Director of Product Marketing

About Ziplines

Ziplines Education is a category-leading education company that partners with universities to deliver industry-focused certificate courses that prepare professionals for today’s digital-first workforce. Each year, we have the opportunity to help thousands of career advancers build the knowledge, skills, and credentials they need to move their careers forward. 92% of learners would recommend our programs, and our net promoter score is consistently in the excellent range. Together, we empower adult learners to confidently pursue the career they’ve always wanted.

About the Role

Ziplines Education is at a point where the rigor of our product portfolio demands equally rigorous positioning behind it. As we scale the number of programs we launch and manage, how we articulate what each program is for — and who it's for — becomes one of the highest-leverage things we can get right. This role exists because that work is consequential enough to deserve a dedicated owner.

As Director of Product Marketing & Communications, you will own positioning across our active and pipeline programs, build and lead a systematic voice-of-customer practice, and serve as the strategic direction-setter for our marketing copy. The work is roughly 75% marketing communications and 25% product. The voice-of-customer research is the Product anchor that keeps positioning grounded in reality rather than assumption.

This role reports to the VP of Portfolio Strategy and works closely with the CEO, Growth, and Learning Experience Design (LXD) teams. You will also manage our Product Communications Manager, who handles project coordination and operational execution on your behalf. This is a role for someone who has strong opinions about what good positioning looks like, can edit copy with real instinct, and understands how to direct and enable others with a system rather than doing everything themselves.

What You’ll Do

Positioning & Strategy

• Own positioning for all active and pipeline programs — develop defensible, specific positioning that reflects a real POV on why a program wins in market, not a summary of what it covers.

• For each new launch, develop a clear target audience definition, core message, and expected learner profile that give Growth a strategic foundation before campaign planning begins.

• Own company-wide ICP clarity across the existing portfolio — maintain a living, data-informed view of who our learners are, what drives them, and how that is evolving.

• Monitor positioning health for existing programs. Flag when enrollment demographics, NPS signals, or performance patterns suggest positioning has drifted and a refresh is needed.

Voice of Customer

• Own the VoC program — design and run a regular cadence of interviews with prospective learners, active learners, rejecters, and alumni.

• Synthesize findings into clear positioning inputs and share them with Growth and Product on a defined cadence. Interviews that don't change something aren't worth running.

• Partner with our data team to connect qualitative VoC findings with quantitative signals — enrollment demographics, NPS, ad performance — to build a complete picture of whether our positioning is working.

• Run quarterly persona reviews to assess whether the learners we are reaching match the learners we are targeting.

Messaging Framework & Copy Quality

• Serve as the primary strategic point of contact for our copywriter — provide clear positioning direction before he writes, and precise editorial direction when his output needs refinement. You are not writing everything yourself; you are making sure what he produces is right.

• When VoC work or feedback loops from Growth signal that positioning has shifted, drive that change through the messaging framework and brief the copywriter on what needs to be updated in the messaging bank. You own the signal; he owns the pen.

• Own the quarterly messaging bank review cycle: assess whether copy in market has drifted from current positioning and determine what, if anything, needs to be refreshed.

• Escalate to Product and LXD when signals suggest the course itself needs to change — not just the copy or the positioning.

Cross-Functional Leadership

• Partner with the Growth team on performance feedback loops — understand what the data is saying about whether our positioning is reaching the right people, and bring that back to your positioning work.

• Coordinate with Product Operations who handles project management and logistics on your behalf so you can focus on the work that only you can do.

• Build trust with Sara and Megan as a credible, decisive voice on positioning and messaging — someone they will defer to rather than second-guess.
  

Who You Are

• 7+ years in product marketing or marketing communications, with meaningful time in a B2C or direct-to-consumer context.

• Strong copy editing instincts. You do not need to write everything, but you need to be able to evaluate and improve what others produce.

• A systems thinker. You operate in terms of frameworks and scalable processes before defaulting to manual execution.

• Decisive and direct. You make positioning calls and drive alignment without waiting for consensus. You are comfortable owning a point of view and defending it.

• A clear communicator who can translate complex positioning into a brief a growth marketer or copywriter can actually act on.

• Data-oriented. You can read performance signals, work with demographic and NPS data, and integrate quantitative inputs into your positioning thinking.

• Actively use AI to scale your own output. Not conversant — you have demonstrably changed how you work because of AI.

• Experience working in a startup or growth-stage environment where priorities shift and systems are being built, not inherited.

Our core values:

• Focus on outcomes — students come first, always.

• Be trustworthy — deliver, be honest, have our backs.

• Be humble — we’re in this together.

• Be curious — continuous learning drives innovation.

• Be you — diverse thinking creates opportunity.

• You value and will contribute to a transparent, no B.S. culture.

Perks and benefits at Ziplines Education (full-time employees):

Equity: Ownership is a core value, and each full-time employee can invest in Ziplines Education via a stock option (equity) grant, which will vest across four years.

Time off: We offer a flexible paid time off policy, in addition to 10 paid holidays.

Flexible, remote work environment: We are a fully distributed team with folks all over the U.S. We meet as a full team at least one time per week and have in-person gatherings or team offsites one or more times per year.

Family health and wellness: Choose from a range of medical, dental, and vision insurance plans (premiums start at $0/month) for yourself or your family.

401K: We know your future self will thank you when you start contributing to your company-sponsored 401k.

Plus, additional benefits we’d be happy to share with you during the hiring process.

Salary range:

• The salary range for this role is $150K–$180K USD annually, determined by one of three geographic tiers: Tier 1 (major metro areas, e.g. San Francisco), Tier 2 (secondary metro areas), and Tier 3 (all other locations). Starting salaries reflect the candidate's location, experience, skills, qualifications, and scope of the role. Candidates are welcome to ask which tier applies to their location during the interview process.

To ensure a fair and consistent hiring process, we kindly ask that all applicants submit their applications through our job board rather than reaching out directly via LinkedIn, phone, or email. This helps our recruitment team review every application efficiently and equitably. We truly appreciate your interest in joining our team and look forward to considering your application!

Ziplines, Inc. is proud to be an equal-opportunity employer. We do not discriminate based on race, religion, color, national origin, gender (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, or other protected characteristics under applicable law.