Head of Content

Meet Upside:

We created Upside to help communities thrive! Our retail technology uses the sophistication of online retail—profit measurement, attribution, and incrementality—to provide users with more value on their everyday purchases and brick and mortar businesses with new, profitable customers. We’ve helped millions of users earn 2 to 3 times more cash back than any other product, and tens of thousands of brick and mortar businesses earn measurable profit. Billions of dollars in commerce run through the Upside platform every year, and that value goes directly back to our local retailers, the consumers they serve, and towards important sustainability initiatives. 

Upside was named on Deloitte's 2021 & 2022 list of Fastest Growing 500 Tech Companies and  #308 in Inc.’s America’s fastest growing private companies of 2022. Upside’s Series D funding round was led by General Catalyst with a $1.5 billion valuation in March 2022. Other notable investors include Bessemer Ventures and Formation8.

Our mission, values, and commitment to inclusivity guide our team of more than 350 people worldwide, and the quality of our culture is reflected in the impact we’ve had on communities nationwide. But don’t just take our word for it! In 2023, Upside was included as a Top Workplace in the USA, received six Best Places to Work awards from Built In, and was named a Top Workplace for Perks & Culture by The Muse.

About the role:

Upside is a rapidly growing, two-sided marketplace and seeking a creative, inquisitive, and high-energy storyteller to scale our company's awareness with merchants. This player/coach role will lead the charter for multichannel content strategy, execution, results, and measurable impact. It's a meaningful position that requires complete ownership of our editorial strategy and partnership with a team of curious writers to maintain an editorial edge. If you thrive in a fast-paced environment, enjoy the entrepreneurial spirit of a growth-stage company, and have a consistent track record of coaching and mentoring high-caliber talent, we’d love to hear from you!

What you’ll do:

• Vision and strategy: Be the innovator and set a bold content strategy that will serve our audiences such as merchant CEOs, CFOs, and CMOs. Develop and implement a multi-channel, high-volume, high-quality content strategy that supports our business growth. Make Upside the hub for versatile retail tech content with topics ranging from ROAS to AI-powered customization to capacity utilization.
• Content creation: Completely lead the editorial strategy and content calendar across all channels. Ensure that the team of content marketers is producing content to be used across all sets of owned (blog, website, social channels) and external channels (bylines, sponsored placements, industry events). Ensure a healthy mix of content formats (long form, infographics, short listicles, videos, and shorts) that serve several goals (thought leadership, lead gen, and conversion) across our audiences.
• Cross-functional collaboration: Develop forums and regular processes to foster ideation and cross-functional collaboration with our data analytics, Product Marketing Management, Account Management, and Sales teams. Build content marketing products/assets for lead generation and lead nurturing, such as reports, guides, state of industry reports, webinars, customer stories, surveys, etc.
• Executive narratives: Work with the CEO and other Executives to write and edit messaging on our corporate narrative, external publications, events, and other high-level priorities. Ensure that the stories that our most senior leaders tell are clear, compelling, and aligned with Upside’s overarching goals.
• Team leadership: Build and lead an impactful team of A+ writers and content developers who are well-versed in a variety tech topics including AI, personalized offers, payments, etc. Set clear expectations, deliver open and honest feedback, provide skill and career development, and identify opportunities for growth.
• Goal and measurement orientation: Set measurable and attainable (yet ambitious) monthly/quarterly/annual goals for the Content team, with accurately-assigned KPIs. Ensure team accountability for delivering against those goals and reporting KPIs on a regular basis. Develop methods to measure the impact of all content activities (e.g. website traffic, views, downloads, comments, etc) and report on content performance at a regular cadence.

What you need:

• A Bachelor’s degree is required, preferably in journalism, communications, marketing, or a related field; an MBA is a plus.
• 8+ years of progressive content marketing and editorial experience, including a minimum of 5 years in the content marketing space.
• 8+ years of people management experience, leading content & comms teams to deliver outstanding results, through accountability and performance management.
• Advanced knowledge and understanding of digital and traditional marketing channel strategies.
• Experience with SEO content production and analysis. Experience using research and optimization tools such as Google Analytics, SEMRush, AHRefs to improve rankings.
• Proven experience influencing Executives to gain cross-functional consensus through frequent, thoughtful presentations.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, as well as strong prioritization, organization, and project management skills with a roll-up-your-sleeves and can-do demeanor.

The fine print:

• Location: This is a fully-remote role that may sit anywhere in the United States. You're welcome to work from our DC, Austin, Chicago or New York office if you're in-region.
• Notice to recruiters and placement agencies: This is an in-house search with a dedicated recruiter. Please do not submit resumes to any person or email address at Upside. Upside is not liable for, and will not pay, placement fees for candidates submitted by any party or agency other than its approved recruitment partners.

At Upside, we believe that diversity drives innovation. Our differences are what make us stronger. We‘re passionate about 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. Come join us!