Vice President, Performance Marketing

Adventure is our Culture. Join a team that celebrates a lifestyle as bold as the terrain we love. At Backcountry, we are rooted in adventure, recognition, and wellbeing on and off the mountain. We spotlight employee stories, celebrate milestones, and offer exclusive outdoor perks. Whether you are at HQ, in a retail store, or remote, you will be part of a team that thrives on energy, exploration, and connection.

Reports to: Senior Vice President, Marketing

Location: Salt Lake City, Utah (Hybrid - 3x/week in-office)

About the Role:

Backcountry is looking for a VP of Performance Marketing to own the paid media P&L and multi-year strategy across the full brand family: backcountry.com, competitivecyclist.com, steepandcheap.com, and biketiresdirect.com. This role sits on Backcountry's marketing leadership team and is accountable for translating company revenue and margin targets into a paid media investment plan that delivers against incrementality, LTV, and blended CAC goals.

As Vice President, Performance Marketing, you will set channel and budget allocation strategy, build the team and agency bench to execute it, and partner closely with Creative, Merchandising, and eCommerce leadership to ensure paid investment, assortment, and site experience reinforce each other. Success in the first year means establishing the multi-year roadmap, building the right org structure, and demonstrating measurable improvement in media efficiency across the portfolio.

This is a lean team. You will own a lot, move fast, and make decisions with full end-to-end responsibility.

What You'll Do:

Performance Marketing Strategy
• Own the performance marketing P&L and multi-year strategy across all four Backcountry banners, spanning paid search, paid social, shopping/feed, display, affiliate, video/TV, and emerging channels.
• Set channel and budget allocation based on incrementality, LTV, and blended CAC targets, and defend those trade-offs to the executive team.
• Translate company revenue and margin targets into a multi-year paid media investment plan.
• Build repeatable playbooks for launches, promotions, and seasonal peaks that scale across the brand portfolio.
• Champion a continuous A/B and multivariate testing culture across creative, landing pages, and audience targeting, turning results into scaled learnings.
• Track competitor activity and market trends across the outdoor and active lifestyle space to identify new channels, formats, and positioning opportunities.
Team Leadership and Organization
• Build and lead a team of performance marketing leaders and specialists, including a Senior Director of Performance Marketing, plus supporting agencies.
• Set operating standards for testing velocity, reporting rigor, and channel expertise, and hold your leadership team accountable to them.
• Stay close enough to the numbers and the work to catch problems early, coach through them, and step in directly when needed.
• Hold agency partners accountable to performance benchmarks, media efficiency, and clear scopes of work.
• Own new channel expansion with hands-on execution of campaigns in emerging channels.
• Drive adoption and demonstrated use of AI and automation tools across the team to improve decisions, increase output, and free up time for high-value work.
Executive and Cross-Functional Leadership
• Sit on Backcountry's marketing leadership team and represent performance marketing in company-level strategy and planning.
• Partner with Creative to ensure ad concepts and assets are built for performance from the start.
• Partner with Merchandising to align paid spend with inventory, margin, and assortment priorities.
• Partner with eCommerce, Product, and Web Development to ensure landing pages, site experience, and conversion funnels support paid traffic quality.
• Report to the executive team on channel performance, budget efficiency, and growth opportunities, translating performance data into clear commercial recommendations.
• Flag risks and opportunities early, and bring solutions rather than just problems.

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in Marketing, Business, or a related field; advanced degree a plus.
• 12+ years of experience in performance marketing or paid media, including 5+ years leading managers or team leads, not just individual contributors.
• Proven ownership of a paid media budget spanning multiple channels (search, social, shopping/feed, display) at a scale consistent with a multi-brand or multi-hundred-million-dollar revenue business.
• Track record of owning performance marketing across multiple brands or business units simultaneously.
• Strong command of performance marketing economics: CAC, LTV, incrementality, marginal ROAS, and blended efficiency.
• Demonstrated ability to influence and align Creative, Merchandising, eCommerce, and executive stakeholders without direct authority over their teams.
• Proven experience building and leading teams of leaders, and managing agency relationships at scale.
• Strong executive presence and communication skills, with experience reporting directly to the C-suite or serving on a leadership team.
• Demonstrated experience using AI and automation tools to improve decisions, increase output, or improve team efficiency.
• Hands-on fluency with major ad platforms (Google Ads, Meta Ads Manager) and analytics/reporting tools (Google Analytics, Tableau or Looker Studio), even if day-to-day execution sits with the team.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience in outdoor, sporting goods, cycling, or active lifestyle ecommerce.
• Experience with multi-brand or multi-site paid media management (shared team supporting several storefronts).

Why Join:

The people who do best here are builders. They take ownership, move fast, and want to see the direct impact of their work.

• Executive Access: Work directly with C-suite leadership and brand executives, representing performance marketing at the highest level of the organization.
• Leadership Opportunity: Build your team from the ground up across a portfolio of four brands, shaping both the org structure and the strategy it executes.
• Portfolio-Level Ownership: Own the paid media P&L across all Backcountry banners — set multi-year strategy and see the commercial results of your decisions.
• Competitive Benefits (US): Paid time off policies, 401(k) match, medical/dental/vision and a variety of supplemental policies, and employee discounts across our portfolio of brands.
• Competitive Benefits (Canada): Paid time off policies, RRSP match, medical, dental, and vision coverage, a variety of supplemental benefit options, and employee discounts across our portfolio of brands.

Interview Process:

1. Recruiter Screen - A 45-minute conversation with our recruiting team to align on the role, your background, and what you are looking for.
2. Hiring Manager Interview - A deeper conversation focused on performance marketing strategy, team leadership philosophy, and portfolio-level P&L ownership.
3. Panel Interview - Discussion with cross-functional leaders from Creative, Merchandising, and eCommerce to assess strategic alignment and collaboration approach.
4. Executive Interview - Conversation with senior executive leadership on vision, culture fit, and long-term strategic direction.
5. In-Person Interview - We'd like to meet you at our Salt Lake City office. Details and logistics will be arranged with your recruiter.
6. Reference Checks - Conducted in parallel with the final stages where possible.
7. Offer - We move quickly for the right candidate.

Interview process is subject to change. Any updates will be communicated promptly and clearly.