KITTY HAWK KITES
Director of Marketing
Job title: Director of Marketing
Location: Nags Head, NC 27959 (on-site; travel to KHK locations as needed)
Job type: Full-time
Classification: Exempt
Schedule: Primarily weekday business hours off season; Saturdays, Easter break in season. Evenings and weekends for major events.
Job description
For more than 50 years, Kitty Hawk Kites has helped visitors experience the Outer Banks by air, land, and sea. We are a family-run, multi-brand company built around outdoor fun, exceptional service, quality, safety, and memorable customer experiences. Our purpose is to “Teach the World to Fly”.
We are hiring an on-site Director of Marketing to lead the shared marketing services that connect our ecommerce, recreation, and retail businesses. This role is accountable for integrated planning, brand stewardship, retail and event marketing, team leadership, budget governance, partnerships, and the marketing operating rhythm that keeps priorities moving.
You will report to the Founder/CEO and work closely with the Digital Marketing Lead, who reports directly to the CEO and owns ecommerce and digital performance. Together, you will connect online shopping, in-store visits, recreation bookings, events, email, paid media, and partner referrals into one customer journey and demand plan.
Our business
- Ecommerce: a Shopify business serving customers nationwide with kites, gear, apparel, and other products.
- Recreation and tours: bookable Outer Banks adventures, including hang gliding, watersports, boat and jet ski rentals, dolphin tours, kayak tours, kiteboarding, parasailing, and fishing experiences.
- Retail stores: 30+ destination locations where guests browse, book, and buy across Kitty Hawk Kites and its family of brands.
What you will do
- Build and lead the annual and quarterly marketing plan across ecommerce, recreation, retail stores, signature events, new locations, and the broader KHK family of brands.
- Translate company growth goals into a disciplined priority plan: campaigns, seasonal demand generation, event tiers, channel plans, resource needs, and a shared marketing calendar.
- Lead the shared marketing-services team: Digital Marketing Manager, Graphic Designer, Events Coordinator, Marketing Coordinator, Recreation Social Media Content Creator, and two Event Interns. The Event Interns report directly to this role, with day-to-day event project direction through the Events Coordinator.
- Partner with the Digital Marketing Lead on integrated campaigns, ecommerce merchandising, customer lifecycle marketing, paid-media priorities, website needs, and performance insights that strengthen online sales and customer retention.
- Set standards and approve brand-critical work across retail signage, print, billboards, store campaigns, Adventure Guide direction, event creative, customer-facing messaging, and major partnership materials.
- Establish and oversee Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3 event marketing plans. Approve Tier 1 budgets, paid promotion, sponsor positioning, media outreach, content capture, and post-event actions.
- Work with Finance to connect marketing investment to revenue and margin by business unit. Review directly attributed, influenced, and correlated results and recommend where to scale, correct, pause, or stop investment.
- Own marketing budget planning and leadership-level oversight of agency, media, print, signage, technology, sponsorship, and vendor investments. Partner with the CEO and Finance on material commitments and reallocations.
- Run the department operating system in Monday.com: clear owners, weekly priorities, scorecard review, team meetings, documented follow-up, and escalation of risks before they affect revenue or guest experience.
- Strengthen the connection between local marketing, Google Business Profile accuracy, partner referrals, in-store promotion, events, and store traffic across KHK locations.
- Build durable playbooks for new-location marketing, store requests, campaigns, events, budget/contract tracking, and reporting so the organization can scale without creating single points of failure.
What you bring
- 5+ years of senior marketing leadership experience with direct accountability for a budget, team performance, and measurable business growth.
- Experience in multi-location retail, destination retail, tourism, hospitality, outdoor recreation, events, or another seasonal, customer-experience-driven business.
- Strong commercial understanding of full-funnel marketing: ecommerce conversion and retention, CRM/email, paid media, local/store traffic, recreation demand, events, and partnership marketing.
- Ability to lead people and vendors while setting clear priorities, approvals, workflows, and performance expectations; comfortable being hands-on without becoming the day-to-day production bottleneck.
- Working fluency with Monday.com or comparable project-management tools, HubSpot or comparable CRM/email platforms, Google and Meta advertising, web analytics, and AI-enabled marketing workflows.
- A collaborative, accountable leadership style suited to a founder-led company and a fast-moving seasonal environment. Must be able to work on-site in Nags Head and travel to KHK locations as needed.
Pay and benefits
Base salary: $80,000-$87,000 per year, based on experience. Benefits include company-paid health insurance, annual performance-bonus eligibility, and a 401(k) with profit-sharing opportunity, subject to plan terms and company performance.
Apply through Indeed with a resume and a short note describing a measurable marketing-growth result you helpKitty Hawk Kites, Inc is an Equal Opportunity Employer.
