Growth Manager – AI-Native Consumer Brand Platform (Confidential)
New York · Hybrid (NYC area) or remote with one working week per month in NYC · Full-time
About the Company
Our client is an early-stage, venture-backed startup building an AI General Manager for consumer brands. Starting a brand has become easier, but running and growing one is still hard. Founders have more tools, agencies, and channels than ever, yet they’re still the ones making the decisions and holding everything together.
The company helps brands launch and grow in the US by understanding the whole business, identifying what matters next, and getting the work done across growth and operations. They’re building the software and AI workflows that let a small team do this for a growing number of brands.
They started with international consumer brands entering the US, mostly beauty and CPG, and now also work with US brands facing the same challenges. Creator seeding is their largest revenue stream today, and D2C is being built into the next major growth driver. D2C helps brands prove demand, improve conversion and repeat purchase, and build the economics to support further growth, including retail.
The company is backed by a top-tier venture accelerator, has a growing roster of signed brands with several already live, and is led by a small, founder-led team.
The Role
You’ll own D2C growth across the company’s merchant portfolio. You’ll start with roughly ten merchants at different stages of launch and growth, and the portfolio will expand as more brands go live. Working with the CEO on overall D2C direction, you’ll independently decide what each merchant should do next, why, and in what order, and then make it happen.
Account Managers own the merchant relationship and overall account growth. You’ll work closely with them and with the creator and engineering teams, while owning D2C strategy, execution, and results.
At the start, this is a deeply hands-on individual-contributor role. Meta is the core channel, with TikTok and creator-led content close behind, at roughly $1k/week per merchant to start. You’ll build and run the accounts, brief and test creative, improve landing pages, and own conversion. Where engineering is needed, you’ll turn the growth decision into a clear, testable spec and stay accountable until it works in production.
The harder, more valuable part is turning what works into a system: scorecards, decision rules, AI workflows, automations, and product requirements that let one exceptional operator support a growing portfolio without proportional headcount. The mandate is simple: help merchants grow profitably, then make that success repeatable.
What You’ll Do
Diagnose the real constraint on each merchant’s profitable D2C growth, quickly, in businesses you didn’t build
Prioritize growth time, budget, and engineering work across the portfolio based on each merchant’s stage and opportunity
Personally ship the highest-leverage work across acquisition, creative, conversion, offer, lifecycle, and retention
Build the merchant growth operating system: scorecards, prioritized backlogs, decision logs, weekly reviews, and simulations
Identify recurring workflows that should become software and give engineering clear requirements and acceptance criteria
Own performance against agreed merchant D2C sales targets and the revenue those sales generate for the company
Your First 90 Days
Every active D2C merchant has an agreed growth plan: stage, primary constraint, 12-week target, next actions, and portfolio priority
At least two merchants have a repeatable acquisition or retention loop meeting agreed contribution-margin and payback targets
Every active D2C merchant runs through the same growth planning and review process
The three most valuable recurring workflows are documented as product requirements, with at least one live as an automation across three or more merchants
Who You Are
3+ years hands-on in paid social. Meta is your home platform, and you’re comfortable running TikTok and creator-driven campaigns
You’ve worked both sides: agency, juggling a book of accounts with competing priorities, and in-house at a DTC or CPG brand selling physical products
Creative-led: you brief creators, cut ads, test hooks, and own the landing page, not just optimize bids
You understand account structure, creative testing, measurement, and how to make decisions with limited budgets
You think in systems and reach for AI and automation by default; you can articulate what a tool or agent should do even if you don’t build it
You’ve operated inside small companies (under 200 people) and are comfortable making calls with incomplete data
Nice to Have
Beauty, skincare, or Asia-to-US brand experience
TikTok Shop, affiliate, or creator program experience
AEO/GEO or SEO
Built something from zero to one before
Location
Hybrid in NYC if you’re local. If you’re outside the New York area, remote with one required working week per month in the NYC office, with travel and lodging covered.
Compensation and Benefits
Base salary: $200,000
Equity: 2.00% stock options (founding-level ownership)
Performance bonus: 1% of total platform net collected D2C revenue, paid annually, uncapped
Health insurance, company equipment and remote-work support, and flexible PTO with a minimum of 15 days off per year