Director of Marketing

Blackbird Labs is a loyalty and payments platform establishing meaningful connections between the world’s best restaurants and their customers.

Served up in 2022 by Ben Leventhal, co-founder of Eater and Resy, Blackbird offers a fully customizable loyalty programming platform for restaurants and a consumer app designed to make every guest feel like a bonafide VIP no matter where they dine. Backed by Union Square Ventures, a16z, Amex Ventures, Variant Fund, and other forward-thinking investors, Blackbird is out to revolutionize the restaurant industry.

At Blackbird, our values guide everything we do and our talent principles define the key traits we seek in our employees.

We have passion for our product – committed to our mission and instinctively think like and go the extra mile for our customers. We are elite performers – striving for excellence, going above and beyond to achieve exceptional results, and learning quickly with horsepower, drive, and grit. We make others better – taking initiative to elevate others, giving and receiving feedback, and championing a culture of growth. We hold one another accountable to living out our talent principles as we march together to achieving our mission.

About the Role

The Director of Marketing sets the high-level strategic vision for Blackbird's brand and owns its execution across every marketing discipline and channel including brand, communications, and consumer growth alike. You'll define how Blackbird shows up in the world and make sure that vision holds together everywhere a diner or partner encounters it, from a press mention to an event.

You'll translate strategy into execution across brand campaigns, public relations, and acquisition. This is a builder role: the brand foundations are in place, and your job is to set the direction for where they go next and make sure every team and channel is pulling in the same direction.

We're looking for someone who can operate at both altitudes — setting the vision for what Blackbird's Marketing direction should take, and staying close enough to execution to make sure that vision actually ships.

What You'll Do

Brand

• Own the Blackbird brand voice and identity across all consumer channels

• Develop campaigns that feel culturally credible: copy, visual, experiential

• Build Blackbird's presence in the cities and dining communities where it matters most

• Partner with the Restaurants team to make sure brand work serves both sides of the network

PR & Communications

• Own Blackbird's external narrative — press, media relationships, and executive visibility for Ben and the team

• Build and run a proactive PR strategy that keeps Blackbird part of the conversation in dining, tech, and culture press

• Manage relationships with PR agencies, freelance writers, and media contacts

• Prepare messaging and talking points for press moments, partnership announcements, and, when needed, crisis response

• Partner with Partnerships and Restaurants teams on co-branded press moments and launch announcements

Consumer Growth

• Drive diner acquisition across paid, owned, and earned channels

• Set and hit growth targets for app downloads, new user activation, and retention

• Build a performance marketing capability that doesn't sacrifice brand to do it

• Work closely with product on onboarding, in-app messaging, and lifecycle

Team & Operations

• Lead and develop a small in-house team

• Manage agency and contractor relationships

• Own the marketing budget and report on what's working

• Generate reporting and make data-driven decisions to set up strategy

What We're Looking For

• 8+ years of marketing experience, with meaningful time in consumer-facing roles

• 5+ years of leadership experience, with a builder's mindset

• Proven ability to build brands people actually care about, not just awareness but affinity

• Strong storytelling and communications instincts, including experience building or running a PR / earned-media strategy

• Strong performance marketing chops; you know how to drive acquisition at scale

• Experience at a high-growth startup; you know how to operate with limited resources and high expectations

• A writer's sensibility; you can tell when copy is wrong and make it right

• Passion for restaurants, food culture, and hospitality

Nice to Haves

• Experience in a two-sided marketplace

• Background in loyalty, rewards, or payments (not required; a love of the category matters more)

• Existing media relationships and press experience in food, hospitality, or consumer tech

• NYC market experience and existing relationships in the dining space

Pay Transparency Notice & Benefits

Depending on your work location and experience the target annual salary for this position can range from: $220,000 - $250,000 USD. Disclosure in accordance with New York City's Pay Transparency Law.

Full time offers from Blackbird may also include stock options, benefits (including medical, dental, vision, flexible time off, 401(k)), and some not-so-standard, extra-fun perks (quarterly budget for Blackbird testing, anniversary travel, annual learning and development stipend) — subject to applicable taxes and based on eligibility.

Blackbird Labs is committed to diversity in its workforce and is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, creed, gender, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, sex, gender expression or identity, sexual orientation or any other basis protected by applicable law. Blackbird will also consider for employment qualified applicants with criminal histories in a manner consistent with applicable law. For US applicants, you may view the Know Your Rights notice here. Additionally, Blackbird participates in the E-Verify program.

Join us and find out what the best work of your career could look like here at Blackbird.