---
title: 'Head of Digital Marketing at Firstup'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/head-of-digital-marketing-firstup-chicago-r0pzksgbyf7n'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-10-15'
---

# Head of Digital Marketing at Firstup

- **Company:** Firstup
- **Location:** Chicago, IL
- **Compensation:** $200k–$220k
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** hybrid
- **Posted:** 2026-09-25
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-10-15
- **Apply:** https://jobs.lever.co/firstup/a60512a2-085f-40d7-a6b3-edb28c76edc6

## Job description

The Head of Digital Marketing will lead Firstup’s global digital growth strategy, driving measurable pipeline, bookings, platform adoption, and customer retention. This leader will own digital demand generation, the company website, paid channels, content strategy, and lifecycle marketing while partnering closely with Sales, Product, Customer Success, and Marketing Operations. As a strategic and hands-on player-coach, they will build a high-performing team and establish a disciplined, data-driven approach to investment, execution, and optimization.

## Responsibilities

● Build and execute a clear, measurable digital demand generation strategy aligned with company priorities and objectives, including bookings growth and platform adoption, and product launch success. ● Build and execute a compelling AEO and SEO strategy to amplify our point of view in the market and drive inbound demand ● Own global paid channel strategy across Paid Search, Paid Social, Programmatic, Affiliate, and other channels for enterprise audiences, including planning, forecasting, budget pacing, audience design, and performance management. ● Build and execute top-of-funnel account engagement programs (content, paid, nurture) that surface intent and engagement signals across target accounts, and establish clear criteria/thresholds for advancing accounts into the ABM program. ● Partner with the ABM lead to define account scoring and handoff criteria, ensuring a consistent flow of engaged, qualified accounts move from digital marketing into 1:1/1:few ABM plays. ● Partner closely with Sales, Product, and Customer Success to ensure marketing drives pipeline, product engagement, and retention via digital channels. ● Own the company website as a strategic growth asset, improving positioning, buyer journeys, conversion, and experimentation. ● Lead demand generation programs that support both new business acquisition and expansion opportunities. ● Build a content strategy that supports the full buyer journey, strengthens Firstup’s market position, and improves conversion at every stage. ● Establish a rigorous operating cadence around goals, investment decisions, performance insights, and optimization. ● Lead the team to ○ Develop lean and effective campaigns, partner marketing programs, and lifecycle marketing programs. ○ Optimize lead management, nurture flows, scoring, and tight alignment with Marketing Operations ○ Build and execute programs targeting top targets and advance them to ABM targets

○ Drive scalable, targeted customer digital marketing programs that support upsell and renewal through lifecycle campaigns and tailored content. ○ Collaborate closely with Digital CS to deliver integrated, data-informed campaigns that reinforce value, accelerate adoption, and improve retention.

● Attract and retain high-performing talent ● Coach team members and lead with agility

## Minimum Qualifications

● Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration, Marketing, or similar field of study, or commensurate professional experience ● 10+ years of experience in Digital Marketing, including at least 4+ years if leadership

## experience within a B2B SaaS organizations

● Deep expertise with modern marketing technology platforms, including Clay, Demandbase, Marketo, and Qualified ● Proven success driving digital marketing programs, ideally with enterprise GTM models. ● A “player-coach” who enjoys being in the trenches and can develop strategy and execute without layers of support. ● Resourceful operator who has run high-performing digital demand generation programs in a company focused on profitable growth ● Comfortable with driving trade-off decisions and prioritizing ruthlessly for impact and effectiveness ● Bookings obsessed with deep expertise in digital marketing and ABM, with strong fluency in marketing analytics, attribution, and marketing-sales partnership ● Must be able to thrive in a fast-paced environment and juggle multiple projects

Competencies ● Mission-driven. Deep belief in Firstup’s purpose; sees employee experience as a meaningful category to shape ● Able to establish influence and operate as a collaborative partner with peers across Sales and Customer Orgs ● Results-oriented, relentlessly focused on pipeline, adoption, and ROI ● Experience supporting distributed workforces and go-to-market models across North America and Europe

## About Firstup

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Firstup provides an intelligent communication platform that helps large organizations engage, inform, and activate their workforce through personalized, multi-channel messaging.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Series D; total funding $114.8M)
- **Headquarters**: San Francisco, California, United States
- **Founded**: 2008
- **Founders**: Greg Shove and Nicole Alvino

## Core Business
- **Primary industry**: Workforce communications and employee experience software
- **Target customers**: Large enterprises with deskless/frontline workers (healthcare, manufacturing, distribution, retail, aviation, etc.)
- **Mission/purpose**: "Empower organizations to put their people first" by cutting through communication noise and driving measurable business outcomes.

## Products & Services
- **[Firstup Intelligent Communication Platform](https://firstup.io)**: A unified SaaS platform that enables hyper-personalized employee journeys, automated campaigns, and real-time engagement analytics. Includes:
  - **Employee App**: Mobile-first communication for deskless workers.
  - **Employee Intranet**: Centralized personalized workspace.
  - **Employee Email**: Intelligent timing and targeting to break through inbox clutter.
  - **Digital Signage**: Targeted messages for break rooms and common areas.
- **Integrations**: Seamlessly connects with Microsoft, Workday, ServiceNow, and other HR/IT tools.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation**: Not publicly disclosed (private company)
- **Key Metric**: Annual revenue estimated at $100M (LinkedIn data)
- **Total Funding**: $114.8M across 6 rounds, including:
  - Series D (2016): $25M led by Akkadian Ventures
  - Series E (2018): $10M led by DTCP
  - Earlier rounds from Rembrandt Venture Partners and others
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Akkadian Ventures, Rembrandt Venture Partners, DTCP; integrations with Microsoft, Workday, ServiceNow
- **Growth Signals**:
  - Named a **Leader in the 2025 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Intranet Packaged Solutions**
  - Case study: Swissport unified 45,000 employees across 300 airports with 75% frontline engagement
  - Case study: Southern Company Gas saved 91K hours and $3.9M
  - LinkedIn followers grew **101.3% year-over-year** (37,672 followers as of late 2025)

## Competitive Advantages
- **AI-powered personalization**: Automates targeted, role-based communication across channels (mobile, email, intranet, signage).
- **Frontline-first focus**: Designed specifically for deskless and shift workers, a large underserved segment.
- **Proven ROI**: Forrester TEI study quantified improvements in frontline retention, productivity, and safety for a 10,000-employee organization.
- **Deep integrations**: Native connections with major enterprise platforms (Microsoft, Workday, ServiceNow) reduce friction.

## Strategic Focus
- **AI as a core differentiator**: "AI that works as hard as your workforce" – providing virtual assistants for employees, content creation tools for communicators, and analytics for leaders.
- **Expanding in healthcare, manufacturing, and retail** verticals where frontline communication is critical.
- **Continued international growth** (offices in London, presence across 8 countries).

## Why Work Here
- **Culture & values**: Emphasizes innovation, accountability, transparency, teamwork, and speed. "Be real" (fact-based, authentic feedback) and "operate with pace and urgency."
- **Remote/hybrid policy**: Mix of remote-first roles (e.g., UK-based Software Engineer) and hybrid roles (e.g., Chicago Sales Development Representative). Headquarters in San Francisco.
- **Benefits**: Paid volunteer days, donation matching program, and a focus on "community" both inside and outside the company.
- **Engineering environment**: Roles for fullstack, frontend, mobile UX, and cloud operations; uses AI tools in hiring process.
- **Headcount**: Approximately 194–300 employees (conflicting reports: LinkedIn shows 194 with -3.9% YoY decline; Wikipedia states 300). Distributed across 8 countries.

## Sources
1. [firstup.io](https://firstup.io)
2. [Firstup Careers](https://firstup.io/careers/)
3. [LinkedIn Company Page](https://www.linkedin.com/company/firstup-io)
4. [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firstup)

## Other roles at Firstup

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- [Account Executive (Sweden)](https://feeny.ai/job/account-executive-sweden-firstup-sweden-aw49mt1ppwn0) — Sweden
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- [Senior Data Engineer (US)](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-data-engineer-us-firstup-united-states-xkdxj61xy54s) — United States
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- [Service Consultant](https://feeny.ai/job/service-consultant-firstup-united-kingdom-kzhyj1c65mge) — United Kingdom
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