Director of Marketing, Ads - San Francisco, CA

🧭 Overview

• Role: Director of Marketing, Ads
• Location: On-site in San Francisco, CA (no remote/hybrid option mentioned)
• Seniority: Executive track — reporting into or working closely with Discord’s executive and product leadership.
• Function: Owns both Product Marketing and Business Marketing for Ads.
• Goal: Establish Discord as a competitive, high-performing ads platform—especially within gaming and performance advertising.

🎯 Key Responsibilities

• Strategic Leadership: Set and drive the marketing strategy across product and business marketing.
• Team Building: Build and lead a high-performing, cross-functional marketing team from the ground up.
• Cross-Functional Influence: Partner closely with product, engineering, sales, and execs to define vision, roadmap, and go-to-market.
• Industry Presence: Establish Discord’s voice in the advertising world through thought leadership, industry partnerships, and events.
• Sales Enablement: Equip the sales team with narratives, materials, and data-driven insights to scale adoption and win against competitors.

✅ Ideal Candidate Profile

• Experience:
• 12+ years in marketing (minimum), with 6+ years leading ads products.
• Deep background in digital advertising, ad tech, or media buying.
• Bonus: Experience in mobile performance or gaming ads.
• Skills:
• Excellent storytelling and positioning abilities.
• Operational know-how to build from scratch (0→1 marketing function).
• Executive-level influence and budget ownership experience.
• Ability to thrive in fast, ambiguous environments and build scalable systems.

💼 Key Challenges

• Discord’s ads product is still new—so this is not plug-and-play. You'll need to:
• Define the marketing playbook.
• Educate advertisers on Discord’s unique value proposition.
• Win trust in a competitive market (vs Meta, TikTok, YouTube, Twitch, etc.).

💰 Compensation

• Not listed publicly, but given the role’s level and Discord’s comp philosophy:
• Expected base: Likely in the $275K–$350K+ range.
• Plus equity, performance bonuses, and strong benefits.

💡 How to Stand Out

If you’re considering applying:

• Highlight full-funnel ads marketing experience — from go-to-market to sales enablement.
• Show B2B and B2C storytelling—you’ll need to speak to advertisers and communicate ad value to users.
• Share 0→1 examples, especially if you’ve built an ads platform or introduced new ad formats in a high-growth org.
• Include gaming industry relevance if applicable, even if tangential.