Head of Performance Marketing (Remote, Sacramento)

Full‑time, remote (USA, Canada, or South Africa)

About the role

Blacksmith Agency runs PPC and SEO for clients across multifamily, B2B, and technical verticals. As Head of Performance Marketing you will lead the department, overseeing the PPC strategist and the SEO strategist. This is a management seat—not a senior individual contributor role. You will not be building campaigns yourself; the strategists will handle execution while you own channel strategy, budget allocation, and overall department performance.

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 expectations.
• Define audit standards, pre‑delivery checks, and reporting expectations; write the guidelines and hold the specialists accountable.
• Ensure client results across the entire function, including honest reporting and accurate attribution/GA4 tracking.
• Escalate and diagnose at‑risk accounts, direct the strategist to fix issues, and join the client call to resolve the problem.
• Develop channel strategy and budget allocation as accounts scale.
• Communicate credible deliverables to sales before they are sold.
• Create and execute the hiring plan for the department, conducting first‑round interviews within roughly a quarter.

What you need

• 7+ years of experience across paid media and SEO, with direct responsibility for managing strategists or specialists, including their reviews and performance management.
• Deep knowledge of Google Ads, GA4, Search Console, Meta, and Microsoft Ads—enough to evaluate work quality without doing the work yourself.
• One successful account turnaround you can discuss in detail (pre‑ and post‑metrics and the reasoning behind the change).
• Comfortable being the client‑facing owner when an account underperforms; the escalation call comes to you, not the strategist.
• Agency experience handling multiple accounts simultaneously.
• Do not apply if you have never managed a direct report, have only ever run a single channel, have only in‑house brand experience, or are looking to continue building campaigns yourself.

Process

• 30‑minute screening call with a recruiter.
• First‑round interview with the founder to whom this seat reports.
• Final interview (no take‑home project or panel interview).

How to apply

• Complete the four required fields at the application link.
• Take the short (≈6 minute) Predictive Index assessment.
• Use the same email address throughout the process.
• No cover letter is required.