Founding Growth Marketing Director

Forward
Texas, US
Career-pivot friendly

Who this role is best for

Best suited to mid-level marketers with B2B software or private equity experience who thrive in high-growth, data-driven environments.

Best fit for

  • Marketers with a track record of generating pipeline in B2B software or private equity.
    — “Proven ability to generate pipeline and influence revenue
  • Candidates comfortable with ambiguity and rapid iteration in a startup setting.
    — “Thrives in ambiguity and moves quickly without a playbook
  • AI-savvy professionals who can leverage technology for personalized marketing.
    — “Use AI tools to scale outreach, content creation, and targeting

Things to consider

  • Role requires hands-on execution of account-based marketing strategies.
    — “Hands-on with targeted GTM (ABM, outbound, or similar)
  • Success measured by increasing lead flow by 2-3x.
    — “we can increase lead flow by 2–3x

How to stand out

  • Demonstrate specific examples of scaling marketing programs in high-growth environments.
    — “Experience building or scaling programs in a startup or high-growth environment
  • Highlight cross-functional collaboration with sales on high-value deals.
    — “Comfortable working cross-functionally with sales on high-value deals
  • Showcase data-driven optimization of campaigns and experiments.
    — “Run experiments across channels and campaigns
Pace · Fast PacedCollaboration · HighAutonomy · HighDecision Impact · CompanyLevel · Senior

Derived from job-description analysis by Serendipath's career intelligence engine.

What success looks like

  • increased lead generation
  • high-quality buying cycle engagement
Typical background
digital marketinggrowth hacking

Skills & requirements

Required

Growth MarketingAccount-based MarketingAI Knowledge

Preferred

Data AnalysisContent Marketing

Stack & domain

AILeadgenAbmOutboundOutcome OrientedProven ResultsScientist MindsetPaymentsEmbedded Finance

About the role

Original posting from Forward

Job Title: Founding Growth Marketing Director

Experience: Proven LeadGen ownership

Skills: Outcome Oriented, Proven Results, AI savvy, Scientist mindset

Location: Austin, TX

Company: Forward

 

About Us:

Forward is one of the fastest growing payments and embedded finance companies in North America.  Our infrastructure powers leading private equity and venture capital backed software platforms’ money movement capabilities.  We typically double a partner’s revenue in 36 months.

Our ICP is a software company with $5m-$100m in software revenue with a sub-optimal existing payments relationship.  We’ve run a playbook 1,500+ times that delivers proven results - shortening sponsor hold times, doubling average revenue per user (ARPU) and simplifying the technical lift.  

North America (our current operating geography) represents 55,000 software companies, 7,000 sponsors and $7 trillion in payment volume.  Forward currently partners with sponsors bringing $145B in investable capital to accelerate the growth of vertical software platforms.  

Our buyer personas are: Software CEO, Software CRO, Software Payments GM, Private Equity Investor, Private Equity Value Creation team member and Industry Consultants.  

Forward is a mission driven company that is working to Pay it Forward, in an industry that extracts rents from asymmetric information.  Our values (ethos, pathos, logos) are inspired by the ancient Greeks who believed the combination to be the foundation of trust.  We built, scaled, and successfully exited multiple software+payments companies for 20+ years, and built Forward to be what we were always looking for in a partner.  

Job Description:

As a founding member of the Forward marketing team, you will report directly to the Co-Founder and Head of Partnerships & Revenue. We’re looking for a creative, AI-savvy marketer who brings a strong sense of ownership and accountability. The ideal candidate is comfortable experimenting—someone who isn’t afraid to test, measure, iterate, and try again. You’re driven to win and share our passion for helping software companies reach their full potential.

At Forward, we measure everything and optimize relentlessly. When an initial hypothesis doesn’t work, we adapt quickly and move forward. Success in this role will be defined by the number of software companies engaging with our content and seeking to learn how Forward can support their growth. Each quarter, more than 400 software companies evaluate new payments partners, and we are currently engaged in a fraction of those buying processes. Your role will be to own, validate, and refine our core growth hypothesis: that by (1) optimizing for LLM-driven discovery, (2) executing highly personalized, account-based marketing targeting companies that resemble our best customers, and (3) building a complementary event strategy alongside established industry events, we can increase lead flow by 2–3x.

Key Responsibilities:

Increase deal participation

Drive Forward’s presence in more high-quality buying cycles 

Identify in-market accounts and convert early interest into active opportunities

Build and execute an account-based GTM strategy

Define, segment, and prioritize target accounts (PE firms, software companies, partners)

Develop tailored outreach and engagement strategies for each audience

Create and scale high-impact content

Translate Forward’s value proposition into clear, credible narratives

Produce and repurpose content across channels (outreach, events, LLM/GEO, follow-ups)

Activate and optimize CRM data (Hubspot)

Leverage ~30,000 existing accounts to drive pipeline

Implement segmentation, prioritization, and lightweight lead scoring

Design and run pipeline generation systems

Build repeatable outbound and inbound workflows

Partner with sales to align on targeting, messaging, and follow-up

Own messaging and sales enablement

Standardize founder-led messaging into scalable materials

Ensure consistency across sales conversations, content, and events

Leverage AI to increase efficiency and personalization

Use AI tools to scale outreach, content creation, and targeting

Continuously improve speed and effectiveness of execution

Test, measure, and iterate quickly

Run experiments across channels and campaigns

Optimize based on performance and learnings

Report campaign metrics on a defined cadence 

Experience and Background:

3-8 years in B2B growth, marketing, or revenue roles

Proven ability to generate pipeline and influence revenue

Experience building or scaling programs in a startup or high-growth environment

Hands-on with targeted GTM (ABM, outbound, or similar)

Strong communicator—can turn complex ideas into clear messaging

Comfortable working cross-functionally with sales on high-value deals

Data-driven and familiar with tools like HubSpot

Thrives in ambiguity and moves quickly without a playbook

Experience with B2B software or private equity audiences

Familiarity with AI tools for marketing or outreach

Source: Forward careers

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