Director of Digital Marketing (Remote, Los Angeles)

About the Role

Blacksmith Agency runs PPC and SEO for clients across multifamily, B2B, and technical verticals. As Director of Digital Marketing you will lead that department. The PPC strategist and the SEO strategist report to you and are the specialists in their channels. This is a management seat, not a senior individual‑contributor role—you will not be building campaigns, and your SEO strategist will have deeper technical expertise than you. You are responsible for channel strategy and budget allocation as accounts scale, while the strategists handle execution and you ensure the department delivers results.

What You Own

• Set and enforce the quality bar for the PPC and SEO strategists, including their development, performance reviews, and decisions when someone is not meeting standards.
• Define audit standards, pre‑delivery checks, and reporting expectations; write the guidelines and hold the two specialists accountable.
• Overall client results for the function, ensuring honest reporting and addressing gaps such as attribution and GA4 accuracy.
• Escalation handling when an account is at risk: diagnose issues, direct the strategist to fix them, and join the client call.
• Channel strategy and budget allocation as accounts scale.
• Communicate credible deliverables to sales before they are sold.
• Develop the hiring plan for the department and conduct first‑round interviews for new team members within roughly a quarter.

What You Need

• Experience managing strategists or specialists, including conducting reviews, overseeing development, and making performance‑management decisions.
• 7+ years of experience across paid media and SEO (ownership of a single channel does not satisfy this requirement).
• Strong working knowledge of Google Ads, GA4, Search Console, Meta, and Microsoft Ads sufficient to evaluate work quality without being the hands‑on executor.
• Demonstrated success turning around an account—be able to discuss the metric, pre‑ and post‑change figures, and the reasoning behind the improvement.
• Comfortable acting as the client‑facing owner when an account underperforms, taking the call yourself rather than delegating to a strategist.
• Agency experience managing multiple accounts simultaneously.
• Do not apply if you have never had direct reports, have only ever managed a single channel, have only in‑house brand experience, or are looking to continue building campaigns yourself.

Process

The interview process consists of three conversations: a 30‑minute screen with a recruiter, a first round with the founder to whom the role reports, and a final interview. There is no take‑home project and no panel interview.

How to Apply

Complete the four fields on the application link, then take a short (≈6 minute) Predictive Index assessment. Use the same email throughout and do not submit a cover letter.

Location: Remote (USA, Canada, or South Africa). Full‑time.