekend and holiday work is part of the job.
- External events. You’ll help represent Swellcycle in person — including booth duty at surf competitions and demos.
- Travel. Some travel may be required for this role.
- On-site in Santa Cruz, CA — non-negotiable. We’re a small team and being in the same space together is core to how we work. This is not a remote or hybrid role.
Compensation
- $70K/year base salary
- Performance bonus (tied to marketing outcomes — lead/pipeline contribution, engagement, and event turnout)
- Early-stage equity
- Health insurance (medical, vision, and dental) and 401(k)
We’re a lean, well-positioned seed-stage company, and we offer equity-forward packages for people who are excited to build.
Equal Opportunity
Swellcycle is an equal opportunity employer. We’re committed to building a diverse team and an inclusive workplace, and we welcome applicants of every background. We don’t discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment.
How to apply
Please attach a cover letter, a resume, and two professional references to your application on our website: https://swellcyclesurfboards.com/pages/career
Pay: From $70,000.00 per year
Benefits:
Work Location: In person
