Director, Performance Marketing

Kong; United States; Remote; USD 180,000 - 260,000; Full time

Job summary

Kong is seeking a Director, Performance Marketing to lead and scale our global performance marketing engine. This hands-on leader will own strategy, budget, forecasting, and paid acquisition outcomes across channels, audiences, and regions.

You will translate investment into qualified demand, pipeline, and measurable ROAS, build a rapid experimentation engine, leverage AI, lead agency partners, and collaborate with Marketing, Sales, Finance, and RevOps to inform senior leadership.

Responsibilities

• Own Performance Marketing targets and strategy: Build and execute the global roadmap required to deliver paid acquisition, qualified demand, pipeline, efficiency, and ROAS goals.
• Own the Performance Marketing budget: Lead budget planning, forecasting, pacing, and allocation across channels, audiences, regions, and GTM priorities. Continuously make disciplined decisions to scale, optimize, reallocate, or pull back investment based on business impact.
• Lead Paid Search Paid Social: Set channel strategy and ensure best-in-class execution, experimentation, optimization, and measurement across our core paid acquisition channels.
• Turn data into investment decisions: Connect spend and channel performance to Responses/INQs → Qualified Demand → Pipeline → ROAS and use those signals to determine where the next dollar should go.
• Build a high-velocity experimentation engine: Drive testing across audiences, creative, offers, bidding, channels, conversion paths, and emerging acquisition opportunities.
• Leverage AI to scale performance: Use AI and automation to accelerate analysis, campaign optimization, creative testing, audience development, experimentation, and operational efficiency.
• Build internal performance capability: Lead and develop channel specialists while establishing clear operating rhythms, standards, and accountability across the function.
• Lead agency strategy: Own agency relationships and determine where external partners provide differentiated expertise, specialized capabilities, or incremental execution capacity.
• Communicate performance to leadership: Deliver clear, concise performance narratives and investment recommendations to Marketing and company leadership, translating complex channel and funnel data into business implications, risks, opportunities, and actions.
• Lead cross-functionally: Partner across Global Campaigns, Digital Experience, Pro

Job description

Are you ready to unlock intelligence?If you don’t think you meet all of the criteria below but are still interested in the job,

Nobody checks every box - we’re looking for candidates that are particularly strong in a few areas, and have some interest and capabilities in others.

About the Role

Kong is looking for a Director, Performance Marketing to lead and scale our global performance marketing engine.

This role will own Performance Marketing strategy, budget, investment allocation, forecasting, and paid acquisition outcomes across channels, audiences, and regions. You'll be accountable for translating investment into qualified demand, pipeline, and measurable return, continuously determining where to scale, optimize, reallocate, or pull back investment.

This is a hands-on leadership role. We're looking for someone who can set strategy and own the numbers while staying close to the channels, data, and execution. You'll lead agency partners, work closely across Marketing, Sales, Finance, and RevOps, and regularly translate performance into clear recommendations for senior leadership.

What You'll Do

• Own Performance Marketing targets and strategy: Build and execute the global roadmap required to deliver paid acquisition, qualified demand, pipeline, efficiency, and ROAS goals.


• Own the Performance Marketing budget: Lead budget planning, forecasting, pacing, and allocation across channels, audiences, regions, and GTM priorities. Continuously make disciplined decisions to scale, optimize, reallocate, or pull back investment based on business impact.


• Lead Paid Search Paid Social: Set channel strategy and ensure best-in-class execution, experimentation, optimization, and measurement across our core paid acquisition channels.


• Turn data into investment decisions: Connect spend and channel performance to Responses/INQs → Qualified Demand → Pipeline → ROAS and use those signals to determine where the next dollar should go.


• Build a high-velocity experimentation engine: Drive testing across audiences, creative, offers, bidding, channels, conversion paths, and emerging acquisition opportunities.


• Leverage AI to scale performance: Use AI and automation to accelerate analysis, campaign optimization, creative testing, audience development, experimentation, and operational efficiency.


• Build internal performance capability: Lead and develop channel specialists while establishing clear operating rhythms, standards, and accountability across the function.


• Lead agency strategy: Own agency relationships and determine where external partners provide differentiated expertise, specialized capabilities, or incremental execution capacity.


• Communicate performance to leadership: Deliver clear, concise performance narratives and investment recommendations to Marketing and company leadership, translating complex channel and funnel data into business implications, risks, opportunities, and actions.


• Lead cross-functionally: Partner across Global Campaigns, Digital Experience, Pro