Lightship

Director/VP of Marketing

Lightship • $180K — $240K *
Manufacturing & Automotive
8 - 10 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • 10+ years in marketing, including 4+ years in a leadership role.
  • Proven experience in marketing high-consideration physical products with long sales cycles.
  • Data-driven mindset with a focus on measurable goals and tracking results.
  • Strong storytelling skills to make technical products relatable and engaging.
  • Experience building a marketing team and function from the ground up.

Responsibilities

  • Develop and execute a comprehensive marketing strategy that aligns brand building with revenue goals.
  • Collaborate with the Brand team to ensure cohesive messaging and audience engagement.
  • Manage the entire marketing funnel, optimizing budget and channel choices for maximum impact.
  • Work with sales to create a conversion-focused reservation-to-delivery process.
  • Lead and mentor a small marketing team, fostering growth and accountability.
  • Analyze marketing performance metrics and communicate insights to the executive team.
  • Support the commercial team with targeted demand generation and positioning strategies.

Benefits

  • Healthcare, Dental, Vision coverage.
  • 401k retirement plan.
  • Flexible Paid Time Off encouraged for employee well-being.
  • 13 company holidays, including a scheduled downtime week at year-end.
  • 12 weeks of paid parental leave.
  • Yearly stipend for RV trips or professional development opportunities.
Full Job Description
About the Role

Reporting to the Chief Commercial Officer and Co-Founder, you'll own marketing at Lightship: the strategy, the team, and the numbers. You will set a marketing strategy that drives fast brand exposure and measurable sales ROI, and hold it steady as a North Star while the weekly and monthly realities of a growth-stage hardware company shift under it. This is a builder's seat.

Location

This role is based in either of our offices: Broomfield, CO or South San Francisco, CA. We expect frequent in-office presence (3-5 days per week). This is a hardware company, and the best marketing ideas here come from standing next to the product: walking the build floor, sitting in a trailer, talking to the engineers who built it. Expect periodic travel between the Bay Area and Colorado, plus owner events, shows, and shoots (estimating up to 25% travel).

Responsibilities

  • Set the strategy, then execute it Build a marketing strategy that ties brand building to pipeline and revenue, articulate it so the whole company can repeat it, and keep it intact through the quarter-to-quarter turbulence of a growth-stage hardware business.
  • Partner with Brand You own the marketing strategy: audience, channels, demand and results. Brand owns the brand strategy: identity, voice, visuals and creative direction. The two strategies inform each other and each team gives input on the other's work. Bring sharp audience insight and clear briefs and build a working rhythm where both teams learn quickly from what's landing.
  • Run the playbook. Own the full funnel (paid, organic, lifecycle, PR, events, commercial partnerships, owner community, and the website) and make a startup's budget behave like a larger one through sharp channel choices and disciplined testing.
  • Drive qualified demand. Work with sales to build a reservation-to-delivery funnel that converts: the right leads, the right nurture, the right in-person moments for a purchase this considered.
  • Lead and grow the marketing team. Structure a small team for leverage (currently 3 direct reports), set clear goals and feedback, rhythms, and give early- and mid-career marketers real ownership plus the coaching to be ready for their next role.
  • Measure honestly. Own the marketing dashboard (CAC, pipeline contribution, conversion by stage, brand lift) and be candid with both the executive team and Brand about what is working and what to cut. You're not afraid to double down on what truly moves the needle while saying no to opportunities that provide less value.
  • Support the commercial line. Give PowerSled the positioning, demand generation, and channel support it needs to reach fleet and infrastructure buyers, in partnership with its commercial team.
  • Work alongside the product. Sit with engineering and product in the shop, get in the trailers, tow one, and feed what you learn into the work.


Minimum Qualifications

  • 10+ years in marketing, including 4+ leading a team, with a track record of taking a consumer brand from early awareness to real demand.
  • Experience marketing a high-consideration, physical product with a long sales cycle, where the buyer researches for months before they commit.
  • A data-driven approach; you set measurable goals, track attribution, and change course based on results
  • Excellent storytelling, with the ability to make technical products accessible and compelling.
  • Experience building a team and marketing function from an early stage.


Preferred Qualifications

  • Category experience in RV, outdoor, automotive, EV, or premium hardware
  • Direct-to-consumer experience with a high-ticket-price product sold without a dealer network
  • Building an owner community into an advocacy engine (rallies, referrals, user-generated content)
  • Exposure to a dual consumer and commercial go-to-market under one brand
  • Having done this at a Series B or C company that grew through it


$180,000 - $240,000 a year

Employee Benefits & Philosophy - Applies to Full Time Employees only

- Healthcare, Dental, Vision

- 401k

- Flexible Paid Time Off - that we actually want you to use!

- 13 Company Holidays: 8 throughout the year + the company observes a week of scheduled downtime during the end of the year, allowing all employees to enjoy a break

- 12 weeks paid parental leave

- Yearly LightTrip stipend for an RV trip &/or professional development opportunities

Lightship offers all of its full time employees and their dependents full benefits including health, dental and vision insurance. We are on a mission to create a more healthful all-electric experience for a pastime that millions of families enjoy and believe strongly that our team should not have to worry about quality healthcare for themselves or their loved ones along the way.

About Lightship

Lightship is a technology company that specializes in developing advanced airships for various applications. The company's airships are designed to provide a low-cost, low-carbon alternative to traditional aircraft for a range of missions, including cargo transport, surveillance, and communications. Lightship's airships are powered by a combination of solar panels and batteries, which allows them to operate for extended periods without refueling. The company was founded in 2012 and is based in Washington, DC.
Learn more about Lightship
Size
50 employees
Industry
Founded
2012

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