Director, Brand Marketing

Job Description

Role Overview

The Director of Brand Marketing will be the steward and champion of the Alliance Animal Health brand, leading how AAH comes to life across audiences, channels, and experiences. This role owns the strategic vision, positioning, and activation of the brand and ensures it shows up consistently and compellingly for veterinarians, hospital teams, prospective partners, candidates, and industry influencers.

The Director will lead several of AAH's most visible brand initiatives, including recruitment marketing, employer brand, and brand-forward events and experiences such as our signature VetTalks event. This role will also partner closely with Talent Acquisition, Business Development, Human Resources, Operations, and other teams to translate business priorities into meaningful brand strategies and programs.

As the brand function continues to grow, the Director will play a critical role in evolving AAH's social media and PR strategy, shaping our presence across key channels, guiding thought leadership for executives and medical leaders, and helping position AAH as one of the most respected and talked-about brands in veterinary medicine.

This is a highly visible, strategic, and hands-on leadership role for a marketer who can set a clear vision, inspire a team, influence senior stakeholders, and ensure strong execution. The right person will be energized by the opportunity to build, experiment, and leave a clear, measurable mark on a growing organization.

Key Responsibilities

Brand Strategy & Leadership

• Own and evolve the strategic vision and positioning for the Alliance Animal Health corporate brand while providing leadership and governance across AAH's broader brand portfolio.
• Translate the brand strategy into annual and multi-year roadmaps with clear priorities, initiatives, budgets, and success metrics.
• Serve as the internal voice of the brand, ensuring AAH has a cohesive, differentiated presence across channels, audiences, and experiences.
• Lead the development and ongoing evolution of brand guidelines, messaging frameworks, and toolkits for internal stakeholders and external partners.
• Advise senior leaders and cross-functional partners on how to bring the AAH brand to life through communications, campaigns, events, and other high-visibility initiatives.
• Lead, coach, and develop members of the Brand team, establishing clear priorities and creating opportunities for growth.
• Oversee agency, freelance, and vendor relationships within the brand function, ensuring resources are aligned with AAH's highest-priority opportunities.

Recruitment Marketing & Employer Brand

• Partner closely with Talent Acquisition to develop and lead recruitment marketing strategies that drive candidate awareness, consideration, leads, and applications.
• Own employer-brand storytelling for AAH, bringing our culture, career opportunities, and employee experience to life in a compelling and differentiated way.
• Lead and execute recruitment marketing channel strategy across web, social media, job boards, email, events, and other emerging opportunities.
• Monitor recruitment marketing performance and continuously test and optimize messaging, creative, audience strategies, and channels.
• Develop and optimize candidate journeys and nurture programs in partnership with Talent Acquisition, from initial awareness through application, offer, and onboarding.
• Guide the development and versioning of recruitment marketing content and creative assets for different roles, audiences, and markets.
• Oversee employer reputation strategies across platforms such as Glassdoor and Indeed.
• Ensure recruitment marketing efforts are closely connected to broader AAH brand strategy while addressing the distinct needs of veterinary candidates.

Brand Portfolio Leadership

• Provide strategic oversight across AAH's growing brand portfolio, including the Alliance Animal Health corporate brand and PriorityPet Urgent Care.
• Establish the overarching brand architecture, ensuring each brand has a clear role, differentiated positioning, and connection to AAH's broader growth strategy.
• Guide and support the Brand Manager responsible for bringing the PriorityPet Urgent Care corporate brand to life, including its positioning, veterinarian recruitment strategy, corporate social presence, campaigns, and industry activations.
• Ensure the PPUC brand is consistent and scalable while maintaining a distinct identity designed to attract prospective doctor partners and support the growth of the de novo pipeline.
• Partner with Growth Marketing, Talent Acquisition, Strategy, Operations, and other leaders to align enterprise brand priorities with recruitment and business-growth goals.
• Establish shared standards, planning processes, and measurement frameworks across the brand portfolio.
• Maintain visibility into brand and recruitment marketing performance, helping the team translate insights into stronger positioning, campaigns, and channel strategies.
• Ensure clear coordination between enterprise-level brand building and the teams responsible for local hospital marketing, market launches, and grand openings.

Events, Experiences & VetTalks

• Lead the strategy, planning, and execution of brand-forward events, with an emphasis on:
  • AAH's signature VetTalks series, including concept development, programming, speaker strategy, promotion, attendee experience, and post-event content.
  • Key industry conferences and trade shows where AAH shows up as an employer, partner, and thought leader.
  • Select partner-, employee-, and candidate-focused events.
• Ensure every event reflects the AAH brand and creates a thoughtful, differentiated experience for attendees.
• Partner with cross-functional teams and external vendors on event branding, creative, programming, content, promotion, and logistics.
• Establish clear goals and measurement plans for major events, including awareness, engagement, candidate pipeline, partner relationships, and content value.
• Create repeatable playbooks and templates that allow events to scale efficiently while remaining consistent and on-brand.

Support for Business Development

• Collaborate with Business Development leadership to align brand strategy with partner hospital growth and JV acquisition goals.
• Develop compelling pitch materials, presentations, campaigns, and content that bring the AAH story and partnership model to life for prospective partners.
• Ensure brand consistency and impact across Business Development touchpoints, including conferences, dinners, webinars, email campaigns, presentations, and direct outreach.
• Support launch and integration plans for new partner hospitals from a brand and communications perspective.
• Identify opportunities to strengthen AAH's reputation and visibility among practice owners and other priority industry audiences.

Brand Campaigns, Content & Communications

• Lead integrated brand campaigns that build awareness, consideration, and preference across priority audiences.
• Oversee the development of creative concepts, copy, and content across video, social media, web, email, presentations, and collateral for AAH.
• Bring "The Surprising Side of Corporate" and the broader AAH story to life through compelling, audience-centered storytelling.
• Shape AAH's social media strategy and oversee the development of content that strengthens engagement, awareness, and reputation.
• Help evolve AAH's PR and thought-leadership strategy, identifying opportunities to elevate executives, medical leaders, and the organization's expertise.
• Manage creative agencies, freelancers, and production partners, ensuring high-quality work is delivered on time and within budget.
• Maintain and optimize AAH's corporate website and key brand, recruitment, and Business Development landing pages.

Insights, Measurement & Brand Governance

• Define and track brand health and campaign performance metrics, including awareness, perception, engagement, candidate pipeline, partner interest, and business impact.
• Establish clear goals and reporting frameworks for major brand initiatives and investments.
• Regularly share insights, performance results, and recommendations with senior leadership and cross-functional partners.
• Use audience, competitive, and performance insights to guide brand strategy and identify opportunities for innovation.
• Manage the brand marketing budget, prioritizing investments based on organizational goals and expected impact.
• Uphold brand governance across the organization by reviewing high-visibility assets and coaching stakeholders on brand standards and best practices.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Marketing, Communications, Business, or a related field; MBA or advanced degree is a plus.
• 8+ years of progressive experience in brand management, integrated marketing, employer branding, or a related discipline.
• Demonstrated experience owning brand strategy and translating it into integrated programs, campaigns, and experiences.
• Experience leading and developing team members and providing strategic direction across multiple areas of responsibility.
• Proven ability to influence senior leaders and align cross-functional stakeholders around a shared strategy.
• Experience partnering closely with Talent Acquisition on employer brand or recruitment marketing strategies.
• Experience developing or launching a new brand, sub-brand, location concept, or go-to-market platform is strongly preferred.
• Hands-on experience planning and executing events and experiential marketing; experience leading a flagship or signature event is a strong plus.
• Experience working with Business Development, growth, or other commercially focused teams is preferred.
• Strong experience managing agencies, production partners, budgets, and complex cross-functional initiatives.
• Experience with multi-stakeholder brands, including B2B, B2C, and talent or recruitment audiences, is preferred.
• Experience in healthcare, animal health, veterinary medicine, or another mission-driven service organization is a plus.
• Data-driven mindset with the ability to interpret performance metrics, communicate insights, and translate findings into action.

Skills & Competencies

• Strategic leader, practical doer: Can establish a clear brand vision, align others around it, and remain close enough to the work to ensure it comes to life effectively.
• Brand builder: Understands how to develop differentiated positioning and translate it consistently across audiences, channels, and experiences.
• People leader: Builds clarity, develops talent, and creates an environment in which team members can do their best work.
• Exceptional communicator: Strong written, verbal, and presentation skills, with the ability to tailor messaging for veterinarians, hospital teams, executives, candidates, and prospective partners.
• Influential relationship-builder: Develops trusted partnerships across Talent Acquisition, Business Development, Operations, and hospital leadership.
• Strong creative judgment: Recognizes compelling ideas and knows how to guide creative work so it is strategically sound, distinctive, and effective.
• Business-minded: Connects brand decisions and investments to organizational priorities and measurable outcomes.
• Skilled project leader: Brings structure to complex initiatives and can effectively manage multiple priorities, stakeholders, budgets, and deadlines.
• Creative and curious: Looks for fresh ways to bring the brand to life and help AAH stand out within veterinary medicine.
• Mission-aligned: Demonstrates genuine enthusiasm for supporting veterinary professionals and improving the lives of pets, pet owners, and hospital teams.

Additional Information