Head of Marketing

Job Title: Head of Marketing

Team: Marketing

Location: Onsite - Santa Monica, CA

Employment Type: Full-time, Salaries, Exempt

Reports To: CEO

About Plug

Plug is an automotive fintech startup building the marketplace for electric vehicles. Consumers, dealers, and commercial partners trade in, sell, and auction used EVs through a platform built exclusively for electric, with nothing adapted from legacy automotive.

Consumers can get an instant cash offer in minutes, backed by data-driven pricing, battery state-of-health analysis, with pickup, payment, and title transfer handled end-to-end. Franchise and independent dealers across the United States bid in real time on inventory sourced directly from these consumers, dealers, and commercial partners. The result is a single platform that gives sellers a fast, fair exit and gives dealers a dedicated channel for sourcing used EV inventory.

Founded in 2023 and led by former Tesla executives, Plug has facilitated $100M in EV sales since launch and is backed by a $20M Series A from Lightspeed Venture Partners. We're building the most AI-native startup team in Los Angeles, full of operators, engineers, and ML researchers laying the transaction rails for the used EV market's exponential growth.

Why this role

Marketing is becoming one of Plug's biggest competitive advantages. Reporting directly to the CEO, you will join the executive team to build a world-class marketing organization that balances two distinct growth engines: consumer vehicle acquisition and dealer demand. Your mission is to build a scalable operating system that turns marketing into a measurable driver of company growth.

The business challenge

Consumer supply is effectively unlimited, but acquiring vehicles efficiently requires exceptional performance marketing. Dealer demand determines marketplace liquidity and requires sophisticated B2B product marketing, enablement, and thought leadership. Success requires running these motions independently while keeping them tightly aligned.

Executive Leadership

As a member of the executive team, you will help shape company strategy, influence organizational decisions, and partner across Sales, Product, Engineering, Operations, Finance, and People. We expect leaders to think beyond their own function and build the company, not just their department.

Your mission

Our company mission is to electrify the used car industry. Your job is to build an AI-native marketing organization that accelerates vehicle acquisition, expands dealer demand, amplifies Plug's founder-led brand, and creates a durable competitive advantage.

How we think about marketing

Marketing exists to drive measurable business growth. Every plan should answer at least one of: does this increase vehicle acquisition, increase dealer acquisition, improve liquidity, improve conversion, or strengthen the Plug brand? We don't do marketing for marketing's sake.

What you will build. (key responsibilities)

1. Build the consumer growth engine. Own paid search and social, affiliate, lifecycle, and website conversion against clear performance targets. Decide where agencies outperform in-house, and focus the team where it moves the metric.

2. Build the dealer go-to-market motion. Own positioning by dealer type, the sales deck and enablement, and account-based programs that drive dealer acquisition and activation. Show up big at fewer, more important events aligned with Sales on named accounts and use thought leadership to pull dealers not yet in used-EVs into the category.

3. Build founder-led marketing. Amplify our founder's voice across TikTok, LinkedIn, YouTube, and beyond. Turn short- and long-form video, community, and employee advocacy into a repeatable content engine covering the EV market itself: model launches, pricing moves, range and battery tech.

4. Build an AI-native operating model. Build AI into how marketing runs: AI-assisted content and creative, SEO and LLM visibility, agentic workflows, analytics, and ops—as how the team works, not bolted-on tools.

5. Build the team and operating system. Invest in the team that's already here while adding the capabilities the next stage needs. Develop emerging leaders, and stand up the reporting system the exec team trusts to see marketing's contribution. Partner tightly with Sales, Product, Engineering, Operations, and Finance.

6. Be a doer and a multiplier. We don't hire management layers - every leader here, including this one, is expected to be hands-on. But it's not enough to just produce output yourself: your job is equally to make everyone on your team better than they'd be without you. That means real coaching, delegating ownership (not just tasks), and building a team that's growing into bigger roles over time - starting with the team already here.

Success after 12 months

• Consumer vehicle acquisition, scaling predictably.

• Dealer acquisition and activation rate, with demand keeping pace with supply.

• Marketplace liquidity and conversion across both sides.

• Channel-level performance and contribution toward 150,000 transactions/year by 2029.

• Founder-led content reach and its attributable pipeline.

• AI embedded across marketing workflows.

• Demonstrated growth in the people on the team - expanded scope, new skills, or promotions for existing team members - not just output from the function.

Required experience

• Builder track record: scaled marketing from Series A/B through growth at high-velocity companies, not primarily large public companies with mature marketing machines.

• Two motions: led both performance/growth and B2B motions; marketplace experience strongly preferred.

• Team builder: built and mentored high-performing teams and developed emerging leaders.

• Data & systems: made decisions with data and built marketing operating systems others can run.

• Presence: strong executive presence, high agency, bias for action, low ego.

• 10 + years of experience and 5+ as a manager or leader partnering closer with founders

Preferred experience

• built a founder-led brand and worked closely with a public-facing founder.

• already operating AI-native across content, SEO/LLM visibility, and ops.

• consumer marketplaces or high-consideration consumer + B2B two-sided businesses (e.g., auto, retail marketplaces).

How we operate

We hire builders who value ownership, velocity, curiosity, and measurable outcomes. We move quickly, make decisions with data, and embrace AI as a core operating principle.

What makes this role unique

Few marketing leadership opportunities combine a two-sided marketplace, founder-led marketing, AI-native operations, and the chance to build an executive function from the ground up. You won't inherit a mature organization, you'll build one.

Not sure you should apply? Do it.

Research consistently shows that people from under-represented groups are more likely to talk themselves out of applying if they don't meet 100% of the listed requirements. Here's the thing - you don't need to check every box. At Plug, we're building a team that's diverse and inclusive, so if this role excites you but your background isn't a perfect match for every qualification, apply anyway. You might be exactly who we're looking for. Strong candidates often count themselves out when they don't check every box. Don't. We've flagged what's essential vs. nice-to-have below. If the role excites you and you bring most of it, we want to hear from you.

Compensation and Benefits

Annual salary: $220,000 - $255,000

Salary ranges reflect independent, third-party benchmarking against national compensation data. Where an individual's actual offer falls within that range depends on a combination of factors, including relevant experience, specialized skills, training and qualifications, current business needs, and prevailing market conditions. Ranges are reviewed periodically and may be adjusted to reflect changing market conditions.

Benefits & Perks:

• Health, Vision, and Dental insurance

• Daily lunch stipend

• Equity (based on role and performance)

• Unlimited PTO

• Fully stocked kitchen

• Dog-friendly office

• Ongoing opportunities for growth and development

This full-time position is based in Sawtelle (between Santa Monica and West Los Angeles) and is an in-person role. We welcome candidates from all locations to apply, provided they are willing to relocate for the role. Relocation assistance will not be provided for successful candidates. Sponsorship not available at this time.

Acknowledgments

Plug is an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. We believe diverse teams build better products - full stop.