Who We Are:
Roark is a premium Adventure Lifestyle brand. Working within the Outdoor, Surf, and Lifestyle channels and offering product that performs without jeopardizing style. Always inspired by the journey. Roark has a collaborative and fast-paced environment where operational excellence directly supports brand growth and customer success.
About The Role:
The Global Marketing Director leads the Roark marketing function across every channel and every market. You set the brand vision and you run the process that delivers it. This role requires both: a clear point of view on where the brand is going in the adventure-lifestyle space and the operational command to get it there season after season.
You own marketing's seat in the 18-month GTM process, working alongside product, merchandising, planning and sales leaders. Every brand asset the company produces flows through your team and carries your approval: campaign, ECOM, owned retail, wholesale, media, social, PR and athlete. You are accountable for the quality of the work, the timing of the work, and the budget behind it.
You lead a team of four: Marketing Manager, Art Director, a contract Community Manager, and an Athlete Manager. You report to the Founder and Chief Brand Officer, and you carry the brand strategy into the rooms where the commercial plan is set.
We are looking for someone experience in brand marketing who has run a team, held an organization to a GTM calendar, directed campaign production, and can speak with equal command about DTC and Wholesale distribution. The seat rewards vision matched by command of the operating detail: a brand steward who holds a high creative bar, values the GTM process, develops the people who report to them, and has the credibility to lead peers who do not. Deep working knowledge of and credibility within the adventure travel, surf, run, climb and trail communities is essential to this role.
Responsibilities include but are not limited to:
Brand Vision and Strategy
- Own the Roark brand strategy: positioning, seasonal narrative, franchise focus, category priorities, and the consumer targets behind them. Translate strategy into a marketing plan the team and the business can execute.
- Set the annual and seasonal marketing plan against the commercial plan. Know the number each channel carries and build marketing behind it.
- Own the brand book and brand guidelines. Approve how Roark is expressed in every market, by every internal team, and by every external partner.
- Bring consumer, category and competitive insight into product and merchandising conversations early enough to influence the line.
- Evaluate opportunities against long term brand equity while managing near term revenue. gains
GTM Leadership
- Own marketing's seat in the 18-month GTM process. Represent marketing at every gate from line planning and adoption through sell in and consumer launch.
- Set and hold the seasonal GTM calendar. Approve the critical path, arbitrate conflicts between channels, and make the call when a date moves.
- Write and approve the seasonal go to market brief that creative, copy, ECOM, retail and sales all execute from.
- Lead seasonal kickoff and launch readiness reviews with product, merchandising, planning, sales, ECOM and retail leadership.
- Hold the organization accountable to the process. The GTM calendar is the operating document for the brand, not a marketing artifact.
Brand Asset Creation and Omni Channel Distribution
- Own the creation of all Roark brand assets: seasonal campaign photography and film, product imagery, catalogs, look books, line sheets, account presentations, in store and window graphics, trade show and event materials.
- Manage the Art Director on creative output. Set the brief, review the work, approve the final. You are the last brand approval on everything that ships.
- Own asset distribution against the GTM calendar globally: media and press, social, PR, influencer and athlete, ECOM and site, email and SMS, paid, owned retail, wholesale partner portals, and drop ship partners.
- Own media relationships and the PR program. Set the earned media strategy and the seasonal press calendar, and approve the assets and messaging that go out.
- Own asset governance: naming conventions, rights and usage, versioning, and a single approved DAM library that every channel and partner pulls from.
DTC Distribution
- Partner with ECOM leadership on the site and digital marketing plan: launch calendar, merchandising stories, email and SMS, paid media, and content built to convert.
- Own the brand layer of DTC. How the campaign shows up on site, in email, in social and in paid, and whether it reads as one brand.
- Own the owned retail marketing program: seasonal windows, retail pathway visuals and in store storytelling, floor set support, store communication, openings and local activation.
- Review DTC performance monthly with ECOM and retail, and carry what you learn into the next seasonal plan.
Wholesale Distribution
- Own the seasonal sell in Playbook: line sheets, brand and category presentations, seasonal story decks, digital assets for account portals, showroom and sample support.
- Direct account facing marketing across Core specialty, wholesale accounts, drop ship, and International distribution: co-op programs, shop in shops, POP and fixture programs, catalog placements, and partner asset submissions.
- Build marketing support around the prebook and at once rhythm, delivered ahead of every prebook window.
- Partner with sales leadership to connect marketing investment to sell in and sell thru, and place co-op dollars where they move product.
- Govern how the brand is represented in partner channels, on partner sites, and in partner marketing.
Team Leadership and Collaboration
- Lead, coach and develop the team: Marketing Manager, Art Director, contract Community Manager, and Athlete Manager. Set goals, run reviews, build growth paths.
- Direct the Community Manager on grassroots, event and community programming, and the Athlete Manager on the athlete and ambassador roster, contracts, seeding and content capture.
- Run the marketing operating rhythm and make sure decisions get made, documented and communicated the same week they are needed.
- Communicate up and across. Present the plan, the calendar and the results to the Founder and Chief Brand Officer and to department leaders in a form they can act on.
- Manage the marketing budget: build it, allocate it across brand, channel and market, defend it, and reconcile it monthly.
- Manage agency, vendor and freelance partners: scope, bid, contract and performance.
Requirements and Qualifications:
- Bachelor’s degree in marketing or related discipline or equivalent experience.
- Minimum of 8 years in brand marketing at a consumer brand in apparel, Outdoor, Surf or premium lifestyle, with real time at both the strategic and the executional level.
- Proven people leadership. You have built and led a marketing team, including creative talent, and you have managed contract and agency resources.
- Demonstrated ownership of a GTM process at brand scale. You have set a seasonal calendar and held an organization to it.
- Global Brand strategy experience: positioning, narrative, guidelines, and the discipline to keep a brand consistent across channels and markets.
- Creative and content production leadership. You have directed campaign photo and film production and taken brand assets through to delivery across every channel.
- Media, social and PR fluency: earned media strategy, press relationships, social and influencer programs, and athlete or ambassador programs.
- Command of both sides of distribution. DTC (ECOM and owned retail) and Wholesale (prebook and at once, sell in versus sell thru, Core specialty, Majors, co-op, retailer asset requirements).
- Budget ownership at the department level: build, allocate, defend, reconcile.
- Excellent communication. You present clearly to a founder, CEO, brief clearly to a designer, and align peers who do not report to you.
- Proficiency with project management and creative operations tooling (Asana), B2B (Elastic), and DAM systems, Adobe Creative Suite files, and ECOM Shopify platforms.
- A high level of passion in the Outdoor lifestyle. You live in the world Roark builds product for: Adventure travel, surf, running, climbing, trail, and the culture around it.
Preferred Qualifications
- International, UK and EU, AUS market experience, and experience supporting international distribution partners.
- Experience at a brand with both a healthy DTC and wholesale business, and a process to balance them efficiently.
- Experience building or rebuilding a GTM process from a low base.
- Trade show and sales meeting production leadership.
- Experience managing an athlete or ambassador roster.
How Success is Measured
First 90 Days
- Current Brand strategy and the seasonal marketing plan understood and articulated, aligned with the Founder and Chief Brand Officer, CEO and understood by key department leaders.
- Marketing's role in the 18-month GTM process documented, with clear gates, owners and deliverables.
- Team assessed, goals set, and any capability or capacity gaps identified with a plan to close them.
- Asset and channel audit complete, with gaps for the next two seasonal deliveries identified.
First Year
- Seasonal campaigns delivered on time and on brand across every channel and market, measured against the published critical path.
- Sell in Playbook released ahead of every prebook window, with adoption from the sales team and accounts.
- Measurable growth in earned media, social and community engagement against a defined baseline.
- ECOM and owned retail receive campaign packages on a predictable schedule, 1-3 months before every launch.
- Global marketing budget managed to plan, with clean monthly reconciliation.
- Team retention, and demonstrable growth in all four direct reports.
- Evolved Marketing strategy for H2 2028 and beyond articulated for GTM planning process.
Location & Office Structure: This is an in-office hybrid position, mandatory 4 days per week in office in Irvine, CA with the option to work from home 1 day per week. Subject to change without notice as per company guidelines.
Compensation: The salary range for this position is $150,000 to $180,000 plus opportunity for annual bonus; salary is based on the experience that you bring to the position.
Benefits and Perks:
-
Complimentary chef prepared breakfast and lunch provided Monday - Thursday
- Generous product gift program and all brand discounts
- Company bonus program
- 5 year and 10 year Milestone Anniversary travel gifts
- Medical, Dental, Vision insurance in accordance with plan guidelines
- Company paid life insurance in accordance with plan guidelines
- 401k with employer match in accordance with plan guidelines
- 15 Days of PTO accrued annually, plus one additional day of PTO every year on your anniversary, and 3 Floating Holidays per year
- Paid beach and giveback days, bi-annual team building events and other in-person celebrations
- Work with talented and great people who share a love of Roark
- Dog friendly office
Archipelago Companies values a diverse, inclusive, and entrepreneurial workforce and culture, and we provide equal employment opportunity for all applicants and employees. All qualified applicants for employment will be considered without regard to an individual’s race, color, sex, gender identity, gender expression, religion, age, national origin or ancestry, citizenship, physical or mental disability, medical condition, family care status, marital status, domestic partner status, sexual orientation, genetic information, military or veteran status, or any other basis protected by federal, state or local laws. If you are unable to submit your application because of incompatible assistive technology or a disability, please contact us at [email protected]. Archipelago will reasonably accommodate qualified individuals with disabilities to the extent required by applicable law.
