Position SummaryThe Director of Marketplace Growth & Performance will lead Mad Engine's marketplace growth strategy across Amazon, Walmart, Target, and marketplace channels. This strategic and hands-on leader will build a scalable full-funnel framework across retail media, channel marketing, marketplace content, PDP imagery, analytics, and execution for hundreds of thousands of SKUs; own the allocation and performance of a multimillion-dollar annual retail-media investment; and lead the teams responsible for marketplace growth and performance. Working with Sales, Merchandising, Planning, Creative, Operations, and Finance, the Director will improve media efficiency, conversion, organic visibility, contribution-margin performance, and profitable growth while supporting commercial priorities.
Roles and ResponsibilitiesMarketplace Strategy & Full-Funnel Leadership- Build and lead a repeatable marketplace growth strategy that increases product discovery, strengthens shopper consideration, and improves conversion across current and future marketplaces.
- Integrate paid media, organic content, creative, analytics, inventory, and merchandising into a unified operating model with clear investment plans, performance targets, and execution roadmaps.
- Prioritize opportunities by marketplace, licensed property, category, product family, and SKU, balancing growth, media efficiency, contribution margin, inventory, seasonality, and commercial priorities.
- Develop repeatable launch playbooks for emerging and social-commerce channels (e.g., TikTok Shop) and new marketplace partners (e.g., Nordstrom, Kohl's), balancing speed to market, scalability, and profitable growth.
Retail Media Strategy & Performance- Own the strategy, allocation, optimization, and performance of the annual multimillion-dollar retail-media budget, establishing investment guardrails and reallocating spend based on performance, inventory, margin, seasonality, and commercial priorities.
- Lead investment across Amazon Ads and DSP, Walmart Connect, Target Roundel, and future platforms, holding the team and agency partners accountable for media efficiency, conversion, incremental impact, new-customer acquisition, competitive marketplace visibility, and contribution-margin performance.
- Own agency selection, scopes of work, performance expectations, and ongoing evaluation.
Marketplace Content & Digital Shelf- Set the strategy, standards, and scalable processes for marketplace content, PDP imagery, video, A+ content, organic discoverability, product launches, and catalog optimization.
- Use performance insights to prioritize improvements that increase visibility and conversion while reducing content gaps, listing defects, and suppressions.
- Build a scalable creative and asset-production process for imagery, video, A+ Content, and marketplace-specific formats that extends beyond copy optimization and enables richer advertising formats, including Sponsored Video, Display, and DSP.
Analytics & Measurement- Establish a unified measurement and reporting framework connecting retail media, organic performance, PDP health, inventory, and commercial outcomes, with consistent definitions, guardrails, and early-warning indicators.
- Build a consistent test-and-learn process that measures the true impact of media, content, and marketplace initiatives through controlled tests, before-and-after comparisons, and available platform tools.
- Turn complex performance data into clear, actionable recommendations on where to scale, maintain, optimize, or reduce investment.
- Strengthen incrementality measurement and test-and-learn capabilities to scale media investment with greater confidence, distinguish reported paid revenue from validated incremental contribution, and build the reporting and dashboard infrastructure required for ongoing decision-making.
Cross-Functional Leadership- Partner with Sales, E-commerce, Merchandising, Planning, Operations, Creative, and Finance to align marketplace investment, inventory, margin, assortment, pricing, promotions, asset workflows, forecasting, and investment controls.
- Create cross-functional accountability and present marketplace strategies, results, risks, and recommendations to executive leadership.
People & Organizational Leadership- Lead, coach, and develop Channel Marketing, Retail Media, Marketplace Content Optimization, PDP Imagery, Marketplace Analytics, and Marketing Coordination with clear goals, decision rights, priorities, and measures of success.
- Address capability gaps through hiring, development, and organizational design while establishing scalable operating rhythms, documentation, and a culture of accountability, collaboration, testing, and continuous improvement.
Minimum Qualifications- 10+ years of experience in marketplace growth, retail media, performance marketing, e-commerce, or digital commerce.
- Significant experience leading marketplace and retail-media strategy for Amazon, with strong Walmart experience and familiarity with Target, including ownership of multimillion-dollar annual media budgets.
- Proven ability to build and develop high-performing teams and full-funnel strategies connecting paid media, organic content, creative, digital shelf, and analytics.
- Strong understanding of marketplace economics, including ROAS, TACOS/ACOS, conversion, contribution margin, incremental impact, marketplace visibility, Buy Box performance, and inventory across large, complex product catalogs.
- Strong analytical judgment, executive communication, organizational leadership, and the ability to turn data into clear investment and operating decisions.
- Experience selecting, managing, and evaluating agencies and external partners while influencing cross-functional stakeholders.
- Bachelor's degree in Marketing, Business, Analytics, E-commerce, or a related discipline, or equivalent professional experience.
Preferred Qualifications- Experience with Amazon Ads, Amazon DSP, Amazon Marketing Cloud, Amazon Brand Analytics, Walmart Connect, Walmart Luminate or Scintilla, and Target Roundel.
- Familiarity with BI, marketplace research, optimization, and digital-shelf tools such as Pacvue, Helium 10, Jungle Scout, DataHawk, advanced Excel or Google Sheets, PIM/DAM systems, and content-syndication tools.
- Experience in apparel, consumer products, licensing, or another high-SKU retail environment; experience expanding into new domestic or international marketplaces is a plus.
