Senior Manager, Digital Marketing & Marketing Operations

Title: Senior Manager, Digital Marketing & Marketing Operations Location: Barberton

Reports to: Director of Marketing

Summary: The Senior Manager, Digital Marketing & Marketing Operations sets and owns the strategy and the execution across Malco’s digital presence (website, SEO/AEO) and the systems, automation, and workflows that let a small marketing team scale across four brands.

You will set strategy and own performance for Malco’s websites and organic/AI-search visibility, architect Malco’s marketing technology stack, create the automated content production engine that lets a small team punch above its weight, and build the performance dashboards that make marketing legible to the Executive Leadership Team.

Responsibilities: Specific duties are intended to describe activities that support the summary above. The list is not all inclusive – other duties may be required to cover the breadth and depth of the position.

1. Strategic Leadership & Planning

• Set the digital marketing and marketing operations strategy and annual/quarterly roadmap in partnership with the Director of Marketing, translating Malco’s growth goals into channel, systems, and resourcing priorities for this scope.
• Own budget planning and investment recommendations for digital marketing and marketing operations — tooling, agencies, paid, and future headcount — and make the case for tradeoffs and new investment rather than simply executing a pre-set budget.
• Act as the senior decision-maker for day-to-day digital and marketing-ops priorities and tradeoffs
• Own vendor and agency selection and management within this scope (web development, SEO, paid social, martech platforms), including negotiating scope and holding partners accountable to results.

2. Website & Digital Experience

• Own strategy, roadmap, and performance for all Malco web properties (DTC site(s), brand pages) — UX, conversion, and technical health.
• Partner with agencies/developers on site builds, updates, and maintenance; act as the internal owner who sets priorities and evaluates output.
• Ensure site content (product, technical, regulatory, label) stays synced with the PIM/knowledge base so what’s live on-site is always accurate.

3. SEO, AEO & Organic Discovery

• Own Malco’s organic search and AI-search (AEO) strategy across brand and product content — the goal is that when detailers search or ask AI tools about detailing chemicals, Malco brands surface.
• Conduct keyword, topic, and prompt research and translate it into a content and technical roadmap that Content Studio and this role execute against.
• Own on-page and technical SEO (site structure, metadata, schema markup, page speed) and monitor how Malco content performs in AI answer engines (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews) as that channel grows.

4. Marketing Technology Stack & Data Infrastructure

• Own the architecture, configuration, and integrations of Malco’s marketing technology stack: website/CMS, digital asset management, content management, marketing automation (HubSpot, Klaviyo, or equivalent), project management (Asana), analytics, SEO tooling, and AI tooling.
• Work alongside IT to support our product information management (PIM) infrastructure as the single source of truth for product copy, specifications, application data, regulatory/label content, and creative assets across Amazon, Shopify, distributor portals, sell sheets, and international markets.
• Build and maintain integrations between systems — product data flowing from ERP to CMS to Amazon; assets flowing from DAM to email, social, and web; campaign data flowing from execution platforms to dashboards — and govern access, permissions, and data hygiene across all marketing platforms.
• Own the architecture and configuration of marketing automation platforms — data model, segmentation logic, lifecycle flows, deliverability, and integrations.
• Evaluate, recommend, and onboard new marketing technology as the team’s needs evolve.

5. AI Workflows & Knowledge Management

• Build the prompt library, AI workflows, and automation systems that allow the marketing team to produce a high volume of on-brand content across four brands without proportional headcount growth.
• Build and maintain Malco’s proprietary marketing knowledge base — brand voice, technical product knowledge, application expertise, competitive positioning, and regulatory language — as a structured, version-controlled system that AI workflows draw from.
• Design the create-once, scale-everywhere workflow that turns a single video shoot, photo set, or product launch into ten or more channel-ready assets across web, social, email, distributor kits, and sales enablement.
• Continuously test, refine, and document AI workflows; train the team to use them effectively without ceding editorial judgment.

6. Marketing Intelligence & Voice-of-Customer Systems

• Build the listening infrastructure that captures continuous signal from the professional detailing community — industry forums, social media, product reviews, search/AI-search trends, and competitor content.
• Design systems for synthesizing field and distributor feedback into structured intelligence the marketing team acts on, and build competitive intelligence capabilities that track content, channel programs, product launches, and community building.

7. Distributor Enablement Infrastructure & Sales-Marketing Data Integration

• Build and maintain the technical infrastructure that gets marketing assets, product data, sales tools, and campaign content into distributor portals, syndication feeds, and partner systems.
• Architect content and product data syndication so that new launches, updated specifications, and marketing campaigns flow to distributor channels without manual rekeying.
• Partner with Sales Operations and IT on distributor-facing systems and CRM ownership where accountabilities overlap.

8. Performance Dashboards & Marketing Reporting

• Build the marketing performance dashboard, including website and SEO/AEO performance alongside automation and distributor metrics.
• Define and govern marketing key performance indicators and the data sources that feed them; instrument campaigns and channels so attribution is possible.
• Surface insights rather than just numbers — the dashboard should tell a story without requiring extensive interpretation.

9. Team Leadership & Scaling

• Assess team workload and make the case for a Marketing Operations/Digital Implementer or Junior Associate hire when volume justifies it; scope, interview, and onboard that hire once approved.
• Build a team structure and workflow that stays lean without becoming a bottleneck as Malco scales

10. Internal Enablement & Documentation

• Train the marketing team on the systems and workflows you build, and keep them clearly documented so the team can rely on them with confidence over time.
• Be the internal expert the team turns to when a system, website, SEO, or social question blocks them.
• Continuously identify opportunities to remove manual work and increase output through automation and AI.

Education: Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing, Operations, Business Systems, or related field, or equivalent professional experience.

Experience / Requirements:

• 5+ years in a role spanning digital marketing and marketing operations/technology — website management, SEO, marketing automation, or a comparable systems-and-channel hybrid — ideally at a multi-brand or multi-channel consumer goods, B2B manufacturing, or DTC business.
• Proven track record of setting and owning strategy for a function — not just executing against someone else's plan — including budget and investment recommendations, roadmap-setting, and prioritization tradeoffs.
• Prior experience managing at least one direct report and/or agency/vendor relationships as the senior accountable owner.
• Hands-on experience owning a website/CMS (Shopify, WordPress, or equivalent), including content, UX, and conversion optimization.
• Demonstrated SEO experience (technical, on-page, content) and working knowledge of how AI answer engines source and surface content (AEO); comfort with tools such as Google Search Console, Ahrefs/SEMrush, and GA4.
• Comfort and demonstrated proficiency working with AI platforms (Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini) at an advanced workflow design level, not just a daily-use level.
• Demonstrated experience building and deploying AI workflows for marketing content or operations at scale.
• Hands-on experience configuring and integrating marketing automation platforms (HubSpot, Klaviyo, Marketo, or equivalent).
• Experience implementing or managing product information management (PIM) systems or comparable structured product data architectures — Plytix, Akeneo, Salsify, or custom-built equivalents.
• Experience building marketing performance dashboards using tools such as Looker, Power BI, Tableau, GA4, or HubSpot Reporting.
• Strong systems thinking — able to design a website, workflow, or content system that survives the team that uses it.
• Self-directed working style — able to operate as strategist, architect, and builder with limited day-to-day supervision, and to manage or direct at least one other team member.
• Strong project leadership and stakeholder management — able to drive change across a team that is not entirely your direct reports.
• Experience in the automotive aftermarket, detailing, or marine industries is preferred but not required.