Director, Marketing
Full-time, remote (Ontario or British Columbia, Canada)
At Poparide, we want to create a world where resources are shared to help preserve our planet for generations to come. We’ve built a city-to-city carpooling platform that helps fill empty seats in cars and makes travel more social, affordable and sustainable for everyone.
We're looking for a Director, Marketing with real vision — someone who can take a team that can execute and give it direction to create and measure growth. You understand product-led growth and the member journey in a B2C mobile app, and you can turn a single trip into a shared moment so impactful that it becomes a habit.
You'll work directly with our CEO, COO, and our Product and Data teams, with no committees standing between a good idea and shipping it. Together, you'll close the gap on activation and retention, build lifecycle marketing that actually reflects how people use Poparide, and give our brand a voice that's as genuine at 2+ million members as it is in a shared ride. It's a rare mix: real scale, a small team that's ready to run with direction, and a brand that's ready to be unleashed.
We’re a small, tight-knit team of 22 passionate people. We’re profitable, intentional about staying lean, and proud of our “small but mighty” approach. This role is for someone who’s hands-on, takes ownership, and isn’t afraid to roll up their sleeves to make things happen with resources and limited oversight.
You have…
- Drive and energy — non-negotiable. Self-starting and high-ownership. You act without being told, and bring the same intensity whether or not anyone's watching. No task is beneath you and you multiply that energy through the team rather than just outrunning it solo.
- Vision and creative leadership. You give direction to the team and harness their creativity to generate ideas; you challenge the status quo, not just organize what's already decided. You know strong creative from mediocre and can coach a team to close the gap, accurately predicting how work will land with real members. People get excited to follow your vision and energy — a room lights up when you walk into it.
- Strong product experience. You understand product-led growth and the post-signup journey in a consumer app or marketplace, and work closely with Product and Data teams as a matter of course.
- Real-time fluency in AI, applied to marketing. Not just comfortable using AI tools — genuinely ahead of where marketing is headed with them, and encouraging the team to adopt them. This is a company-wide expectation at Poparide; marketing needs someone setting the pace, not catching up to it.
- A track record of scaling users and engagement. Measurable activation and retention wins on a consumer product, and the ability to turn raw data into a prioritized set of campaigns.
- 7+ years experience, including 3+ years leading a team. Real instincts and the appetite to keep growing into the role matter more than tenure. Product marketing is our default lens, but brand, growth/acquisition, or agency backgrounds are just as welcome if you've led creative work with outcomes to show for it.
Bonus points if you have…
- Experience in a 2-sided marketplace and context of how different user behaviour and motivations affects outcomes
- Familiarity with carpooling, shared mobility or travel platforms in North America
- Knowledge of French or Spanish
What you’ll be doing
- Define and maintain the marketing vision. Decide what marketing does and why we do it. Translate data and business priorities into a clear point of view including gracefully passing on good ideas that are not the priority.
- Facilitate ideation and lead creative work. Combine the team's raw ideas into the bigger picture, coaching the gap between good and amazing creative. Lead the creative process with brainstorming, ideating and pressure testing both your and others’ ideas. Jump into the execution to lead by example, while also giving others the space to learn and experiment.
- Develop the team's talent. Proactively set the direction for the team and develop their creative judgment, whether they're new to marketing or already showing real potential. Build on their creative instincts, encouraging the confidence to bring more ideas to the table.
- Improve activation and retention through lifecycle marketing. Own targeted, behavior-triggered campaigns across each passenger and driver journeys. Turn intent into a first booking then habit-forming repeat use and happy members into referrals.
- Build the brand — organic and earned first. Paid brand spend comes after activation and retention improve, but our social voice has already shifted that direction, and it has to stay authentic. Continue experimenting while leaning into the fun and human brand we are building. Build out PR and earned media as a low-cost way to grow awareness and steward brand guidelines so voice and visual identity stay consistent everywhere we show up.
- Grow through partnerships. Student groups already send us members. Small and medium municipalities are an underused channel worth building out. There are consumer brands with complementary audiences we haven't partnered with yet — some already interested in us, some we'd want to approach ourselves.
- Push into what's next in digital. Potential channels include influencers, out-of-home, placements in driver apps, integrated campaigns tied to specific routes. Decide what's worth testing next and why.
- Build a creative bench. Establish and manage a network of freelance designers, copywriters, and translators to extend the team's output where needed.
- Stay hands-on, by choice. Do real IC work yourself — strategy docs, campaign builds, creative direction — using AI to move faster.
Compensation & Location
- Full-time, remote role (Ontario or British Columbia, Canada)
- Compensation range of $160,000 to $190,000 comprised of base, bonus and profit sharing
- Equity through the Employee Stock Options Plan (ESOP)
- Access to our company benefits plan
- 20 paid holiday days per year
- 10 wellness days per year
Why join Poparide?
You’ll join a mission-driven company at a pivotal moment. Your work will directly impact the future of how Canadians travel, and you’ll help build something meaningful, sustainable and community-driven.
We work smart, stay humble and support each other to do our best. We’re a close-knit team that values transparency, curiosity and collaboration, and we’re excited to bring on a visionary leader with product instincts who thrives in no bureaucracy, hands-on environments.