Senior Director, Brand Marketing

About the Role

TrueCar pioneered transparency in car buying, and how consumers discover and trust brands is now changing faster than ever. This role exists to ensure TrueCar wins that change. The Senior Director, Marketing owns TrueCar’s brand strategy end-to-end and unifies every marketing workstream—brand, content, social, lifecycle, consumer insights, media strategy, and marketing analytics—into one focused, integrated plan. Reporting to the Vice President, Product and Design, this leader partners closely with the performance marketing team and with Product, Communications, and Partnerships so that everything TrueCar ships and says builds one coherent, trusted brand.

As a people leader, they set vision and direction for the team, coach and develop talent, and are accountable for marketing outcomes across the function. The ideal candidate will reside near Santa Monica, CA, and work in our headquarters office as needed.

Responsibilities

• Own TrueCar’s brand strategy, positioning, and voice, acting as its steward across every consumer touchpoint.
• Build and run the integrated marketing plan that aligns brand, content, social, lifecycle, and partner marketing behind a focused set of priorities.
• Own media strategy, planning, and paid execution across brand media, spanning channels such as out-of-home, streaming, radio, and CTV, plus influencers, partnering closely with the performance marketing team.
• Lead the consumer insights agenda—primary research, brand health tracking, and funnel analysis that shape both marketing and product decisions.
• Own TrueCar’s visibility in AI-driven discovery: build the generative engine optimization (GEO/AEO) program and track brand share of voice across AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Perplexity.
• Evolve the marketing operating system with AI-powered workflows that multiply the team’s output and speed.
• Drive co-marketing and go-to-market programs with OEM, dealer, and affinity partners.
• Lead, develop, and inspire a team of marketers along with agency and vendor partners.
• Define how marketing is measured: brand health, share of voice, and full-funnel analytics that connect marketing to revenue.
• Represent marketing to executive leadership with clear, data-backed narratives.
• Travel occasionally for offsites and partner meetings.

Requirements

• Proven success building, launching, and repositioning consumer brands, from strategy and identity through creative execution in market.
• Expert-level integrated marketing planning: able to unify many simultaneous workstreams into one plan and hold the bar on focus.
• Deep media strategy and planning proficiency, including large-budget allocation, channel mix, and vendor negotiation.
• Hands-on consumer research fluency, qualitative and quantitative, from study design through insight activation with product teams.
• Demonstrated, hands-on AI fluency: GEO/AEO practice, AI-assistant share-of-voice measurement, and AI-assisted marketing workflows built and run personally, not delegated.
• Proficiency with CRM and marketing automation platforms and modern analytics stacks (e.g., GA4).
• Leads through influence across Product, Engineering, Communications, and Partnerships; a player-coach who develops people while staying in the work.
• A clear storyteller who stays calm and focused while running many workstreams at once.
• Embodies TrueCar’s values: Focused in prioritization, Ambitious for the brand, Team-first across functions, and always Evolving in method.

About the Company

TrueCar is a leading digital automotive platform that uses technology to help car buyers save time and money through a nationwide network of Certified Dealers. Founded in 2005 by Scott Painter, TrueCar was built on the belief that serving membership and affinity organizations central to the car-buying process, including lenders, insurers, and dealers, enables a more valuable auto-buying experience for new and used vehicles. As part of its platform, TrueCar powers auto-buying programs for over 250 leading brands, including Sam's Club, AAA, and more than 100 credit unions.

We are seeking talented individuals who are energized by our commitment to save consumers time and money. We’ve stripped away typical corporate "bloat" to build a culture rooted in high performance and accountability for results. As a member of the TrueCar Crew, you can have a real & direct impact on our success as we continue to evolve the car buying experience.

Benefits

• 100% employer-paid health, vision, and dental premiums.
• 401(k) plan with company contributions.
• Wellness reimbursement account.
• Learning & development reimbursement opportunities.
• Flexible PTO for exempt employees and a generous PTO accrual policy for non-exempt employees.
• 14 company-paid holidays and 2 floating holidays.
• Flexible work arrangement: split time between home and the office, with comfortable shared workspaces in our Santa Monica headquarters and other regional locations.
• Professional home office setup along with monthly reimbursements for essentials like phone and internet.