Head of Brand Marketing
Everyone is welcome at Handshake. We know diverse teams build better products and we are committed to creating an inclusive culture built on a foundation of respect for all individuals. We strongly encourage candidates from non-traditional backgrounds, historically marginalized or underrepresented groups to apply.
If you are not sure that you’re 100% qualified, but up for the challenge – we want you to apply. We believe skills are transferable and passion for our mission goes a long way.
Your Impact:
Handshake seeks a Head of Brand Strategy to lead the development and evolution of our brand. You will play an integral role in advancing Handshake's purpose, vision, brand, and positioning to drive awareness, familiarity, and favorability with all stakeholders including students, education partners, employers, and key influencers (media, policy makers, economists, etc). Working closely with our CMO, Product, and Design teams, you will build a clear and actionable cross-marketplace brand strategy and architecture to articulate our unique and differentiated point of view to inform our thought leadership, marketing and brand communications, and growth strategies. Your work will create a bridge across contexts—our company culture, business goals, customer experience, and the broader cultural context in which we must play a role—to create a cohesive brand narrative that defines our reason to exist in the world, guiding our campaigns, messaging, and experiences and identifying new, breakthrough brand-building opportunities. Handshake is and has the power to make real, tangible impact, democratizing opportunity for today’s rising talent to build a more diverse and equitable future of work for all. We’ve already made great strides in achieving our vision, but we’re just getting started.
Your Role
Brand Strategy
Develop and implement an integrated, strategic brand plan to advance Handshake’s brand positioning and thought leadership strategy; broaden awareness of its programs and priorities; and increase the visibility of its impact across key stakeholder audiences.
Engage with Data, Insights, and UXR teams (and agencies when needed) to derive qualitative and quantitative insights around motivations, behavior, attitudes and latent needs among key audiences.
Build a brand architecture that will serve as our scalable toolbox for internal and external partners to ensure all work is aligned
Develop relationships and work closely with global marketing teams to develop relevant marketing plans for new market launches and sustained support
Serve as a brand ambassador to the organization, partners and stakeholders.
Stay current with thought leadership and branding trends, new technology solutions and competitive strategies, translating that knowledge into new ideas for internal stakeholders.
Lead brand strategy to produce compelling digital and in person experiences for visually sophisticated audiences.
Inform communications strategy that will elevate the Handshake brand and enhance meaningful relationships with early careerists, employers and educators.
Brand Experience
Partner with Design to develop brand standards to ensure consistency in brand design/tone of voice across online and offline in owned, educational and career channels
Elevate storytelling by partnering with Head of Brand Design on strategy for internal creative, and external agency teams to develop and refresh all brand assets, including messaging/content and video/motion.
Partner with Brand Design and PMM team on strategies to develop branded consumer experiences, and ensure that new innovation is consumer-driven, differentiated and impactful in the market
Measurement
- Improve our brand awareness and perception across audiences.
Make confident, timely, data-driven decisions when confronted with ambiguity or incomplete information
Develop metrics and methodology to track and measure brand health and the downstream impact on our business results, in partnership with Analytics.
Measure the performance of all activities and campaigns, assess them against goals (ROI, KPIs) and adjust strategy & activities to achieve them
Proven track record of successfully building B2B and B2C brands. Marketplace experience a plus.
Experience creating effective, multi-channel awareness and community building campaigns, with a particular emphasis on social (TikTok, Instagram). Have built influencer partnership strategies with proven ROI.
Have built, managed, and scaled high-performing, cross-functional brand teams
Have built brand systems and processes to scale: guidelines, briefs, comms docs, etc
Strong understanding of when and how to work with freelancers and agencies to get the best output (and when to bring work in-house)
For cash compensation, we set standard ranges for all U.S.-based roles based on function, level, and geographic location, benchmarked against similar stage growth companies. In order to be compliant with local legislation, as well as to provide greater transparency to candidates, we share salary ranges on all job postings regardless of desired hiring location. Final offer amounts are determined by multiple factors, including geographic location as well as candidate experience and expertise, and may vary from the amounts listed above.
About Us:
Handshake is the #1 place to launch a career with no connections, experience, or luck required. The platform connects up-and-coming talent with 650,000+ employers - from Fortune 500 companies like Google, Nike, and Target to thousands of public school districts, healthcare systems, and nonprofits. Earlier this year, we announced our $200M Series F funding round. This Series F fundraise and new valuation of $3.5B will fuel Handshake’s next phase of growth and propel our mission to help more people start, restart, and jumpstart their careers.
When it comes to our workforce strategy, we’ve thought deeply about how work-life should look here at Handshake. With our Hub-Based Remote Working strategy, employees can enjoy the flexibility of remote work, whilst ensuring collaboration and team experiences in a shared space remains possible. Handshake is headquartered in San Francisco with offices in Denver, New York, and London and teammates working globally. So, whether you live on the coasts, the midwest, or overseas, chances are we have a hub near you offering the best of both worlds.
Check out our careers site to find a hub near you!
What We Offer:
At Handshake, we'll give you the tools to feel healthy, happy and secure.
- 💰Equity and ownership in a fast-growing company.
- 🍼16 Weeks of paid parental leave for birth giving parents & 10 weeks of paid parental leave for non-birth giving parents.
- 💝Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision policies including LGTBQ+ Coverage. We also provide resources for Mental Health Assistance, Employee Assistance Programs and counseling support.
- 💻Handshake offers $500/£360 home office stipend for you to spend during your first 3 months to create a productive and comfortable workspace at home.
- 📚Generous learning & development opportunities and an annual $2,000/£1,500 stipend for you to grow your skills and career.
(US Handshakers)
- 🏦401k Match: Handshake offers a dollar-for-dollar match on 1% of deferred salary, up to a maximum of $1,200 per year.
- 🏝 All full-time US-based Handshakers are eligible for our flexible time off policy to get out and see the world. In addition, we offer 8 standardized holidays, and 2 additional days of flexible holiday time off. Lastly, we have a Summer and Winter #ShakeBreak, two one-week periods of Collective Time Off.
(UK Handshakers)
- 🏦Pension Scheme: Handshake will provide you with a workplace pension, where you will make contributions based on 5% of your salary. Handshake will pay the equivalent of 3% towards your pension plan, subject to qualifying earnings limits.
- 🏝Up to 25 days of vacation to encourage people to reset, recharge, and refresh, in addition to 8 bank holidays throughout the year.
Benefits above apply to employees in full-time positions.
Looking for more? Explore our mission, values and comprehensive US benefits at joinhandshake.com/careers.