Senior Brand Director

Tovala; Chicago (IL); On-site; USD 150,000 - 230,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Flexible paid time off

Healthcare coverage

401k with match

Free Tovala Oven

Paid holidays

Learning stipend

Casual dress code

Snacks and drinks

Tovala swag

Job summary

Tovala, a food-tech company reinventing home cooking, seeks a seasoned Brand Director to lead brand strategy, product marketing, content and social, and customer insights. You’ll partner with a creative director, oversee agencies, and serve on the Marketing Leadership Team reporting to the CMO.

You’ll bring 10+ years of brand leadership in CPG and DTC, a hands-on player-coach approach, strong creative direction, and a proven ability to blend brand with performance marketing to drive growth.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of brand leadership in CPG and DTC.
• Ability to set direction and execute briefs with direct feedback when needed.
• Proven experience creating TV campaigns and driving business outcomes.
• Strong understanding of brand and performance marketing integration.
• Fluent in consumer research and translating insights into choices.
• Curious, proactive, and capable of improving processes.
• Experience building and developing brand teams.
• Excellent cross-functional collaboration with Growth, Product, and Design.
• Proficient with AI tools to enhance marketing work.

Responsibilities

• Develop and evolve brand positioning and messaging hierarchy.
• Serve as brand steward and internal brand champion.
• Drive consumer insights into strategic choices.
• Own product marketing and connect it to the brand value proposition.
• Oversee creative execution with internal teams and agencies.
• Manage agency relationships and lead agency reviews.
• Own Tovala's voice across owned channels and influencers.
• Lead and develop the existing brand team.
• Contribute to Marketing Leadership Team and company strategy.

Skills

Brand leadership

People management

Creative direction

Brand vs performance

Consumer research

AI in marketing

Cross-functional collaboration

Strategic thinking

Brief writing

Campaign development

Job description

We’re Tovala, a food-tech company reinventing home cooking to save consumers time. Through an innovative combination of hardware, software, and fresh food delivery, we make it incredibly simple for anyone to prepare and enjoy delicious, home-cooked meals without sacrificing time to do whatever matters to them. Through our superior technology, product experience and food quality, we have separated Tovala from the busy pack of other meal delivery businesses. In the process, we’ve amassed a loyal, rapidly growing following and our retention, product engagement and customer NPS are all best-in-class. We’ve raised over $100mm from great investors like Left Lane Capital, Origin Ventures, Y Combinator and Comcast Ventures and have invested strongly in building a unique culture that fosters growth, personal development and camaraderie.

The Role

You’ll own brand strategy, product marketing, content and social, and customer insights. You’ll partner closely with a creative director on execution, lead our external agency relationships, and serve as an active member of the Marketing Leadership Team — reporting directly to the CMO.

What You’ll Do:

• Develop and evolve the Tovala brand positioning and messaging hierarchy Ensure the brand is distinctive, and clearly differentiated and consistent across channels. Act as the driver of the brand, from tone of voice to the definition of our target consumer.
• Serve as brand steward and internal brand champion
• Drive consumer insights and translate findings into clear strategic choices.
• Own product marketing, keeping it tightly connected to Tovala's overall brand value proposition.
• Drive creative execution with internal teams across all channels, partnering with channel owners and the Creative team to ensure high quality briefs and creative output and communications that drive consideration and purchase.
• Manage agency relationships and lead agency reviews as needed.
• Own Tovala's voice, editorial strategy, and presence across owned channels and influencers.
• Lead and develop an existing brand team — setting direction, coaching on craft, and developing the next generation of marketers.
• Be an active participant in the Marketing Leadership Team and contribute to company-wide marketing and business-building strategy.

Who You Are:

• You have 10+ years of brand experience with both CPG and DTC experience.
• You're a player-coach. You set creative and strategic direction but you're not afraid to execute — writing briefs, giving line-level feedback, and getting things done directly when that's what the moment calls for.
• You have a genuine, confident creative point of view and you've developed TV campaigns from scratch through full execution that have driven business outcomes.
• You have a solid, firsthand understanding of the interplay between brand and performance marketing and how the two coexist.
• You're fluent in consumer research — working with experts translating insight into a clear strategic choices.
• You question the status quo and have a track record of developing and implementing creative ideas that move business objectives forward.
• You're deeply curious — about your customer, your category, and generally how processes and work product can always be improved.
• You've led teams and invested in developing the people around you.
• You have strong cross-functional instincts and a track record of partnering effectively with Growth, Product, and Design.
• You actively use AI to further your work and are interested in what's possible.

Nice to Have:

• Experience marketing a hardware, tech-integrated, or high-consideration consumer product.
• Background in food, health, home, or kitchen categories.
• Experience in a subscription or recurring-revenue business model.
• Experience in a start up

Tovala uses market data, geography, and placement of internal employees to determine salary. Additionally, we offer all employees real ownership in the company in the form of a competitive equity package.

• Flexible paid time off (with a minimum of 15 days off you are highly encouraged to take)
• Comprehensive healthcare coverage we really invest in
• 401k with match
• Free Tovala Smart Oven and discounted Tovala meals
• Paid holidays and our winter holiday office shutdown where the offices and facilities close for a week around Christmas and New Years
• Various other perks - recognition programs, continued learning stipend, casual dress code, in-office coffee, snacks and drinks, and Tovala swag

Our Values

Put the Team First:

We put what is best for the broader team ahead of what is best for ourselves or our immediate department.

Get S#!t Done (Well):

We celebrate people at all levels for delivering high impact work that expands the bounds of what we’re able to do.

Connect the Dots:

We engage with curiosity to learn how our work impacts others so that we can problem-solve holistically and work collaboratively.

Be Direct:

We share our perspective openly and directly, even when it feels difficult to do so.

Embrace the Obstacles:

We rise to meet challenges with a sense of urgency, resolve, and optimism.

Champion the Customer:

We consider and prioritize our customer in all of our decisions

At Tovala we‘re committed to building a workplace that represents a variety of backgrounds, skills, and perspectives and do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. Everyone is welcome here!