Marketing Strategy and Operations Manager

Portal; San Carlos (CA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Portal Biotechnologies in San Carlos, CA, seeks a Marketing Strategy and Operations Manager to build Portal’s inbound growth engine and digital marketing strategy. You will translate complex science into compelling stories and develop programs that drive awareness and lead generation.

You’ll collaborate with Sales, CS, and R&D, own CRM workflows and reporting, and shape campaigns across paid media, email, website, and SEO to accelerate business growth.

Qualifications

• 5-10 years of experience in growth/digital marketing or product marketing in biotech or tech environment.
• Experience building and executing digital marketing programs across paid campaigns, email, websites, LinkedIn, and SEO.
• Strong hands-on experience with CRM systems (HubSpot, Salesforce) including workflows, automations, lead management, and reporting.

Responsibilities

• Develop and lead Portal’s inbound growth engine and digital marketing strategy.
• Collaborate with Sales, CS, and R&D to inform product directions and commercial strategies.
• Design and manage CRM workflows, automations, lead routing, and reporting to optimize funnel performance.
• Translate Portal’s scientific breakthroughs and customer stories into compelling content for target audiences.

Skills

Growth marketing

Digital marketing

CRM workflows

Lead management

Content creation

Cross-functional collaboration

Tools

HubSpot

Salesforce

LinkedIn Ads

SEO tools

Job description

Portal Biotechnologies is a rapidly scaling cell-engineering platform company operating across three high-value business lines (biopharma R&D screening, next-generation cell therapy manufacturing, and AI training data generation), addressing markets totaling $100B+. Since launching its first product in 2024, Portal has built a network of 100+ active customers, including the top 10 global pharmaceutical companies and leading academic hospitals and cancer centers worldwide.

Backed by $24M in venture funding and an $8M DARPA contract, Portal’s proprietary mechanoporation technology enables efficient multiplex delivery of diverse cargos such as RNA, proteins, small molecules, and gene-editing tools without compromising cell function. The approach is simple and scalable, supporting applications from high-throughput drug screening to clinical-scale manufacturing, and it works both as a stand-alone system and as an integrated component in third-party platforms.

In biopharma R&D, Portal’s products enable novel screening assays by delivering otherwise cell-impermeable probes and candidate molecules directly into live cells, unlocking intracellular access that standard methods cannot provide. In cell therapy, Portal’s GMP-integrated consumables and a DARPA-funded portable device (launching 2027) are aimed at making engineered cell therapies as accessible and ubiquitous as an infusion pump. In AI training data, Portal generates high-value, multiparametric datasets from primary cells, producing biologically relevant training data that current cell line-based methods cannot replicate.

With a leadership team bringing decades of experience in biotech operations and clinical cell therapy development, Portal is positioned to become the foundational platform for next-generation cell engineering, drug discovery, and biological AI data generation.

The Role:

We are seeking a Marketing Strategy and Operations Manager to build and lead Portal’s inbound growth engine and digital marketing strategy as we enter an exciting phase of growth. Reporting to the CEO, this is a highly visible, hands-on role for a strategic and creative marketer who can translate complex science into compelling stories and develop digital programs that drive awareness, engagement, and ultimately business growth.

The ideal candidate is equal parts growth marketer, systems thinker, and operator. You’re excited to build from scratch, comfortable working cross-functionally, and motivated by seeing a direct connection between your work and company growth. You can think strategically about how Portal should reach its market, but you’re equally willing to jump into the CRM, troubleshoot a workflow, rewrite a campaign, or follow up on a lead when needed.

How you’ll make an impact:

• Contribute to setting marketing strategy across media.
• Collaborate with the sales team, customer success, and R&D functions to develop effective campaigns and inform on future product directions and commercial strategies.
• Develop and execute a digital marketing strategy across paid campaigns, LinkedIn, email, website, SEO, and other relevant channels, with clear goals around brand awareness, audience growth, engagement, and lead generation.
• Develop targeted campaigns that reach prospective customers across biopharma, cell therapy, academia, and emerging AI/biological data markets, partnering with the commercial team to convert engagement into qualified opportunities and pipeline.
• Turn Portal’s scientific breakthroughs, customer stories, product launches, and applications into compelling content that resonates with target audiences.
• Support major conferences, webinars, customer events, and other industry activations with cohesive pre- and post-event digital campaigns that maximize their impact.
• Design, build, and maintain CRM workflows, automations, lead-routing systems, follow-up processes, and reporting. Know when to automate and when to step in manually to keep things moving.
• Identify friction across the customer journey and implement processes that make it easier and faster to convert prospects into customers and support successful customer engagement.
• Continuously identify opportunities to simplify, automate, and improve commercial processes as Portal grows.
• 5-10 years of experience in growth marketing, digital marketing, product marketing, or a related field, ideally within biotech, life sciences, or another highly technical environment.
• Experience developing and executing digital marketing programs across channels such as paid campaigns, email, websites, LinkedIn, and SEO.
• Strong hands-on experience with CRM systems such as HubSpot, Salesforce, or similar, including workflows, automations, lead management, reporting, and pipeline processes.
• Understanding of B2C or B2B demand generation and how digital marketing, inbound leads, sales activity, and customer conversion work together to drive revenue.
• Comfortable using data to measure performance, identify opportunities, trends, and bottlenecks, and turn insights into action.
• Ability to operate at both the strategic and tactical levels, from identifying growth opportunities to fixing the workflow or campaign standing in the way.
• Strong communication skills and the ability to translate complex information into clear messaging while collaborating effectively across Marketing, Sales, Science, Operations, and Executive teams.

Please note:

Portal has two locations, one in the Boston area and one in San Carlos, CA. This position is in San Carlos. On-site parking is available and it's a 15 minute walk from the Caltrain station.

In compliance with federal law, all persons hired will be required to verify identity and eligibility to work in the United States and to complete the required employment eligibility verification form upon hire.

We are proud to be an equal opportunity employer and to provide equal opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex or gender identity, national origin, age, sexual orientation, disability, or genetics. In addition to federal law requirements, we comply with applicable state and local laws governing nondiscrimination in employment.