Head of Marketing

Job description

## $127B industry. Should be $300B. We're building the platform to get it there. The catch: the market thinks we're an upgrade. We're a new category. Your job as Head of Marketing is to close that gap, make the transformation obvious, and turn that clarity into growth. Small team, weekly ships, AI-first. If you want to help craft the story that will change an industry, let's talk. ## ABOUT TERN Tern is a venture-backed software company on a mission to reshape the $127B travel agency industry by giving power back to the entrepreneurs who built it. Nearly 98% of travel agencies are small businesses. These businesses have been chronically underserved by technology. We're here to change that. Our platform helps travel advisors run more efficient, professional, and profitable operations, giving them the modern infrastructure they need to lead the next chapter of travel. But the impact goes beyond business. Travel advisors help clients move more intentionally through the world. When a traveler works with an advisor, they're more likely to avoid overtouristed hotspots and more likely to spend their dollars in places where they can do real good. That's the kind of travel we want more of. At Tern, we believe in small business. We believe in the power of travel. And we're building the future of both. ## HEAD OF MARKETING As a Head of Marketing, you'll work with our existing brand and demand gen team, partnering directly with Sales as a GTM counterpart. Tern is building a new category in travel, and the market hasn't caught up yet. Advisors on Tern make more money. They spend less time on admin. We're building the first modern back-office the industry has seen in 40 years. We're changing how suppliers sell to the advisors who move $127B+ of travel a year, how those suppliers deliver personalized service, and how advisors get paid, faster and more reliably than ever. This is a $127B industry that should be a $300B one. We're making that happen, and it's going to run on Tern. Here's the problem. People think we're a better version of something they already use. We're not. We're an entirely new category, out to reimagine this industry for the better, and Tern is already transforming how advisors work today. We lose deals we should win, not because a competitor is better, but because the buyer doesn't grasp how different their business becomes on Tern. That gap shows up everywhere. It costs advisor and agency growth, and it shapes how suppliers and investors read the story. That's your job. Own Tern's brand and demand generation globally. Set Tern's 18 to 24 month marketing direction, bring structure to a fast-moving team, and make sure we ship every week. Make the transformation obvious, then turn that clarity into growth across advisors, agencies, and suppliers. You'll do it on a small team, in one-week cycles, with AI as your default leverage. We take the work seriously, not ourselves. If you need agencies or large teams be successful, this isn’t the role for you. It also isn't the seat if you need a fully defined plan before you can move, or if you default to tactics before setting direction. ## WHAT YOU'LL DO - Own how Tern explains itself. Build the messaging that makes an advisor, a supplier, and an investor each get Tern in one sentence, backed by real proof like higher advisor earnings and less admin time. - Find and tell the advisor stories that prove it. Tern's best marketing is a real advisor whose business changed. Go find those people and make sure everyone hears them. - Build the advisor and agency demand engine across content, PR, digital, and events. A weekly motion, not quarterly campaigns. - Run marketing and sales as one motion. Work hand in hand with Sales on ICP, pipeline definitions, and conversion. - Turn product innovation into market growth. Partner with Product and Sales to shape how new product capabilities reach the market, strengthen Tern's differentiation, and drive adoption across advisors, agencies, and suppliers. - Stand up Tern's brand in the hotel and supplier world as that side scales. Get Tern into the rooms, stages, and channels suppliers actually watch. - Ship in one-week cycles. Small bets, measure fast, kill what doesn't work. - Run marketing with AI as the default. The first question is always "can AI do this," not "who do we hire." - Build and lead a small team supercharged with AI. We believe small, high-performing teams with AI as leverage are the future of marketing. Building that team is the job. If you're not the leader to build it, you're not the right fit. ## YOUR FIRST 90 DAYS Get your arms around everything marketing has in motion, decide what matters, put owners and metrics on it, and present a plan for where marketing takes Tern over the next two years. ## WHAT YOU HAVE - Experience: 8+ years in marketing, including 3+ years leading a marketing function. - Full-stack marketing leadership: You've led across paid media, product marketing, content, PR, and events, ideally in a producer-led industry. You've owned both brand and demand, not one lane. - Builder instincts: You can zoom out to set direction and zoom in to sweat the details of what ships this week. - Executive presence: You've operated on a leadership team and can lead with authority across sales, product, and the exec team, not just within marketing. - Structure in ambiguity: You've walked into a fast, under-structured environment and turned it into a clear operating rhythm without slowing it down. - AI-native execution: You run marketing with AI as core leverage. You can point to systems and campaigns you shipped that a much larger team would otherwise have needed. - Narrative and category chops: You've taken a product that's hard to explain and made the market understand it. Better if you did it in a new or contested category. - Team leadership with a small-team bias: You've led teams, and you're motivated by impact per head, not by headcount. ## BONUS POINTS - Travel, hospitality, or supplier-side marketing experience - You've marketed to a two-sided or producer-led ecosystem (advisors, agents, franchisees, sellers) - A track record of building brand equity through events, awards, and speaking ## WHAT WE VALUE @ TERN 🌱 We're always leveling up. Whether you're deepening your craft, learning from a teammate, or embracing a new challenge, growth is core to our identity. 🧭 We act with optimistic agency. We take initiative, seek clarity, and move forward, even when the path isn't obvious. Through every peak and valley, we lead with curiosity, laughter, kindness, and resolve. 💪 We expect operational excellence. We ship value to our users every single week. We believe that compounding habits lead to sustainable productivity, consistency, and mutual trust. ### OPERATING PRINCIPLES: 👂 We deeply understand our users. At every level of the organization, we obsess about understanding those we serve and the industry we operate in. ➕ We embrace the power of and, and not now. We challenge trade-offs by asking better questions. We break hard problems into small pieces and tackle them with intention. We also know to make the hard call to say "not right now". 📣 We speak up and move forward. Everyone at Tern has a voice and a responsibility to use it. We invite healthy tension, share dissenting views early, and challenge each other with curiosity, not ego. 🏃 We move fast and sweat the details. Velocity matters and relentless progress beats perfection every time. But speed isn't chaos: we stay aligned, own our outcomes, and care deeply about quality. 🤣 We take the work seriously, but not ourselves. We hire kind, driven people who elevate the room. If you've got a big ego or take yourself too seriously, you won't last. ## WHY JOIN TERN? - Be part of a mission-driven team transforming the travel planning space - Work with a supportive, curious, and creative team - Shape how the entire travel industry sees Tern - Competitive salary, equity, and benefits package Tern is committed to building a team that represents people from many different backgrounds and life experiences, reflecting our worldview coinciding with the users and customers we serve across the world. We prefer that you apply, so think of our postings as the start of the conversation. Take the chance- you may be a wonderful add to our Tern team, even if you don't fully match every requirement on the job description.