Director Acquisition & Performance Marketing

26WD96731

Autodesk is seeking a senior performance marketing leader to own and scale a world-class, data-driven customer acquisition engine. This role is accountable for driving predictable, efficient, measurable, and scalable new customer growth by integrating media, creative, audience strategy, and funnel optimization into a cohesive performance system.

As a key member of the Worldwide Marketing organization, this leader will serve as the single‑threaded owner for acquisition performance, operating at the intersection of strategy, execution, analytics, and cross‑functional leadership. Success requires building a modern, test‑and‑learn growth engine where insights, experimentation, and operational rigor compound over time.

What You’ll Do

Acquisition Strategy & Campaign Orchestration

• Own the full‑funnel acquisition strategy, from first touch through conversion, ensuring media, creative, offers, and landing experiences align to audience intent and lifecycle stage
• Partner with the Head of Paid Media to oversee the planning, launch, and optimization of multi‑channel acquisition campaigns across paid social, search, affiliates, influencers, and emerging channels
• Translate company revenue and growth objectives into clear acquisition strategies, audience plans, and investment frameworks across products, regions, and moments
• Partner closely with Paid Media, Product Marketing, Digital/Ecommerce, and Brand & Creative teams to unlock funnel lift and improve conversion efficiency
• Define campaign KPIs, success criteria, and testing roadmaps; ensure campaigns launch on time, on budget, and with clear measurement plans

Performance Creative Leadership

• Own the performance creative strategy in close partnership with Brand & Creative leadership
• Translate audience insights and performance data into clear, actionable creative briefs that inform new concepts and quarterly campaign strategies
• Build and operate a high‑velocity test‑and‑learn creative engine, continuously iterating on messaging, formats, hooks, and offers to drive conversion and efficiency gains
• Identify and scale winning creative concepts across channels and regions while maintaining brand integrity
• Ensure creative development is structured, measurable, and optimized for sustained performance outcomes—not one‑off campaign execution
• Manage the performance creative agency ensuring they produce high-quality, efficient and cost effective work aligned to our performance outcomes

Performance Management & Financial Stewardship

• Partner with Marketing Insights & Analytics and Finance to assess acquisition impact across the full customer lifecycle, not just first conversion
• Own performance governance, including visibility into spend, ROI, efficiency tradeoffs, and investment pacing
• Analyze test results against benchmarks to determine when to scale, refine, or sunset initiatives, documenting learnings and building repeatable growth playbooks
• Balance short‑term performance optimization with long‑term value creation, including CAC, payback, and lifetime value considerations

Operational Excellence & Scale

• Operationalize winning tactics by transitioning them into scalable programs with SOPs, templates, and clear ownership models
• Establish and own weekly, monthly, and quarterly acquisition operating rhythms, including performance reviews, test readouts, and strategic planning sessions
• Maintain strong operational rigor across timelines, budgets, testing velocity, and documentation in a fast‑paced environment
• Leverage AI and automation to increase execution speed, improve output quality, and reduce operational friction
• Drive a “do more with less” operating model by increasing throughput, lowering cost per output, and improving learning velocity

Team & Cross‑Functional Leadership

• Build, lead, and develop a high‑performing acquisition and performance marketing team, setting clear goals, priorities, and development paths
• Act as the primary acquisition partner to senior leaders across Paid Media, Product Marketing, Brand & Creative, Insights & Analytics, Finance, and Digital/Ecommerce
• Serve as the central point of accountability for acquisition strategy and execution, ensuring alignment with retention, lifecycle, and broader business priorities
• Provide clear, concise performance updates to senior leadership, highlighting results, risks, learnings, and recommended actions

Minimum Qualifications

• 10–15+ years of experience in performance marketing, growth, or digital acquisition
• 5+ years of people leadership experience managing geographically distributed, high-performing marketing teams
• Bachelor's, Master's or equivalent degree in marketing, communications or related field
• Proven track record of scaling customer acquisition in SaaS, technology, or B2C/B2B environments
• Demonstrated ownership of large-scale marketing budgets with direct accountability for ROI and growth outcomes
• Hands-on experience building or operationalizing AI-driven workflows (e.g., agents, copilots, automation) to improve execution speed, insight generation, or marketing productivity
• Deep expertise building cross-channel acquisition campaigns and integrating paid, owned and earned channels

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience building or transforming performance marketing functions or centers of excellence
• Strong background in full-funnel measurement and attribution, including CAC, LTV, ROAS, and pipeline attribution
• Agency account management or agency-side experience
• Experience working in global, matrixed organizations
• Fluency in the evolving MarTech & AdTech landscape and its role in campaign orchestration and optimization
• Experience using digital media analytics and reporting tools (Adobe Analytics, Google Analytics, PowerBI, etc.)

Key Skills

• Performance marketing strategy and execution at scale
• Data-driven decision making and experimentation
• Cross-functional leadership and executive stakeholder influence
• Budget management and investment optimization
• Customer acquisition, funnel optimization, and conversion strategy
• AI Automation and marketing tool utilization

About Autodesk

Welcome to Autodesk! Amazing things are created every day with our software – from the greenest buildings and cleanest cars to the smartest factories and biggest hit movies. We help innovators turn their ideas into reality, transforming not only how things are made, but what can be made.

We take great pride in our culture here at Autodesk – it’s at the core of everything we do. Our culture guides the way we work and treat each other, informs how we connect with customers and partners, and defines how we show up in the world.

When you’re an Autodesker, you can do meaningful work that helps build a better world designed and made for all. Ready to shape the world and your future? Join us!

Benefits

From health and financial benefits to time away and everyday wellness, we give Autodeskers the best, so they can do their best work. Learn more about our benefits in the U.S. by visiting https://benefits.autodesk.com/

Salary is one part of Autodesk’s competitive compensation package. For U.S.-based roles, we expect a starting base salary between $146,000 and $261,360. Offers are based on the candidate’s experience and geographic location, and may exceed this range. In addition to base salaries, our compensation package may include annual cash bonuses, commissions for sales roles, stock grants, and a comprehensive benefits package.

Equal Employment Opportunity

At Autodesk, we're building a diverse workplace and an inclusive culture to give more people the chance to imagine, design, and make a better world. Autodesk is proud to be an equal opportunity employer and considers all qualified applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, national origin, disability, veteran status or any other legally protected characteristic. We also consider for employment all qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with applicable law.

Diversity & Belonging

We take pride in cultivating a culture of belonging where everyone can thrive. Learn more here: https://www.autodesk.com/company/diversity-and-belonging

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