Location: 307 West Broadway, New York, NY 11206
Hiring Range: This position’s hiring range is anticipated to be $80,000 to $90,000 annually, depending on experience, plus great benefits!
Summary: Best Friends Animal Society is on a mission to end the killing of dogs and cats in America’s shelters. In New York City, that mission is showing up in neighborhoods, at community events, and across social feeds every day. This role sits at the center of that work, is connected to one of the most innovative assets in Animal Welfare – the NY Pet Adoption Center in SoHo, and shapes how people in NYC discover, connect with, and advocate for the pets in our care. As Marketing Manager for the, you won't just run campaigns — you'll be the reason a family meets their dog or cat, a volunteer shows up on a Tuesday, and a donor decides this cause is worth their money. Your work lives at the intersection of mission and community: getting the right story in front of the right person at exactly the right moment and requires strategic leadership, tenacity, and rolling up sleeves to support execution. You'll blend data and instinct to build marketing that drives adoption, fosters, volunteers, and donations — using modern channels, emerging tools, and genuine creative conviction. You'll also lead and grow a direct report, bringing the same energy to their development that you bring to a campaign launch, and partner closely with Lifesaving Teams, PR, Multicultural Marketing, Creative, Corporate Partners, Celebrity and Fundraising to ensure that local insight can be supercharged to scale and resonate.
Essential Duties and Responsibilities:
- Lead Marketing Strategy: Community-centered campaigns for the NYC Pet Adoption Center that work across channels and touchpoints. Serve as the primary local marketing contact, bringing innovative solutions (i.e. scaling with AI) to work smarter across planning, coordination, and execution.
- Manage Local Content and Social Media: Oversee content calendars, promotions, and social media efforts that align with Best Friends' brand voice, strategic goals, and broader campaigns. Step in to manage social directly when needed, keeping quality and consistency on track.
- Leverage Data to Inform Performance: Monitor, analyze, and report on marketing metrics—including social media and campaign performance.
- Build and Champion Marketing Systems: Improve how marketing operates by identifying and advancing systems, automations, and workflows that reduce manual effort, increase visibility into performance, and support stronger decision‑making across campaigns and channels.
- Strengthen Media and Influencer Partnerships: Set the strategy for local influencer and creator partnerships, coordinating with celebrity, content relations, PR, and editorial teams to grow reach and impact. Guide the Marketing Specialist, who represents Best Friends at activations and fields local partnership inquiries.
- Support Local Events and Community Engagement: Partner with local events teams to support and promote local events, ensure marketing materials are accurate and effective, and use turnout and engagement data to decide what's worth repeating.
- Mentor and Manage Direct Reports and Volunteers: Provide guidance, feedback, and professional development to ensure effective and aligned local marketing execution. Support growth, and model thoughtful adoption of evolving tools and ways of working.
- Champion Inclusive and Culturally Relevant Marketing: Support the development of inclusive campaigns that reflect NYC’s diversity and deepen community connections to the organization’s mission.
Skills and Experience:
- Marketing Strategy & Campaign Execution : You bring 6+ years of marketing or community engagement experience, ideally in a nonprofit or cause-centered environment. You lead campaigns from concept to results and use data to sharpen what’s working. You know how to evaluate what’s worth adopting versus what’s hype — and you understand when AI accelerates the work and when the human touch matters more.
- Social Media & Content Development: Experience managing and growing social platforms (especially Instagram and Facebook), with a strong understanding of content strategy, analytics, and audience development.
- Hands on AI Practices & a Modern Marketing Mindset: You have hunger to understand, use and build ‘/skills’ and ‘self-start’ in the evolving AI and marketing landscape. You operate at the intersection of creativity and data, and get excited about using AI to accelerate ideas, personalize content/delivery and own the human layer, keeping a sharp eye on brand, audience, and message quality.
- Digital Advertising & Audience Growth: Experience developing and managing targeted digital advertising strategies (e.g., social media ads, display ads) to expand reach, attract new audiences, and re-engage existing supporters; ability to align paid media with broader marketing campaigns to drive measurable results.
- Project Management & Cross-Functional Collaboration: Track record leading complex projects across multiple teams, balancing competing priorities in a fast-paced environment. Skilled at building cross-functional relationships, getting people aligned through influence, and following through to deliver results.
- Team Leadership & Mentorship: You’ve been a marketer, not just a manager of them. You’re as comfortable leading through influence as through direct authority, and you model the collaborative culture you expect from others.
- Communication & Cultural Fluency: Excellent written and verbal communication skills. Able to tailor messaging for diverse audiences. Familiarity with multicultural marketing; Spanish bilingual skills are a plus but not required.
- Local NYC Network: You know how this city works. Relationships open doors here that cold outreach won't, built with community organizers, local media contacts, and neighborhood partners who care about NYC's pets. You bring that with you already.
- You show up with kindness, transparency, and a genuine commitment to the mission. You're flexible when the work calls for it — including some evenings and weekends — embrace honest feedback, and thrive in a culture built on accountability and shared purpose.
Physical Requirements:
Working in animal welfare means showing up for the animals directly. This role operates in and around shelter environments, and that’s part of what makes it meaningful.
- Routinely lift 65 pounds and perform daily strenuous activity including, but not limited to lifting, carrying, reaching, stooping, squatting, cleaning, and bending.
- Perform repetitive tasks for extended periods of time including typing, sitting, walking, arm, and hand motion.
- Work indoors and outdoors in a variety of weather conditions including extreme heat and cold.
- Comfort working in and around active shelter environments, including facilities where animals are at risk. This is the reality of rescue work, and it’s what drives everything we do.
- Must have a valid driver's license for at least 3 years, ability to qualify to be added to Best Friends insurance.
- Ability to travel up to 25% of the time (around NYC, within NY & NJ, and out of state) and able to travel by various modes of transportation (plane, train, car, etc.)
